did you know I’d be here?”
“Oh, my God. Your hair looks fabulous.” Rachel gave her a head-to-toe inspection. “And the dress... What a great find. It couldn’t be more perfect. But honestly, those highlights and that flirty cut... Sally outdid herself. I really like it.”
“Flirty? Really?”
“Come on, don’t you love it?”
“I do. I’ve wanted something different for a while now, but I should’ve waited.”
“Why?”
“I was hoping for something subtler. Kevin will think I got all glammed up for him.”
“Oh, sweetie, he won’t be looking at your hair,” Rachel said, grinning at the V of the dress.
“What?” Kylie tugged the neckline up.
“Stop it.” Rachel swatted her hand away and made her own adjustment. “You should wear red more often. It suits you.”
“Is the makeup too much? I’m a little out of practice.”
“It looks great.” Rachel glanced around, then sniffed the air. “I swear pregnancy has thrown my senses out of whack. You didn’t burn anything, did you?”
“This morning I was distracted and—Oh. It’s me, isn’t it?” Kylie frantically fanned the air. “I smell like burnt toast.”
“Nope, it’s not you. It’s coming from the kitchen but it’ll probably be gone by the time you open tomorrow.”
“That doesn’t help me tonight.”
Rachel smiled. “It’s not that strong. I’m sorry I mentioned it.”
“Do you mind if we step outside so I can air out?” She paused on the way to the door. “Oh, and I have some chocolate cupcakes if you’re interested.”
Moaning, Rachel pressed a hand to her stomach. “Not for me, thanks. I ate like a fiend yesterday and paid dearly for it. Anyway, I’ve got to run over to the market so I can finish dinner. I just stopped by to make sure you wore the dress.”
Kylie grinned. Knowing Rachel, she wasn’t joking. “What would you have done if I hadn’t?”
“That’s a silly question. Made you go home and change, of course.”
A maroon truck slowed, then pulled to the curb just as they stepped onto the sidewalk. The tinted windows prevented her from seeing inside.
“Is that Kevin?” Rachel asked.
“He drives a Mustang.” Kylie left the door propped open. She hoped the driver was going to the Full Moon Saloon next door, and wasn’t thinking the bakery was open.
“Well, I’ve got to scoot,” Rachel said, checking her watch and backing away. “You have a good time tonight. Don’t change a thing. Leave that neckline right where it is.” She took a couple steps back. “Wait. Fresh lip gloss. That’s all you need.”
“Goodbye, Rachel,” Kylie said patiently, dying to tug the dress up an inch. “Better watch where you’re going.”
Bumping into a parked SUV got Rachel to turn around with a startled laugh.
Kylie smiled as she watched her friend hurry across the street. Rachel wouldn’t make it to the Food Mart without running into someone else to chat up. The woman knew everyone.
She and Mallory had been godsends for Kylie. Moving to a strange town where she hadn’t known anyone but Aunt Sally had proved scarier than Kylie had imagined. Her new friends had made all the difference.
“Kylie?”
At the sound of the deep voice, she froze. Her heart lurched. Had to be her imagination. Resisting the urge to spin around, she turned slowly.
Landon?
Except it couldn’t be...
Here in Blackfoot Falls? It just wasn’t possible...
And yet she was staring at all six feet of him, leaning against the maroon truck, hat in hand, wearing his usual jeans and scuffed boots, his brown hair in need of a trim. Although it tended to look like that all the time, even after he’d gotten it cut.
He gave her that boyish, lopsided smile that had always made her tingle and feel guilty at the same time. She couldn’t seem to make her mouth work.
“I almost didn’t recognize you,” he said. “You look different. Great though. Just, you know...” He shrugged, his dark blue eyes taking in her dress and legs. “Different.”
She blinked to make sure he was real. She almost demanded to see the stupid, heart-shaped tattoo he’d gotten the night he and Gary had both scored low at the Laredo rodeo and blew their shot at the national finals. Drunk and reckless, they’d crossed into Mexico, looking for trouble. Hadn’t taken them long to find it.
Kylie remembered well because she’d driven five hundred miles to bail them out. “What are you doing here?”
Landon gave his Stetson another twirl, then set it on his head and straightened away from the truck. “Is that it? Not even a hello?”
“There must be a rodeo in the area,” she said, her brain scrambling to make sense of this—of Landon. Standing in front of her. How could he have gotten better looking in a year? And, whoa, that kind of thinking had to stop right now.
“No rodeo.”
Of course not. She would’ve known. Even though she’d shied away from any talk related to the sport, anything new coming to the area had people buzzing for weeks. She didn’t care how Gary was doing, whether good or bad. The knife of betrayal had cut too deep.
A horrifying thought occurred to her. She tried hard to peer through the tinted windows. “Is Gary with you?”
“Nope,” Landon said, studying her closely. “Just me.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I came to see you.”
“Me? Why?”
“Look, Kylie,” he said, sighing. “We...didn’t exactly part on a good note, and that’s bothered me. But I did as you asked and left you alone, even though it’s not what I wanted.”
Oh, God. The things she’d said to him her last night in Iowa. Any problems she’d had with Gary had nothing to do with Landon. At least not directly. If anything, her own guilt over having a thing for Landon had pushed her to blame him. The fuse had been lit the first day they’d met, and continued to spark, no matter how hard she fought it.
Landon had just returned to rodeo after taking a year off due to a family emergency. If she hadn’t already been drawn to the way he smiled and those deep blue eyes, finding out he was a man who had his priorities straight would’ve sealed the deal for her.
She’d never acted on the
