Her Unlikely Cowboy. Debra Clopton
place is a dump. To tell you the truth, we haven’t been in here in years.” Drewbaker scratched his head. “My wife always said I’d pick a neighbor’s rose and give it to her before I’d pay for one, and I reckon she was right.”
Suzie chuckled. “Sadly, you aren’t alone.”
“I bought a few in my day,” Chili said, with a sheepish grin. “But it’s been a while. I might have to buy some once you get this joint up and going. Matter of fact, you put me down as your first customer. You just let me know when you start making deliveries.”
Tucker shot him a glance.
“You’re serious?” Drewbaker asked.
“I am. A man’s got to make a move sometime.”
Drewbaker’s laugh nearly busted out the windows. “Well, I’ll be getting me some entertainment from this. What do you think, Tucker?”
“Might be interesting,” Tucker agreed, his eyes dancing with laughter.
Suzie couldn’t help but be curious, but she’d learned not to ask personal questions about flowers unless it was absolutely necessary. Privacy was part of her business. So she’d wait. “I’ll certainly let you know the date,” she said.
“Okay, Romeo,” Drewbaker grunted. “You and me both have hungry cows waitin’ on us. We bes’ get a move on.”
The two said their goodbyes and were gone, leaving Suzie and Tucker alone. The room seemed suddenly much smaller than it had before.
“How long have you been a florist?” he asked. “You seem to really enjoy it.”
“I do. I started working in a shop for a friend not long after Abe was born. Opening my own place is a dream I’ve had for a long time.”
He smiled and the room grew even smaller. “You’ll make people smile with each arrangement.”
It startled her realizing how easy she found talking to Tucker. She’d just opened up to him about her dreams.... “I need to check out the upstairs,” she said, heading out the door and onto the street, needing to break the moment.
Tucker followed her, of course, opting not to stand alone inside her shop while she came out onto the sidewalk. The man was like a bright, shiny penny, with his badge and buckle both glinting in the sun. And those eyes—and that warm smile spreading across his ruggedly good-looking face had Suzie’s insides fluttering to life with renewed awareness.
Instantly ruining a great morning.
* * *
Tucker hadn’t slept much after leaving the ranch last night. He’d gone home to his place, which was on a small piece of land just on the outskirts of Dew Drop. After moving back, he’d decided to move in closer to town. When he’d become sheriff, he found he was often barraged by calls at all times of the day and night—it was better to be closer to his office. Getting to the office quickly in an emergency situation was important to him. He’d live on the land he loved again, one day, but for now, while he’d taken the oath to serve and protect, he’d live close by. Plus, he’d felt the need to be alone at times. Especially in the beginning when nightmares kept him awake—he pushed the thought away and focused on Suzie. Helping her was the only thing that could give him some redemption from the past.
She seemed different this morning. She was upbeat and striving. He liked that. Liked it a lot that she was fighting, and that would be good for her. The woman he’d seen in the pictures didn’t seem so far away right now.
“I’m sure that old shop will look like a different place when you’re done. I’m pretty sure the apartment isn’t livable, though. It’ll be a good place to store your things until you find what you want.”
“I guess we’ll just go up and look,” she said, starting up the steps.
Tucker followed her. The steps creaked beneath their feet but seemed sturdy. Suzie rested her hand on the banister as she went.
“Did Lester and Joyce live up here?”
“No. They had a little house over near the lake. They didn’t really use this, I don’t think. That’s one reason I thought I might come up with you. I’m not sure if they ever came up here or if they even did anything with the stuff that had been here before they left.”
She paused on the steps. “Everyone is saying they left town quickly. It sounds like they were really ready to not be tied to a business any longer.”
She was a step ahead of him, and that made her almost exactly his height. He could look her straight in the eyes.
She rested her hip against the railing. “Do you think there was some other reason they left so quickly?”
“I don’t know. They’d had the place up for sale for a couple of years, and I think they had almost decided just to leave anyway. Your offer came while they were packing up, so I think they didn’t pause to look back.”
Just as the last words were out of his mouth an ominous crack sounded and the banister Suzie was leaning against broke.
* * *
Suzie felt the board she was barely resting against give under her hip. She tried to catch her balance, arms flailing, but as the board broke there was nothing stopping her from tipping backward into open space. She was twelve feet above the ground with nothing but gravel and dirt below her.
Suddenly, a strong arm snaked around her waist and she was yanked from thin air and pulled hard against Tucker’s firm chest.
“I’ve got you,” he assured her as he swung around, throwing their momentum in the opposite direction. One moment she’d been free-falling and the next she found herself held snuggled in his arms against the brick wall of the building.
Both of them were breathing hard as she stared into his eyes. Her feet dangled beneath her and she was nose to nose, eye to eye with Tucker. Her gaze dropped to the mere inch between their lips.
“Thank you,” she managed as her pulse thundered. Her mouth went dry when she met his gaze and realized he’d watched her studying his beautiful mouth.
What am I thinking! I almost plunged twelve feet to the ground and now I’m thinking about kissing Tucker. What is wrong with me? This is so wrong.
“No thanks required,” Tucker said, taking a deep breath as if he, too, had just remembered to breathe.
She pulled away and they moved in sync, him moving down a step, her shifting up away from him. Even separated from him, her skin tingled with sensation.
“That will have to be fixed,” she said, as if he didn’t realize that. Silly, but it was the first thing that popped out of her numbed brain.
Spinning away from him and keeping close to the building, she stared at the steps. She moved up one step at a time to the small landing outside the door. Key. She needed a key.
Digging in her jeans pocket she produced it and, with trembling fingers, inserted it into the lock and twisted.
Tucker had followed close behind her, not saying anything, but she knew he was as shaken as she was. She’d read it in his eyes. The tension radiated between them as she pushed open the door and stepped into the murky room.
Her thoughts were just as murky as suddenly the lights came on, and she saw Tucker had flipped the switch.
Relief washed over her, seeing that the room wasn’t as full of leftover stuff as she’d feared. She moved farther inside, putting space between them.
In her mind she wanted to be grateful that he’d caught her.
But she was too shaken by the experience.
“What do you think?” Tucker’s baritone radiated through the room.
Think? That I’ve lost my mind. “It, ah, isn’t as bad as it could be.”
“It