Sassy Cowgirl Kisses by Kathy Fawcett

Chapter 32

“He likes you.”

“Stop it.”

“I won’t. He likes you, likes you.”

Sassy and her roomie were fixing their supper after a long day on the ranch. Freda had been helping Ash spread feed for the herds, and was filled with observations and insight.

“Ash wouldn’t stop asking me questions about you,” Freda continued. “What’s it like to live with Sassy? Do you think she has a boyfriend back home?”

“He did not ask you that!” Sassy was now fully engaged in the conversation.

“Oh, he did too,” Freda told her.

“I’ll kill him,” Sassy said under her breath.

“What’s that,” Freda asked, “did you say you’ll kiss him… again?”

Sassy turned towards Freda, who was having way too much fun at her expense, and searched her face. Did Ash kiss and tell? Sassy didn’t think he would, but how else would Freda know? She hadn’t said a thing.

Freda, looking like a cat that swallowed the canary, dropped her smug look and set down her plate.

“Oh come on Sassy, lighten up. I’m only teasing,” Freda scolded her roommate. “Stop taking this so personally—you can dish out the Jim Tim’s all day long, but can’t take teasing when it’s about Ash West. I think you like him too. Why won’t you tell me?”

Sassy dropped her shoulders and set her own plate down.

“I like him a little,” Sassy said at last, “and he did kiss me once. It was nice.”

Technically it was once, but Sassy didn’t say that it lasted a very. Long. Time.

“I thought so,” Freda said, triumphantly. “You both have been going around with your head in the clouds for days, just like I did when I first fell in love.”

“I’m not in love, Freda,” Sassy insisted. “It’s all complicated. More than you know.”

“Then tell me.”

“Not yet,” Sassy said. “Now, let’s eat your mac and cheese. It’s way better hot, before it starts congealing and sticking together into gooey and disgusting… mac balls.”

Freda expelled a hard and surprised laugh at her friend’s comment and wrinkled nose, taking all the tension in the room with it.