Just Shoot Me (Cowboy Way, #1) (20 page)

Mr. Jamison grunted, then shoved his chair
back. Her manager grabbed her arm and all but pulled her up to her
feet. “We’ll just leave you to your work now, sir. Thank you for
your offer. I should have an answer for you later this
afternoon.”

Tina was pushed from behind to the door of the
office. June opened it then shoved her into the hallway. Leaning
back she shut it behind her. “What the hell is wrong with you
Tina?” she hissed.

“
I must be living in an alternate
universe, June. What just happened in there?”

“
You got offered the biggest job
you’re ever likely to be offered, and you were off in lala land
somewhere. What were you daydreaming about?”

“
What job offer? I have to do the
photo—“

“
That promotion is off the table
now. Jamison shelved even thinking about the men’s line until next
year, so the company can do an expansion into Europe. I recommended
you for this job, because I can’t travel like that with my kids.
Now, I’m not so sure I made a good call. You just made me and
yourself look like an idiot!”

Good God almighty. Now that Lori had taken
off, Tina couldn’t take the job either. She had a kid now too.
There was no way she could leave Laney here to go gallivanting all
over the world. “What happens if I turn it down?”

Nobody here knew her personal problems. These
were her co-workers, not her friends or her family. Tina kept her
personal like to herself.

“
If you’d been listening in that
meeting, you would know they’re downsizing the staff to help fund
the expansion. I’m afraid your job will be one of the ones to be
cut. That’s why I recommended you.”

“
But the calendar
sales—“

“
Made us a record year last year.
It was a great idea, and you got full credit for it. But that was
last year. And this year, the board has decided to ride the
momentum from the increased sales to expand their market, instead
of the developing a product line. I’m sorry.”

It looked like even though she’d been at Texas
Tomboy six years now, she had just worked herself out of a job by
recommending that calendar to them. “I see,” Tina said fighting
valiantly to control the tremble in her voice. “I’ll have to think
about it.”

“
Think fast, Tina. I told Mr.
Jamison he’d have an answer tomorrow. He wants this settled so they
can start talking to distributors.”

“
Yes, ma’am. I’ll let you know by
five tomorrow.”

June was right, Tina thought as she turned and
headed for the ladies room to have the meltdown that was very near
to the surface. Tina was about as stunned as a woman could get. She
had a little over twenty-four hours to make the decision of her
life. And she had not a soul to help her make it. Not a soul to
talk to about it.

***

Loud pounding at his bedroom door sounded like
it was coming from the inside of his skull. Dean groaned and
squeezed the sides of his head. He rolled over and bright sunlight
pierced his brain, so he slammed his eyes shut and rolled back
over. A noisy thud on the floor beside the bed made it worse. He
peered over the edge at the empty whiskey bottle and groaned. A
wave of nausea rushed through him, and Dean held his breath,
slapped a hand over his mouth, and hugged his stomach. Collapsing
back onto the bed he groaned again. Dumb, dumb dumb, he castigated
himself. The knocking started again and he flinched, barely
suppressing a whimper.

“
Daddy, Miss Tina is on the phone
for you,” Jeremy shouted from the hall. “And Maw Maw says to tell
you to come to lunch!”

Lunch? He glanced over the side of bed at the
bottle again and wondered what time it was. Hell what day it was.
Friday maybe? He thought it was around midnight when he finally
polished it off last night, but couldn’t remember. Tina had left
yesterday hadn’t she? Dean’s stomach lurched, and he groaned. He
knew one thing, the last thing he wanted right now was food. Or to
talk to Tina Montgomery. The pounding started again, and the knob
rattled.

Dean sat straight up in the bed. “Alright,
Jeremy!” he shouted and swallowed hard, waiting for the room to
quit moving. “Tell your grandma I’m not hungry. And tell Tina I
will call her back!”
Sometime in the next lifetime
, he added
mentally as he laid back. That might be sooner than later, he
thought, because he sure as hell felt like he was about to meet his
maker.

“
Yes, sir…” he barely heard the
words, but what he didn’t miss was the dejection and concern in
Jeremy’s tone. Dean sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. He
needed to get out of this fucking bed. The sun was shining, and
that meant it was a workday. He had work to do, and he also had
things to work out. But he just couldn’t find the energy to move,
or the motivation. Maybe if he just curled up and slept a little
more he’d feel better when he woke up. Odds weren’t good for that,
but it was something to hope for he thought as he drifted off
again.

A little while later, or he thought it was a
while. It could have been days for all he knew. Dean was just that
fuzzy. Scraping at the doorknob woke him up. He sat up in the bed
and threw his legs over the side, then hurriedly shoved his legs
into his jeans and zipped them up. The door flew inward and Cord
stood there looking mad as hell with a butter knife in his
hand.

“
Get your lazy ass up, Hope needs
to talk to you,” he grated, taking a step inside.

“
I don’t feel good. Am I not
allowed to be sick once in a while?” Dean shot back, and flinched
when his voice echoed in his head.

“
You’ve got a fucking hangover,
Dean. Because you’re too damned pathetic to face your problems, you
tried to drown the fact that you don’t have the balls to do
something about your situation. To forgive and forget. Move
on.”

Every word out of his brother’s mouth was like
a nail driven into his skull. Dean fought the nausea that rolled in
his stomach and clenched his fists. He took a step toward Cord,
then clamped a hand over his mouth and shoved his brother into the
door jamb to get out of the bedroom. He staggered down the hallway
to the bathroom, and went inside and locked it. After he worshiped
the porcelain goddess for a few minutes, he felt a lot better, but
weak as a newborn colt. He staggered to the sink and splashed his
face with water then brushed his teeth. When he raised up to look
in the mirror he wanted to scream, because he didn’t recognize the
old man who stared back at him. Old and used up. He had lines at
the corners of his eyes, and deeper ones around his mouth. His skin
looked pale and his cheeks sunken. Dean felt just as old and used
up as he looked. Cord was right, he was absolutely
pathetic.

What the hell had happened to him? Cindy had
happened. Life had happened. And whiskey had happened last night,
which he was sure made things worse. Tina Montgomery must be blind
to think he was a fucking model. Maybe she’d taken pity on him
because of his financial situation. That’s all it could be. Well,
he wasn’t going to see her again, and he wasn’t doing that damned
photo shoot. He would just have to figure something else
out.

Dean sucked in a shuddering breath, then
opened the bathroom door and walked down the hall. He stopped in
his bedroom to put on a shirt, because he knew his mama wouldn’t be
happy if he showed up in the kitchen without one. When he walked
into the kitchen his family was all gathered at the table. A
sandwich sat in front of his chair.

“
Why does everyone look so morose?”
Dean asked as he sat down at the table. “Somebody die?” He picked
up his sandwich, and a glob of mayonnaise leaked out the side. His
stomach rolled, so he put it back on the plate.

“
A courier came by here earlier,
son,” Silas Dixon said, and his eyes were suspiciously bright. His
hand shook as he pulled a sheaf of papers from his lap. He sat them
on the table and slid them across the table to Dean.

Dean’s stomach rolled again and he sucked in a
breath, trying to calm the storm inside of him. He didn’t want to
look at the papers, didn’t have to really. Just a glance at the top
of the page told him all he needed to know. “Petition for Emergency
Custody of a Minor?”

“
She’s going for sole custody son.
And there’s a restraining order in there too. She said you
threatened her life, and she’s afraid for her son’s
safety.”

“
Bullshit
!” Dean screamed,
as his chair scraped back. He stood and slammed his hands down on
the table. “She was trespassing on my property! I didn’t touch her!
And if Cindy was so goddamned concerned about her son, Bobby Jones’
son, why the hell did she leave him here for me to have to raise
for three years?!?”

Dean heard a whimper and looked at the doorway
to the kitchen. Jeremy stood there and his face was white. He
looked crestfallen. Devastated. His mother pushed her chair back
and she smothered a wail with her hand, as she ran from the room.
Dean’s father went after her.

“
Oh, God…” he groaned and walked
toward Jeremy. Jeremy backed out of the doorway and spun. He ran
for the front door, and Dean chased him. “Jeremy, wait!” Jeremy
didn’t stop though, his feet hit the ground and he ran toward the
barn.

Cord ran out onto the porch behind Dean and
grabbed his shoulder to jerk him back. “Let me go talk to him, you
go talk to Hope,” he said sternly. Dean nodded and sucked in a
shuddering breath. “I’ll bring him back to the house when he calms
down.”

Dean nodded again then staggered back to the
kitchen. The emotion inside his chest built like a pressure cooker.
It was so tight he could barely breathe. Spots danced in front of
his eyes, his ears rang and Dean thought he might pass out. He sank
to his knees, and dropped his chin to his chest. His heart hurt so
damned bad he thought he might be having a heart attack. He heard a
chair scrape back, then a hand rubbed circles in the center of his
back.

“
Dean are you okay, honey? Let me
help you up,” Hope said. She slid her arm through his, and pulled
upward with a grunt. Something inside Dean snapped and the lid came
off of the pressure cooker. His chest loosened, he sucked in a deep
breath, so deep he thought his lungs might explode. The emotions
bubbling inside pushed up into his throat, then exploded out of him
in a roar. When he was done, Dean felt like a dishrag. He sat back
on his butt and hugged his knees to him and rocked. Hope kept
rubbing his back, but leaned closer.

“
I talked to my father and he
recommended an attorney in Dallas. He can help you. I paid him a
retainer, and you have an appointment on Monday. You just have to
go talk to him. Don’t worry about the money, we’ll deal with
it.”

“
I can’t take your money,” he
pushed past his raw vocal chords. He put his hand to his forehead.
“I’ll use the money from the modeling shoot. Has Tina called you
yet?”

Hope’s hand stopped moving and her body
tensed. “Just go talk to the attorney, Dean. He’s good. He won’t
let her win.”

Something was wrong. Hope wasn’t telling him
something. Fear shot through him that something had happened to
Tina, or her niece. He met her eyes, because Dean knew his
sister-in-law couldn’t look him in the eye and lie to him. “Did you
talk to Tina?”

She sighed. “Yes, I talked to her earlier when
she called for you.”

“
What did she want?”

“
She was pretty upset. Her company
has canceled the men’s line.”

Wasn’t that just wonderful. Could it get any
worse for him? His mind darted off toward how that was going to
affect his situation, but he jerked it back when a thought hit him.
“That means she doesn’t get her promotion, right?”

“
Um, right,” Hope said.

No wonder she was upset. The tension in his
shoulders eased a little, knowing she wasn’t hurt. But he felt
damned bad for her. That little girl depended on her, and she
wanted to buy a house. That wasn’t something Dean could waste what
few brain cells he had left on trying to solve though. He had
bigger fish to fry right now. And his own problems to deal
with.

She still hadn’t relaxed beside him. There had
to be more. “What else did she say?”

There was another long pause, then breath
she’d evidently been holding escaped. “It’s a big mess. You need to
worry about you and Jeremy right now. I’m going to try to help
her.”

Hope was always trying to help. Always in the
middle of situations that didn’t concern her. His situation and
Tina Montgomery’s situation were prime examples. But then if she
wasn’t that way, she probably wouldn’t be married to his
brother.

“
I think you need to take your own
advice and deal with your problems first.”

Sometimes he wondered if she forgot about the
Weston lawsuit she needed to take care of. Dean hadn’t forgotten.
He also hadn’t forgotten about owing her money. If it took him
until he was ninety, he would pay her back for helping them take
care of his father when he was sick.

“
I’m handling that too. My father
had some advice, and I’m thinking about it.”

“
You’re talking to your dad again?”
After the fiasco at Brittany Weston’s wedding, because of her
camera malfunction, her family had basically disowned her. She had
embarrassed them. Those snobs needed embarrassment. If that was the
worst of their problems, then they were doing good. But everyone
needed family. At least hers was talking to her again. He knew it
had to be a relief.