“You. Wouldn’t. Dare.” She was so flustered that she could feel her face burning with a deep blush.

“Don’t ever dare an O’Donnell. Besides, I’m not ashamed that I had sex with you, darlin’. Are you? If you want me to show you the steps to get to the roof, I’ll be right glad to do so. We can both do some yellin’,” he teased.

“I’m not quite ready for that,” she whispered as she moistened her lips, closed her eyes and rolled up on her toes to meet his slightly parted lips as they sought hers.

“Hey, anybody here?” Gemma’s voice sounded like it was coming from six miles away.

“We’re at the back of the barn,” he hollered.

“Is Liz with you?”

“She’s right here. Where have you been?” Raylen asked.

Raylen took a step back and flipped a table over, folded the legs up under it, and asked, “Rooftop? Or keep this quiet for a while?”

“Let’s take it slow.” Liz blew him a kiss.

Chapter 10

Fall in Texas can be colder than a brass monkey on the North Pole or hot enough to go swimming in the lake, sometimes both within a three-day span. It’s that time of year when folks turn on the heat in the morning but by midafternoon, the thermostat has to be switched to air-conditioning.

The afternoon that the O’Donnells came to put up Liz’s yard decorations felt nothing like Christmas. She had made a pitcher of iced tea, a pot of coffee, and the makings for hot chocolate were on the countertop with a platter of chocolate chip cookies that she’d bought at a local bakery. She found her playlist of Christmas songs on her phone, plugged it into a set of small speakers and put them on the porch. Everyone arrived at the same time: Gemma, Raylen, Dewar, Jasmine, and Ace. The three guys grabbed a cold beer and went right to the barn while the ladies had a glass of tea, cookies, and half an hour of gossip while the guys set the cutouts up in the yard.

“Reckon they got it figured out yet?” Gemma asked.

“What?” Liz asked.

“Menfolks are different from us girls. They have to scratch their heads and measure and talk something to death before they get it done,” Jasmine said.

“You got it. Then after they’ve done cussed and discussed, they do what we would have done to start with. We might as well go get the boxes of lights and have them ready,” Gemma said.

Liz started for the door. “What you said about men isn’t just cowboys and ranchers. It’s the same thing in the carnival business. We can take my truck and load all the lights in it.”

“Guess we didn’t give them long enough,” Gemma whispered when they found the guys still working on a plan to get everything lowered out of the loft.

Two hours later all the pieces were unloaded up against the fence on the south side of the property.