“You didn’t even get his last name?” Rebecca whispered. Tara had just finished telling her coworker all about Beau and the pure fairytale introduction they had at the coffee shop. What else were they supposed to do, sitting at the front desk with no other scheduled appointments for another couple of hours?

Tara leaned her head in her hand and sighed. “No. In the rush of everything, I didn’t even think about it.”

Rebecca flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder. “How else are you going to stalk him on Facebook if you don’t have a last name?” She immediately pulled out her phone to begin the search. “Did he mention anything else besides that he’s helping out his brother and niece?”

“Not really. His niece’s name is Dixie, but that won’t help you find him.” Tara thought for a moment. “Well, he looked like he had been working outside. His clothes were a little muddy.”

Rebecca stopped and turned to look at Tara with her brows arched. “Dixie Bremor?”

“He never mentioned a last name,” Tara groaned and reached over to retrieve her new book from her purse. For the hundredth time since lunch, she quickly flipped through the pages. Not only was she checking for any hints as to Beau’s identity, but also if there were any new pages to read. Nothing.

She heard a few hasty taps on Rebecca’s phone and then her friend angled the screen. “Is this him?”

Tara peeked over and saw the familiar handsome face staring back at her, his eyes covered by a pair of sunglasses and a hefty fish dangling from a line in his hand. It didn’t surprise her that he would be a man of the outdoors. “Yeah, that’s him,” she said excitedly, dropping her book in favor of Rebecca’s phone. She started scrolling through his profile, careful not to let her fingers slide over the cracked glass of the screen. Rebecca was never careful with her stuff. Ever since they met in elementary school, Rebecca was always dropping toys, spilling drinks, or losing her stuff. Little had changed.

When Tara confirmed that the guy in the picture was the same guy she had met at the coffee shop, Rebecca flipped. “This must be Daniel Bremor’s brother!” she exclaimed.

Tara’s face wrinkled with confusion. She remembered Daniel from high school. He was the hottest quarterback on the football team and had even gotten a scholarship to go to Sam Houston State University after he graduated. Everyone had a crush on him, including Rebecca.

She knew Daniel had moved back after college to take over the family ranch. He married, of course, and had a kid, Dixie. “I didn’t know Daniel had a brother.”

Rebecca lightly smacked the back of her hand on Tara’s arm. “Sure he did. We had chemistry with him in our Junior year.”

Tara searched her memory, but couldn’t find that handsome face sitting in the rows of lab tables. She would have certainly remembered a face like his. She slowly shook her head, wondering if Rebecca was thinking of someone else.

She shrugged. “Okay, so he really beefed out,” Rebecca corrected. “He sat way in the back, always had the right answers…”

It was as if the lightbulb had gone off over her head. “The kid who was really good with the ignitor things for the burners?”

Rebecca snapped her finger. “That’s the guy.”

She looked down to his picture again, this time her eyes went wide. “Wow, he did beef up. He doesn’t even look like the same kid.”

“I bet Beau’s in town because of the accident.”

Tara snapped a look at her friend. “Accident?”

“Dixie’s mom,” she said. “She got in a bad car wreck driving Dixie to school one morning. Dixie was fine, but her mom didn’t make it.”

Tara lowered her hands to let them rest on the countertop as her chest ached. “That’s Beau’s niece? I heard about that. Poor thing.”

Every time Dixie came in, she skipped right up to the counter, her black curls bouncing all the way, hair just like Beau’s. Unlike some of the other kids that came through those doors, she wasn’t afraid of the dentist. In fact, she looked forward to it, because her dad always promised to get her ice cream if she behaved for the doctor. That must have been why she needed to have a filling not too long ago.

It all made sense now. Beau must have been in town so he could help Daniel and Dixie get back on their feet after the accident. She didn’t know what it was like to lose a parent. Both of hers were still alive and well in the next town over and visited on occasion. Her mother had been a lifeline for her during her teenage years and to think that Dixie, as well as millions of girls like her, would grow up without a mother nearly broke her heart.

Beau’s dedication and loyalty to his family made Tara ache to know him even more. Better yet, she wanted to find out how he made such a turnaround from the smart chemistry kid who sat in the back of class to this hunky cowboy with canons for arms. What did he do after high school? Did he recognize her? Did he think she was rude for not recognizing him right off the bat?

She looked back to his profile and saw the one thing she had been looking for. His relationship status. Single. It was a relief, but how relieved could she be to know that the only reason he had come into her life so suddenly was because of a devastating tragedy?

Tara couldn’t be glad that Dixie had lost her mother. But she could be glad that Beau cared enough about his family to leave wherever it was he came from and move to Brooksdale to be closer to them. At least she wouldn’t go to the carnival tonight and be blind-sided when she saw Dixie standing next to the tall, sexy, compassionate cowboy. The cowboy who had stolen her heart the moment those blue eyes looked at her.

“Are you still going to the carnival tonight?” Rebecca asked, crossing her arms over the counter.

Tara started flipping through his photos, looking for any sign that Beau might have been with a girl recently. So far, all of his photos were taken by himself or with friends. She saw a few holiday pictures that featured Dixie, Daniel, and his late wife. “Of course I am,” she replied. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Just the drama. I mean, I haven’t seen Dixie since before the accident. I don’t know how she’s been handling it.”

Tara shrugged. “She must be doing fine, considering that Beau wants to take her to the carnival. If she wasn’t ready to go out and have a fun time, he wouldn’t have considered it.”

Rebecca peeked over at the phone and moaned at the one picture of Beau, shirtless and by a creek, about to jump in. By the other people in the water, it must have been from a time when he and a bunch of his friends decided to cool off during the summer. He sure was sexy in his navy blue swim trunks that hung low on his hips.

“Isn’t that yummy,” Rebecca remarked. “If you can snag him up, I’d do it. Kind of a real life Cinderella story, isn’t it?”

Tara bit her lip and thought about the book again. She wasn’t even a quarter of the way through. There was plenty more left to this story, but how much more? She still wasn’t convinced that she was the girl on the horse in the background of the cover. If she was, this was going to be some whirlwind romance. Closing time couldn’t come soon enough.

* * *

“Are you cold, baby?” Beau asked Dixie, looking down to her as she aimlessly wandered in circles across the patch of grass next to the carnival entrance. Behind them, colorful lights flickered in the darkness and the squeals of giddy children echoed in the evening air.

“For the tenth time, I’m fine,” Dixie retorted after she groaned. “And before you ask again, no I’m not thirsty. But I am hungry. How much longer do we have to wait?”

Beau had to admit that they had arrived pretty early. He was perhaps a little too eager to see Tara again, for which he chided himself. He shouldn’t have been so drawn to her like this. Not after spending years apart.

The moment he saw her in the coffee shop, Beau immediately recognized her from high school. His disappointment equaled his surprise when she didn’t seem to recognize him in return. He couldn’t blame her. He wasn’t all that impressive in high school. It wasn’t until the summer after his senior year when he went to engineering school that he started to bulk up. The minute that happened, girls were falling at his feet. But none were like Tara.

He had never forgotten her or her beautiful hazel eyes. In school, he was afflicted with an enormous crush on the dark-haired girl that sat in the second row of their chemistry class. If he had any guts back then, he would have asked her out. It was too bad he didn’t, otherwise things could have been different for them now. She was still beautiful, but he was sorely unavailable for romance.

He had to remind himself that he didn’t invite Tara to come to the carnival so he could personally spend time with her or catch up on old memories. Well, maybe that had a little to do with it. But the impatient eight-year-old had a heavier influence in his decision to extend the invitation. Her dad who was too busy with business tonight to come along. Instead of arguing with his brother, Beau let Daniel further distance himself from Dixie one more time.

He pulled out his phone and checked the time. “Not much longer. We’ll grab some food as soon as she gets here.”

Dixie kicked at a loose leaf. “Where did you meet her again?”

Beau saw the top button of her jacket was undone and squatted down to fasten it. “At the coffee shop across the street from the dentist.”

The little girl held still, though she rolled her eyes. Dixie might have hated wearing so many layers, but Beau wasn’t going to risk her catching a cold. The weather station said the temperature would drop again that evening, not too unusual for early February weather.

“Are you going to marry her?” she asked a little too loudly as a family of four rushed by to stand in line at the ticket booth.

“Nope,” Beau replied with utter confidence. If everything went well, he wouldn’t be the one getting married, but he wouldn’t mind being the best man for his brother again. He’d be losing Tara to a worthy guy, even if he was always the one to land the girl instead of Beau.

“Then why are we waiting on her?” she whined and stamped her foot.

Beau snapped his fingers and pointed at her nose. Immediately, she straightened up and looked rather sheepish. Daniel had let her get away with far too much, but Beau was going to help change all that. He loved his niece like any other uncle would, but he wasn’t going to spoil her. Not like Daniel did.

He stood up and kept her still with his hand on her shoulder. “Because I want you to meet her.”

Dixie went quiet, even though he knew she was constantly looking toward the big rides and brightly lit game booths.

Beau took a deep breath to soothe out the jitters he felt deep in his stomach. Yeah, Tara had really messed him up with those hazel eyes and the way she flipped back her long brown hair when she sat up straight after cleaning the tea off the floor. Her clumsiness didn’t bother him. It was the way she had stolen the very breath from his lungs when she smiled. That same smile he drooled over as a junior in high school.

He hadn’t been so star-struck by a girl like that in such a long time that he forgot what it was like to be totally taken by someone before he even knew their name. Worst part was that he had to keep his heart on a tight leash or this plan would never work.

He finally spotted Tara as she walked out of the parking lot and right up to them with a big grin. He loved the way her jeans hugged her long legs and how the knitted shawl hung around her elegant shoulders. Even in the fading light of the evening, she was gorgeous. He felt a little over dressed in his black button-down shirt and gray scarf. His boots – now clean and free of the muck and mud from the horse stables – kept his outfit a little less formal.

“Hey,” Tara greeted in a voice that denoted her nervousness, though her face didn’t betray a bit of that anxiety.

Dixie perked up. “You work at the dentist, don’t you?”

Beau squeezed her shoulder. “No, Dixie. I said I met her at the –“

“I know what you said, but she works at the dentist. Don’t you?”

Tara’s grin broadened. “Yes, I do. You and your dad come in sometimes. How’s that filling doing?”

Dixie, being the goof that she was, stuck her finger in her mouth and reach back as if she were checking that her tooth was still there. Then, she shrugged and smiled. “It’s all right,” she said. She looked up to her uncle, waiting for him to say something too.

“I didn’t know you two had met before.”

Tara adjusted the shoulder strap of her purse. “I didn’t realize it either until just now. Small town, huh?”

Beau smiled and nodded. “I guess it is.”

“Can we get food now?” Dixie asked, still impetuous.

“Did I keep you waiting long?” Tara’s smile faded a bit.

“No, no. We just got here a little early.”

Beau escorted the girls to the ticket booth and paid for their admission. Dixie would have taken off like a shot if Beau hadn’t still had his hand propped on her shoulder. She had a bad habit of running off into crowds and she was way too old to wear one of those toddler leash packs he saw some mothers use.

Tara took the lead and walked them straight towards the concession stand that already had a long line forming. The aroma of deep-fried goodness drifted out from the windows on the food truck and Beau’s stomach rumbled in response. Apparently Dixie wasn’t the only one hungry.

“I can’t see the menu,” Dixie complained as she hopped on her tiptoes to see over the heads of the other adults.

Without being asked, Beau lifted her up and braced her against his chest so she was a few feet above the crowd. She wasn’t nearly as heavy as a calf, so he could probably hold her like that for a while before his arms would tire.

“You use her for working out?” Tara joked as she stepped a little closer to them. The faint, flowery scent of her perfume made his head spin in a good way.

He saw the way she seemed to appraise the strain of his arm muscles against the fabric of his sleeves. His core tightened under her hungry gaze and he hated the way his pants fit a little snug around his crotch all of the sudden. She still had an effect on him after all these years.

“No, but working on a ranch can be an advantage sometimes.”

“You work on Daniel’s ranch?” she asked as they took another step forward to keep up with the line. The question shouldn’t have caught him off guard. If she knew Dixie, then she should have known Daniel. It was a small town, after all, and they did all go to high school together. Daniel was the popular one, so it made sense that she would have known who his brother was. It only pained Beau further that she didn’t seem to remember him.

“I know what I want,” Dixie exclaimed and Beau let her down to stand on her own feet again.

“For now, I do,” Beau answered. “He’s having to take care of the books now, so I’m taking his place in the field. Before I moved to Brooksdale, I worked on an oil rig.”

Tara nodded, but thankfully didn’t ask why Daniel had to stay cooped up inside now, sitting in front of his laptop to try and juggle the finances and records. Maybe Tara already knew. Not only did Dixie lose her mother, but Daniel lost his business partner. Beau was sure there were days that Daniel wished he could have been out with the guys, taking care of the livestock and getting his hands dirty. He would have preferred it over the perpetual headache he earned after staring at numbers and account figures for half of the day.

They came to the front of the line and, once again, Beau paid for the three of them.

“You don’t have to do that,” Tara remarked with a coy look that thankfully went unnoticed by Dixie.

“But I want to.” If he wasn’t careful, he would have returned that look with one of his own. It was proving incredibly difficult not to flirt with her.

She let the matter go at that and thanked him anyway. All three ordered chilidogs, each customized with different toppings. Dixie had to be the odd one and get relish as well as chili.

“How does that taste?” Tara asked her when they finally sat down with their meals.

“Awesome!” the eight-year-old exclaimed with her mouth full and a dribble of chili sauce leaking at the corners of her lips.

Beau grabbed a napkin and wiped at her mouth, much to Dixie’s displeasure.

“Can I try?” Tara asked.

Brows shot up in surprise as Tara went to fetch a fork from the food truck. She came back and with Dixie’s permission, scooped some of the weird condiment mix off of her hot dog and plopped it on her own. Beau watched her take a bite and make a face as if to say, “Not so bad.”

“Well?” Dixie said, a grin splitting her face.

Tara nodded. “Pretty good. Thanks for the suggestion.”

He didn’t even have the courage to try some of Dixie’s odd food combinations sometimes. Pizza and ranch was a stretch for him. If she could tolerate his niece’s quirky interests, she had to be a keeper. It certainly mattered if Daniel liked her, but if Dixie didn’t care for her at all, it was a deal breaker.

“So, you went to work on an oil rig after high school?” she questioned before taking a bite of her chilidog.

Beau found it hard to swallow, attempting to empty his mouth to speak. “I was wondering if you recognized me at all, but I wasn’t going to ask.”

Tara colored a bit. “I’ll admit that I didn’t recognize you at first, but I realized it later. Did you know who I was when we met in the coffee shop?”

As expected, Dixie immediately perked up and looked from Beau to Tara, her curls dancing around her ears with the motion. Thankfully, she said nothing yet.

“I did,” he replied. “You haven’t changed since eleventh grade chemistry.”

Saying too much might have given himself away in that moment. Remembering such a fine detail might have come out as creepy or obsessive. Granted, Beau had been obsessed with her for a time. It was torture to leave Brooksdale, knowing that he might never have a chance with her again. Throughout his final years at Brooksdale High, he had never had a crush on anyone else but Tara. When he came back to town, he thought she would have moved away or it would have been unlikely that they would meet again in public.

If only they had met under other circumstances.

Tara wiped her mouth on a napkin and smiled. “I can’t say the same for you. You definitely… Well, you know.” She made a gesture toward his chest and torso from across the table and he couldn’t help but chuckle at her loss of words.

“Yeah, I guess I did. And here I thought you never noticed me.”

She shrugged. “I notice a lot of things. Remembering them is the hard part.”

He wasn’t sure whether to take that as a sort of consolation, that he wasn’t the only thing she was likely to forget, or an insult that he wasn’t memorable enough to stick in her mind as she did for him.

“But to answer your question, yes, I went to work on the oil rig after high school.”

Instead of asking why he had moved away, Tara proceeded to ask about the finer details of his job.

He answered each question with complete modesty, though he could tell that she was hanging off his every word, even when he went into the complicated workings of what he did on his old job.

Dixie soon lost interest in their conversation and began to look all around at the distracting carnival lights and sounds.

“I see Brooksdale hasn’t changed a lot,” he said, hoping to divert from himself for a moment. He was much more interested in hearing about her life after high school. Did she go to college? Why was she working at a dentist office when he knew her passion was for books and reading. She should have been working at the library, or maybe teaching English at the school.

Tara tossed her napkin into the little box her chilidog had been served in. “No, it hasn’t. I mean, some of the stores on Main Street have changed owners and we’ve gotten a couple more fast food places, but other than that, it’s the same ole’ little town in the middle of nowhere.”

She said it all with such a smile that no one would have to guess why she never left Brooksdale. She loved it here. It held no painful memories like it did for Beau.

He nodded and folded his arms over the picnic tabletop they sat at. “So what have you been up to? Since high school, I mean.”

Tara shrugged nonchalantly. “Not much. I never went to college. I got plenty of scholarships, but they weren’t enough to pay for the tuition I wanted and my parents couldn’t pay the difference. They’re living in Morrisville now, about an hour away. They moved there when my mawmaw got sick, but I stayed here. I’ve been working at the dentist for a few years now and I like it pretty well.”

There was hope in the way she never mentioned a boyfriend or marriage. That meant she was single, which lined her up nicely for his plan. God, how he wished he didn’t love his brother and niece so much. How he wished he wasn’t so selfless sometimes. By the way Tara looked at him now, he could have probably asked her to go with him behind the shooting gallery for a little making out and she’d skip with him all the way. But he couldn’t have her.

“I’m sorry to hear your mawmaw got sick,” was all he could say.

Tara didn’t go into too many details about her grandmother’s illness and, if it wasn’t for the way Dixie impatiently grabbed for their empty plates to dispose of them, they might have kept talking all night.

His niece tossed their wrappers away into the metal barrel that was already swarming with flies, and came running back to wait for the two grownups to stand. Tara gave him a look that promised they could talk more later, and he sincerely hoped that they would.

“Let’s go on the spiny ride!” Dixie offered, and she almost ran out into the crowd again.

Tara was the one to hold her back with a firm hand grabbing her arm. It wasn’t every day Beau met someone quicker than him. “Word of advice, kid,” she said teasingly. “You just ate. Don’t go on any of those kind of rides for at least an hour.”

Dixie looked a little dejected, but gave in. “What do you want to do then?”

Beau, playing the chaperone, hung back as the two ladies walked side by side toward a ring-toss booth. They talked softly and giggled as he slipped his hands into his pockets, enjoying the sight.

Everything was going great. Dixie already seemed to like Tara. Likewise, Tara seemed to get along well with Dixie. Perhaps working at a dentist office had something to do with that. She’d had to deal with nervous kids all the time and help to make them feel comfortable, while the doctor probed at their gums.

Occasionally, Tara glanced over her shoulder to take a peek at Beau and caught him staring with a goofy grin. He didn’t even bother looking away, but neither did he feel any shame for admiring Tara. He couldn’t explain exactly what it was that drew him to her in the first place, not in school and not now. It wasn’t just that she was pretty. He had dated pretty girls before, but they had all been fairly shallow and wanting in the personality department. None could compare to Tara. He had always known her to be smart, witty, and exceedingly kind to everyone, even in school.

Booth after booth, they played games and won prizes for Beau to carry. He sponsored their fun and was glad that he had taken out a couple hundred from the ATM before they came over.

The night continued on that way until they decided to take on some of the rides. Beau left Tara in charge of Dixie for a moment while he went to deposit their earnings from the games. Three stuffed bears, one porcelain elephant, an inflatable superhero toy, and a giant purple monkey that Tara won for Dixie at the shooting gallery. It was a good thing that Beau wasn’t a prideful guy, otherwise he might have been intimidated by a woman who could handle a rifle as well as he could.

When he came back, it took a moment for him to find the two. He hastened through the crowd, trying to guess which ride they would have gone on first. Then, he heard his name being screamed from the cyclone ride Dixie had wanted to go on from the very beginning.

Still playing the part of the spectator to their night of fun, Beau leaned against the barrier fence and watched them whirl and spin with their hands in the air.

He wished he could have been on the ride with them, to sit so close to Tara that their thighs were touching. This whole outing was his plan to get Dixie out of the house, but it had morphed into something of a match-making game. If Tara could win Dixie over, the next logical step was to get Daniel on board with dating again. They needed a woman around the house and with his brother neck-deep in business work, he wasn’t going to get out and find himself a new wife.

He knew plenty of guys who could bounce back from losing their wives, but Daniel was not one of them. He was going to fester in his grief if he couldn’t find another companion. His little brother could never be alone for too long. Hell, he and Erica got married just six months after knowing one another. It might take Daniel a little longer than six months this time around, but if he could learn to love a woman like Tara as quickly as Beau had, their problems would be solved.

Question was, how would Dixie feel about having a stepmom?

By the huge smile on her gleeful face, Beau suspected that the little girl wouldn’t mind hanging out with Tara more often. Hell, Beau wouldn’t mind either. Actually, he wished that he could sneak in some alone time with her, but the way his heart was behaving, that was totally out of the question. The last thing he needed was to fall for Tara all over again.

The girls exited the ride and came up to him, breathless and wearing the biggest smiles he had ever seen.

“That was so much fun!” Dixie cried as she tugged on his jacket sleeve. “I want to go again!”

Beau glanced to Tara behind the girl, who made a slicing motion with her neck and covered her stomach. He understood and took Dixie’s hand. “Come on, I’ll go on the ride with you this time.”

Dixie jumped for joy.

* * *

The rest of the night was pure magic. Tara didn’t know what she enjoyed more, getting to hang out with such an amazing girl as Dixie, or being so close to Beau and those smoldering eyes that fell on her every now and again. He took her breath away so much, she was sure sometimes she would lose control of herself and embrace him right then and there. Whether it was taking aim at a target at the shooting gallery or standing in line for the Ferris Wheel, he lingered so close that she could smell his cologne wafting off him. Enrapturing.

When it was getting close to Dixie’s bedtime, they wrapped up their evening with one more go through the spinning ride. Making their way out to the parking lot, Tara couldn’t remember having such a great time on a date that wasn’t really a date. She wasn’t so silly to think that this evening had anything to do with her and Beau, which was why she focused her attention and energy on making sure Dixie had a great time.

She hadn’t forgotten what Rebecca told her and, after the rough time Dixie’s family must have had, a distracting night at the carnival was just what the little girl needed. And she was so glad that Beau understood that.

“Want me to get your prizes out of the truck?” Beau asked, jerking his thumb toward the opposite end of the parking lot. Tara had parked on the other side.

“No,” she replied. “Let Dixie have those. I don’t have room in my apartment for all those stuffed animals.”

“Really?” Dixie cried, tearing her attention away from the big moon above to skip over to Tara. “Thank you!”

Her skinny arms wrapped around Tara’s midsection and squeezed so hard that she thought that chilidog from earlier would finally make an exit. She hugged the girl back and held in the nausea. She had never liked the big spinning rides, or the height of the Ferris wheel, but she wasn’t going to let either of them know that. Again, this night wasn’t about her.

Dixie finished her hug and hurried toward the red pickup truck, leaving Beau and Tara alone for the first time all evening.

“I had a great time,” she said, tucking a bit of hair behind her ear. If they were in a movie, this would be the part where they kissed for the first time. Thank goodness Tara wasn’t so star struck to think something like that would really happen.

Beau grinned and nodded toward his truck where Dixie quietly waited by the passenger side. “I think Dixie did too. Thanks for coming out.”

“Oh, any time. It was great to catch up with you too.”

A few beats of silence passed as they gazed at one another, completely oblivious to the world around them. The nightly chorus of crickets in the woods just on the edge of the parking lot nearly drowned out the sounds of carnival fun.

“I was wondering,” Beau began and Tara had to restrain herself from taking a step forward. “Would you like to come over to the ranch tomorrow? Maybe in the afternoon and then we can all have dinner? I don’t know if you or Daniel hang out at all, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind reminiscing about high school for a while with you.”

All? Tara tried not to feel crest fallen. Somehow, she had hoped Beau was about to ask her out on a real date, just the two of them. Now, he was bringing in Dixie and her dad. Although the idea of poking around the ranch and taking a walk down memory lane was tempting, the idea of spending more time with Beau is what pushed her to nod.

“Sure. I’d love to. It’s the Bremor Ranch, right?”

Beau nodded. “Yeah. Here, let me get your number and I’ll text you the address.”

Tara gladly pulled out her phone and he did the same. They exchanged numbers and he quickly punched out the address for her. Now, she had his number. She had some other line of communication and, though she could already find him on social media, she wasn’t about to go on and friend him out of the blue. Her momma taught her better manners and somehow, she would squeeze it into the conversation tomorrow.

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Beau said with a smile before he turned to walk away. Tara stood, watching him leave just as he angled back around. “By the way, wear something warm and maybe an extra change of clothes.”

“Why?” she laughed.

“You’ll see.”

With that, he disappeared to the driver side of his truck and Tara realized she was still standing in the middle of the lane, looking like a dumbstruck idiot. She pinched her lips together to keep herself from grinning too hard. Her cheeks were already aching from all the laughing she had done earlier that evening.

She hurried away to her car and as soon as the doors were locked and heater on, she pulled the book out of her purse to skim through the pages.

Sure enough, an entire chapter had manifested, detailing the wonderful night at the carnival in perfect clarity. Yet, it was told from the heroine’s perspective. Not once had the story been told from the guy’s point of view, which was not the usual way romances were written. There was usually a good mix of both views so the reader could understand what both characters were thinking. She was no writer, but as an avid reader, she knew that much.

Yet, this mysterious and magical book only told Tara what she already knew. That she was falling hard for the compassionate cowboy.