Her Captivating Billionaire Cowboy Boss Read online

  They were soon shown to a table in its own little vestibule.

  "You made reservations," Craig noted once the host was gone.

  "Yes," Donnie said. "I didn't want to miss out on a good table. It's been a while since I made a reservation for myself."

  Craig laughed a bit. "Wouldn't want to get rusty at such a simple task."

  They took their time looking over their menus. Everything looked so good; it was difficult to choose just one entrée but Craig didn’t want to order a bunch of things and then regret it later. He had the bad habit of overstuffing himself, a trait he’d had since he was a child. Now he was thirty-two, his body just didn’t handle it the same way.

  When the waiter came, they had decided on their meals and a plethora of appetizers to share so they went ahead and ordered. “The food here looks so good. I wanted to try a little bit of everything from the menu,” he remarked once the waiter was gone again.

  “Same!” Donnie said with a nod. “Maybe next time, we should come with a cooler so we can take away samples of everything.”

  Their food arrived soon and they were preoccupied with eating. Craig also ordered a Fauxrangina and its fruitiness more than soothed. After a while of simply enjoying their food and each other’s company, he looked at Donnie with another friendly smile. “Do Mom and Dad know you’re in town yet? They’ll probably want to take you out for some lavish dinner as well.”

  Donnie nodded as he sipped his Virgin Mary. “Mmm, yes,” he said, setting the drink back down on the table. “I told them I was coming, but they insisted I should take you out somewhere first. They said you’ve been buried in your work. Is that true?”

  “Well, this time of year is always busy for me,” Craig pointed out. “Isn’t it for you? Everyone wants their body to look perfect for summer vacations. I had to turn some people away right before this weekend, which I felt bad about.”

  “Ugh, imagine having to work on Memorial Day weekend. Or any weekend,” Donnie said. “The weekends are meant for living, otherwise why do we bust our behinds during the week, week after week?”

  Craig seriously doubted Donnie busted his behind very often. Sure, being a surgeon meant a lot of standing and diligently working with one’s hands, but compared to a lot of other sorts of jobs, they had it easy. “It is definitely good to get a break every week. I don’t know how some people do it. But I can also understand why they need to. And thank goodness for the service workers, otherwise who would work in places like this?”

  He looked at his brother, smug to have made a good point. As usual, Craig could see both sides of the argument. Donnie sipped his drink thoughtfully. “Mom and Dad also said you spend a lot of time at a club in town?”

  “The Executive?” Craig asked with a wry smile. “They make it sound like I go clubbing every night. It’s not that kind of place. It’s a respectable men’s club for drinks and hors d’oeuvres and hanging out. There’s no loud music or dancing girls.”

  Donnie snapped his fingers together in pretend disappointment, and then he gave a loud laugh. “I didn’t mention it because I want to go clubbing with you, Baby Brother. I only mentioned it because it sounds like Mom and Dad have been missing you.”

  Craig raised his eyebrows. Missing him? But it wasn’t as if he wasn’t around. He saw his parents at least once a month. Wasn’t it normal for a young man who led a busy life and had his own interests? “I spend time with them often enough, I thought.”

  They went back to focusing on their food, letting the awkwardness pass into pleasant silence. He had a feeling he was going to be visiting his parents once dinner was over, and he suspected they put Donnie up to this instead of it being purely his idea. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to visit his parents, though. They were good people, even if they did have a lot of opinions about what Craig should be doing with his life. They meant well, but it could be so aggravating at times, especially when he thought he was doing a good job. It often felt like the rug was being pulled out from under him when they talked to him and made little suggestions he hadn’t asked for.

  When dinner was over, Donnie took the check and paid it without hearing a word from Craig. “I told you it was my treat,” he said, amused. “You can buy me drinks at your social club soon.”

  Craig laughed lightly. “You’re on.”

  If you enjoyed this preview of Her Charming Billionaire Doctor, you can read the remainder of the store HERE! Available with Kindle Unlimited.

  Preview Of The Cowboy’s Match

  Pretendr Dating App Series

  Chapter One

  Dallas, Texas

  “Ready,” Trent proclaimed, lowering the front hood of his bright tomato red truck before jumping back into the front seat. He revved the engine and peeled out.

  “Woo hoo!” his friend Austin trilled, racing alongside him in his own truck – a black beauty with flames painted on.

  “Don’t get excited,” Wes shouted over all of the engine noise. “Y’all know I’m going to beat you.”

  The three friends had been drag racing each other in their trucks practically ever since they learned how to drive. Trent couldn’t pinpoint exactly how it had all started, but he figured that it belonged in the broad ‘boys will be boys’ category.

  Sure enough, Wes reached the makeshift finish line before him, with Austin trailing in third place. Their races pretty much always ended this way, but they still always found it fun. It was a certain form of comradery that their parents in particular would never understand. “Wanna go get some burgers?” Wes asked, grinning triumphantly.

  “You know I can never say no to a proposition like that,” Trent said with a grin back at his friend. It may have bothered him that Wes always found a way to beat him at drag racing, but at least Wes also always invited him and Austin out for burgers afterward.

  After hanging out with his friends, eating tasty burgers for a few hours, Trent headed back home to the ranch where he lived with his parents. He looked at the time on the dashboard. “Aw, heck, they’re going to be annoyed about this. I had no idea how late it’d gotten.”

  He often lost track of time when he was out having fun with his friends. Such a thing might have been okay when he was in high school, but he was in his early thirties now; he didn’t think his mom thought it was cute anymore. So he did what he thought any sensible person would do in his situation. He floored it.

  The flashing red and blue lights appeared in his rear-view mirror almost instantaneously.

  “Man,” Trent complained under his breath, dutifully pulling over to the side of the road.

  A police officer got out of the parked patrol car and came strolling up to Trent’s window. Trent rolled it down so they could chat. “License and registration, please.”

  He gave the officer the requested documents and then the officer looked over them, making sure to match them with Trent’s face and the model of his car.

  “Were you aware of how fast you were going back there?” the officer asked in a calm but authoritative tone.

  Trent nodded. “Yes, sir. I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry I wasn’t more careful, officer.”

  He didn’t think that sweet-talking was really going to get him out of trouble, but he figured that it was worth a try. The policeman took the paperwork back to his patrol car so he could look Trent up in the system. This was normally the part where he would get let off with a warning, but he had a feeling that this time, that might not happen. He had quite a stack of offenses at this point. He wasn’t going to be let off so easily every time, as much as he wanted to believe that. He’d been raised to understand that he was fortunate but that didn’t mean that he was entitled.

  He hung his head a bit while he waited an uncomfortably long amount of time for the officer to look over everything. Trent knew that he didn’t have anything outstanding, but he had been caught speeding with his buddies more than a few times, and he also knew that his parking record wasn’t impeccable.

  Finally, the officer returned to
the open window of his car. He handed the license and registration back to Trent. “Looks like this wasn’t your first joyride,” the officer stated. “I’m afraid I’m gonna have to ticket you for this one.” He wrote something down on his pad of paper and then tore off the ticket, handing it over to Trent.

  Looking down at the slip of paper in his hand, Trent did his best to not audibly gulp. $226.10?! His parents were going to kill him. He wasn’t going to ask them to pay it off, of course, but still. They kept tabs on him, since he worked and lived on their ranch. They weren’t going to be pleased about this.

  He was polite to the police officer and he made his way back along the road towards home, making sure to drive slower both because of the speed limit and also because he wasn’t looking forward to confronting his parents. He had no idea what he was going to say to them. He couldn’t keep something like this a secret. He already knew that he wasn’t the most well-behaved son, so lying would only make his case worse.

  As soon as he got to the ranch and parked his truck in the garage, Trent walked inside the house as quietly and as calmly as he could. The goal is to move into my own house on this land, but I can’t exactly build that if I’m spending all of my money on speeding tickets and new tires all the time. He knew that it wasn’t all that odd for a guy his age to be living at home with his parents – especially a guy who lived on his parents’ ranch – but he still felt quite deflated. He’d had such a grand time with his friends. It didn’t seem fair that his great day had to end this way.

  They’re just going to lecture me like they always do, he thought, collapsing onto the couch in the living room. They seem to forget that I’m not a kid anymore. I can pack up and leave any time I want to.

  But he didn’t know where he would go or what he would do. It was just an empty threat.

  “Oh, there you are,” his mother said as she strolled into the room and found him sitting there. She had an expression on her face that was difficult to read. His father was close behind, looking tired as usual.

  “We were wondering where you’d gone,” Trent’s father said. “We need to discuss some things with you.”

  That was an alarming sentence. Trent knew that his parents were planning things behind his back – things that concerned him – and he’d been nervous about it. They didn’t used to be so secretive. Now they kind of kept away from him. He’d assumed for some time that it was simply because he was an adult now and they were giving him his space… But now he wondered if he’d been wrong to read into it. “Sure thing, Pop,” he said as calmly as he could, sitting up straight on the couch so there was plenty of room for his parents to join him there.

  “It probably won’t come as a surprise to you that we’ve been thinking about retiring,” Trent’s mother said once she and his father were seated. “We’ve owned and operated this ranch for nearly forty years now. We’re ready to relax and have someone else take it over…”

  Trent perked up in his chair a bit. Is this the moment? Are they going to give me the reins to the ranch?? He tried his best to not look too excited, but it was difficult. This was the kind of thing he’d been looking forward to – a purpose for him, something for him to focus on instead of being so wild all of the time. He knew that his parents were tired of him goofing off. He craved the responsibility.

  His father sighed softly, entwining his fingers thoughtfully. “We wanted nothing more than to pass on the ranch to you, Son. But we’re concerned that you aren’t responsible enough. Your heart doesn’t seem to be in it. And all of this… drag racing that you’re doing with your friends… We can’t have that. If you were to take over the ranch, you’d need to be fully committed and present. And not just physically, but mentally as well. You’d need to put the ranch first. It doesn’t seem like that’s something you want. We know that you care about things here, but do you care enough?”

  This was more words than Trent had ever heard from his father. The senior Mr. Reed was not a man of many words, but he was a hard-working man of action. Trent’s face went a bit red. He had expected a lecture about his drag racing, but he’d never thought that they’d been considering passing him over for the ownership of the ranch.

  “I do care,” he countered, keeping his voice gentle. He didn’t need to start a shouting match over this. He was sure it was just a misunderstanding. Meanwhile, the speeding ticket practically burned in the pocket of his jeans. He was going to have to deal with that without even mentioning it to his parents. How could he prove he was responsible in one breath while telling them about that in another breath?

  If you enjoyed this preview of The Cowboy’s Match, you can now read books 1-4 of the Pretendr Dating App Series as a box set!

  Matched through a fake relationship app, they weren’t looking for love. But their hearts could only play along with the charade for so long.

  This box set of sweet, fun, and uplifting clean romances includes:

  The Lumberjack’s Match

  The Rock Star’s Match

  The Cowboy’s Match

  The Detective’s Match

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  About the Author

  Blake Andrews is an author of sweet, wholesome contemporary romances. Hailing from New England, her own happily ever is spent hiking with her husband and rescue pup, devoting long, lazy afternoons to reading on the beach, and trying every flavor in the ice cream aisle.

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