The Trouble With Cowboys by Melissa Cutler

you’d be contacting him this week to negotiate a beef supply contract.”
    Jenna’s shoulders shook with a silent chuckle. “Oh, sweetie, since you’re in Catcher Creek to stay, you’re going to have to stop tormenting yourself. Quay County is ranch country, densest population of cowboys this side of the Texas border.”
    “Why do you think I hightailed it out of town when I was eighteen?” Actually, that had nothing to do with her decision to leave, but she needed to persuade Jenna any way she could.
    “The way I see it, you can either surrender to your cowboy fetish or swear them off cold turkey.”
    Amy rolled her eyes heavenward. “I swear them off cold turkey every day. Doesn’t do me a lick of good.”
    The organist opened the service with a quiet song. The minister, a tall, lanky middle-aged man Amy didn’t recognize, stepped front and center. Everyone got to the business of praying and singing hymns, a ritual as comfortable and familiar as it was uplifting.
    Usually. Except today, she felt Kellan’s eyes between her shoulder blades. She felt his gaze on her neck when she bowed in prayer. And when she stood to sing, her skin tingled with heat, imagining him watching her ass. She smoothed a hand along the fabric near her hip to double-check that her dress hadn’t bunched, then scolded herself for letting a cowboy’s incendiary declaration get the better of her.
    Fanning herself with the program, she worked hard to concentrate on the pastor’s words instead of strategizing about the fastest way to remove a belt buckle.
    “With Christmas around the corner, we’re taking the opportunity this month to reflect on the choices Jesus made in his life, the lessons we can learn from his decisions, and how those lessons matter in our modern lives. Every week of family worship in December, we are asking ourselves a simple question—What Would Jesus Do?
    “There’s a lot of pressure on folks around Christmastime. Everywhere we turn, it seems, we’re pressured to do things we know aren’t in our best interest. For some of us, we’re tempted by material goods, to buy our family members gifts we can’t afford, to spend, spend, spend. Others may be tempted to cheat on a diet with that extra piece of fudge at a holiday party or drink one cocktail too many. All these temptations turn our focus away from the true meaning of Christmas. And so, today, the question I want you all to ask yourselves is, What would Jesus do . . . about temptation?”
    With a snicker, Jenna elbowed her in the ribs. Amy sunk lower in the pew and fanned herself more vigorously.
    Inspired by the pastor’s teachings, by the time his sermon was over, she’d practiced her polite refusal to Kellan’s dinner offer. Her life was complicated enough without adding a cowboy to the mix. She’d never met a single one worth her time or trust. The pastor said the trick to rejecting temptation was being prepared for it, to know it was coming, and have a ready response.
    To prove Kellan’s powers of seduction were no match for her willpower, she resisted the urge to turn and locate him until the closing prayer of the service. When the congregation bowed their heads, she glanced over her shoulder to where Kellan sat. Staring at her.
    Not really staring, but smoldering. She could’ve handled it better if he’d smiled or done something cheesy like winked at her. But his expression was fiery and unblinking, his eyes shadowed her with wicked intent, as though he were picturing himself stripping her dress off and running his fingers over her bared flesh. Or maybe she only wished he was thinking about doing that half as much as she was.
    She jerked her face forward again, a hand on her chest, and let her breath out long and slow. So much for Plan A. The moment the pastor stopped talking, she’d sprint out the nearest side door and call her sister from the supermarket down the road to pick her up. After all, Pastor Schueller said the only surefire way to