Page 5 of Love Me, Cowboy
“Did you get in trouble?” Tyler asked, feeling bad he hadn’t helped her get away quicker.
“A scolding was all. I’m still the staff rookie so she had to make sure I understand how we do things around here.” The words were accompanied by an eye roll. “As if I don’t know that a teacher should make it to school before her students.”
“I’m really sorry.”
Claire looked his way, brows up. “Why? It wasn’t your fault I was late. If my mother hadn’t insisted I deliver those sweets this morning, none of that would have happened. She was so afraid I’d get them to the party late if I waited until the afternoon. And now she’ll be right. Again. I hate when that woman is right.”
Tyler knew Claire’s mother had been strict with her when they were younger. It appeared that fact hadn’t changed with the arrival of adulthood. “If we hurry, we can still make it. Bug is never on time for anything. I doubt that’ll change for some party. Even if it is for her.”
A soft chuckle filled the air. “I’d forgotten you call her that. Mary Catherine always hated it.”
“Nah,” Tyler said. “She only pretended to hate it because I was her little brother. Besides, the name fits. There wasn’t a surface around was that safe from her doodles. I still can’t believe she’s not doing something artistic.”
“Surprises me, too.” They reached the front door of the Imperial Hotel, with its large, covered porch decorated with white rockers sporting green garland, and Claire stopped at the bottom step. “I don’t think I can open the door. Can you get it?”
“Sure,” Tyler said, shifting the tray to his left arm to open the door with his right. Holding it open, he said, “Ladies first.”
Though he’d only been doing what was natural in holding the door, Tyler didn’t dismiss the chance to watch Claire from another angle. She’d found time to change from his flannel into another oversized sweater. This one brown instead of beige. He had to wonder why she wore such big clothes when the body underneath was so small.
Not that he cared what she wore. Or didn’t wear. Or what the body beneath her clothes looked like. He’d tried that path once before and hadn’t gotten so much as a thanks-for-the-multiple-orgasms note the next morning. Though she’d never said as much, he knew Claire felt their night together had been a mistake.
But it hadn’t been a mistake for him. Except that he’d been comparing every woman he met since to the one who’d left him before dawn. And none of them measured up.
Tyler followed Claire past the front desk and down a hallway to the right. Following the signs, they found the party in a large ballroom about twenty yards down. Leave it to Marilyn to rent out an entire ballroom for an underwear party. Maybe she’d booked those Victoria’s Secret models to put on a show.
If that was the case, Tyler might have to find a reason to stay.
Claire stopped just over the threshold, forcing Tyler to put on the brakes to prevent running into her again. He flinched as one cupcake fell over, but the others held their ground.
“Where are we putting the desserts?” she asked a passing hotel employee.
“There are more?” the woman asked, flipping a dark ponytail so hard she nearly smacked herself in the face. “I guess you can put them over there with the others.”
Tyler looked over Claire’s head to see where the hotel employee had pointed. On the far side of the room, in front of a wall of windows, sat a long table covered in more sweets than Tyler had ever seen in one place. There was everything from cookies to pies to cupcakes. Cupcakes like the ones he was carrying.
If Tyler didn’t know better, he’d swear that was steam coming out of Claire’s ears.
“Oh no she didn’t,” Claire growled, charging across the room. Tyler hurried to keep up. “Tell me you didn’t bring these desserts,” she said to an older woman straightening a row of purple cupcakes.
“There you are,” Claire’s mother said, looking her daughter up and down as if she were sizing up a horse at auction. “Nice of you to show up.”
“The party doesn’t start for another hour and a half, Mother. I’m not late.”
“I decided not to take any chances and picked up the desserts myself.” Mrs. Campbell moved two cupcakes less than an inch to the right. “Better safe than sorry.” She flashed a smile that held neither warmth nor kindness, and Tyler could practically feel Claire wilting.
Her shoulders lowered. “Then what am I supposed to do with these ones?”
Mrs. Campbell waved the question away. “Maybe they’ll get eaten.”
Unless Marilyn invited the entire county, which Tyler had to admit was possible, Claire’s cupcakes would never get eaten. At least not today.
“The ranch hands are always hungry. I could take them out to the Double H,” he said, trying to make Claire feel better.
The mayor’s wife turned his way for the first time, her face pinching tight with blatant distaste. “I didn’t see you there, Tyler. I realize you’re Mary Catherine’s brother, but I didn’t expect any men at this gathering.”
The woman made it sound as if someone had allowed farm animals to enter the building.
“I’m just helping with the delivery,” Tyler said. “I won’t be staying.”