Must Love Cowboys: This steamy and heart-warming cowboy rom-com is a must-read! (Once Upon A Time In Carly Bloom (good short books .TXT) 📖

the thought, but then something warm and heavy slid past his heart and settled in his belly. The grin slipped away. She’d been ready to save him.

“Allie Cat, I’m sorry if I scared you.”

She stopped fussing with her overalls. “It was very inconsiderate of you.”

“You’re right. I’m just not used to . . .” He paused and searched for the right words. “People being so easily alarmed.”

“Any normal person would have been alarmed.”

He wasn’t sure that was true. “You look really heated. And you’ve already kicked off your shoes. Are you sure you don’t want to get in for a few minutes and cool off? It’ll clear your mind and put you in a better mood.”

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with my mood.” She swatted violently at another fly, nearly losing her balance in the process.

He shrugged. Then he put his hands behind his neck and floated on his back as if he hadn’t a care in the world. “Man, this feels fantastic.”

“You can’t always put off the hard things, Beau.”

A Mexican eagle soared against the backdrop of a few fluffy clouds floating lazily by. “And you can’t always put off the fun ones. Or at least you shouldn’t.”

He squinted at a cloud. “Look. There’s a hippopotamus.”

“Where?” Alice said, looking over her shoulder.

Beau laughed, and Alice rolled her eyes in exasperation, or possibly it was embarrassment. She’d only gotten one strap buckled, and seeing her standing there on the riverbank, barefoot and sweaty and irritated, gave Beau all kinds of weird feelings. Soft ones.

Allie Cat Martin was out of her element . . . And it was cute. Sexy. Driving him nuts.

Alice looked at the clouds. “That’s not a hippo. It’s a duck.”

“You’re looking at it from the wrong angle.”

Alice glanced at the river. Her bare toes were tapping, and it was obvious she wanted to get in the water.

He kicked his feet and just missed splashing her. “We both know you’re hot.” So hot. “And we both know you want to get in. So just do it.”

Alice took a delicate step toward the river, looking intently at the rocks, before sticking her toe in the water.

“You can cross it off your list,” Beau said in a taunting, singsongy voice.

“Fine. Turn around.”

“Really?”

“Yes. But I’m keeping my underwear on. And you have to promise not to look.”

Beau held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”

“You got kicked out of the Boy Scouts, if I remember correctly,” Alice said.

“Yeah, but not for lying. Also, our troop leader had no sense of humor.”

Beau turned around and stared at the limestone cliffs. He couldn’t believe Alice was actually getting in. Damn, she was really going outside of her comfort zone to have a little fun.

Maybe he could do the same thing when it came to buckling down and tackling dyslexia. When they got out of the river, he was going to try really hard and do everything Alice told him to do.

Alice slipped the overalls down past her hips and stepped out of them. Next, with a quick glance at Beau’s back, she slipped her shirt off. The sun warmed her skin, yet she still broke out in goose bumps. Why was she so stupidly nervous? She was a grown woman wearing modest-ish underwear. Her bra was padded, so it wouldn’t be see-through when it got wet. It was full coverage and probably showed less cleavage than her swimsuit.

The red panties were another matter, but still. No smaller than the average bikini bottom. She crossed her arms to cover her breasts and carefully picked her way across the rocks. She eyed Beau. He had his back to her, but he’d come closer to the shore and was no longer treading water.

Her bare foot stepped on a sharp rock. “Ouch!”

Beau jerked and started to turn around. “I’m fine!” Alice said. “Stay where you are.”

Beau froze, then returned to his previous position.

His blond hair was dark and wet, and his broad, tanned shoulders were dotted with droplets of water. The river came up just past his waist, and as she watched, he bent over and began wriggling around.

“What are you doing?” she asked, timidly taking another step. You can do this, Martin. It’s just a river. You’re just getting in a river. In your underwear. With Beau Montgomery, who is also only wearing underwear.

“Be careful on those rocks,” Beau said over his shoulder. “They can be slippery. You should have swung in on the rope.”

“It’s safer to come in this way.”

“Not true,” Beau said, tossing something dark over his shoulder.

Alice ducked as it went past to land with a splat on the rocks behind her. “What was that?”

“I don’t want to ride back in wet underwear. Those will be dry by the time we get out—”

“You’re naked?”

“That’s the local custom when it comes to skinny-dipping,” Beau answered simply. “Are you in yet?”

“No! I’ll tell you when.”

She was having second thoughts. But dang it, she’d started this thing, and she was going to finish it. She took another step. Beau was right. The rocks were awful slippery. They were also covered in moss, which was squishy and unpleasant. A small fish darted out from beneath one and swam away. “You said snakes tend to hang out along the bank?”

“Don’t worry. They’re hiding in the cypress roots. You’re fine where you are. Hurry up, I’m tired of standing here. I want to have some fun.”

Fun? What kind of fun? Because if Beau thought she was climbing on his shoulders for a game of chicken, he could think again. She intended to tread water for about five minutes in order to cool off and then get out.

In her wet underwear.

She took two more steps and then stopped to consider where she should put her foot next. She was kind of getting used to the squishy feel, and the little fishies swimming around were cute. The water was nearly up to her thighs now, and maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea.

She took a big step to make it to the next