Catch Me a Cowboy by Katie Lane Page A

glasses and bad acne.
    “Hey, you need some help?” Austin Reeves strutted across the oil-spotted pavement in cowboy boots that were too pointed, and a straw cowboy hat that looked as if it had been put through the spin cycle one too many times.
    The purse slipped out of Mia’s hands and spilled out on the concrete. Completely humiliated, she didn’t waste any time shoveling the spilled contents back inside and climbing into the car. But after only one joyous rumble, the engine sputtered and died. A hand thumped on the roof, and Austin leaned down and peered in the window with a cocky grin on his tanned face.
    “Did you forget something?”
    Mia swallowed hard and tried not to look at the boy who had starred in so many of her daydreams. “Like what?”
    “Like gas?”
    She blushed to the roots of her hair. “Oh, yeah, I guess I was busy texting and forgot.”
    She could feel his eyes staring down at her as if she was the dumbest thing this side of the Mississippi, and she hated people thinking she was dumb. Hated it with a passion.
    Tipping her chin up, she turned and looked at him. “Aren’t you that football player who plays for Bramble High—Avery? No, Albert?” She snapped her fingers. “Alvin!”
    His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t pull back. Instead he continued to rest his hand on the roof and stare at her. “Austin.”
    “Oh, right.” She gave him a closed-mouth smile.
    He continued to study her until she thought she might scream. Then finally he stuck his hand in the window. “If you’ll give me your card, I’ll fill her up for you.”
    It wasn’t like Mia had much of a choice. Hand him a credit card or sit there like an idiot. She just hoped that he wouldn’t take the time to read the name on the card. Pulling out the wallet, she chose the only card she hadn’t tried and handed it to him. “So what position do you play?” she asked in an attempt to distract him. Everyone in town knew what position Austin Reeves played.
    “Quarterback,” he stated as he slipped the card in the slot.
    It seemed like a lifetime passed while she waited for authorization. And when the pump beeped its acceptance, Mia finally released her breath as he handed the card back. Although his next words caused her empty stomach to heave.
    “I know you.”
    She glanced up to find him leaning back against the car, his head cocked toward her.
    “You’re Jesse’s sister, Mia.”
    She was shocked that such a popular boy would know her name, shocked and embarrassed all at the same time.
    “I bought a dirt bike from your brother that kicks ass,” he continued. “He gave me a sweet deal, although his smart mouth is kinda hard to take.”
    The mention of Jesse had a lump crawling up the back of her throat. Jesse did have a smart mouth, but it was alla defense mechanism put in place to hide his tender heart. A heart she’d trampled when she blamed him for Ms. Dalton finding out they lived in the trailer. But it hadn’t been Jesse’s fault. Sooner or later, someone would’ve found out.
    Mia just wished it had been later.
    She looked out the car’s windshield at the sunset that had exploded across the horizon in deep tangerines and cherry-pink. About now the kids would be eating the boxed macaroni and cheese she’d brought home that day from the Food Mart. Brody would try to whistle through his noodles, and Adeline would get half of hers on the floor. Jesse would’ve burnt the toast again and wasted too much butter, but it wouldn’t matter. She wouldn’t be there to scold him. Or to help him clean up and fix the things he’d found in the dump that day. And she wouldn’t be there to give Brody and Adeline their baths. Or tell them a bedtime story. Or kiss them goodnight.
    “Hey,” Austin stood in the window looking down at her. “You okay?”
    The lump in her throat that had started out as a pebble seemed to have gotten so big she couldn’t get words past it. Luckily, becoming a mute seemed to work in her favor.