Just Shoot Me (Cowboy Way, #1) (15 page)

Tina wanted a house. For all of them. Her new
job would give her the funds to pay for a house. If she could just
get the photos she needed to convince the owners of Texas Tomboy to
see her vision and approve the menswear line. She had one week left
to get the presentation together. One week with a stubborn cowboy
model who she knew would be perfect to convince them.

She’d wasted a full day today messing around
out at the lake with that man. Tomorrow was a new day though. She
was going to get her pictures, then she was going to put together
the best presentation her bosses and their bosses had ever seen.
She was going to blow them away, and she was going to get her
promotion and her house.

But tonight, she was going to have fun and
forget about all that. “Hand me some of those marshmallows. I want
to make sure I get some,” she said. Lucky leaned back into the
truck and dragged three bags toward him. He handed them to her,
then picked up the buns again. “You like marshmallows?” he asked
with a laugh.

“
Hell, yeah,” she replied stepping
back. “They get all gooey when you toast them.”

“
Good, I like ‘em too. I look
forward to licking them off of your lips tonight.”

A little something shifted inside her chest,
but it was nothing compared to the rockslide of desire that Dean
Dixon caused earlier today. She grinned and shook her head. “Damn,
cowboy you sure cut to the chase, don’t you?”

“
I don’t let any grass grow under
my feet, beautiful, if that’s what you mean,” he replied with a
bodacious wink. “If I don’t get first dibs on you, my friends will.
Now, let’s finish getting this stuff set up, so we can get to those
marshmallows.”

“
Rodeo bulls?” Dean repeated,
eyeballing his brother like he’d lost his mind. “I hear those don’t
eat too well,” he said sarcastically.

The Dixons were beef cattle ranchers. Beef
cattle was always in demand. They could always rely on their cows
and calves selling to keep the family fed and the ranch going. Even
though things had been rocky in the last couple of years due to
their daddy’s health problems, they had been able to sell their
herd with no problem to help pay for his treatments. Or get them
started at least.

“
We’re not going to eat them,
dumbass,” Cord shot back with a shake of his head. “We’re going to
lease them to the Pro Rodeo associations. And I’m not only talking
about bulls. There’s broncs and even sheep for the mutton busting
the kids do.”

“
The feed and vet bills alone would
break us,” Dean said like his brother was an idiot. Because that’s
exactly what he was. The people who raised livestock for the rodeos
were wealthy men who played at ranching. Those men could afford to
drop a hundred grand on a good breeding bull. This ranch was so far
in the red, their books looked like they were bleeding to
death.

“
The circuits pay well for their
stock leases,” Zack chimed in. “And they pay for the vet bills
while they’re leased. Ryan and I have a lead on a retired bull that
was damned good bucking stock. And a few cows who threw some good
bulls too. The rancher selling the bull hasn’t advertised him yet,
but he needs the money fast. He’s agreed to give me and Ryan first
shot at him, but we have to hurry.”

“
What’s in this for us? “If we’re
doing all the work, providing the upkeep on the stock, what kind of
cut do you expect from the stock leases?” Dean asked pinning the
tall, blonde cowboy with a hard look.

“
That’s what we need to negotiate.
Ryan and I want to invest in the herd, and help with the training
and breeding in our off time. We have to do something when we
retire, and we know rodeo rough stock. We could get the stock
contracts.”

“
Why don’t you just do it
yourselves?” Dean asked shortly.

“
Because we’re rodeo riders right
now. Damn good riders who make a good living riding. We don’t have
time to manage a herd, and we’re not ready to hang up our spurs
just yet.” He huffed out a breath. “Besides we don’t have a ranch
to hold a herd or enough money to buy one.”

“
Okay, I’ll ask again. What’s in
this for us? The answer to that question will determine our
answer.” Dean looked at Cord again. “We can’t just make a decision
on a pie in the sky deal without some specifics.”

“
This isn’t a pie in the sky, Dean.
It’s a good idea, dammit!” Cord threw up his hands. “You are so
damned hardheaded and unbendable sometimes I think you’re made of
stone. Or that’s what your brain has turned to from being so set in
your ways.”

Dean sucked in a deep breath. He was not going
to put his fist in his brother’s face right now, he was just not
going to do it. But that is what he wanted to do. The best thing he
could do to preserve the party mood was remove himself from this
discussion and get another beer.

“
Let me think about it. Talk to
daddy and see what he says.”

Now, that wasn’t inflexible was it? He had
listened to his brother’s stupid idea, said he’d think about it.
Now, he was going to purge it from his brain, and have another
beer. Dean turned and walked toward the fire that was just now
starting to smolder. He’d been so engrossed in the conversation
with his brother and his brother’s friends he hadn’t even noticed
it had gotten darker, or how many damned trucks were here now.
There must be thirty or more parked out in the field. Everywhere he
looked there were people. Dean’s collar got a little tighter around
his throat, and he ran his finger underneath. He’d have a few
beers, then he was going back to the house.

This was not his idea of a good
time.

He walked over to the ice chest beside a table
set up on the far side of the fire, and flipped open the lid.
Pulling out a beer, he used the opener on the side of the chest to
remove the cap then stood back up. A radio from one of the trucks
suddenly blared country music across the field and several other
trucks joined in. At least they were all tuned to the same station,
he thought as he lifted his beer toward his lips. His eyes snagged
on Tina Montgomery sitting on a log beside one of Cord’s rodeo
friends and the beer stopped halfway to his mouth.

The guy was showing her how to skewer a weenie
on a coat hanger. The way she watched him you’d think he was
showing her something her life depended on her knowing. The cowboy
couldn’t be more than twenty-one, but Tina didn’t seem to notice or
care. She was almost sitting on his lap. He said something and her
dark hair danced around her shoulders as she threw her head back
and laughed.

All of a sudden the fire caught hold with a
loud whoosh. The heat blasted him, but was nothing like the heat
that surged through his veins. His heart beat ninety to nothing in
his chest, as old instinct kicked in. He wanted to go over there
and snatch her away from the man, and put his fist in the bastard’s
grinning face. But Tina Montgomery wasn’t his ex-wife. She wasn’t
his anything, he reminded himself as he turned his back and walked
around to the other side of the fire. He found an empty log,
grabbed a hanger from the stack near the fire, and a got a hot dog
out of the pack. He sat down on the log and shoved the dog on the
end of the hanger.

“
Hi cowboy, wanna cook me one too?”
a soft voice asked.

Dean looked up and his eyes met grass green
eyes that had to be from colored contacts, because he’d never seen
natural eyes so green. They were rimmed by mascara so thick the
blonde woman’s eyelashes resembled spider legs. Her lashes nearly
touched her arched eyebrows. She had to be at least ten years
younger than he was too. Like most everyone else at this party. He
felt like a used up old man in comparison. And this woman was
definitely not his type.

He dragged his eyes away, and stuck his hanger
into the fire hoping she’d take his cue to take a hike. Instead,
she sat down beside him, slid a hot dog onto a hanger then stuck it
into the fire beside his. “What’s your name?” Chatty Cathy who
couldn’t take a clue asked.

“
Dean,” he replied
gruffly.

He heard her sniff a couple of times, then she
leaned closer to his neck and sniffed again. “Damn, boy, you smell
delicious. Good enough to lick all over.”

“
Not interested, honey. I’m not in
a good mood.” That was about as blatant as he could be without
insulting her.

“
Bet I could improve your mood…if
you’d let me,” she drawled suggestively.

Not likely, he thought. Dean picked up his
beer from beside his leg and took a long drink, followed by another
until he’d emptied the bottle. He pushed it at her. “Get me another
beer will you, sugar?” He could only hope she would get distracted
and find some other man to bother on the way to the cooler. If she
made it back at least he didn’t have to go over there again and see
Tina Montgomery with that cowboy to get another beer.

“
Hold my hot dog and I will,” she
said sweetly and passed her hanger to him.

Damn, that meant she was coming
back.

Dean held both hangers in the fire, and
watched the edges of the meat blacken. When they were done a few
minutes later the girl still wasn’t back with his beer. He lifted
the hangers out of the fire and blew on the hot dogs. He’d
forgotten to grab buns off the table by the beer. Since Blondie
wasn’t back he’d have to get a beer himself anyway. With a sigh
Dean got up and walked around the fire to the table behind the
cooler.

Against his will, while he slid the hotdogs
off into buns, his eyes drifted over to the log where he’d seen
Tina sitting before. His heart jerked in his chest and the old
betrayal he was ever so familiar with when he was with Cindy tried
to take root inside of him. Jealousy all but grabbed him by the
balls and brought him to his knees. She was sitting on the man’s
lap now, while he wiped marshmallow goo off of her cheek. The
cowboy laughed as he leaned in to lick what was left, and she
swatted him away with a giggle.

“
Here’s your beer, honey. Sorry, I
got hung up talking,” the blonde said.

He took it from her and drank a long, slow
swallow to wash away the bitterness inside of him. When he lowered
the bottle, he motioned to the other hot dog on the table. “That’s
your hot dog, baby. It’s a little burnt, but if you put enough
ketchup on it you can’t tell.”

“
Oh, thank you for cooking my
weenie,” she said then giggled like she was about sixteen. “I’m
weird, because I like ‘em burnt.” She slathered ketchup over the
dog, then looked up at him as she took a slow bite. A dollop of
ketchup sat the corner of her mouth, and without thinking, he
thumbed it off. She stopped chewing, heat filled her eyes and her
eyebrows lifted.

Someone bumped into him and Dean stumbled
forward into her. His arms went around her to keep them both from
falling. He looked behind him and saw some of the partygoers had
begun dancing in the firelight to the music blaring from the
trucks.

He looked back at the blonde, glanced at Tina,
then back at the blonde. In the dark they all felt the same. He
wasn’t particular right about now. He wasn’t looking for Miss
Right, he was looking for Miss Tonight. This woman wasn’t his cup
of tea, but she would work if they took a walk in the woods. And
she looked easy enough in her shirt that was unbuttoned so low her
black lace bra was showing, and the shorts that were so short he
could see the curve of her ass cheeks. Dean finished his beer while
she ate her hot dog, then tossed his bottle in the trash can. “You
wanna dance, sugar?”

Her face perked up and she smiled, then slid
her arm through his. “See, I told you I could make you feel better!
I’d love to dance.”

Tina wiped her face with a napkin as she
watched Dean and the young blonde walk off into the dark where
everyone was dancing. Her heart did a little flip in her chest. It
sure didn’t take him long, she thought. In the truck he’d been
hitting on her. Now he found someone who was evidently more to his
liking than she was. That girl was young enough. Maybe she would be
too naive to see past Dean Dixon’s good looking exterior to see
what a project he was. And that was just mean, but it was the
truth. A woman would have to be either stupid, or have the patience
of a saint to deal with the man. Tina wasn’t either. The woman was
welcome to him.

Lucky evidently saw her staring, because he
looked over his shoulder, then back at her. “Everything okay,
darlin?” he asked with a smile.

Tina forced her lips up at the corners. She
was having a good time, and she wasn’t going to let Dean Dixon ruin
that. “Everything is just perfect.”

“
You want to dance?” he asked
looking back at the dancers.

“
I don’t know how to do that kind
of dancing,” she admitted. Tina had never country danced before in
her life, and the songs the radio station was playing weren’t
slow.

“
Well you can just stand on my
boots, and I’ll do the dancing until you get the steps down. How
about that?” he asked with a laugh.

“
I’d probably be on your feet
anyway, why not?” she said with a chuckle.

“
Honey, you can step on my toes any
time you want,” he said leaning in to hug her.