Her Lone Cowboy by Donna Alward Read Free Book Online Page B

do it,” she said, loud enough that the attendant could hear. “Or we’ll do it together.” She lowered her voice, put her fingers over Noah’s. “Is that okay? Someone needs to measure you.”
    She saw him swallow. Other than the afternoon when they’d been pressed together, they had avoided touching. Suddenly her great idea seemed intensely intimate, and her tongue slipped out to wet her lips.
    “Fine, you do it,” he said sharply, his gaze dropping to where the tip of her tongue had disappeared back into her mouth.
    Lily took the tape from the attendant and smiled. “I do a fair bit of sewing.” It was an understatement, but right nowshe just wanted to keep everyone happy. “Just tell me if the line isn’t exactly where you want it.”
    Her fingertips grazed the muscles of Noah’s shoulders as the tape stretched across the breadth of him. She measured down his left arm, meeting his eyes only briefly when she murmured words about using the same length for the right—it would be pinned up out of the way anyway. She heard him catch his breath as she wrapped the tape around his slim waist, and she had to remind him to relax and let the breath out. The fabric of his shirt was soft and warm against her fingers, and butterflies tumbled in her stomach as her hands rested against the button of his jeans for a few breathless moments.
    This wasn’t what she’d had planned when she’d told herself she was going to keep Noah at arm’s length. The way she was responding, and the way he was holding himself so rigidly, told her an arm’s length away was still too close.
    “I need to do your chest,” she said quietly, and she reached around him. She guided the tape measure beneath his arms, her fingers touching his right bicep lightly as she adjusted the tape. Did it hurt? Did it feel odd to move that part of his arm without the rest of it attached? His heart pounded against her hand as she brought the ends of the tape together. Touching him this way made her too self-conscious to ask. She read out the measurement instead and the man put it on his clipboard.
    “Now there’s just the inseam,” he chirped, oblivious to the tug-of-war going on between Lily and Noah. “You should have on proper shoes to measure that,” he explained. “You’re what, an eleven?”
    Noah nodded. As the salesman scurried away to retrieve dress shoes, Noah’s voice came from above, deep and husky. “Lily…”
    “There’s a chair over there. Why don’t you sit to change your footwear,” she blurted, more affected than she wanted to admit by the rough way he’d said her name. She did notwant to be the pretty girl who’d lent a hand. Someone who had his attention now, when he needed her, but would one day be forgotten. It was better to keep it strictly platonic.
    Noah hesitated the smallest instant, and for a minute she was afraid he was going to say something more. But he went and sat and pushed off one boot with his toes. The second required more pushing, and she gave in and knelt before him, gripping the heel and sliding it off his foot.
    “I hate this,” he admitted in a low voice. Lily’s eyes stung. Grouchy Noah was a challenge, but a Noah who had started to trust her was far more difficult to handle. In only a short week he’d started accepting little bits of help, like the drive today to his appointments. She almost preferred the stubborn, irascible man to this one. It was easier to keep her distance from him. Easier to keep her thoughts in line with where they should be.
    The salesman arrived with a shoe box. Lily took the shoes, unlaced them, and put them on the floor for Noah to put on his feet while she talked to the salesman about what style tuxedo they wanted to coordinate with Andrew’s. She wouldn’t do everything for him.
    When she turned back, Noah’s cheeks were red. He had the toe of his right shoe holding down the right hand lace of the left shoe, while he tried to negotiate the other tie into a