Just Shoot Me (Cowboy Way, #1) (24 page)

But he wouldn’t let her pay.

After he put Laney in the backseat and made
sure she was buckled in, he opened the passenger door for Tina. His
truck was so tall, she had a hard time getting up inside, so he
picked her up and set her in the seat, then like he had with Laney
he reached across her to fasten her seat belt. Who was this man,
Tina wondered, as she watched him walk around the front of the
truck and get behind the wheel. He sure wasn’t Mr. Cranky Pants
anymore. He reached for the keys to start the truck and she said,
“You feeling okay?”

He looked over at her with a confused look on
his face. “Yeah, fine, why?”

“
I don’t know, you just
seem…different today.” He smiled widely and her heart did a little
flip in her chest.

“
I am different.” Without
explaining his cryptic statement, Dean cranked the truck and headed
toward her apartment. Whatever had caused the change in Dean, she
liked this new version. But she was scared too, because those soft
feelings she had developed for the man were quickly getting softer.
In fact, her feelings for the handsome cowboy had definitely taken
on a new dimension. One that went way past infatuation. If she let
herself bask in those feelings though, she knew Mr. Cranky Pants
was still in there somewhere, and she’d probably wind up with a
broken heart.

Tina couldn’t deal with that on top of trying
to figure out her current situation.

When they got closer to home, Dean spotted a
fast food joint, and insisted they stop and pick up burgers, so
neither of them had to cook. Tina didn’t feel like eating. After
her Oreo and chip binge, she probably shouldn’t eat for a month.
Especially fast food, but she ordered a burger anyway, and a shake,
and it came in a combo so she ordered fries too. She was definitely
going to have to find time for the gym soon. As soon as her life
wasn’t falling apart.

Laney was sleeping so Dean just ordered her a
kid’s meal for later. Dean parked in the space next to hers at the
apartment complex, then hopped out of the truck. Before she could
open her door, he was right there lifting her down. Once her feet
hit the ground, he bent and kissed her, before he reached inside
for the bags and handed them to her. “I’ll carry Laney inside, so
we don’t have to wake her.”

Tina’s mouth opened and she started to tell
him Laney could walk, but decided it wasn’t worth the argument she
knew she’d have with him. Like at the school. And at the hospital.
Laney slept on Dean’s shoulder as Tina shuffled the bags to stick
the key into the lock of her door. Tina flicked on the light and
groaned at the mess.

Dean walked inside and turned back to her to
ask quietly, “Where’s her bedroom?”

Tina laughed. “Our bedroom?” She pointed to
the bedroom.

“
This is a one freaking bedroom
apartment?” he asked with surprise.

“
Yeah, I was saving up for a house,
but that’s not happening now.”

Dean walked to the bedroom, and Tina kicked
off her shoes, sat the dinner bags down on the table, and started
cleaning up. She was on her hands and knees with a whisk broom and
dust pan sweeping up the chip crumbs from the carpet when his large
boots suddenly appeared near her knee.

“
We need to talk.” He reached down
and took the dust pan and broom from her. “But let’s eat first,” he
said, as he walked into the kitchen and dumped the crumbs into the
trash. Dean sure was making himself at home here. And inserting
himself into her life. She should probably get him out of there,
but she just couldn’t make herself do it. Having him here made her
feel better about her situation, and she just couldn’t figure out
why. Tina got back to her feet, and folded the blanket, picked up
the two trash bags and walked to the front door.

“
Where the hell do you think you’re
going?” Dean demanded.

She glanced back at him, as she opened the
door. “I’m going to the dumpster, of course.”

“
It’s nearly midnight. And if you
haven’t noticed, this isn’t the greatest neighborhood.”

Tina laughed. “I know what kind of
neighborhood this is, country boy. I go out to the dumpster at
night all the time. There’s a light out there.”

“
Well, you’re not going out there
this time,’” he growled and walked over to snatch the bags from her
hand. “Where’s the damned dumpster?”

“
At the end of the building around
the corner.”

“
I’ll be back. Get us a drink.” Was
Mr. Cranky Pants back? If so, his transformation into Prince
Charming sure hadn’t lasted long.

“
I have water or milk,” Tina fired
back. She didn’t know what Dean expected here, but she wasn’t a
rich woman. If he expected wine or whiskey with his take-out he was
out of luck. She didn’t even waste money on soda. Except for the
flat soda that Lori had left here, she hadn’t had that in her
apartment in a year. That’s why she had ordered a shake. He hadn’t
ordered a drink.

“
Water’s fine,” he said grumpily
and walked outside. He shut the door with a snap, and Tina walked
to the kitchen to make his drink, then pulled mismatched plates
down from the cabinet. She had pieces and parts of her mother’s
dish sets, but hadn’t bought a new set for herself after her mother
died. They had dishes, that’s all that mattered. She had been too
worried about taking care of her sister and herself, then Laney to
worry about much else than survival.

She brought the plates and drink into the
living room and set them on the coffee table. Dean came back in and
he didn’t look happy. “What are you frowning about?” she asked, as
she pulled the burgers out of the bag.

“
This place isn’t fucking safe,
Tina. That damned school isn’t safe for Laney either.”

“
What happened?” she asked as she
stood back up.

“
Some dumbass was messing around
your car, but I ran him off.” Dean slammed the door and stomped
over to the sofa then sat down. He huffed out a breath, and took
off his hat to balance it on the arm of the sofa. He ran a hand
through his hair. “Marry me,” he said shortly.

Tina thought she was hearing things. She
actually smacked her ear with her palm thinking her hearing was
going out. Surely Dean Dixon hadn’t just asked her to marry
him?

“
Come back?”

His eyes met hers and they were a filled with
swirling emotions she couldn’t name. He cleared his throat. “I
said, marry me.”

Tina’s knees went weak, and she reached behind
her as she fell back on the sofa. Since she was a little girl she
had always envisioned the exact moment when the man she loved would
ask her to marry him. In her mind, it happened in a variety of
different ways. This surely wasn’t one of them. As much as his
protectiveness of her niece touched her heart, as attentive and
helpful as he’d been to her, Tina never imagined he was leading up
to this.

There had to be a reason, because he certainly
didn’t appear to be in love with her.

Funny, my lawyer said almost the
same thing today.

“
Say something,” Dean said,
dragging his eyes to his hamburger, which he proceeded to unwrap
and put on the plate.

“
You’re out of your
mind.”

“
Maybe I am, but I’m still asking,”
Dean said as he took a bite of his hamburger. Tina didn’t touch
hers. Her Oreos from earlier were now doing a tango with the chips
in her stomach.

“
Why?” she asked the burning
question that might give her a clue to what he was
thinking.

“
My lawyer said it would look
better to the court. You said it would help your situation. We
could go to the courthouse in the morning, then go see the lawyer
and start things rolling to adopt her.” His emotionless tone, the
straightforward words, his damned reasons were definitely not what
her romantic heart wanted.

And his idea was way out in left field. She
was as broke as he was. “Adoption costs a lot of money, Dean. I
can’t afford an attorney right now, and you can’t either, unless
you hit the lottery and didn’t mention it.”

He set his hamburger down, and his eyes met
hers. “If we’re married, you won’t need a house, you’ll live at the
ranch with me. Use the money you have saved to buy a
house.”

Tina gnawed her lip. Why the hell was this
idea making sense to her?

“
What happens when all this is
settled? Once I have custody of Laney, and your problems with Cindy
are resolved?”

“
We cross that bridge when we get
there. Decide whether we stay married or not.”

God, it sounded so cold. He sounded so cold.
This was not at all what she wanted.

“
So we’d get a divorce?”

Dean stopped chewing to suck in a sharp
breath. He set his hamburger down on the plate slowly, then turned
on the sofa to face her. “I hope not. Jeremy needs a mother. I need
a wife. I think we’re a good fit. I know we are in one area,” he
said and his eyes heated. “I’m hoping things will work out in other
areas too.”

“
The kids would be devastated if we
got them comfortable with us being their parents, then decided to
get a divorce. It would be worse for them than it is now.” Tina did
not ever want to be divorced. She knew firsthand that kids from
broken homes had it much worse than kids from single-parent
families most of the time.

“
It worked out for my brother and
Hope. I think it will work out for us too,” Dean said.

Her stomach did a rumba now, and she put a
hand on it. Seeing the glob of mayo that leaked out the side of
Dean’s hamburger added sound effects. Tina’s stomach lurched and
she sprinted for the bathroom. Tina leaned over the toilet and
breathed in and out slowly until her stomach decided whether it
wanted to evict the Oreos. Dean lifted her hair off of her neck,
then caressed her nape with his thumb. It was a weird combination,
this nausea and the chills his touch sent racing down her
spine.

“
You okay, sweetheart?” he asked,
his voice full of concern.

“
Yeah, I’ll be okay. Must have a
bug.” Or be totally stressed out, because you just dumped something
else on my plate I didn’t need. Plate. Greasy Hamburger.
Mayonnaise. Tina’s stomach lurched and she pinched her lips and
sucked in a breath through her nose. “Maybe you should just go. I
don’t want you to get sick,” she said. And I don’t want to have to
tell you no, because I’m only going to marry a man who loves
me.

“
I’m pretty resilient,” Dean said,
as if she hadn’t told him to leave. “C’mon you need to lay down.”
Tina wanted to say no, but she felt too damned bad to say anything.
Maybe if she laid down a second she would feel better. Dean didn’t
wait for her to decide though. Mr. Caveman bent and put his arm
under her knees and lifted her. He walked with her into the living
room and sat down on the couch with her on his lap.

He turned off the lamp on the side table, then
reached behind him and grabbed the blanket she had folded over the
back. With a whoosh he shook it out then covered her, tucking the
end of the blanket under her chin. He leaned down and kissed her
forehead, then whispered fiercely, “Sleep. You’ll feel better in
the morning. We’ll talk about it then.” He grabbed the remote off
the coffee table and flicked on the television, then put it on
mute.

In the morning. That meant he wasn’t leaving.
Dean Dixon was going to spend the night holding her while she
slept. And he’d asked her to marry him. How the hell was she
supposed to sleep? Tina shut her eyes, Dean rubbed her hair in slow
monotonous strokes, and her body must’ve figured it out, because it
wasn’t long before she drifted off dreaming about a white dress and
Dean Dixon.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

Tina could not believe she was actually doing
this. Maybe she was still sleeping, and this was all a dream. She
glanced at the stone-faced man beside her and flinched, then looked
down at herself. No white dress. She wiggled the fingers of her
left hand, looking particularly close at her ring finger. Nope, no
ring either.

The man in the suit behind the scuffed up
wooden podium cleared his throat, and Dean Dixon squeezed her hand.
Like he wasn’t already holding it tight enough. She couldn’t even
feel the fingers of her right hand, and her palm felt like it was
stuck to a hot plate, Dean’s palm was so hot. She shook her head,
and just said, “I do,” because she figured that was the expected
response.

Considering this was a marriage ceremony that
had to be it. A bead of sweat trickled from the base of her skull,
slid slowly down her neck, then inched down her spine. The man
started speaking again, so she must’ve gotten it right. Why the
hell did his voice sound like it was coming from the end of a
tunnel? He needed to speak louder. And Tina realized she needed to
unlock her knees before she passed out.

She relaxed them as much as she could, and
Dean tucked her arm under his and pulled her closer to his body,
seeming to know she needed support. Or making sure she didn’t turn
and bolt from this small, hot room where she was becoming his wife.
That is what she was really considering doing, when Dean suddenly
released her hand to grab her left hand. He roughly shoved a thin
gold band over her knuckle, before putting his hand on her back and
facing the judge again. The scrambled eggs in her stomach, the
breakfast Dean had cooked and insisted she eat before they dropped
Laney off at the neighbors to come here, did a jig in her stomach.
Tina covered it with her newly-adorned left hand and held back a
groan.