Finally, I stopped walking and looked down at what I was wearing.

Again.

I felt like I might have overdone it with my outfit. I mean, what did dress casual even mean? And my definition could have meant something entirely different from what Nolan thought.

Lifting my gaze, I caught my reflection in the big window in front of me.

I wasn’t going to try to not look good for him. Because I wanted it to be impossible for him to take his eyes off of me. I wanted him to drool at what he saw. And I wanted him to think about fucking me from the moment he laid his eyes on me.

“Dress casual,” I snickered as I tucked my hair behind my ear. As far as I knew, tonight was the last night I would ever see him and that was enough to make me want to pull out all the stops before I had to get back to living my life.

The thought of leaving the mountains left a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I wanted to stay. Wanted to continue down this wild and fast road with Nolan. And my heart burned to know if last night was a fluke or something real—something lasting.

Taking in a deep breath, I felt my chest tighten.

Even though I was given until Tuesday to return back to work, I wasn’t ready to walk into the office pretending like nothing happened. When I was supposed to have taken the weekend to reflect, it quickly evolved into something more of an escape. Not that I minded, and I certainly wouldn’t have changed any of it if I could, but it was important that I went into work—whenever that may be—knowing I had a plan on how I was going to move forward.

Taking a small step backward, I flipped my palm up and checked my phone. Then I tipped my chin back and read the sign above the door. “This has to be it,” I said to myself.

Shaking my head, I couldn’t believe that Nolan told me to meet him at a cowboy bar.

Now I really was doubting my choice of clothes.

I glanced down my front, looking at the cozy V-neck knit sweater and jeggings. I was comfortable, and it seemed casual enough, but cowgirl? Not even close.

“Ah, screw it,” I said, pulling the door open, knowing that if Nolan did show I wouldn’t have the self-restraint to keep my clothes on for long anyway.

The place was packed for a Sunday afternoon and based on first impression, I liked the vibe. Standing near the entrance I scanned the tables, searching for Nolan. There was too much going on for me to think he would choose to be anywhere other than by the entrance if he did happen to beat me here. And when my eyes landed on the barkeep, he smiled and waved me over.

Clutching my purse, I headed directly for the empty stool at the bar thinking I would just wait there until Nolan arrived.

“What will it be, beer or wine?” the friendly barkeep asked.

“Beer.” I climbed onto the stool. “But I’ll wait until my friend arrives.”

He knocked his knuckles against the wood counter, winked, and turned to the clean glasses behind him. Feeling anxious, I looked around, taking in more of the place.

Sports played on the flat-screens and country music blared through the loud speakers. Between the noises, I kept catching whiffs of fried foods and hops.

I wished Nolan would have been more specific with the time. Even that was as vague as telling me to dress casual. Glancing to the door, he still wasn’t there and by the time I turned around again, the barkeep was back serving me a dark pint.

“But I didn’t ord—”

“It’s on the house.” He flashed me a friendly smile.

He left before I could protest, and feeling a sudden increase of thirst I couldn’t deny how delicious it looked. I loved dark beers. Rounding my lips over the rim, the chocolatey porter had me moaning with delight. It was heaven and perfect to ease my restlessness.

Setting my glass down, I lifted my head to see what the commotion was all about coming from the back. And I started laughing when I saw it. The mechanical bull, busy bucking its latest victim onto the mats below. Biting my lip, I knew that was what Nolan meant when he told me to be prepared to get bucked—even if my dirty mind secretly wanted it to be something else.

Minutes passed, and soon my beer was nearly finished. Glancing at the time, I started to worry that maybe our plans had been lost in translation somewhere along the way. Nolan should have been here by now and the longer I was stuck waiting, the more I thought about calling him.

Opening up our messages from earlier, I re-read them again, laughing all over. I liked his silly selfie and loved how fun, carefree, and full of anticipation and suspense he was. And that was what made me pull back from making the call. Because a part of me was convinced Nolan was doing this on purpose—keeping me waiting and on edge. He was smart enough to know how to elicit these emotions inside of me, and probably knew just how long he could wait before swooping in to save the day.

My head was all over the place.

The ups. The downs. The irony of it was that the longer he made me wait, the more excited I was to see him.

Picking my head up, I caught a cute cowboy across the way staring.

Not wanting to make the mistake of inviting him over, I cast my gaze back to my phone and scrolled to Sienna’s name.

She never did get back to me about my request to dig up info on Audrey Rothschild. And though I could have done it myself, I didn’t want to risk discovering something that could potentially have ruined the night I had imagined with Nolan.

Pressing the green call button, I lifted my phone to my ear.

The cowboy was still staring, and though he wasn’t creepy looking I wished that he would find another woman to stare at.

The line rang several times before clicking over to voicemail. After leaving her a quick message telling her to give me call when she got this, I hung up and sent Monica a short text. Hey. Are you with Sienna?

Thinking that Nolan had arrived when I felt the empty space near me fill, I turned around to find the cowboy now sitting directly next to me. His eyes sparkled and his body was angled toward me. Feeling the pulse in my neck begin to tick, he said, “Hi.”

My eyes darted over his freshly-shaved face. “Hi.”

His lips parted when he smiled, showing off his porcelain teeth. There was a quiet confidence about him and when he kept smiling beneath his cowboy hat, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Did I say something funny?” he asked in a higher pitched voice than I would have imagined him having.

“No. I’m sorry.” I held up my hand, forcing myself to stop laughing. “It’s just you keep staring at me without saying anything.” My fingers wrapped around my glass as I stifled my amusement by taking a sip.

His ears perked and he started bobbing his head to the song playing overhead. Then his knee started bouncing before his hips started rocking. And before I knew it, he was singing along. The man had an incredible voice.

Reaching over, I touched his arm. “Can I ask you something?”

His body continued to rock, but he stopped singing as he leaned closer to listen.

Glancing up to his hat I asked, “Do you always wear that hat?”

“I do,” he said proudly. “Why?” He smiled. “Do you like it?”

“It fits you well.” I giggled.

Dropping his boots to the floor, he stood and held out his hand. “Dance with me.”

I glanced to his opened palm and shook my head. “I’m waiting for someone.”

He whipped his head to the door with incredible enthusiasm. “I don’t see anyone coming.”

Then I thought about how this was still my weekend, and how it wouldn’t be hard for Nolan to find me on the dancefloor when he did arrive. And when I thought about how jealousy flashed across his eyes last night when he saved me from that creep at his fundraiser, I was excited by the idea of making Nolan work to steal my attention away again.

“You know what,” I said. “Let’s dance.”

I hopped off my stool and slung my small leather cross-body purse over my head. The lean man took my hand and led me to the back. Soon he had one hand on my waist and the other firmly wrapped around my knuckles. He swept me across the dancefloor, making me laugh around every turn. He was a gentleman, focused only on dancing and nothing else. His hands didn’t roam, and once I knew that I could trust him I soon forgot about Nolan and completely lost track of time. It was one song after the other and we only stopped once the music took a break.

“I knew you could dance,” he said, holding both my hands.

“Only because you were a great leader.”

He laughed and glanced to the bar. Suddenly, I remembered Nolan and when I still didn’t see his face, I began to worry that something bad might have happened. Excusing myself, I headed to the women’s restroom thinking that I had mistakenly found myself in the wrong bar.

Pulling out my phone there wasn’t anything from him. Only Monica, telling me to call her ASAP. Dialing her number, she picked up after the second ring. “Hey, babe.”

Pushing through the bathroom door, I finally found the silence I needed to hear Monica clearly. “Hey.”

“To answer your message. No, I’m not with Sienna.”

My neck craned. “Have you heard from her?”

“You know she cancelled our plans this weekend, right?”

Shit. My hand covered my face, hoping that Sienna’s decision to cancel wasn’t because I skipped town at the last minute. “I didn’t know.”

“Gary shut it down before it ever got started.”

My brows pinched, wondering why Sienna felt the need to lie to me.

“God, I hate that man,” Monica said. “I don’t know what she sees in him.”

I was at a loss for words. Sienna wasn’t one to disappear or lie. Especially to me. Monica was right. Something was definitely wrong.

“I’m worried about her, Soph.”

“I’m sure she’s okay,” I said, despite my own belly tying itself into knots.

“What was it you needed, anyway?” Monica asked.

“It’s not important.”

“I heard what happened with you at work. That totally blows.”

“Whatever. I’ll get over it.”

“You should shoot the place up.”

“Monica!” I gasped. “That’s not even funny.”

“Ahh…you’re right. I do know you’re in the mountains, though. Wish I would have known you were going, I could have used a weekend away.”

“Sorry.” I grimaced. “It was totally last minute.”

“It’s cool. Anyway, I’ll shoot you a message if I hear from Sienna.”

“Yeah, me too.” I ended our call with my mind stuck on Sienna. The worst about her not responding to me or Monica was that she only did this when she wanted to hide something from us. When I turned around, I accidently bumped into a beautiful tall woman. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry.”

The blonde woman’s face scowled. “Watch where you’re walking.”

My brows drew together as I refused to be intimidated by her. “I said I was sorry.”

Her icy blue gaze traveled the length of me before she tilted her head to the side and said, “You’re a weekend warrior, aren’t you?”

Feeling my fingers tighten on my phone, I responded, “What does it matter?”

“I saw you dancing with Mike.” She barred her teeth.

“I didn’t even know his name.” My brows raised as it was hard not to look at anything but the way her breasts spilled out of her tight tank top. “He asked and I said yes. It doesn’t go any deeper than that.”

Her gaze narrowed as jealousy flamed inside her irises.

“Don’t worry, he’s not my type.”

She huffed out a disbelieving laugh as I skirted past her. “Go back to where you came from. Your kind isn’t welcome here.”

Shaking my head, I didn’t have time for this or her short jean shorts.

“And lay your hands off my man.”

Digging my heels in, I snapped back around and fired back, “Look, Mike asked me—”

She stepped forward, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m not talking about Mike, you imbecile.”

My muscles quivered as I did everything I could to stop myself from smacking her upside her head.

“I’m talking about Nolan Foster.”

Jerking my head back, I asked, “Audrey?”

Her brows raised as her lips curled. “How’d you guess?”