Things more in her comfort zone.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why are you the one heading this up?”
She looked up at him, dropping her hand when a dark cloud covered the sun. “That obvious that I’m ill-placed, huh?”
“A little.” He smiled at her heavy sigh and quirk of her lips. Really nicely shaped lips.
“Let’s say I got roped into it before I knew quite what happened.”
He laughed as he leaned his arms against the top rail of the arena’s fence. “I think we’ve all been there at one point or another.”
As they discussed a few more details, he had to keep his eyes averted. If he didn’t, they kept straying to her lips, making him wonder if they were as soft as they looked. Damn it, he needed to stop hanging out with cowboys or eight-year-olds all the time and go on an actual date. And not with someone who wouldn’t know a steer from a dairy cow. He’d been down the fancy-girl route before, and it hadn’t ended well. The only good thing he could say about his time with Charlotte was that he got the best kid in the world out of the deal. Ginny was worth the punches he’d taken to his heart. But he wasn’t about to invite another round.
* * *
AS SHE LISTENED TO THUNDER in the distance, India discovered it was much easier to talk to Liam Parrish if he wasn’t looking at her. For someone who was used to looking people in the eye all day, trying to connect with them so they’d feel comfortable in her store, how she felt around him was new. And it wasn’t just because he was a guy. She wasn’t one of those women who went all giggly and shy around men. Some of her good friends were guys. But there was something about this man in particular that was making her jumpy.
Like how he’s a tall, sexy cowboy? She heard the words in her mind in Elissa’s teasing voice. India was going to kill her friend for putting those kinds of thoughts in her head, making it difficult to conduct simple business. And then she was going to go after Verona for getting her into this mess in the first place. Her place was back in the shop, not out here where she halfway felt as if she were speaking a foreign language. And she’d taken French and Spanish, not Rodeo-ese, when she was a student at Blue Falls High School.
She was so caught up fantasizing about her plans for revenge that she missed part of what Liam said. “I’m sorry, what?”
He looked at her then, making her want to squirm with the intensity of his gaze. She couldn’t tell the color of his eyes, shaded as they were by the brim of his hat, but she had the oddest sensation they were green. And she loved green eyes. Most of his hair was covered by the hat, but she could tell it was trimmed short and a golden brown.
“I know you’re doing this as a benefit,” he said, obviously for the second time. “But in order to get the type of competitors who will draw the kind of crowd you want, you’ll have to offer good prize money.”
“Oh, okay. How much?”
He quoted her a figure and thankfully shifted his attention away again.
“I’ll have to ask what the budget is for this,” she said. “We’re planning some other activities to coincide with the rodeo, so I need to get with the people planning those and figure out the numbers.”
He nodded.
A loud clap of thunder startled India so much that she yelped.
Liam looked up at the sky. “The storm is moving fast. We better get back to the truck.”
She wasn’t going to argue with that. Halfway back to his truck, the first fat raindrops began to fall. She picked up her pace, but when she looked back over her shoulder at the approaching storm she managed to twist her ankle and break the heel of one of her blue-and-white Mary Janes.
Liam was at her side almost quicker than she could steady herself on her other foot. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.” She lifted her leg out to the side to check out the damage. “More than I can say for my poor shoe, though.”
“At least you didn’t break your ankle. It’s just a shoe.”
“A shoe that cost me a hundred dollars,” she mumbled under her breath.
Something changed in the air, and it had nothing to do with the storm. When she met Liam’s eyes, his expression had hardened. Gone was the hint of laughter and open friendliness, replaced by tight lines and a distance that hadn’t been there before.
The rainfall upped its tempo a bit, and Liam let out a long sigh. Before she could ask what was wrong, her feet flew out from under her as he scooped her up in his arms and started walking toward his truck like some knight in shining armor.
Or cowboy in a tan Stetson.
Chapter Two
India’s skin blazed so hot that she was surprised Liam didn’t drop her. But he didn’t seem to notice her out-of-control embarrassment and maintained his strong hold on her as if she weighed next to nothing. Despite the rain, his feet never slipped. The short distance to his truck seemed to take aeons to cross, and yet at the same time a part of her felt it was over much too soon when he set her on her feet. She didn’t even have time to take a breath before he pulled open the passenger door so she could escape the rain.
She scrambled inside just as the sky truly opened up. Liam had to be soaked before he even reached the front of the truck. He was nothing more than a vague blur as she watched him through the torrents of rain. By the time he dived into the driver’s seat, he looked as if he’d taken a plunge in the lake. India’s gaze traveled to where his blue button-up shirt was plastered to his chest and his jeans molded to what looked like a pair of powerful thighs.
Liam pulled off his drenched Stetson and tossed it onto the seat between them. As it landed, his gaze met hers and held for what had to be the longest second in human history.
She jerked her gaze away before she had time to think about what that might reveal—that she’d been ogling the mighty fine contours of his body.
“Been a while since I’ve seen a rain this hard,” Liam said.
Thankful for something to think about other than what Liam Parrish hid beneath his plastered-to-his-skin clothing, India forced herself to focus on the rain hammering against the truck’s windshield. Drought had become a dusty way of life in Texas lately, so they sorely needed the rain. Still, she would have been a lot happier if it had waited until they’d gotten back to her store. There, she wouldn’t have to be trapped in a confined area with a man who seemed to fill most of the space available.
She leaned forward. “This keeps up and the arena will become a pool, and we’ll have to switch from a rodeo to swimming races.”
Liam laughed a little, and that unexpected response allowed India to take her first full breath since he’d picked her up. She ventured a quick glance at him and noticed the tightness in his expression from before had faded. She didn’t know why it mattered so much to her, but she experienced a great sense of relief. She didn’t like people being angry with her, and for some reason Liam Parrish had been, if only for a few brief moments.
The rain continued to pour down as if trying to make up for a year’s worth of drought in one afternoon, and India searched desperately for something to talk about. They’d already covered all the particulars of the site, at least until she could touch base with Verona and Blake at the tourism bureau. His job, that was it. Men loved talking about their jobs, right?
“So, have you been running a rodeo company for long?” She kept her eyes averted, afraid they would return to those tantalizing muscles.
“Just a couple of years. I was riding the circuit before that. Still ride some when I get to missing it too much.”
“Bulls?” Even she knew that was the