Status Updates From Cinderella's Cowboy (This O...

“No more mysteries, no more secrets. Can I just tell you now, while I’m a little high on whatever just happened, that I think I might be in love with you a little bit? I’m sorry about that. I don’t know how it happened. But I’m tired of pretending I don’t like you when I actually really, really do.”

Once, she thought. Just once, I want it to be about me. Isn’t that how the conversation had started? No, she realized. It had been about him. All about him. Not her at all. “Tell me how you really feel, Chad. I can take it.

“It’s true, isn’t it?” He was so close she could feel the warmth of his breath on her skin. “You’re quite something, Cynthia Henley.” He lifted a hand and touched her cheek. “A visionary, you might say.” She couldn’t speak. A voice inside whispered danger, danger but she couldn’t move, didn’t want to listen, didn’t need a warning. Because she didn’t care about the danger.

She could not, could not, have a crush on Chad Anders. She was a grown woman, for heaven’s sake. With a business to run. She had to get this under control. Thankfully, no one but her stepsisters knew about her one foray into high school high jinks. If Chad had even seen anything – which wasn’t a certainty – he wouldn’t have been able to identify her.

“If your idea of a ball includes a jukebox, a pool table, multiple spreadsheets and logo mock-ups, then this will be a magical night for us both.” The bantering continued as they drove, and by the time they reached town, she felt that she and Chad would get along just fine for the duration of this project.

If only she hadn’t bumped into Chad Anders first. Coming face-to-face with one of her most embarrassing moments had awakened the monster that lay coiled inside her, ready to flick its forked tongue up her throat and spawn new, improved embarrassing moments.