Beauty and the Cowboy (2 page)

“Not yet. Almost.”

“Did you pull the brochure I asked you to get out of the filing cabinet in my office?”

“I didn’t have a chance. I was going to do that after I finished the paperwork.”

Jesse opened his mouth as if he were going to say something, but then he closed it. He drummed his hand on his jean-clad leg before finally saying, “A little less talk and a lot more action, please. We need those papers for our meeting.”

“It’s almost done, Jesse. Gosh, don’t have a cow.” The girl harrumphed, but turned her attention to her computer screen and started typing.

Lulu, who’d been playing with a rubber ball, suddenly lost interest in it and scampered over to Jesse. The little dog grabbed a mouthful of pant leg and started growling and tugging.

“What are you doing?” Jesse asked, trying to pull his leg away. Just as suddenly as the dog started this new game, she lost interest and went over to the far corner and started sniffing.

“Hey, Matt, have you taken Lulu out since we got here?”

“No, I haven’t had time. And don’t call me that.” The frustration was clear in the girl’s voice. “She’ll have to wait until I finish this—”

They all watched as the puppy squatted and did her business in the corner.

“Ohhh. Uh-oh,” Mattie said.

Charlotte saw Jesse tense.

“Don’t get mad,” Mattie pleaded as she grabbed a wad of tissues from the box on the reception desk. “I’ll clean it up. Just go do your meeting.”

Jesse’s jaw worked as if he were counting to ten. Then he turned to Charlotte and Jane.

“Welcome to the three-ring circus. And you thought you were here to discuss the fair. Come in my office. We can wait there while Mattie finishes up what she was supposed to have already done before you got here.”

The girl made a quiet noise of protest, but kept her head down as she cleaned up after her puppy.

Charlotte had grown up next door to Jesse, Mattie and their brothers Jude, Jake, John and Jackson. She’d been away at college when their parents were killed in a tragic wreck on Highway 89 on the outskirts of town.

The Guthrie brothers had taken it upon themselves to raise their little sister, who hadn’t even been a teenager when they’d lost her folks.

Since Charlotte had been home from college, she’d noticed that the bulk of Mattie’s upbringing had fallen on Jesse’s shoulders, since he was the only one of the brothers who lived in town right now.

Hiring his teenage sister to work for him for the summer and letting her get a puppy—much less, bring it to work—seemed to make Jesse a good candidate for sainthood. Although, it dawned on Charlotte that this was the first time in her life she’d ever used the words Jesse and sainthood in the same sentence. He wasn’t a bad person. He was just a little edgy, and some people mistook his particular brand of quiet for aloof.

But she considered herself lucky to know what lay on the other side of that intensity. When they were kids, Charlotte, Jesse and a handful of other friends used to while away the summer riding bikes and playing games they’d made up.

A forgotten memory elbowed its way to the forefront of her mind: Jesse Guthrie had been her first kiss. Innocent as it was, they’d shared a peck during a game of Truth or Dare. How old had they been? He was a year older. They must’ve been about nine and ten?

Wow. She’d forgotten about that. Probably because shortly thereafter, puberty had set in and things had gotten awkward. In subsequent summers, Charlotte had hung out with her girlfriends, and Jesse had become superfocused on training to be a professional bull rider.

Then they’d each been swept away by life. Jesse had dated Veronica Robb all through high school. Charlotte was still with Tom.

Funny how the years changed people.

Broken dreams and lost loved ones tended to do that to a person.

Jane and Charlotte followed Jesse into his small, cluttered office. Charlotte couldn’t help but notice that the slight limp caused by the accident that had ended his bull-riding career was slightly more pronounced today. Somehow, it made him seem earthy and manly.

And Charlotte had no idea why those particular adjectives suddenly popped into her mind. Well, other than the fact that they described Jesse Guthrie to a T. That was the thing about knowing someone as long as they’d known each other: They had license to notice the other’s gifts without it being a big deal. Right?

At six-foot-four with mile-wide shoulders and piercing blue eyes, Jesse possessed considerable gifts. Plain and simple, he was hot. Being her friend didn’t diminish his hotness. In fact, as a friend, she’d glimpsed other facets of him that added depth and dimension to the man that others who might be put off by his gruff exterior might never see.

She knew and understood the whole Jesse Guthrie package.

Well, not the whole package.

She had to bite her bottom lip to keep from smiling at the thought.

It was a wonder someone hadn’t snatched him up and taken him off the market. In fact, had he even had a serious girlfriend since Veronica? He’d dated Jodie MacCreadie off and on, but they were more off than on. Well, okay, there’d been Eve Canaday. They’d been more serious. Eve was blond, pretty and from a well-off family. Everyone thought that relationship had been heading somewhere. Charlotte would’ve been lying if she said she hadn’t been a tiny bit relieved when they broke up.

God, she was horrible. She really wanted only what was best for Jesse. Even though Eve had been perfect on paper, there had just been something about them together that hadn’t been right.

As if Charlotte had a vote.

Jesse flipped on the overhead light and gestured to the two chairs in front of his desk.

“Have a seat. I’ll grab that brochure I was talking about while we wait for Mattie to bring in the quote you requested for the added dressing rooms for the pageant.”

He turned his back on them and began searching in the top drawer of a tall filing cabinet. Charlotte turned to say something to Jane and caught her intently gazing at Jesse.

She wasn’t immune, either.

Jane must’ve sensed Charlotte watching her watch Jesse, because she glanced at her and lifted an eyebrow then gave a discreet nod toward Jesse’s backside. Even though Jane didn’t utter a single word, Charlotte knew her friend was appreciating the…er…view and was encouraging her to join in the fun.

Charlotte shook her head and made a censuring face at Jane, but that only egged Jane on.

Jane was a professional through and through, and she was about as in love as any newlywed could be. Yet she didn’t feel the need to take herself overly seriously. That’s why Charlotte liked her. Especially when there was no questioning that a red-blooded, heterosexual woman would have to be blind not to notice the incredible work of art that was Jesse Guthrie’s backside.

How had Charlotte never properly appreciated it before?

Probably because she’d never stopped long enough to take in the view and, of course, there was Tom. But Tom wasn’t here. And sure enough, broad, muscular shoulders hidden beneath a light blue plaid cotton shirt tapered down to a trim waist that enhanced Jesse’s very finest jean-clad…asset.

A strange thrill that was both electrifying and a little forbidden shot through Charlotte.

Then Jesse turned, clutching the brochure that had been his mission. “I wanted to show you this—What’s wrong?”

Charlotte wanted to crawl under the desk, because she was sure she and Jane were busted. But by the grace of God, Jane’s cell phone sounded a text, which she immediately picked up.

Jesse handed the brochure to Charlotte. “This might be a workable option for more dressing-room space if you really think you need it. How many girls are entering the pageant?”

Jane and Charlotte were producing this year’s Miss Marietta Fair pageant. It was the first year that the pageant was being run by the Marietta Chamber of Commerce rather than the Miss Marietta Fair board of directors, an independent group of mostly grandfatherly Marietta residents. In the past, the fair queen and her court had been voted on by the fair board of directors. Because of this, many local girls whose families weren’t as well connected as the others were shut out.

Jane had come up with the idea of turning the pageant into an event that was open to all girls between the ages of fourteen and twenty-two. She’d convinced the mayor to make it a scholarship pageant that would give young women a chance to learn poise and public speaking.

The mere idea had caused quite an uproar among some of the town’s old codgers—namely those with granddaughters who were eligible to be appointed to this year’s court. Even so, at January’s city council meeting, Jane’s plan to bring the fair queen and her court into the new millennium garnered enough votes to prevail. That’s when she’d hired Charlotte away from First Bank of Marietta to be her assistant and guide the pageant in its new direction.

Charlotte glanced up from the brochure for the portable dressing tents. Jane was still tap-tapping away on her phone. The text seemed important.

“We don’t have a final number because we’re still accepting entry forms until next Monday,” Charlotte said. “So far we’ve received seventeen entries. But we’re expecting several more based on the amount of interest. We’d like to plan on twenty-five girls or so. Would we have to buy these or do they rent them?”

“You’d have to buy them.”

“But they’re not air conditioned, and with the summer humidity and all that makeup and hairspray, that could be a problem.”

Jesse shrugged. “I want to help you, Charlie, but I only have so much space to offer. I can’t manufacture it.”

“How much do these things cost?” Charlotte asked.

Before Jesse could answer, Jane got to her feet. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to go.” She held up her phone. “I have a situation that I tried to solve via the magic of text, but unfortunately it requires my presence. I’m going to leave this meeting in your capable hands, Charlotte. But will you walk out with me? Excuse us for a moment, Jesse?”

“Sure, I’ll see how Mattie is doing with the papers we’ll need for the walkthrough.”

Charlotte went outside with Jane. The two of them stopped next to her small, dark blue SUV.

“Is everything okay?” Charlotte asked.

Jane waved off her question. “Everything’s fine. It’s an issue with the Chamber directory. The printer needs me to sign off on proofs before they’ll start the job. If I don’t sign within the hour, they’re going to put a big job ahead of us.”

“Oh, good. I was afraid maybe it was about Sam.”

Jane’s hand fluttered to her neck. “Oh, no. He’s doing fine. Healthier than ever, thank God.”

The day after Jane and Sam McCullough had announced their engagement in late May, Sam had suffered a mild heart attack. Charlotte was relieved to hear that he continued to do well. It just went to show what the power of love could do for a person. It also proved that life and love were precious and not to be taken for granted.

Charlotte rubbed her bare ring finger again.

She decided when she got home this evening, she’d call Tom so they could talk through some of the ambivalence she’d been feeling. Why had she been keeping all the weird emotions inside when, for all she knew, he might be harboring the same doubts and fears? Marriage was for sharing—for better or worse. Now was as good a time as any to start living those tenants.

“Be firm with him and get what we want,” Jane said.

“What?” Charlotte asked.

“Talk to Jesse about the extra lighting and the dressing rooms. The city could shoulder the cost of the dressing rooms and use them for future events. Remind him that we’re not in this to make money, but we have to break even. Get him to work with you. And don’t be distracted by that fine ass.”

Charlotte felt her face flame. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do. It wouldn’t hurt you in the least to do a little sightseeing while you and Tom are trying to figure things out. You know I love my husband, but I’d certainly endorse Jesse Guthrie’s ass as one of Marietta’s natural wonders.”

“Oh, really? Will that be an official Chamber of Commerce campaign?”

“There’s a thought. See, I knew you were looking. You may be engaged—”

“Almost engaged.”

“Almost engaged is all the more reason that you should be considering your options.”

Options? Please. Jesse was hot, but she’d never considered him an option.

But, God, he was pretty hot, wasn’t he?

She didn’t even have that marquise ring on her finger, but she could feel it digging in. And now she had to go back in there alone, with her eyes opened and her head spinning with thoughts that shouldn’t be there, and face Jesse with his fine ass and those piercing blue eyes.

“S
o, you and
Tom are finally tying the knot?” Jesse said as he and Charlotte set out to do the walkthrough of the stage and the backstage areas they’d use for the Miss Marietta Fair pageant. “When’s the big day, Charlie?”

She shrugged. He caught a weird vibe from her as they walked side-by-side across the planes of the dusty fairground. “I don’t know. We haven’t gotten that far yet.”

“No? What are you waiting for?”

“A formal proposal would be nice.” She shoved her hands into her pockets and lifted her chin a little higher as they walked.

“I heard you went ring shopping last weekend.”

She stopped and looked at him with her hands on her hips and her head cocked. “I expected more from you, Jesse Guthrie.”

“What?” His voice had more of an edge than he’d intended, but there she was in her defensive stance, looking like she wanted to argue, and he couldn’t understand why. All he did was ask about Tom.

“You’re listening to the town gossip? I didn’t take you for the type.”

He threw his hands up. “I’m talking to you about you, aren’t I? I’m not taking the gossip at face value. Forget it. We don’t have to talk. I was just making conversation.”

They walked a few steps in silence. Jesse fixed his gaze on Copper Mountain, which loomed strong and silent on the horizon. Finally, Charlotte slanted him a glance. “I’d like to talk about it. Actually, I’d like your advice on something.”