Page 1 of Her Cowboy Blind Date
CHAPTER 1
Bek Montford closed the glass door to the dental office and wished she could stop the throbbing pain in her mouth. The painkillers had worn off, and her gums were numb and sore from the poking and prodding to fix her problem molar. She hated going to the dentist, hated having her teeth cleaned and polished, and hated having to endure the drilling and filling to fix her tooth.
She walked to the elevator bay near the level three suite and pressed the down button. All she wanted to do was return to her campus dorm room at Gilead Bible College, crawl into bed, and rest until the discomfort in her mouth eased. Thankfully, she didn’t have any Tuesday afternoon classes this week.
A tall man carrying a beige cowboy hat approached the elevator from the other direction.
Bek nodded, acknowledging his smile with what she hoped was a polite smile of her own. She swung her gaze back to the closed elevator doors, unable to feel the left side of her face.
At least she’d avoided another awkward introduction with friendly Gilead townsfolk where she needed to remember to call herself Becky. She’d left Bek Montford — and the mistakes she’d made during the last few years — on the other side of the world. Gilead was a fresh start, beginning with a switch to her childhood nickname.
Bek had been in Kansas for five months and no longer gawked at the real-life cowboys she came across in the small college town. Cowboys didn’t mosey down the street in the Sydney beachside suburb where she’d grown up in Australia.
The elevator pinged, the doors opened, and the blond cowboy, who looked around her age, indicated for her to enter the empty space first. She stepped inside, appreciating his manners. Maybe at twenty-two she was too young to be old-fashioned, but she liked gallant men who treated women like ladies. Unlike her Aussie ex-boyfriend, who wouldn’t recognize integrity if it slapped him in the face.
They began their descent and the level two number flashed. Bang. A grinding noise, followed by a drop of a few feet, brought them to a halt in between floors.
Bek’s stomach sunk in tandem with the sharp elevator drop. They were stuck. She couldn’t feel half of her face. Her jaw had hurt when she’d tried to talk with the receptionist and pay her dental bill. Her mouth and her hip pocket had taken a hit, and she couldn’t continue to ignore the cowboy stranded with her.
She looked up at the cowboy. Steel-capped work boots, denim jeans, button-up shirt under his jacket, and a clean-shaven jaw. His short blond hair, strong and lean physique, and sun-kissed complexion in the middle of winter suggested he worked outdoors. His eyebrows were pulled together, his concern for their situation evident.
His calm ocean-blue eyes locked on her, drawing her in and taking charge. “I’ll press the call button.”
She nodded, dragging her gaze away from his beautiful eyes and handsome face. He smelled good, with not even a whiff of sweat or farm animal scent in their confined space. Six people in this elevator would be a tight fit. She stepped back toward a wall, putting an extra two feet of space between them.
The dial tone echoing through the elevator microphone droned on and on. Why hadn’t they picked up the call?
The cowboy pressed the button again, and this time a man answered. Twenty minutes was the wait time for a maintenance person to arrive and manually lower the elevator by six feet to the level one entrance on Main Street.
Bek leaned back against the elevator wall and closed her eyes for a few seconds, thankful she’d soon be out of the claustrophobic space. She looked forward to the short walk to her dorm in the crisp January weather. The lightheadedness from the meds added to her fatigue.
“Looks like we’re stuck here for a while,” the cowboy said.
She nodded and pulled her phone out of her jeans pocket. She may not be able to talk, but she could type a note on her phone.
Been to dentist, can’t talk. Not first time stuck in elevator. We’ll be out soon.
Bek passed her phone to the cowboy and he read her note.
He studied her, his mouth tilting into a half smile. “That explains why you aren’t panicking.”
She reached for her phone, avoiding contact with his fingertips, and typed her reply before passing it back to him.
Stuck in a hotel elevator by myself between levels 17 and 18, no one answered call button. Called hotel on my phone. They lowered elevator to lobby.
He read her words on the phone screen and handed it back. “That’s why you’re not worried about a six-foot drop.”
Bek nodded, liking the soothing drawl in his deep voice. He wasn’t stressed and had kept a cool head in a sticky situation. There was no tan line on his ring finger. He must be in a relationship because he was too good-looking to be single. Not that she should care about his relationship status. She wasn’t looking for a relationship, and especially not with a cute cowboy she’d randomly met in an elevator.
She glanced around, spotting a laminated passion play advertisement stuck on the back wall beside her. The Gilead passion play preparations were in full swing, and she’d earn credits for her Biblical history study program by volunteering to join the crew. Auditions for the actors started tomorrow. The annual event prior to Easter was a tourist attraction that drew visitors to Gilead from all over the country.
“Will you be seeing the play?” he asked.
She nodded, feeling like a dodo bird, but she didn’t tap a reply on her phone. He didn’t need to know her level of involvement in the play.
The cowboy smiled and her tummy did a little back flip. Ugh. It must be the tight quarters situation combined with the meds that had her hormones hopping like a jumping jack. She was too aware of him, standing only three feet away, for her own good. The last time she’d allowed herself to be charmed by a good-looking stranger had ended in disaster.
“Do you mind if I do stuff on my phone?” His kind eyes expressed his concern. “Since you can’t talk and all.”