Falling For Fortune. Nancy Robards Thompson
it to Amber’s face. Next, she teased Amber’s hair to new heights, then whipped it into a twist or topknot of some kind. “Now go take a look at yourself and tell me what you think.”
She thought GiGi and Larry were a couple of over-the-top wannabe stage parents, but she kept her thoughts to herself and returned to the ladies’ room. When she glanced into the floor-length mirror, her breath caught.
Wowzer. She looked va-va-voom sexy now. Mae West could eat her heart out. But more to the point, what would Jensen say if he saw her in it?
It was sure to turn his blue blood raging red-hot.
Of course, she didn’t look as if she was in the twenty-first century anymore—or in Horseback Hollow, for that matter. But the look Larry and GiGi had been going for was definitely accomplished.
She almost hurried to the corner where she’d left her belongings so she could grab her cell phone out of her purse and take a selfie to show Gram, but she didn’t want to come across as a complete country bumpkin.
Oh, well.
For the next twenty minutes, GiGi showed her some moves. She wasn’t a complete klutz, and while it took her some time to get it right, she finally caught on and had a few laughs in the process.
After the audition, Larry explained the idea behind Madame LaRue’s Lone Star Review. “We’ll have someone play the piano, there’ll be a comedian, some actors will do a shoot ’em up at the bar. It’ll be a nightly dinner show—and a real addition to Cowboy Country USA.”
“I’m already committed to ride in the Wild West Show,” Amber said. “My attorney looked over the contract, and I signed on. As fun as it could be, I still run a working ranch. And while I followed through on the audition because I told you I would, I won’t have time to be involved in two productions. So you’re going to have to find another cancan dancer.”
“All right, I understand. But speaking of attorneys...” Larry looked at the young assistant sitting on the folding metal chair and taking notes. “Remind me to talk to the suits about making an addendum to Miss Rogers’s contract...”
“Why would you do that?” Amber asked.
“After what we’ve seen today, we’re gonna need to add a clause about you being our local PR gal. As far as the dinner show goes, we’ll have plenty of saloon girls to perform, but since we plan on having you as the face on the posters, we’ll need you to make some appearances.”
“I’m not sure I even want to do one appearance.” She glanced at her wristwatch. “Listen, I need to take off.”
“No problem. We have the next auditioner in the ladies’ room. Thanks so much for coming. We’ll have our photographer get in touch with you for the upcoming publicity shoot.”
“Like I said, we’ll need to talk about that later.” Amber still only planned to commit to the Wild West Show, although she actually liked the idea of having her photo in the ad, especially dressed in costume.
She snatched up her clothes from the spot on the floor where she’d left them. But rather than stick around long enough to change back into her jeans and shirt, she decided to head home dressed as she was. Besides, she hadn’t taken that selfie, and she wanted Gram to see her all dolled up, with her hair and makeup done.
She could hardly wait to see the look on her grandmother’s face.
But it wasn’t just Gram who’d get a gander at Amber after GiGi and her magic makeup box had their way with her. When she arrived at the ranch, she found a couple of unexpected vehicles parked in the yard. The first was Elmer’s green machine, which she supposed shouldn’t have been all that surprising. She couldn’t say the same for the other one, though, which was Quinn Drummond’s pickup, the one Jensen had been using.
Evidently the handsome Brit had decided to stop by unannounced, which was fine with Amber. But from the look on Jensen’s face, the surprise was really on him.
While looking in the mirror of the Grange Hall restroom, she’d wondered what he would think if he was to see her in the saloon-girl getup. But in all her imagining, she hadn’t been able to envision his actual expression when she climbed out of her truck dressed in red satin, her hair pulled up in that fancy twist GiGi had coiffed, her face painted, her shoulders bare and her breasts ready to burst out of the neckline.
And poor Jensen looked a bit stunned, to say the least. You’d think he didn’t know whether he was afoot or on horseback.
When Amber climbed out of the ranch pickup dressed like she’d just stepped off the back lot of a Wild West movie set, she could have knocked Jensen over with a feather boa—if she’d been wearing one. And that seemed to be the only thing missing.
She smiled as she closed the driver’s door. “Cat got your tongue?”
Apparently, more than his tongue was missing. His brain had been nabbed along with it.
“What’s the matter?” A grin tickled her lips. “You’re looking at me as though you think I’ve been out on the town, throwing down whiskey shots and dancing on the bar of every beer joint in the county. Haven’t you ever seen a saloon-girl costume before?”
Yes, but she’d caught him completely off guard, and he’d be darned if he knew what to say.
“Have you been driving around town dressed like that?” he asked, hating the jealousy that found its way into his voice.
At that, her grin faded. “No, I just came back from the Grange Hall.”
“What, pray tell, were you doing out in public dressed like that?”
She crossed her arms, which thrust her breasts upward—and nearly out of the outfit completely. “Is this some kind of inquisition?”
“No, I’m sorry. It wasn’t meant to be. It’s just that...” He scanned the length of her, from the upswept hair and—blimey. Had her eyes always been so large, her lashes so thick? And those cherry-red lips...
His imagination, along with his hormones, was running amok. And while he’d never considered himself a jealous man, he didn’t like the idea of her running around town so...so exposed.
“Did you stop by for a reason?”
Actually, he had. He’d noticed a breach in paparazzi security at the ranch and thought he’d slip away to see her in person, to ask if she’d like to ride into Vicker’s Corners to spend some time together. He hadn’t given the details much thought yet, but he wouldn’t be opposed to taking her for an ice cream cone and some window-shopping or some other perfectly simple and innocent venture.
He’d been going stir-crazy inside his sister’s house, and if he had to look at Quinn and Amelia gushing all over each other anymore, he’d take a polo mallet to the first camera lens he might encounter upon his escape. Luckily, though, he hadn’t had to take extreme measures to slip away.
But seeing Amber dressed like one of the vixens of the Wild West, he was no longer thinking of ice cream or considering a date that would end up being either simple or innocent.
“I came by to see you,” he admitted. “Just to talk, or to maybe whisk you away for a bit. But seeing you dressed like that—stunning and beautiful... Well, you’ve just shot my original plan all to hell. And now I’d like to whisk you away all right. But to live out a cowboy’s romantic fantasy.”
She glanced down at the dress, and his gaze followed, continuing down her shapely legs. Damn. It had to be the most grievous of sins to keep limbs like that covered in denim.
“The folks down at Cowboy Country USA were looking for a local girl to be in their ad campaign. They also...” She paused, glanced at her bare feet, which made him wonder what shoes she’d been sporting earlier.