A Wyoming Secret Proposal
Autore
Amy Vastine
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CHAPTER ONE
“I WILL BET YOU fifty dollars that you run out of money before you finish your drink.” Sam slapped Wyatt Blackwell on the back.
“Well, not the wisest bet you could make given if you win, I will have apparently lost all of my money and won’t be able to pay up.”
“Not all your money. Only that measly $200 you plan to bet with,” Grant said with an eye roll.
The three cowboys-for-hire navigated their way through the crowded Las Vegas casino. Pop music played in the background while the sound of the electronic slot machines and the collective voices of the other gamblers swirled around them. The lack of windows made it impossible to know what time of day it was without checking a watch or phone. Sam swore they also pumped extra oxygen into the casinos so people would stay awake and feel more refreshed.
These three were used to wide open spaces and lots of fresh air. They had recently finished up a job on a ranch west of Las Vegas that had paid them well enough to have some extra to gamble away.
“Don’t you worry about me, boys. Give me a couple hours and I’ll turn this $200 into $400. I might even treat you two to a buffet,” Wyatt said with a wink.
Wyatt loved a good game of blackjack, and he could easily kill a couple hours with what he had as long as he didn’t sit at any of the high roller tables.
“I am going to actually have some fun with the extra money in my pocket and go play with the big boys tonight,” Sam said, readjusting his hat. “I work hard. I play hard. That’s the only way to live.”
They all had worked hard. A cowboy’s work was truly never done. That was why Wyatt had no trouble picking up work wherever he wandered. It didn’t always pay exceptionally well, but that usually didn’t matter so much. The only one Wyatt had to worry about was Wyatt. Unfortunately, his sister Corliss had changed that. He was now on the hook for twenty grand to bail his grandmother out of some big trouble, leaving him in Vegas on a budget.
This was his last hurrah before he drove himself and his camper, which he affectionately referred to as Betty, back to Eagle Springs, Wyoming, to work his butt off for zero dollars. Free labor was the only way Corliss was getting twenty thousand out of him.
“You have fun over there. I’ll have my own fun over here.” Wyatt nodded in the direction of the five-dollar blackjack tables.
“I’m going to test my luck at the slots,” Grant said after finishing off his first drink of the night. “I’ll meet you guys back at the Leopard Lounge when you’re done. I hope you win, Blackwell. I want that free dinner.”
Wyatt watched as the two of them sauntered away, craning their necks to get a look at a threesome of ladies who had walked in looking like a million bucks. The redheaded one had her phone in hand and was clearly filming the long-legged blonde. The blonde had on a sparkly sequined mini dress and heels that made her several inches taller than she was. Wyatt shook his head; a woman could break an ankle in those things if she wasn’t careful.
The woman in the sparkly dress spoke like she was some sort of reporter, sharing facts about the hotel and casino they were in. Wyatt had never seen a reporter dressed like that before. The third woman was slender, her hair was bleached and cut short. She held up some kind of circular sunshade, tilting it toward the one that sparkled.
“How was that?” Sparkle asked her friends as he passed by them to get to the blackjack table.
“Good. You sounded really knowledgeable. The lighting in here isn’t great, though. Even with Janelle holding the light reflector on you, you look sort of yellow.”
When Wyatt looked at her, he didn’t see yellow. He saw a lightly sun-kissed apricot. She took good care of herself and didn’t let her body bake in the hot sun like he did. Maybe she was a reporter. There were all kinds in Vegas.
Wyatt found an empty spot at the five-dollar table and set his two hundred dollars down on the table, waiting for his chips and some cards. As the dealer got him set up, the waitress came by and asked him if he needed a drink. He decided to prove Sam wrong and downed the rest of his whiskey sour and asked her for another.
Two hands, two losses. Things weren’t starting off as well as he had hoped. The guy who had won the last two hands decided to call it quits while he was ahead, leaving Wyatt alone at the table with the dealer. His drink arrived at the same time the blonde reporter lady and her friends appeared. She slid into the seat next to him.
“Hi,” she said, her cheeks the prettiest color of pink.
“Howdy,” he said with a tip of his hat.
“Are you a real cowboy or do you just play one on TV?” she asked as she set a hundred dollars down on the table.
A grin stretched across Wyatt’s face. He rubbed one of his chips between his fingers and his thumb. She was entertaining. “I ain’t never been on TV, so I guess that makes me one of those real ones.”
“Would you like to be on TV? Well, not really TV, but I can put you on the internet at least. I’m Harper Hayes, maybe you’ve heard of me?”
Wyatt had never heard of anyone by the name Harper Hayes before. He wasn’t sure why he would have since he spent almost zero time on the internet. He didn’t own a computer and his phone was not one of the smart ones.
Wyatt checked his cards and asked for a hit. The new card gave him a solid nineteen. He stayed. “Sorry, Miss Hayes. Your name doesn’t ring any bells. I’m Wyatt Blackwell, maybe you’ve heard of me?”
She shook her head and laughed. “Are you famous for something?” She checked her cards and chose to stay.
“Not that I’m aware of,” he replied.
“Then why would I have heard of you?”
“No clue.” Wyatt ducked his head and chuckled. “Maybe we should start over. Wyatt Blackwell.” He offered his hand and she shook it.
“Harper Hayes.”
“It’s nice to make your acquaintance, Miss Hayes.”
“These are my friends,” Harper said, acknowledging the two women standing behind her. “Sloane is my camera operator and Janelle here makes sure the lighting is the best it can be, given what we have to work with here.” The two ladies smiled and waved. “We’re making a video about this casino and hotel. We thought it might be fun to have a real cowboy teach us a little about blackjack. You game?”
The dealer flipped over his cards, adding a jack to a nine. Wyatt groaned and tossed his cards down. Harper flipped hers. She had two kings, beating the House.
“I’m not sure you need much teaching,” he remarked.
She feigned innocence, fluttering those long dark eyelashes at him. “Beginner’s luck.”
“Yeah, right,” he said with a nod.
“Come on. It’ll be fun.”
Wyatt wasn’t much for being the center of attention, but he did enjoy trying new things and he sure didn’t mind the company of a pretty woman.
“Let’s do it,” he replied to the three women’s glee.
“You can’t video record at the tables or anywhere in the gaming area, ma’am,” the dealer said.
“Selfies?” she asked and seemed excited when he said yes.
“Selfies?” Wyatt questioned.
Harper threw her arm over his shoulders and put her cheek right up against his. She smelled good, like the wildflowers his mother used to gather up and put in the vase on the kitchen table all summer long. She held out her phone in front of them and their picture was there on the screen.
“Smile, Cowboy Wyatt.”
He tried, but man, did he want to bury his nose in her neck and inhale until his lungs were full of that scent.
“Wow, you sure you’ve never done print or film work before? You smize better than the pros.” Showing her friends, Sloane fanned herself and Janelle nodded approvingly.
“Should I know what smize means?”
She held up her phone so he could see their photo. “That right there is smizing. It’s that hint of a smile. It’s your eyes. You have gorgeous eyes. Those eyes have broken hearts, haven’t they?”
Wyatt never stuck around anywhere long enough for anyone to get too attached. “Never.”
Harper narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Liar.”
He showed her the ropes even though blackjack wasn’t that complicated. If she could count to twenty-one, she could figure it out. He did have to show her when to split and when to double down. She was a quick learner when it came to paying attention to the dealer’s face-up cards. Once she felt confident enough, he stopped helping and got back in the game. After an hour, she was up and he was almost out of money.
The luckier Harper got, the more people joined their table. The more she won, the more the waitress came by, offering to get them more drinks. The more they drank, the bolder she got. They managed to turn her $100 into $500.
“What do you think? Bet it all?” she asked Wyatt.
“Do it!” her friends goaded her.
“Can you afford to lose it all?” he asked her.
“With you by my side, I can’t possibly lose,” she said, pushing all her chips into the betting circle.
No pressure.
Harper was dealt two nines, but the dealer had a seven showing. Wyatt wanted to tell her to stand, but she split it—a risky move. She most likely would have won if she had left it. The dealer passed her two more cards. She got a queen for nineteen on one and a two on the other. She stole a glance Wyatt’s way. Eleven was good. Eleven was very good.
She hit.
The dealer flipped over her next card. King! She leaped up out of her chair as soon as it hit the table. Harper flung herself at Wyatt and planted a big ol’ kiss right on his mouth. He was so shocked he didn’t get to appreciate the way she felt in his arms or the way her lips fit perfectly against his before it was over. She was jumping up and down with her friends and high-fiving the people gathered around the table to watch her.
Someone nudged Wyatt’s shoulder. Sam and Grant were behind him, smirking. “You sure picked the right seat at the table,” Sam said.
“Can you believe it?” Harper’s eyes were lit.
“You are one lucky lady,” Wyatt acknowledged.
“Oh come on, you were a good teacher.”
“Did Wyatt make a friend at the blackjack table?” Grant asked.
Wyatt introduced his friends to Harper and her friends, hoping Sam and Grant would behave themselves. Working on a ranch, the only females these three had been around were cattle.
“You guys have to let me buy you dinner,” Harper offered.
“Absolutely!” Grant was more than happy to accept the invitation.
“Great idea,” Sam chimed in. They both stared hard at Wyatt, pleading with their eyes to let them go to dinner.
Wyatt had more drinks than he had planned for and the warm feeling made it impossible to say no to this proposition. He didn’t even really care if Sam and Grant embarrassed him. Spending time with Harper was his sole focus. He got that one kiss and, man, was he hoping for another.
Harper cashed in her chips and with the new money in her pocket, the six of them went to dinner. More selfies were taken, more stories were told and the laughs were abundant.
“So how long are you staying here in Vegas?” Harper asked Wyatt.
“I leave tomorrow.”
Her bottom lip jutted out and she tipped her head to her chest. She had the cutest little upturned nose. “Tomorrow?”
“Gotta head home to Wyoming. My family needs me.”
“Wyoming? Where in Wyoming?”
“It’s a small town. I doubt you’ve ever heard of it.”
“My mom and stepdad are in Eagle Springs. Have you heard of that?”
Wyatt didn’t know if it was the noise or the bright lights or the fact that he couldn’t stop staring at her lips because there was no way she said her family was from Eagle Springs. “Are you messing with me?”
Her green eyes were getting squintier by the minute. “No, why?”
“You’re from Eagle Springs, Wyoming?”
“I’m not from there, no, no, no, I’m from Los Angeles, but my mom lives there now.” She snorted when she laughed. “Serena, that’s my mom by the way, didn’t realize she was going to be living in the middle of nowhere when she caught this last guy. She had to buy cowboy boots. Cowboy boots...on my mother’s feet. It’s a thing to see.” She snorted again.
The middle of nowhere was definitely one way to describe Eagle Springs, but people from big cities in California might think anywhere in Wyoming was the middle of nowhere. “So you’ve visited her there? You’ve been to Eagle Springs?” Wyatt asked, trying to get her back on track.
“Oh, I’ve been there,” she said waggling her pointer finger at him. “When she got married, I was there for a whole week. Downtown they have this statue of a bull and there’s this ice cream shop that has the best ice cream on the planet.”
Holy cow. She really had been there. “You’ve been to Tucker’s Ice Cream Shop?”
“That was it. Tucker. You know, Tucker told me I was his favorite customer.”
Wyatt shook his head. “No way. No way! I know Tucker. I grew up in Eagle Springs and I am Tucker’s favorite customer. All I have to do is walk in and he starts scooping my favorite flavor into a cake cone. Not a sugar cone because he knows I don’t like those.”
“Get out of here!” Harper smacked him on the shoulder before taking him by the hand. “It’s true we live in a smaller world than we think. Meeting you was destiny, Cowboy Wyatt.”
Wyatt wasn’t sure he believed in destiny, but he liked the way her hand felt in his. “Small world is right.”
“I wish you weren’t leaving tomorrow,” she added. “I could get used to your smize.”
Wyatt felt one side of his mouth form a crooked grin. He leaned in close. “At least we have tonight.”
“That we do.” She tapped him on the nose.
WHEN WYATT WOKE UP the next morning, dinner was the last thing that he could remember. His head hurt and his body was sore. The gray-and-blue carpet he was sprawled out on was not familiar. Had he fallen out of bed? He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and realized he was not in his room. Where was he?
He tried to make sense of what happened after dinner, but everything was sort of a blur of colors and light. He remembered feelings more than events. Laughter. There had been a lot of laughter. Joy. Joy was not a feeling he had very often. Kissing. Oh man, there had been more kissing. He really wished he could remember that part a bit better.
Wait. This was Harper’s room. They had come back here and there had been kissing. Nothing more than kissing, though. He remembered telling her, “Married or not, I won’t sleep with you on the first date.”
That was a weird thing to say, but at least he had been a gentleman. He sat up and rubbed his sore neck. She had given him two pillows and a bedsheet, but it had still been a rough night’s sleep.
He had a long drive ahead of him and no time to waste on this hangover. He pulled himself up off the floor and straightened his clothes.
Peacefully curled up on her side with an eye mask covering those pretty green eyes was his sleeping beauty. She looked too cute to wake. Too bad their timing was so bad. He couldn’t put off heading home. Maybe they’d see each other again. Had he been dreaming or had she mentioned Tucker’s? There was little chance their paths would cross again. Wyatt was always on the move and, from what he could remember, so was she.
He found a pen and the hotel notepad by the phone and jotted her a few words, so she didn’t think he ran out without saying goodbye.
Wyatt took one more good look at the woman who had managed to steal a little piece of his heart in one night. She was something else. Something he couldn’t have, though. Wyoming was calling him home and there was no more time for being young and carefree. Wyatt had work to do, responsibilities to meet and bills to pay so his gran could stay put until the good Lord decided it was time for her to leave this world. Denny Blackwell wasn’t ready to be done just yet, and since Wyatt was a betting man, he’d always put his money on his gran. Always.
