Bartender's Beauty (Culpepper Cowboys Book 11) Read Online Free Page A

his new wife into the bar several times to dance.
    “Poach? It’s not like I was your girl or anything!”
    He shrugged. “In my mind you were, and everyone knew it.”
    She stared at him in shock. “That can’t be true!”
    “Why can’t it? Just because you’d never agree to go out with me, didn’t mean my feelings went away. I understood that I wasn’t smart enough for you, but my friends still kept the code and stayed away from you.”
    “But…when you asked me out, it was because you were dared! You didn’t really want to go out with me!”
    “Why would you think that? Of course I didn’t ask you out on a dare! Who would do that?” He sighed. “Is that why you always turned me down?” He’d never been able to figure out why she’d said no. The chemistry was always there between them, and he knew she liked him.
    She nodded. “Yeah. Bethany Johnson told me that someone like you would only ask out a geek like me on a dare, and you’d never really go through with it.”
    He frowned. “The first time I asked you out, you got all excited and said yes, and the next day, you called and said your dad wouldn’t let you go out with me.”
    “Yeah, Bethany overheard you ask me, and as soon as you walked off, she told me that’s why you’d asked. So I went home and cried a lot and told you no the next day. And every time you asked after that.”
    “She lied to you, Dallas. I always kind of felt like we were meant to be together with our names and all. And I had feelings for you. Always have.” Austin pulled into the small parking lot by the walking trail along the river. “Let’s go have lunch.”
    Dallas sat in the truck for a minute, feeling like the world’s biggest jerk. How could she have believed what Bethany had said to her more than Austin? Bethany had always hated her and she’d known it. She should have known she was lying!
    She got out of the truck, taking the quilt Austin had tucked under one arm, but leaving him with the picnic basket. “I’m sorry.” The words felt inadequate, but they were all she had.
    “I guess it wasn’t the right time for us.” He looked over at her, noting her sad look. “Maybe now is better?”
    She looked at him, her heart jumping into her chest. “I don’t know. My dad is so sick. I hate to say we should wait, but we should. I never thought I’d be waiting on anyone to die.”
    He caught her hand in his. “Not a good answer. I don’t think now is the time to wait. His death is coming, and I know that as well as you do. There’s been rumor around town about him being sick for a while. You’re going to need someone to lean on when he finally goes.”
    She shook her head. “That’s not a good reason to start a relationship.”
    He saw an isolated spot down by the water, and pulled her toward it, setting down the picnic basket, and spreading out the quilt. “Maybe not, but it’s not a good reason to postpone a relationship either. I asked you out multiple times when we were in high school, and there was always a reason you couldn’t go out with me. Now we’re adults, and I’m asking again. Will you please go out with me? I’d take a movie, dancing, or anything. Please.”
    She sat down on the quilt with her legs crossed in front of her, looking up at him. “At the moment, I can only get away on Tuesday nights. My Tuesdays are yours.”
    A slow smile spread across his face. “Not just at the bar? Wherever I want to go?”
    “Within reason.”
    “Fair enough.” He nodded briefly, putting the picnic basket in the middle of the quilt and opening it, kneeling beside it. “I brought sandwiches, potato salad, and brownies for dessert.” He pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to her. “I thought about bringing the fixings for Shirley Temples, but I was worried you’d laugh at me.”
    She grinned, leaning over and kissing his cheek, liking the feel of his rough whiskers beneath her lips. “I would never laugh at you.”
    He raised an