In Love With A Cowboy (BWWM Romance) (3 page)

“So, you have yourself a girlfriend?” Dean asked.

“Nah, nothing serious. You know, a couple of short term relationships here and there, but I’m too busy to settle down.” There was no way I would call Nicole a girlfriend. She was more like an expensive booty call.

“That sounds familiar.”

I took a deep breath and counted to ten in my mind. The waitress arrived with our coffee and sugar and cream.

“How about you?” I asked. It was better to talk about him.

“Oh, nothing serious. I had someone once but she doesn’t want me anymore.”

“I wonder why.”

His face clouded over, a storm rolling in. Angry Dean was not pretty.

“You know, this is why I don’t tell you anything about my life. You always manage to judge me, with your big fat paycheck every month and your Versace suits and all of that. You’re not better than me, Tan. You never were.”

“I wasn’t trying to be better than you. I was just trying…” How did I explain something like this to my older brother? He would never understand that I’d been living in his shadow all my life. That when Mom and Dad had died, it had been a relief because for the first time in nineteen years I couldn’t disappoint them anymore. I’d left to the city where I could be a nobody and it wouldn’t matter, because there every face was just another face in the crowd. In a place as tiny as Westham, people knew when you were a nobody, and you could never get away from it.

“Trying to what?” Dean asked.

I opened my mouth to speak but his phone rang. He answered it, listening for two seconds before he nodded and said, “I’ll be right there.”

“Sorry, Tanner,” he said, hanging up the phone. “My deputy just brought someone in. I have to go. Will you get this?”

“Sure, I have all the money, don’t I?” I said sarcastically, but Dean just clapped me on the back and walked out the shop, hands on his belt buckle. His gun sat against his hip for everyone to see, and honestly, who wouldn’t notice it? Even on a man Dean’s size you could see it.

I leaned back in my seat and waved the waitress over. She started coming toward me but when the bell above the door jingled again, she looked up and smiled.

“I’ll be right with you,” she said and hurried over. The woman that came in was carrying a little girl on her hip. The girl was big enough to make her look top heavy, but she wilted all over her mother’s shoulder.

“Oh, there’s my big girl,” the waitress cooed and took her into her arms, carrying her through another door. The mother stood looking lost for a second, like she didn’t know what to do with herself now that her arms were empty. And hot damn, she was beautiful. Her chocolate-colored skin was smooth, I wondered what it would be like if I touched it. She was tall with a curvy frame and she looked like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her hair was braided tight against her scalp in little corn rows and it made her look elegant and refined. She looked right at me, and something jumped inside of me. Her eyes were a deep, dark liquid.

“Hi, sorry about that,” she said, rubbing imaginary creases out of her shirt and tugging at the hem. “Christine is taking care of my daughter. What can I get you?”

“Jada?” I asked. Her eyes deepened and she pursed her lips.

“Do I know you?” She was gorgeous. I could just stare at her all day.

I shook my head.

“No, sorry. I heard you were the manager. I’m putting two and two together. I just, uh… the bill.”

She nodded and walked around the wooden counter to the cash register. She moved like she was made of water. I got up and walked to the counter, pulling out my wallet. I studied her face while she rung up the coffees. Her lips were full and thick, meeting in a cupid’s bow right in the middle. Her nose was long and straight and perfect for her face, and when she looked up at me I felt unbalanced.

I gave her a wad of cash before she could tell me the price. She made a face, amused, and I felt like an idiot, looking like I was flashing my money. She picked out the cash she needed and returned the rest. Her skin brushed against mine and electricity ran through my body.

“Thank you, Mr…” she waited for my name.

“Tanner. Call me Tanner.”

She smiled again. Her teeth were perfectly white. She ran her hand over her braids and her eyes slid over the other customers.

“Are you in town for long?” she asked.

“Indefinitely. I’m here on business.”

“Well, I’ll be seeing you around then,” she said.

“You’ll be seeing me? Around, I mean.”

“It’s a small town, Tanner.” My name sounded nice rolling off her tongue. Important. “Everyone knows everyone here. And you don’t exactly blend in.” She looked at my suit. I looked down and felt heat creep from my collar. I was standing here blushing like a school boy with this woman looking at me. I shook my head, irritated at myself.

“Well, I might drop by again. I hope your daughter gets better.”

“Thank you,” she said. I forced myself to turn around and walk out of the door. When I pushed it open and the bell announced my departure, I looked back her. She glanced at me and flashed another one of her brilliant smiles that made me feel like a different kind of man.

Chapter 3 - Jada

“Did you see the new guy?” I asked Christine who joined me behind the counter.

“I did. He’s really good looking. But like in a familiar way, you know?”

I nodded. There was something that felt familiar about him. His eyes were an electric blue. When he’d looked at me I’d felt self-conscious. Something I hadn’t felt in a very long time; like he could see right into me.

“Is Keisha sleeping?” I asked. Christine nodded. She was a whiz with Keisha. If she were older and she didn’t work for me I would have left her with Christine instead of Mrs. Cole. “I don’t know what the problem is. If it doesn’t sort itself out in three days I’m going to have to take her to Doctor Maud.”

“I think she’ll be okay.”

“This is the weirdest place for that guy to come to,” I said. “Tanner, he said his name was. Did he just walk in here?”

“No, Sheriff Dean brought him.”

My heart sank. If Dean knew him it meant he was trouble. No one just hung around with Dean without a good reason, and friendship was never one of those reasons. Dean was the kind of guy that forced his title on everybody. Maybe it made him feel better about himself. Pity though… Tanner was really a catch. With a chiseled jaw, all upright with broad shoulders and the dazzling smile that made me miscount the money twice. But he’d given me so much of it.

“Do you think he’s from the city? He dresses like he’s going to church.”

“Definitely. With the amount of money he whipped out it can only be the city. I wouldn’t be surprised if they charge an arm and a leg there.”

We both giggled and Christine hurried off to take care of her tables. I sold two crafts to an old lady that bought from me every week.

“Thank you, Ms. Sanchez,” I said when she waved at me from the door.

When it was time to lock up, Christine let the blinds down in all the windows while I cashed out the register. We were out by six. Keisha was groggy and fiery hot with a fever, hanging limply on my arm while I locked the front door.

“Come on, angel, let’s get you in bed,” I said and we walked around the store to the back and in through our kitchen door. The café and our house were back to back. It made things easier for me this way. I would be able to check on her tomorrow. Mrs. Cole wasn’t available Friday's and I wasn’t going to send her to the Play Center.

I tucked her into bed and checked her temperature again. I hoped it wasn’t something she’d picked up at the Play Center. Last year it had had to close for a week because of an epidemic , the kids got sick from each other so easily, and Keisha had to be at home for a week. It was worse than holidays because she was sick too, and Mrs. Cole had been out of town.

I steeled myself against negative thoughts. I would cross that bridge when I got there.

By the time it rolled around to eleven o’clock, I was finally done with my bookkeeping. The café wasn’t doing great, but at least it wasn’t going under, either. I would have money to get through the month at least, and still pay the share of rent Dean asked for the shop. I checked on Keisha again. She was restless and hot, mumbling in her sleep. Worse than earlier on. I couldn’t let this go on for three days, like I’d planned. I had to get her to the doctor in the morning.

Christine could handle the mom-rush in the morning and I could be back by lunch.

I switched on my laptop and logged onto my internet banking. The account was all but empty. I only had a few dollars left. And no medical aid. Which meant that I couldn’t afford to take Keisha to Doctor Maud. I checked on her again, and weighed my options.

And then I started to make my calls. First Dean. As usual he didn’t pick up. He only answered my calls when he felt like it, which seemed like never these days. If I did the same to him I would never hear the end of it. Dean had refined hypocrisy. I dialed Mrs. Cole and after what felt like forever, she finally answered with a croak.

“Mrs. Cole, I’m so sorry to bother you this late. Keisha has a bad fever and I need to run down to the sheriff’s office to talk to Dean.”

“I’ll be right over, dear,” she said without me having to ask.

“Thank you,” I breathed. I knew she hated coming out at night. I knew she was old and she didn’t want to be disturbed. But I had no one that I could just call like that, and she knew it. She gave me a mouthful sometimes, but she never let me down.

When she knocked on the door I was ready to go. I’d woken Keisha up and given her the last bit of medicine I’d had in the cabinet, and tucked her in carefully. I’d tried to explain that Mrs. Cole was coming over for a bit but she’d fallen asleep again before I’d gotten the full sentence out. My stomach clenched tight with nerves and I felt like I was going to throw up. Situations like these were always the ones where I felt completely out of control.

“Thank you so much for coming—“I started, but Mrs. Cole shook her head and waved me off.

“Don’t even think of it. Just go.”

I left the house. The night air was chilly and it cut through the shawl I’d wrapped around my shoulders. I was already wearing my slacks and the t-shirt I slept in and I didn’t think about changing. Dean deserved to see me at my worst once in a while, so he realized I wasn’t Wonder Woman. I got in my car and drove the few blocks to the sheriff’s office.

The light glowed dimly in the ground floor window where the cells and the offices were. The apartment on top of it, where Dean slept whenever he wasn’t sleeping in some woman’s bed, was dark and quiet. I climbed the steps and pushed open the door.

I couldn’t see Dean anywhere. Not in the holding area or in the office. One of the cells was occupied though, a man wearing expensive looking jeans and a butter-colored shirt. He lay on the cot in the cell, a white cowboy hat over his face. I turned to leave and knocked into the chair that stood by the desk. It made a loud clattering sound. The guy looked up, shifting his hat.

His blue eyes shocked me to my core, and he sat up, looking sheepish. He swung his legs off the cot, took off the hat and walked out of the cell which was open.

“Shouldn’t that be locked?” I asked, nodding at the door. Tanner looked at it and shook his head, looking amused.

“I’m not a criminal…”

I shrugged. “You were in the cell.”

He leaned against the wall, hands jammed in his pockets, hat back on his head and looking nonchalant and damn sexy. A cowboy from a hot western. I swallowed.

“Where’s Dean?” I asked.

“He’s out on some house call or something. We were having a drink together, that’s why I’m here.”

Only now did I notice the open bottle of brandy on the table and the two empty glasses.

“Sleeping it off?” I asked, even though if this was what Tanner looked like drunk, he could be drunk around me any day. His eyes slid down my body casually, like it was normal and acceptable for him to look me up and down. I felt everywhere his gaze fell, like a physical touch. I shivered.

“What did you need the sheriff for? Maybe I can help.”

I shook my head. “Sorry, it’s not really… it’s personal.”

He cocked in eyebrow at me. “It has to be personal if you’re here dressed in that,” he said looking at my body again. I wrapped my shawl tighter around my body. I wasn’t wearing a bra and he would see my nipples tightening right through my shirt. Keisha was sick at home and here I was getting turned on by a stranger just because of how he was looking at me.