Kissed by a Cowboy

Kissed by a Cowboy

Lacy Williams

ISBN: 978-0-9898147-6-8

Copyright 2014 by Lacy Williams

Smashwords Edition

Prologue

Prom night –
twelve years ago.

This was a mistake.

The words reverberated through
seventeen-year-old Haley Carston's head. Pulsed painfully through
her heart.

They even trembled in her hands.

The pale pink princess-style
prom dress poufed around her. There was no other word to describe
it other than
poufed
. She looked like a strawberry cupcake.

The girl staring back at her in Katie's
full-length mirror looked like a stranger. Too much blush, too much
mascara. Dark pink lipstick. How had she let her new friend talk
her into this much makeup?

Because everyone
let
Katie. Katie was that
kind of person. The shining star.

Nothing like
tag-along Haley
.

But that girl in the mirror—she was a
stranger.

Except for the scared eyes. Those were all
Haley.

After Katie had found out she wasn't planning
to go to the senior prom, she'd promised to find Haley a date. And
no one said no to Katie.

But who could she have found?

Haley's dad had dragged her to Redbud Trails,
Oklahoma in the middle of her senior year, after a job he'd been
chasing hadn't panned out. They'd planned to leave after a few
weeks, but Haley's Aunt Matilda had seen how unhappy she was at the
prospect of moving again and offered to let her stay until her
first semester of college.

Haley had expected to hate the minuscule high
school, graduating class of a whole dozen. She'd never imagined
she'd fit in, figuring she'd stick out like the outsider she
was.

Instead, she'd found an immediate friend in
Katie, who'd taken Haley under her wing and drawn her into her
circle of friends—the popular kids—and made Haley forget that she
hadn't been born and raised in small-town Oklahoma.

Most of the time.

Tonight, she felt like a silk flower in a
room full of hothouse roses. Pretending she was one of the crowd
but woefully inadequate.

The three-inch pumps that matched the dress
were already pinching her toes. She wobbled into the hallway and
hesitated outside Katie's bedroom doorway. How in the world was she
going to get to the first floor without tumbling down them?

"What are we waiting for?" Haley recognized
the complaining male voice wafting up from the living room—Katie's
boyfriend-of-the-month, Ronald Walker. Katie had commented more
than once about how fine they would look in their prom pictures
together. Haley thought maybe that was the only reason her friend
was dating the jock and half-expected a breakup soon after
tonight.

"Haley will be down in a minute," Katie
said.

Showtime.

There were other voices laughing and talking.
Katie had convinced the group to meet up at the Michaels' farm and
carpool. Which meant more people to see Haley descend and face
whatever sap Katie had found for her, some guy who felt sorry
enough for Haley to be her date.

Her feet didn't want to move. But she was
afraid Katie would come upstairs looking for her if she didn't go.
She took the first step and let her momentum carry her down,
down...

Voices got louder. It sounded like Katie had
a crowd of friends in the living room.

"Maddox, heads up!"

When she heard the name,
Haley lifted her gaze from the stairs, and she stumbled on the last
step. She barely registered the projectile flying toward her until
it
whacked
the back
of her shoulder. Her foot caught in the long dress, and she tilted
precariously.

A strong pair of hands caught her waist and
steadied her.

And a kid-sized play football fell to the
floor.

"Sorry," Katie's younger brother Justin, a
freshman, muttered from somewhere off to the side.

Haley looked up . . . and up . . . and up
into the strong-jawed face of Maddox Michaels, Katie's older
brother.

Who should've been in jeans and a Stetson but
instead was wearing a smart black suit and white shirt and black
tie...

No. Oh no.

"Great, we're all here!" Katie sang out.
"Let's have mom do her three hundred pictures so we can go."

Maddox let go of Haley's waist, but only
after he made sure she was steady in the uncomfortable heels. "All
right?" he asked easily.

She nodded dumbly, her cheeks burning hotter
than the face of the sun. She'd only met Maddox twice before, and
she'd found herself tongue-tied both times.

He was
handsome
. A
college guy
.

And she couldn't even stutter out a
sentence!

"I think this belongs to you." He presented
her with a simple wrist corsage of white roses. His fingers were
hot on her wrist as he slipped it over her hand.

"Oh, um..."
Thank you
. How hard would
that have been to say? But she only had one thought blaring through
her brain.
Find Katie!

She excused herself—had she
even said
pardon me?
—and moved faster than the shoes should have allowed, pushing
through the other bodies crowding the room. There Katie was, coming
out of the kitchen. Haley took her friend's arm and ducked back
into the brightly-lit room.

"I can't go to
prom
with
your brother
," she
hissed.

Katie patted her hand, looking over Haley's
shoulder back into the other room. "Look, I know he's an old
curmudgeon..."

Curmudgeon
? Was Katie insane? Her
brother was...was amazing. Sure, he occasionally got irritated with
Katie's wild schemes, but then, who wouldn't?

He'd just finished his freshman year on a
football scholarship—quarterback, no less. And there was talk that
a Division I team wanted to recruit him. He was that good.

And that far out of her league. What would
she even say to him? Had Katie lost her ever-lovin' mind?

Katie's smile turned apologetic. "But he was
the only one..."

...who would go with
you
.

Her friend didn't have the finish the
sentence. The words Katie didn't say hurt just the same.

"Look, I don't have to go to prom," Haley
whispered frantically. "I can just go home, and then he won't have
to pretend to be my date."

"Quit worrying." Katie waved her hand like
she was brushing away a gnat. "Everything will be fine. Everyone
will be so focused on him, they won't even notice you."

Great.

And Katie was right.

Against her better judgment, Haley squeezed
into the suburban Ronald had borrowed from his mom. She would've
pressed up against the window but her voluminous skirt prevented
her from scooting far enough in. Her face burned as Maddox calmly
settled his lanky body beside her, one long leg pressing into the
pink layers.

His shoulders were so wide he had to rest his
arm behind her on the seat.

It took all her energy to keep from falling
into him as Ronald showed off for the guys, speeding around corners
until Haley thought she might get carsick. By the time they got to
the banquet hall, her whole body ached from tension, and she hadn't
danced a single song yet.

Maddox helped her out of the vehicle, and
within seconds, they found themselves surrounded by guys offering
high-fives and talking about the last games of the season. Girls
flirted with him as if Haley weren't even there.

She couldn't believe Katie had done this to
her.

#

Maddox
wanted to kill his sister.

Not for the date. He'd met Haley a couple
times before, and she seemed all right. Maybe a little shy, but not
starstruck like a lot of the other high school kids.

Tonight was supposed to be three or four
hours hanging out with Haley and his sister's friends. Home by
midnight. No big deal.

But he hadn't counted on the other kids. They
followed him around all night until he felt like a celebrity trying
to avoid the paparazzi.

About halfway through the evening, he finally
spotted a patch of daylight in the crowd and broke into the open
field. Out of the decorated banquet room. All the way outside.
There was a little church next door with a small playground and he
made a beeline for it like he had a linebacker on his tail.

He probably shouldn't have pulled his date
out with him. It had been sheer reflex to grab her hand when he'd
made his escape.

But now that they were alone, he had second
thoughts and dropped her hand. Maybe he should've left her in there
with her friends. She was so quiet—it made her seem more mature or
something—he kept forgetting she was a year younger than him.

The cool night air felt good against his hot
face, but he still couldn't breathe. He loosened his tie, sticking
a finger down his collar to try and alleviate the choking
sensation.

Everyone's expectations were
stifling. Even his mother! He remembered her whispered words before
he'd left the house that night.
"Just don't
get her pregnant—you don't want to ruin your life."
How embarrassing, and really, did his own mother
not know him better than that? And what about ruining
Haley's life
? His mom
didn't seem to have spared a thought for Haley at all.

He should be used to the
pressure. After his dad drank himself to death when Maddox had been
fourteen, she'd started calling him
man of
the house.
He'd worked early mornings
before practice and into the night, keeping the farm out of
bankruptcy after his dad had almost lost it all.

And now that there was a hint of fame on the
horizon, his mom had become obsessed with Maddox's football
career.

The expectations wore on him.

Football season didn't start for months, but
he already felt like he was about to be blitzed.

Even so, he should probably suck it up and be
sociable for another hour or so, until they could get out of here.
He looked up.

It was full dark out, but an outside light on
the corner of the building illuminated Haley. She was watching him,
her lower lip caught between her teeth.

"Sorry," he said.

She folded her arms around her middle and
shrugged. Her dress was pretty, but she seemed uncomfortable. With
him, or with the situation?

He nodded toward the banquet hall they'd come
from. "I didn't realize it was going to turn into such a zoo."

She shrugged again. She was
so
quiet
, he
couldn't get a read on her.

"You're not having fun," he guessed. He
turned slightly away and ran a hand through his hair. "This was a
bad idea." He gave the empty merry-go-round a shove, sending it
spinning. "This is probably a nightmare compared to how you
imagined your senior prom."

"I never imagined it," she whispered.

He barely heard her over the metal squeaking
as the merry-go-round wound down.

"Why not?" He glanced back at her.

She looked into the distance, still clutching
her elbows with both hands. "My dad and I move around a lot. This
is my fifth school in three years."

"So...?"

"So it's hard for me to make
friends. I never planned on
going
to senior prom, but Katie..."

"Katie," he agreed, trying for
lighthearted.

Instead of smiling, she turned her face to
the side. "Sorry you got stuck with me," she muttered.

"I'm not." He probably
surprised them both with the statement. "Unlike most everybody
else, I know how to say
no
to Katie."

In the dim light he could see her luminous
hazel eyes. Maybe they were filled with hope, with expectations,
but somehow, she didn't make his chest tighten up like all the
other kids did.

"We didn't get to dance," he said. When he
reached for her, she stepped into his arms. He'd expected her to be
hesitant, and maybe she was, but somehow, she fit there, in his
arms. His heart pounded like he was about to throw a fourth and
goal. He shuffled his feet, barely moving to the muffled notes
audible even though they were outdoors and away from the dance.

What was going on here?

"I'm sorry about all of...them," he finished
lamely. All the fanfare, the kids following him around all night.
They'd all heard about State sniffing around after the season
wrapped. If he was recruited, there was a chance he'd been seen by
the pro scouts.