The guy at the end of the bar was suddenly standing right next to me and Lindsey, bending down with his hat facing brim-up in his hand. "Here," he muttered, his deep voice cutting right through me.
Ignoring the effect him just saying one single word had on me, I graciously accepted the help and bent down with him, making sure to tuck my knees in under my skirt.
"Look, girls! Cowboy to the rescue!" one of my friends laughed, causing another chain reaction from the rest of them.
I groaned, wishing they would just shut the hell up already. "You guys are so embarrassing," I hissed at them, knowing they couldn't care less at this point. "This isn't funny!"
An older man in a perfectly-tailored suit came rushing out to the floor, his eyes looking ready to bulge out of his head. At the mere sight of him, every single one of my friends, including the culprit herself, Lindsey, all made a mad dash for the exit. I was left to stare up meekly at the guy, my shoulders slumping forward as I pulled myself to a stand. I'd have to spare my anger at them and get through this first.
"You just broke a fifteen-hundred-dollar bottle of our finest Cabernet Sauvignon!" the man said through gritted teeth, his hands in fists at his side.
Looking down at the ground where the helpful cowboy was thankfully finishing cleaning up the bigger chunks of glass, I wrung my hands. "I, well, that wasn't actually me who did that, but yes, I do apologize. I'm so, so sorry about that, sir. Is there anything I can do?"
The man narrowed his eyes at me as if I were a complete idiot. "Why yes, yes you can. You can pay the fifteen-hundred dollars for it."
I choked on the air I sucked in, my eyes wide. "Excuse me? I'm… I'm sorry, but I don't have… I mean, I can't exactly afford that."
The man was about to open his mouth and chew me out, but the cowboy—who I really needed to learn the name of because whoa, I just saw his eyes, and I'm pretty sure I've never seen such blue eyes before in all my life—stepped in, looking right at me. "Before this gets ugly, let me fix this. Have dinner with me tonight, and the debt will be forgiven. I'll handle it."
Blinking twice as fast as normal, I tried to grasp what he was saying. Surely, I’d had more to drink than I realized. "I'm sorry?"
The quirk of his sexy, full lips before was only a mild teaser for the kind of face-splitting, crooked grin he gave me. My grandma would've said his face was sweeter than sin. "Let me take you out tonight…"
"Emma," I offered, realizing he was waiting for my name.
"Emma, okay. If you come to dinner with me tonight then I’ll pay for the bottle. It's on me."
As I stared my rescuer in the eyes, I struggled to find the words to say, but all that ended up coming out was a barely audible, "Sure."
Chapter 2
EMMA
* * *
I fidgeted with the hem of my dress, completely nervous. Never in all my life had I been put in such an odd situation that had my heart racing this fast. I'd basically just agreed to have dinner with a stranger—an insanely sexy stranger, but still. He'd singled me out from the rest of the girls, and while they were pretty sloppy and definitely drunk, I couldn't help but feel flattered.
Imagining what he would pull up to the front of the campus apartments parking lot in, I smiled to myself. Maybe it'd be a beat up pick-up truck like all the country singers crooned about in their songs. Or a tractor. Or hell, what if he actually trotted up on horseback? Anything was possible in Texas.
But when a sleek silver Mercedes-Benz pulled up slowly around the curb, I anxiously looked all around me, wondering why the driver was stopping. I nearly took a few steps back when he rolled down the window to get a good look at me. "Miss Emma?"
I bounced on the balls of my feet, wearing a slightly confused smile. "Yes?"
The driver simply put the car in park and got out, coming around to open the back passenger-side door. "I'll be your driver this evening," he said, tipping his hat to me.
Wait… what? Was this guy for real? "Are you…" I let my voice trail off at the patient expression on his face. Clearly this was my ride, whether I believed it or not, so, not wanting to seem rude, I nodded and slid into the car, still baffled.
This wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Not even close. Not only had I figured my date (whose name I still didn’t know, crazily enough) would pick me up himself, but I thought it would be in some kind of rugged vehicle befitting a true cowboy. Did this guy who was so strikingly out of place at the winery have money or something?
Slowly my curiosity faded into a calm sort of contentment, the beautiful winding roads and green hillsides covered in wildflowers doing wonders for my mind. The sun was starting to set in the west, the last dying rays of gold shot through with crimson and rose finally slipping behind a larger hill, leaving the road in its massive shadow as we passed. It took me a moment to realize that the dark coming from behind us wasn't hills in the distance but storm clouds, the first lightning strike making me jump while I wasn't paying attention.
With any luck, I wouldn't get caught in the storm tonight. Although with how I’d left things back at the Pi Beta Phi house, I wouldn't have been surprised if I did.
I frowned as I looked out the window; my friends’ careless attitudes today were still bothering me.
"I cannot believe you all just fucking ditched me at the winery like that! On my birthday, no less! Could you have been any ruder?"
Of course, they all played it off like it wasn't even a thing. "Don't act like you didn't get anything out of it," Cassidy said, pulling her hair up into a messy bun. "A nice date with a hot-ass cowboy? If you want to trade places with me, just let me know, Em!"
They'd all just died with laughter, still drunk from the day-drinking while I was getting ready, but my gut was twisted up inside. Even as I sat there comfortably in the luxurious car, the quiet and colorful ride somewhat calming, I was slightly less than terrified.
Truth be told, I'd never been on a blind date before, and while plenty of my sorority sisters and a handful of my other friends had all been on dates set up through Tinder or some other app, none of them had ever done something quite like this. For some reason, I couldn't see the mysterious and sexy cowboy swiping right on anyone.
After absentmindedly checking my phone for the millionth time, I felt the car slow down. We'd been driving for an hour, easy, which made me wonder just where in the world we were. Who brought their blind dates all the way out this far? There was a small stab of apprehension in me when my mind automatically went to the worst scenario.
What if this guy was a serial killer or something? What if this whole thing was some kind of weird, twisted way of him doing God-knows-what to me? I had to steady my breathing and chuckle nervously to myself. "You're being ridiculous," I muttered to myself under my breath as I kept my eyes glued on my purse in my lap.
"I'm sorry, miss? Did you say something?"
I quickly shook my head, but had my keys strategically in my hand, just in case.
We pulled to a complete stop and when I turned to look out the window, my jaw dropped.
We were now in front of a humongous, sprawling ranch tucked away on top of a lower hill that led down to the flattened valley. Lights were lit all along the outside of the main house, with its fancy lodge-style architecture. All wooden beams and heavy stone work. The circular driveway could've easily fit twenty cars, yet it had a downhome feeling to it with the four rocking chairs and swing on the wide front porch. Even in the dimming light of day, I could tell that this place must've been worth a fortune.
Was this my cowboy's… home?
CORY
Inviting beautiful strangers to have dinner at my house wasn't exactly a pastime of mine, but when Emma walked into the house, I began to wonder why I hadn't done this more often. I knew she was gorgeous at the winery; she easily stood out from the rest of the girls she was with, and that nervous little grin on her face as she looked over at me? Even if the Cabernet Sauvignon hadn't crashed to the floor, causing my winery to lose
out on about fifteen-hundred bucks or so, I would've made my way over to her and invited her anyway. The wine incident just made it that much easier. Albeit a little bit more expensive.