Cowgirl Crazy (#2, Cowboy Way) (6 page)

Twyla wondered what the hell he wanted with
her. As far as she was concerned, he could get back in his truck
and head back to wherever the hell he came from. But dammit if
seeing him hadn’t stunned her system, and broke her concentration.
Her damned traitorous heart, the one owned by the girl inside of
her who had been in love with him for ten years, had melted to her
toes because he’d come to find her. There was no other reason he
could’ve been at the bar.

“
We have a special date tomorrow
night,” Heather announced as she reached over to pull her gym bag
off of the floor board.

“
Date?” Twyla repeated dumbly, as
she got out of the truck and shut the door. She walked around the
truck and met Heather at the front. Tomorrow was Sunday and in the
morning she had a date with Tango and her mounted shooting
instructor. Who was pretty good looking, as it turned
out.

“
What kind of date?”

“
One of my regulars, a good guy,
wants us to do a—“ Heather gasped then her eyes narrowed. “What the
hell are you doing here?” She discreetly unzipped her bag, and
Twyla turned around, but didn’t have to. She knew who was standing
behind her.

“
Ryan why
are
you here?”
she asked with frustration.

“
I’m coming to save your crazy
ass, but I have no idea why,” he growled in a nasally voice, as he
grabbed her arm in a tight grip.

On instinct, Twyla threw up her knee, and
connected with his crotch. He grunted and staggered back, then bent
at the waist with his hands propped on his knees. Heather lunged
forward, her arm extended and something squirted out of a black
container in her hand. Ryan squealed loudly, staggered back, and
his arms flailed as he swiped at his eyes.

“
Fuck, fuck,
fuck
,” he
screamed, all but ripping off his t-shit to scrub at his
face.

Twyla dropped her Twinkie bag and ran over to
him. “What did you spray on him, Heather?” she asked as she helped
him sit on the curb.

“
Just a little asshole repellant,”
Heather replied with a snort. “He won’t die. Come on let’s go
inside and call the police.” She walked up two steps then turned
back toward Twyla. Huffing out a breath, she asked, “If you don’t
want him here, what the hell are you doing, Twy?”

Twyla looked back at Heather. “I didn’t want
you to
hurt
him!” Ryan moaned and rested his head on his
knees. “Hold your head up, Ryan, so I can see,” Twyla said with
worry constricting her chest.

“
I can’t see,” he groaned in a
voice barely above a whisper. It seemed to Twyla, from her hand on
his back, that he was barely breathing. “It burns so bad.” Even
though he probably deserved this too, the misery in his voice made
her insides ache for him.

“
Well you can sit out here and
play nurse all you want. I’m tired,” Heather said with a huffed
breath. “I’ll be inside. Holler if you need me, and I’ll call the
police.”

“
Don’t call them,” Twyla shouted
to her as she walked up the stairs.

“
Figures,” Heather grumbled
shaking her head as she topped the stairs.

“
Pepper spray. Need water,” Ryan
groaned, as he stood up. He stepped into the light and Twyla
gasped. His eye was black, and almost swollen shut. His nose was
bruised and swollen too. Teddy must’ve really hit him hard. “You
look like you’ve been mule-kicked! We’re going to the emergen—”
Twyla stopped to lean in closer to inspect the white string hanging
from his nostril. “What the hell is that hanging from your
nose?”

“
Tampon,” he said in a stopped up,
nasally voice. “Hurts like hell too. Don’t know how y’all stand
it.”

“
I guess so,” she said with
laughter bubbling in her chest. “You left the applicator in there,
nimnut!”

His head swung to hers, and he pried open the
slits that covered his fire-red eyes. “Applicator?”

“
Yeah, the cardboard comes out
then the cotton stops the bleeding,” she explained, and a chuckle
followed. “I learned that the hard way the first time I used them
too.” More chuckles bubbled up to her throat, and escaped. His
stunned expression melded the chuckles into full-fledged laughter.
Twyla held her stomach and staggered back to sit on the first step
and let it loose. It felt damned good. She laughed so hard she
thought she might crack a rib if she wasn’t careful. Tears streamed
down her face, as she gulped for breath.

Ryan stomped over to glare down at her, as
much as he could glare from his slitted red-rimmed eyes. “Glad to
be the comic relief, but my fucking eyes are on fire, and my nuts
are up in my throat. Think you could help a poor, dumb bastard out
when you’re done?”

Twyla sucked in a breath and wiped her eyes
with the hem of her tank top. She pushed up to her feet and took
his arm to help him as he stepped on the first stair tread. “Sorry,
it’s not every day a guy sticks a tampon up his nose. Why didn’t
you just use Kleenex?”

“
Didn’t have any,” he replied
angrily.

Laughter tried to consume her again. “But you
had a tampon?”

“
You left one in the glove box of
the truck.” He grabbed the stair rail to steady himself, and Twyla
carefully led him up to the landing.

At the apartment door, she knocked, because it
was shut and locked. After a second of lock flipping, the door
swung open, and Heather stood there in only her pushup bra and
skimpy panties. Ryan groaned and shut his eyes. Heather shook her
head, threw up her hands and walked away. She went inside her
bedroom, and slammed the door behind her.

Twyla helped Ryan inside and shut the door
behind her, then flipped the deadbolt and door locks. If she
didn’t, she knew Heather would ream her out in the morning. Ryan
staggered toward the couch, but Twyla slid her arm through his and
walked him to the tiny bathroom down the hall. Sitting him on the
toilet, she got a washrag and wet it in the sink.

When she turned toward him, his head was
leaned back on his shoulders and his eyes were closed. She took a
long look at his bruised nose and swollen eye. He really should go
to the emergency room and get checked out. He had to be in
excruciating pain. Her heart tried to bleed for him, but she
patched it up mentally. He deserved what he got, she reminded
herself.

“
You look like ten miles of bad
road, cowboy,” she said laying the rag on his forehead.

He grunted. “Feel like twenty.”

She moved to stand in front of him and one
eye, the one not black, popped open. The bright blue iris stood in
sharp contrast to the red roadmap that was the white. His hands
gripped the toilet, as she bathed his forehead and beard-roughened
cheeks, then his chin. “I’m sorry you got hurt, but you should’ve
known better than to come here.”

“
I’m a dumbass, what can I say?”
he said and his one opened eye rolled.

“
Why’d you come? I told you I was
done.”

And Twyla had meant it. Even if she’d had her
doubts about her decision since she left, she knew it had been the
right one. Moving on, getting over her useless crush on Ryan Easter
was what was best for her. Seeing Ryan again though made all those
feelings come back, and that made her angry. Dammit, she wanted to
be over him as easily as she said those words. Why couldn’t it be
that easy?

“
I came to tell you I’m sorry for
saying those things to you,” he said, his voice sincere.

That was why. Ryan was a good man, as much as
he was as dumb as a box of rocks, and his head as hard as one.
“Close your eye,” she grumbled, gathering up her determination as
she swiped the cloth over his uninjured eye, then gently patted the
other. “I appreciate that, Ryan, but you didn’t have to come here
to tell me that. I didn’t want to see you.”

Ryan grabbed her wrist, and his eye popped
open again. “I wanted to see
you
, Twy. I thought it was
right to tell you I’m sorry in person…and I wanted to make sure you
were okay. I care about you, Twyla.”

Like a sister
. She knew it was on the
tip of his tongue to add those words. He’d said that to her often
enough. Firmly established a line between them she hadn’t ever been
allowed to cross, one he’d only come close to crossing once with
her. That night at the bonfire when she was sixteen. The night of
the almost kiss that had captured her heart as surely as if he’d
done it.

Ten years of her life she could never get back
wanting him to finish that kiss.

Twyla wasn’t wasting another minute on him
now. When she left the rodeo, left him, she accepted things were
never going to change between them. Now she was moving on. He just
needed to accept that and leave her the hell alone.

“
Don’t apologize. You telling me
to get a life was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And
that’s what I’m doing, Ryan.” Twyla turned to the sink and rinsed
the rag under the tap. “I don’t need you to worry about me. You
just mind your business, and stay away from me. I’m sure we’ll see
each other around at
family
gatherings sometimes.”
There,
put that in your pipe and smoke it, bucko
. She squeezed the
water out of the rag, like she wanted to squeeze his neck.
You
want to be my brother, buddy? That’s exactly what you’ll be from
here on out.

She turned back toward him for round two of
cleaning up his face, and his fingers closed on her forearm.
“Twyla, please listen—”

She put her finger over his lips. “Stop. We’ve
said all we need to say, Ryan. Just let it go. Let me go. I’ll be
fine.”

He mumbled around her finger, “It’s obvious
you’re not fine. You’re working at a fricking strip—”

Twyla slapped her palm over his mouth. “It’s
not a strip club. I dance and serve drinks, and I’m making damned
good money doing it. Who the hell are you to judge me anyway? I’ve
been to those places with you and Zack, remember?”

He mumbled something behind her hand, and
Twyla moved it, but she didn’t wait for him to repeat himself. She
grabbed the string hanging from his nose and yanked. Ryan howled,
and grabbed her wrist. “No, wait,” he whispered, sucking in a
breath. “I’ll do it.”

“
Fine, I’ll get the bag of frozen
peas from the freezer. That will help the swelling.” And it would
also give her an excuse to get away from him, from his intoxicating
scent which was wearing down her defenses. Twyla spun away and
walked down the hall and to the kitchen. She flung open the freezer
and shifted stuff around until she found the bag of
peas.

Tiredness mixed with depression inside of her
as she shut the freezer door and leaned her head against the cool
exterior. She needed to get Ryan out of there and on his way back
to wherever he was supposed to be. She didn’t know how long she was
going to be able to pretend she wasn’t still nursing feelings for
him. They were still there, but she was determined to get rid of
them. To exorcise them from her soul. Exorcise him from her
thoughts. That was real hard to do with him right here under her
feet. But it was nearly three o’clock in the morning. She couldn’t
in good conscience kick him out. He could sleep on the couch, but
she was getting him out of there first thing in the morning, and
tell him and her brother to back off.

With a deep sigh, she shoved away and walked
back to the bathroom. Walking down the hall, her steps stuttered
when she saw the bathroom door was open. Ryan, legs spread, naked
except for a small towel wrapped around his lean hips, leaned on
the sink examining his nose in the mirror, pressing his long
fingers at the bridge. The well-defined muscles in his biceps and
back were on prime display, the bottom of his tight ass nearly
showing at the hem of the towel.

Twyla’s tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth,
as she made the last few steps to the door. When she pried it
loose, she asked, “Why are you naked?”

He sighed, and patted his fingers gently
around the edge of the bruise on his eye. “Seeing if anything is
broken. Bleeding didn’t start again, thank God.”

“
That doesn’t explain why you’ve
shucked your clothes.”

He looked at her, and grinned. “Bothering you,
darlin’?” His eyebrow lifted and he flinched. “We’re
family
,
so it shouldn’t matter, right? I’m about to take a
shower.”

So he hadn’t missed her family reference a few
minutes ago, and was evidently paying her back. Testing her. Ryan
knew how she felt about him. It looked like he also knew she wasn’t
as over him as she was trying to pretend. Well two could play his
game. For some reason he must enjoy having her in the palm of his
hand. Panting after him like a school girl. It probably fed his
over-inflated ego. Those days were over for her. He needed to know
that.

Twyla somehow maintained her cool, even though
her palms were itching to see just how soft that light fur on his
tightly muscled chest was. To taste the soft skin of his neck where
she saw his heart pounding. Clenching her fists at her sides, the
peas froze her palm as she inched up her chin. “Doesn’t matter a
bit. Why bother with the towel?”

Oh please don’t bother
, her inner woman
begged, but she slapped the masochistic bitch, and tossed the peas
down on the counter angrily.