Must Love Cowboys: This steamy and heart-warming cowboy rom-com is a must-read! (Once Upon A Time In by Carly Bloom (ereader for textbooks .txt) 📗

Alice turned around. The pink T-shirt was too tight and stretched across her chest, glittering with the word meow.

Their eyes met, and Alice froze like a deer in the headlights. But after a few seconds, she seemed to decide to ignore him. She placed a tub of dishes on a cart and pushed it to the next dirty table without so much as a backward glance at him.

Those shorts, though.

Allie Cat had some nice, long legs.

Beau swallowed. Apparently, he was still having conflicting and inappropriate thoughts about the babysitter.

Chapter

Three

Beau held a chair out for Nonnie and took the seat across from her. They had a nice table by a window, but he couldn’t take advantage of the view. Not while there was a librarian loose in the restaurant.

“Help yourselves to whatever you want,” Holly said, staring directly at Beau with a suggestive gaze that was probably not lost on his grandmother. “Hopefully, you’ll see something you like.”

“I’m sure we will,” Nonnie said briskly. “There is plenty to choose from on the buffet.”

Beau started to rise and head to the buffet bar, but his grandmother patted his hand. “We’ll wait for Bryce.”

Beau rolled his eyes but stayed put. He looked around and spotted Alice darting in and out of tables on the other side of the dining room. She glanced up, their eyes met again, and he couldn’t help it. He smiled—nearly laughed out loud—remembering her shocked expression when he’d opened the door last night.

“What are you grinning about?” Nonnie asked.

“Nothing.”

Nonnie gave him a look that said she didn’t believe him but also that she didn’t need to know everything. “I wonder why Alice Martin is clearing tables? She has a degree from a university and works at the library.”

Actually, Alice had three degrees.

Undergrad from Rice, and two master’s degrees from Texas Woman’s University.

It had been hard to miss a big old photo of Alice Martin in the Big Verde News every time she’d hit a dean’s list or earned another degree. Folks acted like she was the smartest person in town, which she probably was.

Carmen Foraccio, the blue-haired owner of the restaurant, stopped by their table. She said hello to Nonnie, and then she looked at Beau. “Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in.”

She held a steaming coffeepot in her right hand, so Beau turned his cup over. “Good morning, Carmen. You’re looking chipper.”

Carmen raised a skeptical eyebrow and poured hot coffee into his cup. “You’re either blind or being sarcastic, and I’m too hungover to care which.”

Beau laughed. “I imagine you feel like you beat Worth Jarvis in a tequila shot contest last night.”

Carmen’s mouth dropped open. “Is that a thing I actually did?”

Beau nodded.

“Hopefully that explains the fifty-dollar bill I found in my bra this morning.”

“You literally drank the poor kid under the table.”

Carmen set a little pitcher of cream next to his cup. “Speaking of last night, if you need any help burying the body, just let me know.”

Alice breezed by with an armful of plates and snorted.

Somebody had loose lips.

“What body?” Nonnie asked, eyes wide with alarm.

Carmen poured his grandmother a cup of coffee. “Everybody’s fine, Mrs. Montgomery. I’m just messing with your grandson.”

Beau narrowed his eyes, hoping the conversation would end right here. Luckily, his brother walked into the restaurant. “Look,” he said. “There’s Bryce.”

Saved by the twin.

Nonnie accepted a kiss on the cheek from Bryce. “Carmen,” she said. “Have you recently hired some new weekend staff?”

Carmen laughed. “I’m short on help today, so I’ve got some volunteers.”

Ah. That explained it. Most of Chateau Bleu’s staff had been at Jessica and Casey’s wedding last night.

“You need help?” Bryce asked, just as Beau stood up to offer.

“No, no,” Carmen said. “Thank you for offering—I should have seen that coming—but, it’s totally under control. The group you came in with is the last wave. We’re all good. Just relax and enjoy your meal like normal people.”

Beau sat down. “If you say so.”

“I do. Enjoy your brunch.”

Bryce jerked his head toward the buffet bar, and Beau responded with a nod.

“I can see we’ve decided on the buffet,” Nonnie said.

A few minutes later, Nonnie was daintily working her way through a pastry the size of her head while Beau and Bryce scraped their plates.

“Going back in for round three?” Bryce asked, patting his stomach.

Beau scooped up the last of his scrambled eggs. “I don’t think I have room. And besides, we’ve got to ride later today.”

“Gerome has you boys working on a Sunday?” Nonnie asked.

Beau shrugged. “Just a quick meeting.”

“And then we’re riding the fence lines,” Bryce added.

They probably didn’t need to ride the fence lines. There hadn’t been any weak spots for months. But riding fence lines was enjoyable. Especially at sunset.

Alice walked by, and Beau tried hard not to look at her.

“Alice is not dressed very appropriately for working in a restaurant or a library,” their grandmother said.

“Oh really?” Beau said. “I hadn’t noticed.”

Worn spot on the left back pocket of those shorts. Small stain on the T-shirt, right above the w.

Bryce cleared his throat, and Beau avoided eye contact. Bryce was the one person in Big Verde who knew about Beau’s prepubescent crush on Alice. Which had lingered just a bit into post-pubescence.

What could he say? The teenage years were weird for everyone. Especially if you were fifteen years old with a raging boner for your nineteen-year-old former babysitter who was away at college, not thinking of you at all, because you were a baby, and a dumb baby, at that.

Why can’t you pay attention like Bryce? and You’re not even trying! were messages that had played on repeat. He’d heard it from his teachers and his mother. And he’d heard it from Alice whenever babysitting had included helping them with their homework.

By the time he was a senior, the crush had faded. Mostly. But then Alice, who’d already graduated from Rice—a year early and summa cum laude—had come home to Big Verde for