“Oh. Did he just give you a ride or …”
I put my hand on her arm to stop her, no longer tipping my head down. She’s my only hope. “Listen. I know you don’t know me very well, but I need your help.”
“Okaaay…” She looks around the room, as if seeking assistance from someone against a crazy person. “What do you want me to do?”
I tilt my head back a little. “Do you see anything? On my nose?”
She frowns and backs her head up a little. “Say what?”
“On my nose.” I point to it urgently. “Do you see anything … dangling or whatever?”
She kind of looks but then scowls again. “Ew, no. Why are you asking me that?” She takes a step back.
I put my head back down and let out a long breath, so relieved. If she’s lying to me I’m totally going to shoot her, because Ian’s walking towards me with a bottle of beer in each hand and it’s too late for me to do anything else. “Sorry. I just had an emergency situation there. Thanks for your help.”
She’s still frowning when Ian arrives. He hesitates for a few seconds a couple feet away, but then he continues towards us until he’s on my left.
“Here you go,” he says, handing me a beer.
“Oh, that’s so nice,” Hannah says, taking the other beer from his hand. “You’re always such a gentleman with me, Ian.” She tilts her head sideways to be cute and then starts to lift the bottle to her lips.
Before she gets it two inches up, I snatch it from her hand. I wasn’t thinking, I just did it. It’s annoying the ever-loving crap out of me that she’s just taking over like this. Plus, I saw him take a sip from the bottle already as he was approaching us, and I hate to think about her and Ian swapping spit, even if it’s just on the rim of a beer bottle.
“Hey!” she says.
I hand it to Ian. “Get your own beer. This one has cooties on it. Ian cooties.”
She gives me a hard look and then shakes her head, turning her attention to Ian. “This girl is crazy with a capital C, Ian, sweetie. I’d stay away if I were you.”
Ian’s slow smile makes me go all gooey inside, and all my anger dissipates when he turns his gorgeous green eyes on me. It’s like everyone else in the room has ceased to exist and he only sees me.
“That’s why I like her.” He moves closer and throws an arm up over my shoulders, before turning his attention back to Hannah. “How’ve you been, Hannah? I hear busy … starting rumors.”
She gives him a bitchy smile. “I’ve been fine, thanks for asking. And I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not a gossip.”
I snort, choking a little on the beer I just sipped.
Hannah ignores me.
Ian gestures in my direction with his beer bottle. “Candice told me you’ve been telling people you and I are getting together.”
She laughs. “You wish we were.” Then she scowls at me. “Why would you lie to Ian like that? That’s not very nice. We’re not really those kind of people here in Baker.”
Ian and I look at each other and smile like idiots. I can’t stop staring at his deep green eyes. I see flecks of blue in there too, this time. They remind me of the color of the sea off the coast of Mexico where I went one Spring Break during college.
And that hat! Holy panties on fire! I never thought a cowboy hat could be hot, but yes, this one is most definitely hot when it’s on his head. My underwear is about to burst into flames over it. I can feel my nipples hardening under the lace of my bra.
“Okay, well, whatever. You guys are boring. See you later.” Hannah leaves us standing there.
“Is she gone yet?” Ian asks, his eyes rolling around kind of crazy.
I can’t help but laugh. “Yes. Thank God.”
He lets out a long sigh of relief. “Good. Man, that girl … she’s a real piece of work.” He drinks from his beer and the moment we were having fades away.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I CAN FINALLY BREATHE NORMALLY again. Searching for something to say that sounds cool, I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “I’d love to hook her up with Bradley. Andie’s ex. They’d make the perfect couple.” Where did that come from? I have no idea, but I’m going with it. My super-brain is on auto-pilot again, and that’s always a good thing.
“Do it. Then she’d finally be out of our hair.”
“Yeah, she could move to my town.” I pause to think about that. Maybe my super-power brain is malfunctioning a little after all that medication. “On second thought, never mind. I don’t want that girl anywhere near my city.”
Ian turns us around so our backs are to the wall and we’re looking out at the groups of people standing and sitting around the room. Every single person has a long-neck bottle of beer in their hands. Some have one in each hand. Several of the girls have cowboy hats on and some are dressed like country prom queens in the off-season. Hannah is one of the latter group.
“What’s your city like?” he asks.
“West Palm?” I shrug. “It’s hot a lot of the time. Humid. But it’s a nice place. They’ve put a lot of money into their two main downtown areas. There are lots of places for people like us to hang out, have fun.”
“If I came to visit, what would we do?”
My heart does a triple flip inside my chest as I think about what he might be suggesting. But instead of letting my heart get ahead of reality, I keep my voice calm and answer.
“Well, first I’d take you to my salon so I could get my hands on your hair.”
“Oh yeah?” He takes his arm from my shoulders and lifts his hat up, rolling his eyes to his forehead as if he can see his hairdo without a mirror. “Something wrong with my hair?”
Another heart somersault. This time it’s a little painful. “No, your hair is gorgeous. Hair is my thing, so when I see a nice head of it, I want to get my hands on it.” I shrug. I know it makes little sense to someone outside the business.
He puts his hat back on and I nearly melt with happiness when his arm goes back across my shoulders. After taking a swig of his beer he smiles at me. “I do love me a good shampoo massage.”
“I have good hands,” I say in a low voice.
“I’ll just bet you do,” he says back.
Aaaaand cue the mood breaker…
“Hello, Ian.”
A girl’s voice breaks apart the sexy cloud I was falling into with Ian. I look up at her, dazed, my blood going cold when I see who it is.
“Hello, Ginny. You remember my girl, Candice.” Ian tips his bottle towards me. It makes me feel kind of cheap the way he does it.
Before she even answers, the echo of his words bring back the scene in the hospital with her, and then everything comes crashing down on my head. Flashbacks of him flirting with me here and being so nice, and then how we ended up coming here in the first place. The scene with Ginny in the hospital cafeteria is why we’re here. Oh my god. This is all just an act!
I pull to the side a little, enough to make Ian’s arm fall off my back. “Hi, Ginny,” I say, holding out my hand. “It’s nice to see you again.”
“You too,” she says, shaking my hand. Her grip is firm. “Are you enjoying our little town?”
I laugh through the pain that’s beating me up inside. “Oh yeah. Except for the lions and stuff.”
“Lions?” She turns her questioning gaze to Ian. Her ex-fiancé. The guy who is trying to trick her into thinking we’re together.
Dammit, how could I be so stupid?! I forgot he was doing this on purpose, that this was why he agreed to come to this party with me and the reason why he’s hanging all over me. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“Yeah, we were out checking cows early yesterday and we ran across a cougar.” Ian sounds like he’s talking about the weather, he’s so cool. “But we took care of it.” He points at my arm with the edge of his bottle. “My girl took a hit, though. Had to get some stitches.”
“Really?” Ginny nods at me slowly. I can’t tell if she’s feeling some respect
or hates my guts. “Impressive. And on your second day here, too.”
“Yep.” I have nothing else to say. I’m too sad to put the words together. One-way crushes suck big dicks.
“How long are you staying again?” she asks me.
“Two weeks.” Before when Ian and I were getting along and I was pretending it was all real, I was wishing it was three weeks. Now I wish I had a flight out tomorrow.
“Two weeks, huh? Imagine what kind of trouble you could get into in all that time.” She smiles warmly.
Ian and I answer at the exact same time.
“A lot,” he says. “None.” I say.
I hurry to explain. “I’m going to be focusing all my attention on Andie and the baby. Plus I have a calf I’m taking care of, so that’s going to be a lot of work. I don’t have time to get into any more trouble.”
I feel sick inside. Silly me, thinking I could play this sexy game with Ian and not let my heart get involved. Turns out a high school girl crush also comes with the high school girl broken heart when the girl realizes she’s been played. Andie was totally right about me. I don’t do flings very well if this heartache is any indication.
“Wow. A calf? Are you into ranching, then?” She tilts her head to the side a bit, acting like my answer really matters. I feel like I’m being interrogated in a very polite way.
“Parts of it.” I’m supremely uncomfortable right now. All I want to do is bail. “Will you excuse me for a second?” I say, separating myself from the two of them. “I need to go into the kitchen for a minute.”
I take off before either of them can react, and I don’t stop until I’m standing in the corner of the room in front of the fridge. I’m staring at a calendar that has days marked off when someone speaks from behind me.
“Is this the girl who shot Ian MacKenzie? Because if so, I wanna shake her hand.”
I turn around and find myself facing a six-and-a-half foot tall man. Or maybe he’s a bear. He could possibly also be a giant, upright wild boar. A light bulb goes on in my head. This is the man-bear-pig that Andie told me about! I’d met him once before at her wedding, but his hair had been brushed and his beard half this size and neatly combed.
Wow. He looks like a total savage right now in a kind of wild Sasquatch biker sort of way. It’s not totally awful. I wonder what he’d look like with a shave and a nice cut. I’d bet pretty hot, actually.
I hold out my hand and smile. “I am she. And you must be Boog.”
He smoothes his beard out with one hand which really does nothing to tame it, and shakes my hand with the other. “Honored to meet you. It’s about time someone shot that rabble rousing degenerate.”
I totally love this guy already. “Actually, it wasn’t me, it was karma, but same result.”
“Come again?” he asks.
I wave the conversation away. “Never mind. Hey, thanks for inviting me to this party … or letting me come … or not kicking me out.” I realize as I’m talking that I’m kind of a party crasher. “Ian’s my ride so please don’t kick me out.”
“Don’t be silly. You’re the guest of honor here.”
“I am?” I blush over his attempts to make me feel better, even though he’s totally lying. This is way better than my earlier act where I was busy fooling myself with a guy way too hot for my own good in front of way too many witnesses. I’m back on solid ground now, for the most part. Boog is an easy person to talk to.
“Yep,” he assures me. “What can I get you? You hungry? I got some pizza and wings in the other room.”
“No, thanks. I don’t have much of an appetite right now.” Something about a guy named Ian and being his fake girlfriend upsets my stomach.
Boog grins. At least I think that’s what he’s doing. His eyes crinkle up in the outside corners, but his mouth is too covered in black, pube-like beard hair to see his mouth very well. “How about a little chocolate?” he asks. “You like chocolate?”
I snort. “Do cougar scratches burn like a bejesus?”
He laughs really loud and long, holding onto his impressive belly. “I don’t know,” he finally says, “you tell me.”
“Hell yes, they do.” I smile. “Where’s your stash?”
He moves over to a cupboard and opens it up, pulling down a tupperware container full of chocolate bars. “Don’t tell anyone,” he says conspiratorially. “I’m not supposed to eat the stuff.”
I take a bar and rip off the wrapping. “You on a diet?” I bite into it and almost melt with the happiness that’s on my tongue.
“Should be.” He takes a bar too and puts the container back.
“What’re you guys eating?” Ian asks, walking up behind me.
I turn around in mid-chew. My arm goes behind my back in a sad attempt at remaining stealth.
“Nuffing,” I say, working hard at swallowing the evidence.
“Liar.” Ian looks at Boog who’s making no attempt to cover his tracks. “Cheating on your diet again?”
Boog eats half the bar in one bite. “Nope.” When he’s done chewing he continues. “Just getting my daily ration of anti-oxidants, flavonoids, and theobromine.”
It’s kind of fascinating how Boog looks like a man-bear-pig but talks like a professor. It makes me want to spend more time with him to see what kind of secrets he might be keeping.
Thinking that reminds me of Ian and all the secrets he’s keeping, not only from me, but from Ginny. Storm clouds move in over my mood.
“You ready to leave yet?” Ian asks.
“Nope.” I keep eating my chocolate, out in the open now since Boog didn’t try to hide it. “I’m just getting started.” Pushing myself off the counter, I hold up my chocolate bar in a salute to Boog. “Thanks for the energy boost.”
As I’m leaving the kitchen, I hear Boog’s response. “Anytime. Mi casa, su casa.”
Ian says nothing and I don’t stick around long enough to see if that changes.
Chapter Thirty
WALKING OUT INTO THE MAIN room again, I’m conscious of several pairs of eyes on me. The female ones look suspicious, the male ones look interested. I stop near an armchair and wait to see who might approach me first. I’m not surprised when it’s one of the guys.
“Hey there,” he says, sporting a big smile. He has nice teeth and a big cowboy hat that’s the color of straw but made of much finer stuff, I think. The sleeves of his navy blue button down shirt are rolled up a couple times, and his belt buckle is big but not as big as some I’ve seen around here, meaning I could probably fit a few carrot sticks on it instead of a full meal. Tall and broad shouldered, he has very tanned forearms for winter. The scars on his knuckles tell me he likes to fight.
I sigh. He’s way too handsome for his own good, and he knows it. I can tell by the way he walks, like he knows every girl in the room is looking at him and getting all revved up over what she sees. What a disappointment. I so prefer guys who are oblivious to their powers.
I know his type well; I call them roosters. They like to strut around and show off their feathers, and after they scratch out their territory, they have no problem fighting for it. The fact that Ian was playing around with me earlier has me considering a conversation with this guy, someone I normally would avoid.
“Hey there, yourself,” I say back.
“You the new girl in town?”
“I guess I am. Just here temporarily, though.”
“Mack’s sister-in-law or something, right?” He takes a drink of his beer and grimaces after he swallows.
“Kind of. Who are you?”
“Sorry, I should have told you sooner.” He lifts the front brim of his hat and dips his head a little. “Tate Montgomery, at your service.”
I don’t know what it is about getting a cowboy hat salute, but it does something funny to me inside. I think I like it. I can’t stop smiling in response, even though I had decided just a couple seconds ago that he wouldn’t be worth my time. When he winks, I smile even harder. Yes, I definitely like t
he cowboy salute thing. And the cowboy who’s doing the saluting. He’s not as roostery as I first thought.
“Can I ask you a question, Tate?” Since my plan to get in Ian’s Wranglers is all but busted, I decide to move on to my next order of business.
“Sure can. Ask me anything.” He takes a small step closer to me and I don’t back up. He smells nice, like man-soap.
“How hooked into the gossip grapevine are you?”
He shrugs. “I don’t do too much of it personally, but I suppose I know what’s on the wind. Kind of hard not to, living here.”
“I’ve only been here a couple days, but I was just wondering … how come Mack’s wife Andie doesn’t have any friends here?”
His face twists up a little and then he casually looks around the room before answering. He seems uncomfortable, but it’s difficult to tell whether it’s because he doesn’t like gossip in general or he doesn’t like the answer he’s about to give.
“Could be there’s stuff being said about her. Don’t know as I believe any of it, though.”
My heart starts hammering in my chest. People are saying crap about Andie? My Andie? I force myself to remain calm. He probably won’t tell me anything if I go all nuts on him. That kind of thing makes guys nervous.
“What kind of stuff and who’s saying it?” I ask.
He shrugs. “It’s really no big deal. She should just ignore it. It doesn’t matter now.”
I’m afraid he’s going to back off and tell me nothing if I act too eager, so I take his beer from his hand and help myself to a swig of it.
He smiles and moves in even closer, the heat from his body coming off him like he’s a human radiator. It’s nice on a cold winter’s night like tonight, and with a room full of strangers around us, I have nothing to fear, so I stay right where I am.
“I was just worried about her,” I say, trying to be cool. “She’s my best friend, and she’s all alone out here in Baker City. I’d love to know she has some friends she can count on.”