Bartender's Beauty (Culpepper Cowboys Book 11) Read online

  He grinned. “So am I. I don’t know how I survived all those years without you.”

  “You lived. You grew. You made a life for yourself that would welcome me when I was ready to join it.” She sighed. “I love you, you know.”

  Austin sat silently for a moment before steering the truck onto the shoulder of the road and turning to look at her. “Did you just say what I think you said?” He’d been waiting for those words from her for over twenty years, and she’d finally said them.

  She nodded, taking a deep breath. “I love you, Austin. I loved you when we were in junior high, and I pretended I didn’t know you. I loved you in high school when you asked me to the homecoming dance, and I refused to go. I loved you when I left town to go to school. But now, now I love you more than I ever dreamed I could love anyone. I love you so much it hurts. Thank you for putting up with me and my insecurities. Thank you for marrying me and making me feel like I’m important to someone.”

  He unbuckled his seat belt and moved across the seat toward her, gathering her in his arms and holding her close, raining kisses down over her face. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting for you to say those words?”

  She grinned, reaching up and pulling him down for a real kiss. “As long as I’ve been waiting to hear them from you?” she asked, knowing without a doubt that he felt the same way. “I’m still waiting, by the way.”

  He chuckled. “I love you, Dallas. I’ve never stopped, and I never will.” Austin sighed, shaking his head. “And now we have to put off our trip to Laramie yet again.”

  She blinked at him, trying to understand. “We do? Why?”

  “Because I have to take you home and make love to you, of course. It’s part of the being in love law.”

  “It is, is it?” she asked, definitely liking the idea of a night at home more than a night dancing in Laramie.

  “Yup. When your wife of two months finally tells you she loves you, it’s your sacred duty to take her home and make love to her until neither of you even has the energy to smile anymore.”

  She laughed. “I see. Is this sacred law written anywhere? Or is it just something that men know about?”

  “I think it’s something imprinted on men’s brains from birth.” He kissed her once more, lingeringly. “Are you sure?”

  She nodded. “I’ve been sure for a while. I just—I was afraid to say anything, because I wasn’t sure I was good enough to love you.”

  “You are. You are perfect in my eyes. Except for this propensity you have for clothing. Do you think I could talk you into being naked around the house all the time?”

  Dallas laughed, shaking her head. “Winter’s coming, and we live in Wyoming. It’s a little too cold to run around nude all the time.”

  “Wimp.” He slid back across the seat and made a quick U-turn on the road, heading back to Culpepper.

  Epilogue

  It seemed that all of Culpepper had come out for the grand opening of Bob’s Burger Barn. Austin realized it may not be the place anyone else in the world would go to celebrate making an offer on land where he planned to build his wife’s dream house, but he didn’t care. It suited him and Dallas just fine. They’d also received an offer on Kurt Gustafson’s property just the night before, so it was a double celebration. They’d be rid of her dad’s property and the memories that went with it, and they’d have their own place to create good memories together.

  He led Dallas and Megan to the only open booth and slid in beside his wife, his fingers twining with hers under the table.

  Bob Bickel, the proprietor himself, came to the table to get their drink orders. “We hear there’s a celebrity coming to help you open the place,” Austin said. “Who is it?”

  Bob shook his head. “Not saying, but he should be here in about ten minutes.”

  “Is it Jesse or Valerie Savoy?” Dallas asked, knowing they were the local celebrities since they’d moved into town.

  “It’s not them, and I’m not telling. What do you want to drink?” Bob asked, his notepad at the ready.

  Megan frowned at him. “Come on! We won’t tell anyone!”

  “Nope. No one knows. Drinks?”

  Dallas shrugged at Austin. “Do you have the makings for a Shirley Temple?” She could see several of her students were there, helping out with the grand opening. If nothing else, all the new businesses Sly was bringing into town were going to help the teenagers be able to be more self-sufficient.

  “Yup. Cherry Cokes and Cherry Sprites are specialties of mine.” Bob made a quick note of her drink preference.

  “I’ll have the same,” Austin said, obviously a bit perturbed he couldn’t get the celebrity’s name out of Bob.

  “Diet Coke for me,” Megan said. “What burger do you recommend?”

  Bob shrugged. “They’re all fabulous. Read the menu, and you decide.” He hurried off to fill their drink order.

  Megan frowned after him. “He could have been more helpful.”

  Dallas shook her head. “Maybe he feels that picking one of the burgers would be like choosing between his babies since he created them all?”

  “Maybe.” Megan stared down at the menu, reading over the different choices. “There are a lot of burgers on here.”

  Dallas shrugged. “He does seem to be some sort of burger expert.” She looked down. “There are onion rings. I like onion rings.”

  “He’s also got fries and sweet potato fries. And something called fried cheese curds? I’ve never even heard of those. Maybe we should get an order of each and split them.”

  While they discussed what they wanted, their drinks were dropped off and Bob scurried away. They were still talking about the menu when a silence descended about the room.

  Dallas looked over at the doorway and laughed softly. She understood immediately.

  A man in a cowboy hat, jeans, and a Western shirt, who didn’t look at all out of place in the room full of Culpepper residents, stood with his arm around a woman, who looked almost afraid to be the center of attention. She stood rigidly beside him as he spoke.

  “Hi all! I’m not sure who here knows me, but I’m Bob Bodefeld, and I play Bob on Lazy Love. This is my sweet wife, May, who would rather I didn’t introduce her, but when a woman is this beautiful, who can resist?” He paused for a moment, giving his wife a loving look. “When I heard someone was opening a restaurant called Bob’s Burger Barn, I knew I had to be part of the grand opening, so I flew up here to say hi!”

  Bob Bickel hurried toward him with a pair of scissors, handing them to him. Someone had strung a huge red ribbon, bedecked with burgers, across the middle of the room.

  The actor cut the ribbon to the cheers of everyone before turning to the proprietor, Bob Bickel. “These had better be good burgers, Bob, or I’ll have to ask you to take my name off your building.”

  Bob Bickel laughed. “If you eat one of my burgers, and you don’t like it, I can promise you, I’ll do just that.” He led the couple to a booth that had ribbons roping it off from the others, and pulled the ribbons out of the way. “You just tell me what you want, and you and your wife eat on the house.”

  Bob Bodefeld grinned. “That’s a good thing, because we’ve got a hungry baby growing, and I just bought myself a ranch here in Culpepper.”

  “You’re moving here?” the proprietor asked them.

  Bob Bodefeld nodded. “We’re buying the old Gustafson place. It’ll be like Jesse and Valerie. We’ll be here between taping and between seasons.” He looked at his wife and winked. “May here will probably write about all of you. She seems to do that. She’ll travel back and forth with me most of the time, because she loves me too much to be away from me for more than an hour or two.”

  May blushed, remaining quiet.

  “Welcome to Culpepper,” Bob Bickel said as he hurried off to take more orders and get people settled in.

  As Austin watched the scene, he grinned. Bob and May seemed like good, down-to-earth type people. With as many good
people as there were moving into Culpepper, he knew his sweet wife would continue to be happy.

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