Free Roping the Rancher (Harlequin American Romance) by Julie Benson

late.” He pointed to her fancy high heels. “And get some decent boots.”
    * * *
    A FEW DAYS after his run-in with Stacy, Colt picked Jess up from school and she asked if she could go to Halligan’s that night. “A bunch of the kids are meeting there to listen to Maroon Peak Pass. I really want to go. Not only because my friends are going, but I want to support Emma.”
    Jess met the band’s lead singer and guitarist while volunteering at the Estes Park animal shelter, where Emma worked as the volunteer coordinator. “Is Cody one of the kids that’ll be there?”
    She shrugged. “I didn’t ask, and I don’t care.”
    His throat tightened. “Did something happen on your date?”
    “He seemed like such a great guy, but he was a bore.”
    That he could handle. “I wish I could say that would be the last boring date you’ll go on, but it won’t be.”
    “You mean I have to kiss a lot of frogs before I find a prince, kind of thing?”
    “You kissed him?”
    “No.” She drew out the word so it sounded more like no-ah. Translation: Dad, you’re being such a jerk. “All he did was talk about himself and how great he was. Why would I kiss him after a date like that?”
    She was growing up so fast in some ways and still so young in others. “You think you could make time to have dinner there with your old man before you meet your friends?”
    * * *
    T HE REMAINDER OF Stacy’s first week in Estes Park passed by uneventfully after Ryan’s therapy. Amazingly, Ryan loved Estes Park High School. He’d come home talking about the kids he’d met and was actually excited. He said it was almost freeing not having anyone know what he’d been like before the accident. His life was a blank slate now and he could make it whatever he wanted.
    “Everyone says there’s a great band playing at Halligan’s tonight,” he said the minute he climbed into the car after school.
    “What kind of band? Country, I’m guessing.”
    He nodded.
    “Since when are you interested in country-and-western music?”
    “I don’t care about the music. I just want to hang out.”
    “I can drop you off. What time do you want to go?”
    “I was hoping you’d go with me. You could use some fun, you know.”
    “Okay. What’s up? No teenager wants to go to hear a band with his sister. Even one as cool and wonderful as I am.”
    “Don’t go, then. Sit home alone. What do I care?”
    Then the reason for his request hit her. How could she have been so stupid? Ryan wanted to fit in. He’d already bought a closet full of Wranglers and ditched his fancy sneakers for cowboy boots. She bet he was uneasy about going alone. He wanted her there as a safety net. “You’re right. I do need to get out. How about we go for dinner and then stay to hear the band?”
    An hour or so later after she’d cleaned up and changed, she and Ryan walked into Halligan’s Bar and Grill to find the restaurant packed.
    The last time she’d been in town, she’d kept to herself. Since her lodgings possessed a kitchen she’d hidden out there, living on whatever she could throw together or ordering from whatever places delivered, but this time was different. She couldn’t crawl into her cave. Not when Ryan wanted to belong so much.
    Heads turned as they walked in. Stacy smoothed a hand over her blouse.
    “I told you you’d be overdressed.” Ryan warned her that Halligan’s wasn’t like the restaurants and clubs she went to in L.A. She’d stubbornly told him she was who she was and she wasn’t about to change. Now she wished she’d reconsidered.
    Halligan’s was a Wranglers, cowboy boots and cotton shirt type of place, and whether you were a man or woman that was the dress code. Dressed in a burgundy silk blouse, designer jeans and stilettos, she stuck out like a dandelion in a clover field.
    The place had a down home kind of charm with its Formica-topped tables, neon beer signs and wood floors. Families sat at some of the tables. Friends at others. Some