Beauty and the Cowboy by Nancy Robards Thompson - Beauty and the Cowboy Read Free Book Online Page B

her modesty. But then she realized she was fully clothed, and even if she climbed under a stack of blankets, it wouldn’t restore her dignity.
    The day’s unfortunate happenings flooded back to her. Tom’s phone call; Mardie Griffin overhearing her conversation with Jesse and giving her the look; people seeing her and Jesse leaving Grey’s together after she’d downed whiskey and wine. Now she was going to do the walk of shame from Jesse’s house, and they hadn’t even done anything.
    Except kiss.
    That kiss had curled her toes and made her lady parts sing. And then Jesse had walked away.
    Of course he had. She’d been drunk. What kind of guy would sleep with a drunk woman?
    Better question: What kind of guy wouldn’t?
    She might have been inclined to think Jesse just wasn’t into her, but that kiss had cut through the whiskey and wine and the heartbreak of the day and told her otherwise.
    Right now, her head hurt too much to overthink it. Especially the part about how she’d actually gone for the goods. She’d had his belt unbuckled, and who knows what would’ve happened next if not for Lulu?
    Feeling a little sick, she found her purse next to the couch, where she’d dropped it on her way in.
    As she fished her phone out, she noted it was two fifty a.m. There were no missed calls from Tom.
    It would be a clean break.
    It was better that way.
    She sat there waiting to feel something beyond confusion. Shouldn’t there have been a ripping sensation or pain from his rude means of severing six years together?
    Nope. She was just…numb.
    Numb and confused.
    She started to put her phone back in her purse, and its light reflected off something on the coffee table—a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin.
    Jesse had left them for her.
    Her heart gave a little squeeze. When she remembered the way she’d thrown herself at him, her heart became a little heavier. How was it that she was more upset that kissing Jesse might’ve ruined things with him than over the way things had turned out with Tom?
    She shook two aspirin into her hand and downed them with a gulp of water. She was so parched, she felt as if she’d been without water for days. She sat there in the dark considering what to do next as she drank the rest of it.
    If anyone saw Jesse dropping her off in the wee hours of the morning, tongues were bound to wag, especially once word got around that she and Tom were through.
    She really shouldn’t care what anyone else thought, but she did. Because if word got out, it was bound to make it back to her father and even at twenty-five, she still cared what her dad thought.
    The way she saw it, she had three choices: She could wake Jesse up, she could wait until he woke up, or she could walk home.
    Or, of course, she could find his keys and drive herself home. Right. With her luck, she’d get pulled over by Toby Walton, Marietta’s finest, and hauled in for DUI.
    How long did it take for alcohol to get out of your system, anyway?
    It didn’t really matter, because she wasn’t going to take Jesse’s wheels without asking. Besides, the rumor mill would churn out of control if Jesse Guthrie’s truck was seen parked near her apartment in the wee hours of the morning after they’d been spotted leaving Grey’s together.
    No matter how she looked at it, she was screwed.
    She sighed at the irony.
    “What a mess,” she murmured as she hauled herself off the couch, feeling as chaste as a born-again virgin. Maybe if she splashed some cool water on her face, she’d be able to think straight.
    She stood in the hallway she assumed led to the bathroom. It probably led to Jesse’s bedroom, too. The house was nice—cute—but it wasn’t very big. Two…maybe three bedrooms? After all, it was just him and Mattie.
    It dawned on her that she didn’t know how many bedrooms and bathrooms because this was the first time she’d been to his place. He and his brothers had sold the Guthrie ranch shortly after their parents had