thrown at her before they left.
“We have got the best weekend planned for you, Cindy. Just you wait!” gushed a gorgeous brunette. Alexis, probably. Jessica was pretty sure Cindy had mentioned an Alexis.
“It’s going to be way better than that time we went to DC. There’s no rain in Vegas,” another woman said, and the rest agreed.
Jessica didn’t know that woman’s name, either, but she thought Cindy had told her something about her being in pageants. Miss New York and crazy titles like that. She was beautiful enough for it to be believable. In fact, they were all beautiful. What was the deal with that?
While she let her mind wander, the topic had drifted to their adventures in DC. Jessica didn’t have any idea when that had happened. It must’ve been at some point during college, when she and Cindy drifted apart for a while. Cindy had done the sorority thing and the friends thing. Jessica had done the study and work-menial-jobs thing.
It struck Jessica that she and Cindy had led very different lives for quite a long time, and their circles of friends were incredibly different. Cindy was surrounded by laughing beautiful women who loved her. Jessica had Cindy, a few acquaintances and her family. Who on earth would be invited to her bachelorette party?
Not that she was anywhere close to getting married, and even if she was, she doubted she’d even have a party. Not her style. Still, the answer to that question was rather depressing. She tried to focus on anything else as she tagged along with the group.
People-watching was always something she enjoyed, inventing stories for the various individuals as they passed in and out of her life. It was a good way to quiet unpleasant thoughts. Jessica concentrated her attention on the groups of people arriving from around the country to spend a few days in this crazy city, wondering what their stories were.
As they walked through the airport, Jessica began to notice something odd. Not the people sitting at slot machines—though those were unusual for any other airport, they only seemed fitting here. No, this was something she’d never expected to see in Sin City: there were cowboys. Like, a lot of them.
Had Vegas turned in its strip clubs and casinos for ranches and horses or something?
She sped up slightly so she could catch up to the brunette—the others called her Anna, not Alexis. “Do you know why it looks like we’re on the film set of a spaghetti Western?”
“Oh yeah, there’s supposed to be a rodeo in town. I saw it on the hotel websites. Apparently it’s this big deal, like the World Series of Rodeos or something,” Anna responded.
Jessica allowed herself to drift to the back of the group again. A rodeo in Vegas. What a strange concept.
As she walked, she continued to stare at the mob of cowboys. She just couldn’t help herself—it was such an odd sight. Then her eyes landed on a muscled, sun-browned man with blond hair falling into his incredibly blue eyes. He was putting on his own cowboy hat as he left the gate of his just-arrived airplane only a few feet away from her. Jessica couldn’t help staring at him, the epitome of strength and ruggedness.
He really did seem as if he should be in a Western film. He was more than just attractive; he was swoon-worthy, knight-in-shining-armor hot.
Then he looked right at her and their eyes locked. She’d been caught red-handed, practically drooling over him. She froze like a deer in headlights.
The glance lasted only a couple of seconds, but Jessica would have sworn it was far longer. The thrill of heat that rushed through her as the stranger met her eyes made her heart miss a beat—and the heel of her shoe slip sideways.
Her attention rudely brought back to reality, she wobbled uncertainly for a moment, but managed to regain her balance instead of falling over completely. Her slightly twisted ankle sent a small jab of pain up her leg as she stepped down, angry at her inattention. She stepped on it more gingerly, glad her loose hair had fallen in front of her face and hidden the blush that came from realizing she’d been caught gawking at this stranger, and then nearly fallen over to top it all off.
“Are you okay?”
She looked up, praying it wasn’t the handsome cowboy who had asked.
Of course, it was the handsome cowboy. And now he was even closer, practically touching her, with a smirk of amusement on his face. This couldn’t get any worse. Adrenaline pumped through her, making her skin prickle—or maybe that was just her reaction to the man standing in front of her, his eyes burning into hers.
Then his smile widened, as if she had made some sort of joke. Or been the butt of a joke. It was probably the latter, since nothing seemed amusing about this situation.
He raised his eyebrows. “So, you’re okay?”
He’d been waiting for her to answer. And instead she had stared at him like an idiot. If the power to become invisible could be summoned through wishes, she would have disappeared.
She was still very much visible, though. Jessica looked down at her feet, hoping he thought she was examining her ankle, but mostly to keep herself from losing herself in his eyes again. “I’m fine,” she squeaked, her voice an entire octave above normal.
Well, it was better than absolute silence, at any rate.
The rumble of his laughter rolled through her. “How about I give you a ride to your hotel? Save you the taxi fare.”
Part of Jessica—the pit of her stomach and her tingling fingers—wanted to take the sexy cowboy’s offer, but most of her only wanted to get away as quickly as she could. She looked up and realized that Cindy and the rest of the women were far ahead. Apparently none of them had nearly fallen all over themselves over any attractive cowboys. “I’m with a group. In fact, I should go catch up to them.”
Before she could move away, though, he pulled a pen and a thick book out of the pocket of his bag, took a torn piece of paper out of it that he was clearly using for a bookmark and started writing on it. “Well, if you find yourself with some free time this weekend, call me. We can have dinner.”
She said the only coherent thing her brain could muster. “That was your bookmark.”
He handed it to her, smiling. “Yep. Lost my place. Worth it if you call.”
Jessica was having difficulty breathing. If she didn’t get away from this man immediately, she might jump on him right there and make a scene for the entire airport. She shoved the paper into her pants pocket, mostly to keep herself from opening it to check that there was, in fact, a phone number written on it.
Without looking at him again, she turned to search for her glittery mob of women, purposely keeping her eyes averted. His eyes were still on her, though—she could feel them boring into her. Her group, far ahead, was still walking toward the exit. They hadn’t seemed to notice her disappearance. A quickly mumbled “Thanks” was all she could manage, along with one last peek into his eyes, which were still focused on her.
Adjusting her grip on her suitcase handle, she rushed to catch up to Cindy and her friends, limping slightly. She did not turn to look at the stranger again, though a part of her wanted to get just one more glance before he disappeared from her life, if only to make sure he was as handsome as she thought. A picture of him would be nice. Maybe a kiss, too.
Jessica was shocked at the thoughts that were running
