The Maverick's Holiday Masquerade. Caro Carson

of her favorite cowboys out of the color program and taped them to the inside of her locker.

      She’d outgrown that infatuation. Cowboy crushes had given way to movie star mania, and she’d left the ranch to taste life on the stage. Now everything seemed to be coming full circle. Here she was, eating wedding cake on the Fourth of July with a rodeo rider. The Cowboy. Her Cowboy.

       Bravo, Universe. Bravo.

      Since the professional rodeo circuit ran nearly all its events in July and August, she wasn’t surprised Ryan had to leave town tomorrow. It was only surprising he’d been able to stop here today. He’d hoped Rust Creek Falls would give him a break from his everyday life in the fast lane. When people recognized Ryan, he returned all their nods politely, but he hadn’t been striking up conversations or handing out autographs. He didn’t want to play up his life on the professional circuit obviously.

      She wasn’t about to ask him about his life on the rodeo circuit, either. Her days as a fourteen-year-old fan were long behind her. Now she was the woman who’d fed a man cake while he’d devoured her with his eyes. That man was the person she wanted to get to know.

      She only had today to do it. One day for him to decide if he’d ever come back to Rust Creek Falls—or rather, one day for her to decide if she ought to convince him.

      One day that could decide the rest of their lives.