Her heart just about stopped in her chest. What the hell was he saying? Her panties were in his back pocket. She tried hard not to gape—tried hard to keep her heart from crumbling and busting out of her chest into a pile of rubble on the top of the bar. “I…should?

“She should?” Drew chimed in, apparently equally mystified.

“Sure.” He shrugged. “Why not?”

Della knew that, somewhere deep inside, this was probably Tucker getting back on his you-need-to-see-guys-your-own-age soap box. And yes, she had told him from the beginning that this was only a temporary thing, and she had meant it—at the time. But they’d been so close these past weeks. Was it really that easy for him to let go?

“I bet Bo can get you an all-areas pass to his next rodeo event,” Tucker said, his expression carefully neutral. “Tick that off your bucket list.”

The only rodeo Della was interested in was a late-night one with Tucker where she put on his Stetson and rode him like a cowgirl.

“I sure could.” Bo beamed at her.

She searched Tucker’s face as she held her heart together through sheer force of will, trying to understand why he was doing this. Offering her to another man. But he just nodded and smiled at her like she’d be crazy to turn this opportunity down, and she was suddenly so angry she could spit. Did he truly not feel anything for her?

What an idiot she’d been, holding out, hoping and wishing for nothing.

Well, screw you, buddy. She smiled at Bo. “I’d love to go on a date with you.”

Bo’s grin was genuine. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Della nodded, ignoring the intense heat from Tucker’s stare searing like a laser into her profile.

“How about next Saturday afternoon,” he suggested. “I’ll come and visit Grams, and then we can go out to the lake for a swim. Maybe come to Jack’s after and get something to eat?”

“Sure.” Della wouldn’t ordinarily say yes to a date in the middle of nowhere with someone she barely knew, but she knew and trusted Rosemary’s recommendation, and there’d be plenty of people enjoying the warm weather out by the lake on Saturday afternoon.

She smiled at Bo because double screw Tucker. “That sounds lovely.”

“Here.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket, tapped in the password, and handed it over as he, too, got off his stool. “Give me your number.”

Della complied, deliberately not looking up from the screen as she said, “Bye guys,” to both Drew and Tucker and turned away, heading for the Forbes booth with Bo at her side.

She could feel Tucker’s eyes on her skirt like a heat-seeking missile and hoped his X-ray vision could see every inch of her naked ass as she walked away.

…