Kissing the Cowboy (Circle B Ranch 5)

“You know I’m twice your size, right? I could hog-tie you in five seconds flat.” I remove her grabby hands from my aching sides.

“I’d like to see you try.” She waggles her brows.

Before I can, the front door swings open and is followed by my sister’s big mouth. “Hey, bro! You home?”

Shit.

I jump off the couch and pull Harper up with me.

“In the living room,” I call out.

“Oh, hey!” Her eyes light up when she sees us. “Sorry to barge in, but Mom said she had some creamy chicken casserole left, and I was craving some.”

“Oh, uhh yeah…I ate all of it.” I scratch the back of my head, waiting for her to explode. “Sorry.”

“Ugh. That’s my favorite!”

I apologize again with a shrug. “Ma didn’t tell me you were comin’ to get some, or I would’ve saved you some. There’s some cornbread left.”

“Well, I’m sure she didn’t expect you to finish it off. But then again…she should’ve.”

I smack my hard stomach. “Man’s gotta eat.”

Elle digs around in the fridge for something else, then gives up and leaves. Harper and I settle back on the couch, but all I can think about is how I was seconds away from kissing her.

Perhaps that was a sign—don’t kiss your best friend.

“Oh, guess what?” Harper asks after we watch the episode of Schitt’s Creek where Moira yells at David to fold in the cheese. We laughed as the scene unraveled. “You know that small business conference I go to every quarter?”

“Yes, the one you sometimes hate going to.”

She smirks. “Yes, that one. Well, they’ve asked me to speak on a panel at the next one.”

My eyes widen with pride. “Wow, that’s awesome! Do you know what subject?”

“It’s basically just speaking about how I grew my small business utilizing modern-day social media.”

“You’re gonna kick so much ass.”

“Yeah, well, now that I’ve committed to do it, I’m nervous as hell. The president’s daughter, Shayla, is gonna watch and criticize every damn word I say. I’m already starting to second-guess myself.”

“Who the hell is Shayla?” I wave her off. “Never mind. I don’t care. I only care that this person doesn’t make you lose confidence in yourself. You know your shit and deserve the opportunity.”

Her shoulders slump as she frowns. “I know, you’re right. I just…ugh, she drives me crazy. She’s my biggest competitor, and she’s one of those friendly fake-type people. I’m not jealous of her success. I’m just annoyed that she steals ideas—including mine—to get to the top. She’ll step on anyone if it means staying up there.”

“Well, she sounds awful. You’re busting your ass to make a name for yourself. And you’re doing it the right way. People like her always fall down, so don’t worry about her too much. Karma will take care of it.”

Harper sighs, then smiles. “Hopefully sooner than later.”

Chapter Six

HARPER

The more I think about answering questions in front of hundreds of people, the more I want to vomit.

I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished in only a couple of years. It’s not been easy, but I’ve had the best support system, and that’s helped me get to where I am now. I love making videos for social media, showing my process, and talking about restock days. It brings me so much joy to see everyone so excited.

But the moment I see Shayla’s company announcing nearly the same damn thing and releasing it before my launch really makes me shabby. I wanted to do something special for fall, so I put together a box of fall-inspired items—pumpkin spice soap, pumpkin cheesecake lotion, apple crisp lip balm, and apple pumpkin butter face cream. It’s called the Fall of Hart box, and it’ll be my biggest launch to date. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks and finally decided to do it. That way, I could talk about the success of it at the event, but now it’s gonna look like I copied Shayla even though it was my original concept.

However, I know the truth, and that’s all that matters. My customers will see the cute little personal touches I add to each box and appreciate it even more. Since I’m packaging today, I decide to set up my tripod and take a video of me putting orders together. Sometimes, I add some trending music, and other times, I don’t so they can enjoy the ASMR sounds. I usually get thousands of views and tons of comments. There’s no way I can respond to them all, but I try to answer the most common questions.

After I’ve done about thirty orders, I take a break to eat lunch and edit my videos to post this afternoon. Once I’m happy with the finished product, I publish it, then get back to work.

A couple of hours later, I see a couple of texts from Hadleigh. She’s at work today and usually checks in with me during her breaks.