Blazing Hot Summer (Blaze Family Romance Collection)

Warning: Side effects may include spontaneous daydreaming about cowboys, military vets, and chefs with accents. May cause sudden urges to visit Montana, attend small-town fireworks displays, or sign up for cooking classes. Author not responsible for sunburns acquired while being too engrossed to reapply sunscreen. 🌶️ 🔥

Blazing Hot Cowboy
Chapter One
~CASS~

“Aren’t you at least a tiny bit excited to see him?” My sister is hot on my heels as I hurry through the office to the break room.

She won’t let it go. “It’s been a year. You can’t tell me you don’t still think about him, Cass.”

It’s been fourteen months, one week, and three days… but who’s counting? “I really don’t want to talk about this, Lou.” I weave through the tables and chairs to the back of the break room and then the supply closet, looking for a place I can go where my sister can’t follow me.

I swing the door to the closet open and step into the narrow space between the shelves, bumping into rolls of paper towels, coffee creamer, and copy machine toner. I turn and pull the door closed behind me. My sister grabs the knob and pulls it back open.

“Lou, no!” I shout and then stop myself and take a breath. I quiet my voice with effort. “Please. I need a minute.”

Her green eyes watch me through the crack in the door. She looks angry but I know it’s just her being my big sister. She lets go of the door and holds her hands up. “Fine.” Her face softens. “I’ll be out here if you need me.”

“Thanks.” I pull the door shut and lean against the shelf, my heart beating like a rabbit on the run. I can’t catch my breath. Is this what a panic attack feels like? I think about that for a moment before I shut that crap right down.

My mom’s voice rings through my head. “Cassandra Wyatt, you go take five and collect yourself. Life gives us so much to get in a tizzy about; a boy should never be on that list.”

She’s right. I know she is. But I can’t help myself. It’s like my body has a mind of its own—a memory of its own, and when it heard that Hank Blaze was just added to the list of pros headlining the bull riding competition at the annual Cherry Festival right here in Paulson next week, well… all the feelings and hurt I had bottled up over the last fourteen months, one week, and three days came rising to the surface all at once. 

I remember the last time I saw Hank like it’s etched on my heart—because it is.

It was a year ago last May. He’d just won the bull riding competition at the Pro Rodeo Championship up in Great Falls, and it brought on all kinds of attention. Suddenly he was being offered contracts from all kinds of big sponsors and asked to do television and radio commercials too.

I was there for it all.

Hank waved to me in the stands before he got in the chute each time and did the same when he was done. He rushed over to me after his big win, and lifted me in his arms, kissing me in front of all the cameras. “This is the dream, Cass,” he whispered. “It’s happening.”

I squeezed him as tight as I could. “I’m so happy for you, Hank. You’ve worked hard for this. I know how badly you’ve always wanted it.”

And he had. Ever since he was a kid, Hank was a natural for the rodeo. He never stopped training either. He worked hard and he didn’t take any of his good fortune for granted. He put me back on my feet and held my hand as he turned to wave for the cameras. It was such an exciting time. 

We didn’t see each other at all over the next week. Hank was busy meeting with lawyers and P.R. people working with his sponsors. He had meetings with his coach and his new manager and they got together all the time going over his schedule for when the pro circuit events started at the end of June. Everything was changing right before our eyes. 

On his last night in Paulson, we took the horses for a ride out along the Flathead River. I packed a picnic and we found a spot to tie the horses and watch the sunset. We lay on the blanket as the evening grew cool and the meadow grass swayed in the wind. 

“Seven weeks? It feels like such a long time.” I moved my hand over his, matching up our fingers and feeling the rough calluses on his palm.

He looked off into the distance as the sunset turned the sky golden bright. “It’s not so very long. It’ll go by in a flash. I’ll come back for weekends here and there.” He leaned in and kissed me and then slipped something onto my finger.

I pulled away and found a dainty pearl ring on my right hand. “Hank? What’s this?” 

His face was serious as he held my hand. “It’s my promise to you, Cass. This ring was my grandmother’s. I can’t afford to get you a diamond just yet, but if you’ll wait for me, I’ll come back and do this right. I’ll get you a fancy diamond and put it on your other hand so the whole world will know that you’re my girl.” He kissed my fingers and made me feel like a princess.

I looked into his blue eyes and felt so full of love I might have burst into a zillion pieces right there. All the emotions pushed up into my eyes and the tears just kind of fell on their own. “I love you, Henry Blaze.”

He wiped my tears and leaned in, rubbing his nose against mine. Then he grazed his lips along my mouth before kissing me deeply. “I love you, Cassandra Wyatt. And I promise you, this is just the beginning.”