Sassy Cowgirl Kisses by Kathy Fawcett
Chapter 15
So, Ash West wanted to try his hand at flirting, did he?
Sassy sat at her desk. She was flushed, in spite of his novice attempt. And more than a little amused. Watching Ash flirt was like watching a newborn calf struggling to walk on uncertain, spindly legs.
Freda didn’t mention the flirty side of him,she thought. But perhaps Ash hadn’t flirted with Freda. Though Freda was a pretty girl, and easy to get along with.
Yet with Sassy, Ash was all “depends on who’s doing the kissing.”
Flirting for Ash was probably very new—like a boy trying on his daddy’s ten-gallon hat; checking the mirror to see how it fit. She wanted to tell him that it didn’t fit him.
Not at all.
He was too nice, and too genuine to be pretending to be someone he wasn’t. Then again, his attempts were so endearing, and she didn’t want to deflate him.
She also wanted to tell him that she’d been flirted with by the very best, her entire lifetime. Men and boys—mostly single—had been falling over themselves to get her attention since she could remember, and she always found it off-putting.
“Someday, you’ll like the attention,” her mother told her, but that wasn’t true. Not yet. She might make an exception for Ash West, who probably had no idea how handsome he’d become since his high school days, according to Freda. Or how attractive it was when he was just being himself, like stopping to help her with a flat tire, only to end up herding sheep. Or catching her as she fainted. A man who would gently hold a water bottle on a lady’s neck was someone special.
But it was the splinter that did things to her legs, and stomach, and head when she thought back on it.
The way he told her he had to amputate just to make her laugh, and the way he supposedly kissed her finger—kissed it, like her finger was sleeping beauty and he had to prove his love, was, to date, the most swoony kiss Sassy ever received in her young life. And it was only her little finger.
Imagine if and when that kiss landed where it was supposed to.
But flirtation was something to be avoided—it’s not why she came to West Ranch. Sassy was here for a very specific mission that had very little to do with Ash West.
Or maybe it did.
Maybe flirting with Ash wouldn’t be so terrible. There might be hurts a man like Ash could kiss away, if she gave him the chance. And just maybe he could be a shortcut to her ultimate destination—the big house on West Ranch.