“I told you we’d find us a couple of cowboys.” Erin nudged my elbow and laughed. “Let’s make them work for it, huh?”
She clinked her glass with mine and began a slow sway across the floor toward a table on the opposite side of the bar from the two cowboys. I followed, feeling his gaze still on my form.
“All right,” Erin said after taking a long drink. “We need to make a plan for your life.”
I let out a loud laugh. “I thought this was about me letting all that go for a while?”
“It is, but I think we need a plan before we get shit-faced. Agree?”
She had a point. “Okay. Agree.”
“So, we’re thirty, divorced…”
“I’m divorced, you’re still single.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re divorced, that means I’m basically divorced by proxy.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.”
“Whatever, let’s focus on the matter at hand. Quinn is a giant douche. He stole everything from you that he could. But maybe it’s a good thing. You’ve got money from your half of the house sale, you can use this as an opportunity to find the right place to start your practice.”
“But where? Quinn has the chamber of commerce in his back pocket. I doubt I’ll be able to get approval from anyone in town.”
She shrugged. “Then go somewhere else.”
“And leave you?” We’d been together since before birth. The thought of moving on without her made my chest tight.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Now, you need another drink before the band gets started.”
Three more whiskey sours later, Erin was next up to ride the bull, and I was feeling no pain. Quinn who? That was my new motto. I leaned against the post to my left while watching my sister climb up on that mechanical bull like it was second nature.
She rode it with ease, and I wondered just how many times she’d been here.
“You gonna give it a go, darlin’?” A sexy, low rumble warmed my blood and sent tingles over my skin. I turned to find the blond-haired cowboy from earlier standing nearby. Standing wasn’t the best word for what he was doing. Smoldering was more fitting.
“Oh, I don’t think so. It’s not my kind of thing.”
He smiled, and my heart fluttered in response. “I don’t know, I think you’d look mighty fine up there.”
“Nah, she looks fine. I’d fall on my face.”
“You ever ridden a bull before?” He tipped his beer to his lips and took a long swig. The way his throat moved, Adam’s apple bobbing, drew my gaze.
“Yep.”
He nearly choked on his beer. His eyes widened, and a grin twisted his lips. “Bullshit.”
“No, I’m serious. My Grandad had a small ranch in the Rockies. I spent summers there, well, we spent summers there. I rode horses, bulls, cows, tractors.”
“You might just be my dream woman.”
I laughed. “I’m sure you have no trouble finding women. Look at you. You’re a dreamboat.”
God, these drinks were making me lose my inhibitions.
“Dreamboat, huh?” The way his eyes lit with mischief spoke of all the naughty things he might do in the dark. Things I was ready to let him do…to me.
“I said what I said.”
His chuckle was low and sexy. “Yeah, you did. Can I get you another drink, darlin’?”
A cheer rang out from the crowd as the band took the stage. Erin had found herself a sexy cowboy to snuggle up to after the bull ride, and it didn’t look like we were going anywhere anytime soon. “Why not?”
“Whiskey sour?”
I smirked. “You were paying attention.”
“It’s hard not to pay attention to someone like you. I’m Tristan, by the way.” He took off his hat and held out his other hand.
“Hazel.” I shook his offered palm, fighting the shiver of desire at his touch.
“Pleased to meet ya, Hazel.” He placed his hat back on his head and winked. “Be right back with that drink.”
I caught Erin’s eye across the bar, and she gave me a very not subtle thumbs up. Tristan’s laugh rumbled from behind me, and I swear, I blushed to the roots of my hair.
“She seems to approve.”
“My sister? Yeah, she’s on a mission to get me laid.” Oh. My. God. I really just said that out loud. Covering my mouth with my fingers, I stared at him in horror.
His expression changed from shock to pure confidence. “I don’t think she’s gonna have any trouble there. Every guy in this place was looking at you the minute you walked through the door.”
I took another drink, and something in my chest eased. He didn’t proposition me then and there even though I’d basically said I was a sure thing. “Yeah? Even you?”
“Definitely, darlin’. You’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.”
“Oh, you’re smooth.”
He shrugged. “I gotta be. I’m the youngest of four boys. It’s the only way to ever get any attention.”
I laughed. “Am I supposed to feel bad for you?”
He took my drink and set it on the table behind me, leaning close enough I could smell his spicy, woodsy cologne. God, I could breathe that in forever and never get enough. “Dance with me?”
Nodding, I stared into his eyes, memorizing the beautiful blue and knowing I’d never forget those irises.
He slid his palm down my arm until his fingers linked with mine. Then he tugged me with him onto the dance floor and spun me into his arms as the music changed to a sexy two-step. Tristan pushed me around the floor, his hand tight on my waist, his eyes not leaving mine.
I didn’t look away from him. I couldn’t. He was everything I needed right now. Tristan was freedom from the shackles Quinn had put me under. Tristan could be the man who helped me remember I was more than Quinn’s wife…ex-wife.
“What’s going on in your head, darlin’? Your frown is gonna make people think I’m pissing you off.”
“Do you live around here?” I blurted the question, but that was going to have to be my determining factor. If I was going to have one night with a hot as fuck cowboy, I needed to never run into him again.
“No. I live—“
“Don’t tell me. As long as this isn’t your hometown, we’re good.”
He grinned again. “I don’t live here. Not even close.”
“Do you have a room nearby?”
“I do.”
I bit my lower lip and flicked my gaze to Erin. She winked and nodded, clearly giving me her seal of approval.
“I never do this,” I whispered.
He spun me away from him before pulling me tight against his tall form. I felt every single ridge of his chest under my palm. And then, there was the thick bulge of his hard cock pressing to my belly.
“So, are you gonna proposition me, or do I need to do the asking?”
My eyes widened. “I…” Could I proposition him?
His low laugh flowed over me. “Come back to my room. Spend the night with me, Hazel.”
“One night. That’s all this is. Don’t go falling in love with me.”