Read Online Justice for Boone: Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes, Book 6 by Susan Stoker - Free Book Online Page B

obviously losing my touch.” Then he looked back at Hayden and said in a normal voice, “Hayden, I asked you to lunch because I like you. Because the first time you touched my hand over a week ago I got a jolt so strong, I felt it in my toes. I came into the station today in the hopes I’d get to see you. I’m forty years old and I resorted to a lame excuse to come into your workplace to see you and ask you out.”
    Hayden smiled at him. “What would you have done if I’d said I was working, or if I’d turned you down?”
    “I would’ve made up another reason to see you. I wouldn’t have given up that easily, not when taking you out on a date was something I really wanted. But, Hayden, the point is, this is a date. And because it’s a date, you’re not paying.”
    “So if it wasn’t a date I could pay?”
    “No. Whenever we go out, I pay. Period.”
    “That’s pretty cavemanish.”
    “Yup.”
    “Honestly, Boone, I can pay for myself.”
    “Give it up, Hay. Let me do this.”
    “Oh, all right.”
    Boone laughed out loud at her disgruntled capitulation. “You make it really hard to do something nice for you. Hasn’t anyone taken you out before?”
    “Not really, no.”
    Boone sobered. “I have no idea how that’s even possible, but it’s their loss, Hay. Their loss.”
    Hayden shrugged, but held the way he made her feel close to her heart. She’d been honest with Boone. She was always one of the guys. No one thought to pay for her. And no one, not ever, had given her a nickname. She liked it.
    “Okay, Mr. Moneybags, can you pay then? I have to get going.” She hid the warm and fuzzy feelings Boone put inside her and tried to play it off.
    “Yes, ma’am.” Boone smiled at her. He gestured to the waiter and he came right over and took Boone’s credit card and hurried away.
    “So, when are we going out again?” he asked with a smile.
    “That sure I want to go out with you again, are you?”
    “Yup.”
    Hayden couldn’t hold back her smile. “Well, the guys and I are going out tomorrow night…wanna come?”
    “Yes.”
    “You don’t even know where we’re going.”
    “Doesn’t matter.”
    “And if I said we were going to a strip club?”
    “No problem.”
    “And if we were going shooting?”
    “I’d bring my gun.”
    Hayden rolled her eyes. She should’ve figured a Texas cowboy like him would be comfortable around firearms and would have his own. “Fine. We’re just going to this bar we always go to for some beers.”
    “Great. You want me to meet you there, or will you let me pick you up?”
    Hayden considered it for a second. “I live in the opposite direction from your ranch.” She tried to give him an out in case he’d only asked to be polite.
    “Hay, I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to pick you up.”
    She nodded and said softly, “Okay, you can come and get me beforehand. But don’t be late. It’s a pet peeve of mine.”
    Boone brushed her hair behind her ear once more. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
    The waiter came back and Boone signed the receipt. He scooted out of the seat and held out his hand to Hayden. She put her hand in his and he helped her stand up. He put his hand on the small of her back as they walked to the front door. Hayden had never understood why the women in her romance books always gushed when a man did that to them. But she got it now. She always thought it would feel controlling in some way, and maybe with another man, it would’ve. But with Boone, it felt comforting. He rested his fingertips against her back and applied just a bit of pressure. Enough for her to know he was there, but not enough so it felt like he was pushing her along. Hayden swore she could feel the heat from his hand soak through her tank top into her bones.
    They stopped outside the restaurant and she gave him her address. “I just have to say this one thing.”
    “Sure.”
    “If you’re planning on stalking me, taking me out, trying to get me drunk, then