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) 📖

He lifted her a little higher, because he was in the danger zone of having his dick rub up against her ass. Her breasts were pressed against his chest, and her . . . Well, there wasn’t an inch between them.

“Weird,” she said, eyes dipping down to his lips. “I feel kind of weird.”

The world tilted. He was naked and holding Alice in his arms. And she was staring at his lips. It was a teenage fantasy, only fantasies were blurry things with soft edges.

And this felt sharp and crystal clear.

Her legs were wrapped around a naked man. Holy guacamole, how many things could she check off her bucket list in one day? Not that she would have ever thought to add this to a bucket list. Like it wasn’t even in Alice’s bucket list universe.

But maybe it should be.

Her body tingled. In fact, it tingled so much that maybe she shouldn’t even be in the water. What if she started to sizzle and spark and short out?

Very slowly, Beau let go of her, and as she drifted down, she bumped into something firm and oh! Beau’s face turned scarlet. And the heat invading her cheeks indicated they were doing the same.

Right. He was naked.

Alice stepped back immediately, and then she covered her saggy, waterlogged bra with her arms. The water was just below Beau’s hips, and his hands were cupped, hiding what she’d just felt bump against her inner thigh.

“Well, that was exciting,” Beau said.

Alice tried to reply with a casual yeah, but only a squeaky croak came out. Beau had nothing to be embarrassed about. Men often got erections at surprisingly inconvenient times, and her legs suddenly wrapping around his naked body had probably been both surprising and inconvenient.

“I’m going to get out now,” he said casually. “You might want to turn around. I’ll give a holler when I’ve got some pants on.”

Alice quickly turned.

There was splashing. There were a few muttered curses as Beau presumably stepped on sharp stones. There was rustling and then . . . a zipper.

“Okay, Allie Cat. It’s safe to turn around.”

Beau was shirtless and balancing on one leg while trying to get a wet foot into a sock. So, he was fairly occupied as Alice started for the bank, stepping gingerly on slippery rocks.

She didn’t want to slide her T-shirt over a squishy bra, so she slipped the bra off and pulled the shirt over her damp skin. Next, she stepped into the overalls, only bothering with one strap, and slid into her sandals.

It was time to get down to business. They’d come here for a tutoring session.

Beau, still shirtless but now wearing his cowboy hat, stared at the rock, acorn, and twig. He picked up the twig and replaced it with a leaf. His lips formed the word cat.

“Hey,” he said, looking up. “I think I get what you’re trying to accomplish with this.”

“Good! And I have a computer program I want you to work with that kind of does the same thing. We’re going to slowly replace those objects with letters.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Don’t tell your brain, but we’re going to trick it.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard,” Beau muttered.

Alice watched as he fiddled with the acorn. During the times he wasn’t laughing, grinning, pranking, or flexing a set of muscles, it was easier to get a glimpse of the real Beau. He was happy, but he wasn’t necessarily carefree.

School had been so easy for Bryce. It had to have made Beau’s struggle with dyslexia even harder.

His cowboy hat shaded his eyes, but they still peeked out, blue and brilliant and ringed with lashes. They traveled her body, probably taking in her clingy, damp T-shirt and the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra. She quickly buckled the other strap of her overalls.

“I think we need to add an amendment to our contract,” Beau said.

“Oh?”

“Yep. Every time we have a reading lesson, we’ll add something to your bucket list.”

Today had been a blast. And she could probably count all of the blasts she’d ever had on both hands. “Okay. But I’m never going hang gliding.”

Beau laughed. “Darlin’, that makes you and me both. Open up your little book of lists, and we’ll come up with something that requires less of a death wish.”

Alice reached into her bag and took out her journal with the bucket list. She started to write skinny-dipping, but then stopped. She wrote swimming without a swimsuit instead. She hadn’t technically skinny-dipped. She wanted to add with handsome naked man, but Beau was watching.

“Have you ever counted shooting stars?” Beau asked. “I imagine it’s not as much of an adrenaline rush as hang gliding, but it’s still a righteous bucket list item.”

“I once toured the McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains during the Perseid meteor shower, which is—”

“I’m talking from the bed of a pickup truck. It’ll be like our own private pasture party.”

Pasture parties, like skinny-dipping at the dam, were another thing Alice had never done as a teen growing up in Big Verde. She’d heard about them on Monday mornings. This person had gotten drunk. This person had backed his truck into so-and-so’s truck, and their dads were going to kill them. This person had kissed someone’s boyfriend.

So much drama. Alice had not understood the appeal, and yet, if she were being honest, she’d always felt a bit left out.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s do it.”

She wrote down Stargazing from the bed of a pickup truck and Pasture party to her list.

“How about next weekend?” Beau asked.

“I’ve got a library board meeting on Friday. And Saturday is book club . . .”

“Don’t you ever slow down? What time does your book club end?”

“Usually around five o’clock.”

Beau’s phone chimed with a text. He squinted at the screen.

“You can make that font bigger,” she said.

“I don’t need to,” Beau said, still squinting. “It’s from Ford, and I got the general idea. He just needs me to do some stuff while Bryce is at