Agent's Admirer (Culpepper Cowboys Book 13) Read online

  He got out of the car and walked her to her door, leaning down to kiss her cheek. “See you tomorrow.”

  Megan watched him leave, wondering if she was disappointed or glad he hadn’t really kissed her goodnight. It was hard to know sometimes…

  It was a little after two when Megan went into the Burger Barn the next day, and Bob nodded to a booth off to the side while he finished instructing his assistant manager about something. Megan knew Kari had managed restaurants in Laramie before she’d moved to Culpepper as a new bride more than twenty years before. She knew the stories of most of the locals.

  Bob walked over to her and slid into the booth across from her after finishing up with Kari. “Hey, Meg. Busy day?”

  She shrugged, rubbing the back of her neck. She hadn’t gotten as much sleep as she would have liked, because she’d gotten a call from someone wanting to see one of her houses at seven that morning, but she had time for a nap after lunch. “Pretty busy. I’m done for the day, though.”

  “I’ve got a new bun for the taco burger if you’re up for it.” She was the only one who had tried the first, other than himself. He wanted the new burger to be perfect before putting it on the menu.

  She nodded. “Sure. You know I like trying to new things. Just no lettuce or tomato.”

  “You good with guacamole?” he asked.

  “Light on the guac.”

  He sighed. “You’re difficult sometimes.” He remembered now what irritated him about her. She always had to adjust his burgers, which were already perfect.

  “I’m good at being difficult.” She reached out for his hand and squeezed it. “I’ll be your guinea pig.”

  He slid out of the booth. “I’m eating with you again,” he announced, walking away.

  Megan grinned. She was perfectly content to have Bob eat lunch with her every day.

  A glass of ice water appeared in front of her a few minutes later, and she kept working on her paperwork she’d brought to accompany her lunch. She wanted to have the bulk of it done before Bob finished making their burgers, because she wanted him to have her full attention.

  When he slid her burger in front of her, she looked at it with a frown. This time he’d used a regular burger bun. Different, but it had potential. She lifted the bun and looked at what he had inside. A thin layer of refried beans was under the seasoned ground beef, which had been cooked into a patty. Over it was a layer of guacamole and some taco sauce. There were a couple of chips on the bun as well.

  “I’m hoping the chips will satisfy the crunch, but I think I’ll be back to the drawing board again.”

  “I’ll try it.” Megan noticed he’d served the burger with chips and queso like she’d suggested, but there was also a basket of fried cheese curds between them. “You took my advice!”

  He nodded as he sat down across from her. “Sure. You’re the only customer who’s in here every single day, so I want to make sure I please you.”

  She picked up the burger and took a bite. It didn’t have the good crunch of the last one, and it wasn’t quite right. “I can eat it, but…try again. The crumbling shell was better than this.”

  He sighed. “I figured that would be you answer. You want me to make you something else?”

  She shook her head, but removed the bun and set it off to the side, before picking up her fork and cutting into the burger. “You’ll get there. This is fine for today.”

  “So what do you want for supper tonight?” Bob asked her, taking a bite of his own burger and silently agreeing with her that it was lacking. “Let me ask this instead. How would you feel about spaghetti with homemade marinara and meatballs for dinner?”

  “Sounds good to me. As long as I’m not cooking, I’m generally pleased.”

  He looked pointedly at her bun sitting on the table and shook his head. Maybe she really didn’t realize just how picky she was. “Garlic bread?”

  “Sure.”

  “Salad?”

  “None for me thanks.”

  How did she stay so slender if she never ate any vegetables? “All right. Six-thirty still all right for me to come by?”

  She nodded. “Have you seen Lazy Love before?”

  He shook his head. “I know it’s something about a ranch in Texas. That’s all I know.”

  “I’ll help you catch up on the characters when you get to my place tonight then. I think you’ll enjoy watching it, if only because you know most of the main stars.”

  “How many main stars are there?”

  “There are four people who have been on every show since the beginning. JoAnn who’s played by Valerie, Dylan, played by Jesse, Bob, played by Bob, and MaryBeth, played by Amber.”

  “I haven’t met Amber.”

  “To my knowledge, she’s never been to Culpepper. She just married her high school sweetheart, and they live really close to the set from what I understand.” Megan took a sip of her water. “So JoAnn is a debutante, who was raised in boarding schools. She came home over the summers. Her mom died when she was five. She died in childbirth, and I didn’t even know that happened anymore. Anyway, MaryBeth is her younger sister. Bob is the ranch foreman who Jo’s dad wanted her to marry. Dylan is the local veterinarian, and Jo falls in love with him the first time she sees him. There was some rivalry between Bob and Dylan, but Dylan married Jo in the last episode of season four.”

  “What season is it now?” he asked, only a bit interested. He was going to her house to observe her and spend time with her, not watch Lazy Love.

  “Five. Bob has a big show arc this time, because he’s just gone East to see his mom. He cut out when he was a teen after beating up his father, who was abusive.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a fun show to watch!”

  “Seriously, I watch it for the chemistry between Jo and Dylan. When those two kiss, you feel it all the way down in your toes.”

  “Huh.” He studied her for a minute. “So it’s all about the romance for you?”

  She nodded emphatically. “There are some funny moments, but mainly it’s about the two of them. Their first kiss on screen was so amazing. And every kiss since, of course.” She sighed. “No one questioned the two of them marrying in real life with the kind of on-screen chemistry they had.”

  He finished eating and piled the empty plates together. “Well, I’ll let you know what I think tonight. See you at six-thirty.” And he was going to kiss her. He had to find out if their chemistry was what he thought it was.

  Megan watched him walk away, thinking about how good he looked in his white chef’s apron. She fanned her face with some of her paperwork. If she was that attracted to him when he was wearing his work uniform, she didn’t want to think about how attracted she’d be if he ever wore a suit. She was a sucker for a man in a suit…

  3

  Megan woke to her alarm at five-thirty that evening. She quickly showered, fixed her hair nicely, and hurried to finish up the paperwork she needed to do before Bob got there.

  At six-thirty on the dot, he knocked on her door, and she jumped up to go throw it open for him. He had two bags of groceries in his arms. “Where’s your kitchen?”

  “This way.” Megan led him into the kitchen, and tried to peek into one of the bags.

  He made a shooing motion with his hands. “You just stay out of my way.”

  “But I want to help!”

  He sighed. “If I let you help, you have to do things exactly the way I tell you. Can you do that?”

  She shrugged. “Probably not. I’ll try!”

  He shook his head. “Not good enough.”

  “Fine.” She put the palms of her hands flat on the countertop behind her and hoisted herself up, sitting with her legs dangling down. “I’ll just keep you company while you work.”

  “That’s better. I don’t want to have to yell at you.”

  Megan rolled her eyes. She wasn’t a terrible cook, even if she wasn’t a gourmet chef. “I sold a house today,” she said, needing to change the subject fr
om his desire to have her out of the way before she became angry with him.

  “That’s great! Who’d you sell to?”

  “Some guy who’s just moving into town. He’s opening a small sporting goods’ store. I think he’s part of the whole Culpepper renewal thing that Sly has going on. We need more women in town, not men. We still have a ton more men than women thanks to the underwear model thing.”

  “Underwear model thing?” he asked, looking over his shoulder at her.

  “Yeah, you know. There was an underwear model shoot right outside town at a ranch, and all the girls in town heard there were male underwear models and hurried out to help. Unexpected blizzard and lots of marriages and pregnancies right after that. Almost all the single women in town were gone in one fell swoop.”

  He hadn’t heard anyone talk about it, but he’d wondered why men seemed to outnumber women in town. “You didn’t go help with the underwear model shoot?”

  She shook her head, rolling her eyes. “The last thing I needed was an egotistical man who thought he was God’s gift to women. Nope, I’m perfectly content with my life as it is. No underwear models.”

  “You don’t want to marry?” Bob asked carefully. He didn’t want to give her ideas, but he needed to know where she thought she was in her life. If she was looking to marry next week, he wasn’t the man for her.

  “Sure I do. But I want to marry a man who is good and kind and puts other people before himself. Do you really think there’s an underwear model out there who would do that?”

  “I think you’re lumping all attractive men together without giving them a chance.”

  “Not you,” she said softly.

  He looked at her, his brows drawn together, and he stopped chopping a tomato, his knife poised in mid-air. “So you’re saying I’m attractive?”

  “Sure. I wouldn’t be sitting here watching you cook dinner for me if I didn’t find you attractive.”

  He put the knife down and walked toward her. They were on eye level with her sitting on the counter as she was. “I wasn’t sure.”

  “You weren’t sure if I found you attractive? Why would I have gone out with you otherwise?”

  He shrugged. “I can’t figure out why you do most of the things you do.” He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. “I want to kiss you.”

  “I could go for that.” Her heart was beating quickly in her chest. She rested her hands on his shoulders. “Do you usually announce your intentions to kiss a girl? I figured you for the type to just go for it.”

  He grinned. “I usually don’t ask, but you made it clear you have stricter morals than most, so I was just making sure.”

  She grinned. “Well, stop talking and go for it then.”

  He laughed softly, his lips meeting hers. As soon as she felt the feather light touch of his mouth, it was as if all her breath was sucked out of her. She wound her fingers through his hair and returned the kiss with everything inside her.

  Bob pulled away and stared into her eyes. “That was a bit more powerful than expected.”

  She nodded silently. “I wasn’t ready for that.” Her voice was breathless, and sounded strange to her ears.

  “We’re going to need to do that again later…” He returned to his chopping, but he kept glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, smiling as he did. There was something awfully special about Megan, and he was excited to get to know her better. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d dated a girl who he’d thought was worth his time. He knew that was sad, but Meg was…he didn’t have the words. She was just incredible.

  She explained more of the show as they ate, a slight blush on her cheeks the whole while. After the meal, he stood to clean up, and she shook her head. “I’ll clean up after you go. You cooked, so I have to clean.”

  He smiled at that. “That’s fair.” He carried his plate into the kitchen. “I’m still going to help you clear the table.”

  She nodded. “All right. Do you want me to put the leftovers in a container for you to take home?”

  He shook his head. “Nah. Put them in the fridge and we’ll have them again tomorrow night.”

  Megan looked at him with surprise. “Are you coming over again tomorrow night?”

  He shrugged, feeling slightly embarrassed. “I thought I might.”

  “I’ll provide a movie.”

  “And popcorn?”

  She nodded. “Movie and popcorn sounds good to me. Sure. I’ll make it happen.”

  They still had five minutes before the show started when they sank down onto the couch together. He was impressed by the size of her TV and told her so.

  She laughed. “I wanted a smart TV so I could watch Netflix and Amazon video on it. That’s the only reason it’s so nice.”

  He slipped his arm around her shoulders as she used the remote to get ready for the show. She had it set to DVR, of course, but she would rather watch it live the first time. She usually Tweeted as she watched it, but in deference to having a man beside her, she would forgo that this week.

  When she heard the opening song of the show, her heart filled with happiness. She didn’t know what it was about Lazy Love, but it made her feel so good.

  An hour later, the show was over, and she pushed the off button on the TV remote. “What’d you think?”

  Bob shrugged. “It was decent. I liked Bob, of course, because he’s got a great name. You were right about the chemistry between Jesse and Valerie. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

  “I know, right? It’s the same in real life, too. It’s not fake. You see them together, and you can just feel the tension between them. Even now that she’s pregnant.”

  “I think that’s great.” Bob reached out and stroked her cheek gently with an index finger. “What I see between them is what you make me feel.”

  Her heart jumped into her throat at his words. He felt for her like Jesse felt for Valerie? Wow. That was a compliment. She leaned toward him, brushing her lips across his jaw, feeling the scratchiness of his five-o-clock shadow.

  He put his finger under her chin, and tilted her face up to his, kissing her softly. “Are you going to come see me for lunch tomorrow?”

  “I have to. We’re working together to perfect the taco burger,” she told him logically.

  He grinned. “Okay. You don’t worry about supper tomorrow, because I’m going to reheat it when I get here.” He stood up, pulling her to her feet and walking with her to the door, kissing her one last time. “Dream of me.”

  Megan smiled at him. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to avoid it, even if I try.”

  She cleaned the kitchen, finished her paperwork, and studied her DVD collection. There had to be something to watch with him. She could go for action, which she hated, but she would jump into his arms, and that could be nice. Or she could show him one of her favorite movies. Her eyes landed on Notting Hill, and she smiled. “Perfect. If this doesn’t get him talking, nothing will.”

  She lay awake for hours staring at the ceiling replaying that kiss in her mind. Never had she wanted to just sink in and kiss forever the way she did with Bob. He made her feel.

  When she arrived for lunch just past two the following afternoon, he nodded at the booth they’d shared the day before. Bringing her a glass of water, he set it down, and then leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Ready for a new version of the taco burger?”

  She nodded but not as eagerly as she had the day before. The bun had not been good in her opinion. “Sounds good.”

  “Give me a few.”

  She pulled out her phone and responded to a few emails while she waited. Her mother had texted to see when she was coming home next, and she frowned. I don’t know. Soon. Will call later. She didn’t feel like it was a good time to leave town with her relationship with Bob so new. And wonderful. It was definitely wonderful.

  He came back with their burgers and slid hers in front of her. She poked at it for a moment. This time there was a flour tortilla, held to t
he top and the bottom with refried beans, a layer of grated cheese, and a layer of corn chips to add the crunch. She bit into it, and it was good, but still not what she thought he was looking for.

  “Better than yesterday,” she told him, biting into a chip. “I really think you’re on the right track.”

  He sighed. “It’s not quite right still. I’ll get it. I swear I will.”

  She grinned at him. “I’m sure you will. I’ve never seen anyone more determined to make a taco burger.”

  “Have you ever known anyone who was trying to perfect a taco burger before?” he asked, his face showing his disbelief.

  “Well, no, but I’ve never known anyone who would care enough to make a new dish before. You’re special, Bob.”

  “I’m glad you think so. Does that mean you’ll call me King Bob?”

  She raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief. “Absolutely not!”

  He shrugged. “I’ll convince you. Eventually.”

  Rolling her eyes, she took another sip of water. “What time are you coming by tonight?”

  “Same time? Will that work for you?”

  Megan nodded. “Sure, that’s fine. I have a movie all picked out.”

  “Oh? What are we watching?”

  “Notting Hill.”

  He made a face. “Sounds like a chick flick.”

  “It is. If you don’t like chick flicks, you should choose yourself instead of letting me do it.”

  “Good point.” He slid out and started bussing the table. “See you in a few hours.”

  Megan watched him walk away, sighing contentedly. The way that man’s bottom looked in a pair of jeans was positively indecent!

  A few hours later, they were on her couch with a big bowl of popcorn to share. She had her legs curled up beside her and her head resting against Bob’s shoulder. “This is one of my all-time favorite movies.”

  “Are you sure I’m going to like this?” he asked skeptically.

  “I’m sure that I’ll enjoy watching it with you!”

  He sighed. “Okay, but I get to pick the next movie!”

  When it was over, he groaned. “Will is an idiot.”