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) 📗

the small table, surrounded by more roses and a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries. Oh! One thing was missing.

He picked up the black bag with gold letters and waded through all the pink tissue paper to extract the negligee he’d bought at Uptown Boudoir. It was as light as air and as slick and smooth as the rose petals he’d just sprinkled on their pillows. It definitely wouldn’t make Alice itch.

He draped it carefully across the end of the bed and set a single, long-stemmed rose on top of it.

If tonight was to be Alice’s first time, he was determined to make it special for her. She deserved to be worshiped, and he was, well, he was going to church.

He jumped as someone knocked on the door. “Mount up, cowboy!”

It was Bryce. They’d come back to take quick showers and get ready for the bachelorette party.

“Just a minute,” he hollered, grabbing his phone and wallet. He didn’t want to let Bryce into the room, so he planned to quickly slip out.

Bryce tried to push his way in anyway. “I’m a little early,” he said. “And Carmen said we shouldn’t arrive too soon or we’ll ruin the surprise.”

Beau held his ground. “What do you say we head to JD and Gabe’s room and pop open some beers?”

“Sure thing,” Bryce said. “And damn, brother. Do I look as good as you do?”

Beau rolled his eyes. They both looked like idiots in chaps and hats with no shirts. “Nah. I look way better, as usual.”

He started to pull the door closed behind him, but Bryce stuck his boot in it. “Hold up. I need to take a leak.”

Before Beau could stop him, Bryce was in the room. “Don’t get excited,” he said. “None of this is for you.”

“How about one of those strawberries?”

“Nope.”

Bryce turned to face him. “You’ve gone to a lot of trouble here.”

Beau just kind of shrugged.

“So, when you asked me about that social construct thing. What was that in regard to?”

Had he given it away with all the excess? It didn’t matter, because he wasn’t going to discuss it. “It’s private.”

Bryce sighed. “If this is about what I think it is, you should be careful. Make sure everybody is on the same page. You don’t break hearts, remember? So, don’t hurt Alice.”

“Bryce, it’s not Alice’s heart you should be worried about. It’s mine.”

Bryce raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been crushing a long time. But once you’ve scratched an itch, you don’t tend to mess with it again, if you know what I mean.”

“It’s more than an itch. I think I’m in love.”

“Oh. Wow. Well, how does Alice feel?”

“I know she likes me a lot. But beyond that . . . Do you think she could fall for a dumbass cowboy like me?”

“You’re a damn good cowboy. And a fine man. Alice Martin would be lucky to have you. Now move out of my way, I drank a lot of iced tea with dinner.”

By the time Bryce came out of the bathroom, someone else was pounding on the door. “That must be the rest of our dance team,” Bryce said, rolling his eyes. “You ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Beau yanked the door open to a ridiculous sight. Bubba stood there wearing chaps, jeans, and a grin. Behind him were JD and Travis. And only two out of the three had the sense to look embarrassed.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Bubba said, flexing his biceps.

Beau and Bryce pulled the door—didn’t want anybody peeking in the room—just as Carmen pulled up in her fancy car, tattooed arm hanging out of the window.

“Which one of you is willing to jump out of the huge cake I just rented?”

“A cake? Are you kidding me?” Travis asked.

“I’ll do it,” Bubba said. “Do I get the first piece?”

“It’s not the kind of cake you eat, dummy,” JD said. “And anyway, you won’t fit in it.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” Bubba said. “Carmen said it’s huge.”

“I’m sure there’s a label on it that says if you’ve won the Apple Festival beer belly contest five years in a row, you shouldn’t attempt to get in the damn cake,” JD said.

“Hey, I was only runner-up last year—”

“Boys!” Carmen shouted. “The cake is gigantic. Probably big enough for Bubba. And let’s be honest. Even though a couple of you look good enough to eat, everybody tells me Bubba is the best dancer in Big Verde.”

Bubba crossed his arms over his chest and grinned.

All of this was going to make Alice extremely uncomfortable. She’d squirm and blush, possibly while quoting a study of some sort or another, and Beau was going to love every minute of it.

JD squinted across the parking lot. “Oh, hell no.”

Gabriel and Ford were headed their way. And they weren’t alone. Ford carried little Rosa, Gabriel had Brianna in the backpack, and Henry pulled his sister Maisy in a wagon. “Hey!” Maisy called. “Where’s your shirts?”

Maisy couldn’t make the r sound very well, and it was fucking adorable.

“We lost them,” Travis said, bending over to pick up his kid.

Brianna looked down at JD from the baby backpack. Then she grabbed one of Gabriel’s ears and leaned around to shout in it. “Daddy lost his shirt, Papa.”

“I know,” Gabriel said, wincing. “Don’t worry. We’ll help him find it later.”

“Why are y’all here?” Travis asked. “You’re supposed to be babysitting the kids.”

“You didn’t think we were missing the show, did you?” Gabriel asked with a dimpled grin.

“This is entirely inappropriate,” Carmen said. “But I guess you can’t make anything worse than it already is. When I left the party, Brittany’s uncle was tuning his ukulele, and I just bumped into Miss Mills, who’s headed that way with her Bible. So, you might as well bring toddlers. But you’d better hurry, or you’ll miss the whole dang thing. I can tell when a party’s going to end early.”

Ford shifted Rosa from one arm to the next, but she seemed particularly taken with Bubba. She reached for him, and Bubba took her from Ford