Ridden Hard - Kim Loraine Page 0,3
the place. This was the kind of bar Quinn would never be caught dead in. It spoke of blue-collar, hard-working, rough and tumble men who weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.
“Wow,” I whispered, taking in the wood-paneled walls and the beams supporting the ceiling that looked like whole trees. Bar-height tables were strewn haphazardly throughout the space, seemingly with no rhyme or reason to their placement. And the place was busy already. Cowboys outnumbered the regular guys two to one, drinking beers, laughing together, revving up for the night.
“Right? I like to come here when I get bored with the usual suspects.” Erin smiled and sauntered to the bar. All eyes were on her leather-clad ass, and I couldn’t help but laugh. She commanded a room without even realizing she was doing it.
Coming back to my side with two whiskey sours in her hands, she smirked. “You’ve been spotted.”
I followed her gaze to see two handsome cowboys looking in our direction. One with a slight hint of dark stubble covering his jaw and black curls mostly hidden by his cream-colored hat. He was polished in a way the other wasn’t. His clothing crisper, newer, boots shinier. The other man had me bringing my drink to my lips and taking a long gulp. Electric attraction sparked between us when our eyes met. He was more handsome than any man I’d ever seen in my life. Rugged, chiseled, but beautiful all the same. His hair was long, tied back at the nape of his neck, but the color of warm caramel shot through with gold.
“I told you we’d find us a couple of cowboys.” Erin nudged my elbow and laughed. “Let’s make them work for it, huh?”
She clinked her glass with mine and began a slow sway across the floor toward a table on the opposite side of the bar from the two cowboys. I followed, feeling his gaze still on my form.
“All right,” Erin said after taking a long drink. “We need to make a plan for your life.”
I let out a loud laugh. “I thought this was about me letting all that go for a while?”
“It is, but I think we need a plan before we get shit-faced. Agree?”
She had a point. “Okay. Agree.”
“So, we’re thirty, divorced…”
“I’m divorced, you’re still single.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re divorced, that means I’m basically divorced by proxy.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.”
“Whatever, let’s focus on the matter at hand. Quinn is a giant douche. He stole everything from you that he could. But maybe it’s a good thing. You’ve got money from your half of the house sale, you can use this as an opportunity to find the right place to start your practice.”
“But where? Quinn has the chamber of commerce in his back pocket. I doubt I’ll be able to get approval from anyone in town.”
She shrugged. “Then go somewhere else.”
“And leave you?” We’d been together since before birth. The thought of moving on without her made my chest tight.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Now, you need another drink before the band gets started.”
Three more whiskey sours later, Erin was next up to ride the bull, and I was feeling no pain. Quinn who? That was my new motto. I leaned against the post to my left while watching my sister climb up on that mechanical bull like it was second nature.
She rode it with ease, and I wondered just how many times she’d been here.
“You gonna give it a go, darlin’?” A sexy, low rumble warmed my blood and sent tingles over my skin. I turned to find the blond-haired cowboy from earlier standing nearby. Standing wasn’t the best word for what he was doing. Smoldering was more fitting.
“Oh, I don’t think so. It’s not my kind of thing.”
He smiled, and my heart fluttered in response. “I don’t know, I think you’d look mighty fine up there.”
“Nah, she looks fine. I’d fall on my face.”
“You ever ridden a bull before?” He tipped his beer to his lips and took a long swig. The way his throat moved, Adam’s apple bobbing, drew my gaze.
“Yep.”
He nearly choked on his beer. His eyes widened, and a grin twisted his lips. “Bullshit.”
“No, I’m serious. My Grandad had a small ranch in the Rockies. I spent summers there, well, we spent summers there. I rode horses, bulls, cows, tractors.”
“You might just be my dream woman.”
I laughed. “I’m sure you have no trouble finding women. Look at you. You’re a dreamboat.”
God,