Cowboy 12 Pack
Page 91
Reno savored every bite of hers while the men downed theirs between voicing their opinions on the music industry. After a half hour, Steele and Ryder monopolized the conversation by talking about a certain “riff,” which Reno guessed was something played on guitar.
Chase winked at her. He had effectively led the conversation to a place where the brothers took over and agreed on more points than they disagreed.
“All right, you’re going to have to show me that one.” Ryder finished his beer and stood.
Steele got to his feet and picked up his half-full bottle. “Excuse us, Miss Reno.” He smiled. “Thanks for the great meal. But I’ve gotta go teach the kid a thing or two about guitar music.”
“Whoa, old timer.” Ryder’s smirk was more teasing than spiteful. “Let’s just see who learns more from whom.”
“Lead the way.” They strolled toward the kitchen.
Reno tipped her head, narrowing her gaze on Chase. “That was masterful. The way you introduced a topic they both felt comfortable with.”
He winked. “I did what I had to do to save one of them from a broken nose.” Chase stretched, clapped his hands together, and rubbed them. “Wanna put your cowgirl boots on and go dancin’ with me?”
“Dancing?” She took the last sip of her beer, imagining being in his arms on a crowded dance floor. “Sounds like fun.”
“Should be. There’s a thing I want to be a part of.”
Reno picked up the dishes. “What kind of thing?” Why was he being so mysterious?
He trailed her into the kitchen, carrying the leftovers. “It’s hard to explain. You’ll see when we get there.”
An hour later, he turned his pickup truck into the driveway of a huge one-story building with neon lights in every window but no sign showing its name. The place stood in the middle of nowhere, the only other building was a gas station across the road. “A bar? This is where you’re taking me?”
He parked twenty rows back, jumped out, and strode around the truck. Opening her door, he grinned under his tan cowboy hat. “Yep.” They picked their way across the crushed shell parking lot.
She tucked her hand around his arm, feeling the soft flannel of the rolled-up sleeves of his blue shirt. A sexy new look on him. “The ‘thing you wanted to be a part of’ is a bar?”
“No. It’s in the bar.” He looked her up and down. “And you look wonderful tonight, Reno.”
She’d worn her boots, as instructed, and a short denim skirt and a cap-sleeved, red blouse. They hadn’t made the trip into town yet to buy her a new hat.
When they stepped inside the door, the muscle-bound bouncer grinned. “Mr. Tanner.” His voice rumbled with a heavy, gruff accent.
Chase shook the man’s hand. “Mr. Miller.” From a roll of cash in his pocket, Chase peeled a couple twenties and handed it to the big man.
The bouncer held up his hand. “You’re free tonight.”
Chase shook his head. “For the cause.”
“Thank you.” The employee took the twenties and stuffed them in a big glass bottle on the floor then tipped his hat to Reno. “Ma’am.”
She smiled and looked around. Two huge bars ran the length of the opposite walls, a band played a familiar country song in one corner, and what had to be a hundred people two-stepped around the wood floor.
Chase nodded toward the dancers. “Wanna?”
“Sure.” She grimaced. “It’s been a long time, though.”
“C’mon. I’ll learn ya.”
He swung them in among the dancers and expertly led her through two rotations around the floor. “Yee-haw, folks!” A man’s voice blasted over the speakers. “We have a celebrity here tonight!”
Chase nodded to the lead singer on the stage, and kept dancing.
“Chase Tanner has agreed to sing a song for us.” The singer’s voice went quiet. “On one condition, though. Y’all need to open your wallets.” He took off his cowboy hat and set it upside-down on the floor at the front of the stage. “If you tightwads can cough up enough money to fill this hat, he’s gonna come up here and perform for us.”
People around them hooted and clapped. Folks made their way to the stage and dropped cash in the hat.
Reno spoke into Chase’s ear. “What’s the money for?”
Chase looked over her shoulder then turned her. “That couple at the bar owns a horse-rescue operation, and they’re having a rough time.”
A middle-age couple sat on barstools facing the crowd, obviously overwhelmed by all the attention. How wonderful that the entire community supported them. She looked up into Chase’s eyes. “It’s so nice of you to help your friends.”
“Don’t know them. Just know they need some help right now.”
A sweet ache choked off her breathing. “You’re amazing, Chase. I knew you were a good cowboy, but I didn’t know how good.”
One side of his mouth curled up, and she swore he blushed. “A person’s gotta do what he can for others.”
The song ended, and they looked up at the stage. The hat overflowed with money, a lot of it tumbling out onto the stage.
“Well…” Chase led her to the bar. “Looks like I have to go to work.”
A gentleman cowboy stood and offered Reno his barstool. “Ma’am.”
“Thank you.” Chase nodded. “Would you mind looking after my lady for a few minutes?”
Taking the position of bodyguard seriously, he puffed out his chest. “Mr. Tanner, it would be my pleasure.”
Chase winked at her and kissed her hand. “Be right back.” He headed across the dance floor.
“Ladies and gentlemen.” The singer’s voice cut through the noise. “Chase Tanner!”
Chase ran and jumped up on the stage to the screams and shouts of the crowd. He spoke to the band then turned and pulled the microphone from the stand. “Thank you all for comin’ out tonight to support the Wild Horse Rescue Ranch.”
The audience shouted again.
“Many of us here tonight have been blessed. We have more than we need, and I want to commend you for sharing with your neighbors.” He nodded to the drummer.
One of his ballads started. Chase sang slow and low, filling the dance floor with couples, and mesmerizing Reno. He knew how to make love to the audience with his voice. When the song finished, he thanked the crowd and tried to hand the mic back to the singer. “Chase! Chase! Chase!” The crowd chanted and clapped, and the band’s lead singer shook his head and pointed his index fingers at Chase.
“Okay.” Chase tipped his hat forward. “You asked for it!”
Excited screams filled the room.
His famous rocker about the woman with the big bottom started playing and he gyrated as he sang.
A group of young women congregated in front of the stage, a few of them showing him their amazing cleavage and turning around to flaunt their ample butts.
Chase kept his eyes on the dancers or on Reno. Anywhere but on the sweet young things who would undoubtedly jump at the chance to spend the night with him.
He finished the song. “Thanks again for letting me interrupt this great band.”
“One more! One more! One more!” The audience took up the chant.
“Uh uh. My girlfriend is sitting all alone at the bar, and what kind of a cowboy would do that to a beautiful lady?”
Reno glanced at her bodyguard, who grinned down at her. She felt her face warm at Chase’s words. “Girlfriend.” She whispered it, never realizing how one little word could made her feel so happy.
Chase jumped off the stage and sprinted through the crowd, high-fiving them and humbly accepting their praise with thank-yous. When he reached her, he shook her makeshift bodyguard’s hand. “Much obliged, sir.”
“Thank you for coming tonight. You’re as stand-up a man as they say you are.”
Chase winked at Reno. “Did you hear that, baby? I am a good cowboy.”
She stood and looped her arm through his. Singing to the children at the hospital, giving up his tim
e to help neighbors. “You’re the best person I know, Chase.”
He stopped and looked at her, his face intent. “From you, Reno, that’s a high compliment.” He brushed her cheek. When camera flashes caught them, he pulled her along toward the other end of the bar.
They headed toward the couple who owned the rescue ranch. The two of them sat on barstools, looking dazed by all the attention. A crowd surrounded them.
Chase waited his turn, but whispers started, and in seconds, the group parted. He led Reno forward and they both shook the couple’s hands. “Good luck, and if you ever need anything else, you just call me.”
The man looked struck speechless, but his wife jumped off her barstool and gave Chase a huge hug. “You are our hero.” She started to cry.
Chase peeled her arms from around his neck. “No. All these people…” He gestured behind him. “They’re your heroes, ma’am. I’m just doing my part.”
The man opened and closed his mouth a couple times before he found his voice. “You don’t know how much this means to us. Thank you.”
“Can we get a picture?” a voice behind Reno asked.
Chase looked at the couple. “Okay with you?”
The woman squealed and her husband nodded. “Yes, of course.”
They posed for a dozen shots, Chase in the middle with an arm around each of them, his smile genuinely happy.
He shook both their hands once more then took off his hat and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a black indelible marker and signed the hat brim. “I hear there’s an auction later.” He handed the hat to the woman. “Would you include this? You might get a few dollars off it.”
The woman held it as reverently as a crystal tiara. Tears ran down her face, and she sniffled. “This is too much. Thank you. You’re a Godsend.”
Chase’s cheeks colored. He grabbed Reno’s arm and ushered her out of the building. As the door closed behind him, he took a deep breath. “I get damn uncomfortable when women cry.”
Reno kept her head down and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
He stopped and bent to look at her face. “Aw, not you, too.”
She giggled. “It was just so touching.”
“Baby, you’re a sensitive soul.”
“Me?” She smiled. “I’m sensitive? You’re the one who did all this.” She gestured toward the bar. “Singing and giving the hat off your head to people you don’t know—”
He shrugged and stomped away. “It’s the least I could do. It was nothing.”
She jogged to catch up. Was he embarrassed to be caught doing something nice? He did a lot for others. She read a story about him, way back when they were casting the movie, that talked about the domestic shelters Chase sponsored. Hundreds of them in cities across the US, in honor of his mother. Reno laced her fingers into his. “I was proud to be with you tonight.”
He ran his free hand through his hair. “I’m glad you came with me tonight. People treat me different mostly, and it gets old.”
“Lonely.”
He unlaced their fingers and put his arm around her. “Yeah.” Helping her into the truck, he kissed her knuckles. “But not anymore.” Their gazes fused, and Reno felt her chest expanding, as if her soul linked with his.
He closed the door and walked around the hood.
“And never again, Chase.” It was more than she was willing to admit to him, but it felt good to say it aloud, just to herself. She was hooked.
Chapter Fourteen
‡
THE DRIVE HOME from the bar was quick but quiet. Chase heard Reno’s questions, but responded with short replies. He just wished he could feel the pride in what he’d done, the way Reno seemed to think he should.
But all he was doing was singing. Goddamn waste of time singing as his dad used to call it. It wasn’t like he was saving lives or teaching children or even running a business like Jorjia had done. Just because he’d gotten lucky with his songs and his voice and his face, it didn’t give him the right to gloat about the few things he did to help folks out.
He reached over and squeezed Reno’s soft hand, and she smiled. He was damn lucky to have her, and he’d better keep his shitty attitude to himself if he wanted to hang on to her. “So, how does midnight skinny dipping in the pool sound?”
At three the next morning, Chase woke with a start, staring at the glowing digits on his alarm clock. Turning his head, he found Reno sleeping in the same position he’d left her in an hour ago after he’d used his tongue on her clit to give her one last orgasm before she fell into exhausted slumber.
Licking his lips, he tasted her juices on him. If she hadn’t looked so peaceful, he would have rolled over and woke her with the slide of his hard cock into her warm, wet pussy. She needed her sleep, though, and he needed to check downstairs to make sure everything was locked up for the night. A habit he’d acquired since purchasing this megahouse.
After slipping on a pair of sweats, his feet sunk deep into the thick carpet as he padded barefoot out of the bedroom and down the stairs. He hadn’t checked on Ryder and Steele when he and Reno came back from the roadhouse, wanting to give them enough privacy to get things worked out. Or wallop each other unconscious. Whichever they chose.
He stepped into the kitchen, the cool floor tiles chilling his toes. The light over the stove cast a soft glow over the room.
“Hey.”
He turned.
Ryder sat on a stool at the breakfast counter, a beer and a plate with a sandwich in front of him. “Join me?”
“Sure, thanks.” Chase grinned at the irony of being invited to have one of his own beers as he pulled a bottle out of the fridge. “Steele?”
“He went down already.” Ryder gestured to the steps that led to the studio and to the half-dozen guest bedrooms.
Leaning back on the counter next to the stove, Chase twisted off the bottle cap and took a long, cold pull. “How’d it go?” He left the question open to interpretation. Ryder could either talk about his brother or talk about music.
Ryder took a bite of his sandwich and chewed energetically for a minute. “We’re fine as long as we pretend the last three months never happened.”
A dozen pieces of advice rolled through Chase’s head, but that wasn’t what his friend needed. He opened a cabinet and took out a bag of potato chips. Setting it in front of Ryder, Chase took a handful for himself.
“Thanks for not giving me the lecture.” Ryder picked out a chip and crunched it between his teeth.
“The lecture?”
“Yeah.” Ryder sat back and took a draw off his beer. “Jeb tells…” He let out a long breath. “I mean ‘Dad’ tells me to go easy on Steele, but my half-brother can’t even admit I’m blood kin.”
Chase chewed on a mouthful of salty, greasy chips. “And Val?” Ryder and Steele’s sister was as sweet and quiet as Steele was rough and loud.
“She’s invited me over so often, I think her husband is sick of me already.” His smile showed a tenderness toward his newfound half-sister. “She thinks Steele is angry at the world, not me.”
Steele was just Steele. Intense and dissatisfied, and Jeb’s introducing Ryder into the family didn’t make the country star’s life any easier. “He’s comin’ around slowly.” Chase finished his beer and pulled two more from the fridge. “When I told him you were gonna be here this week, he could’ve stayed away.”
Ryder’s brows dropped as he took the beer from Chase. “Surprised the hell out of me, him showing up here.” He peeled the label off the bottle. “What do you make of it?”
“Me?” He snorted. “You’re asking the wrong person. Now, Reno would be able to figure it all out for you two, given a day or two with each of you, but I’m not interested in letting her use her time that way.” He could almost smell her warm, sweet scent all bundled under the covers in his bed. He wasn’t going to give up a minute with her for two feuding brothers. No matter how close their friendship.
Ryder stood. “It’d take a shit-load longe
r than two days to figure me out.” He put his plate in the dishwasher and grabbed his beer. “Longer still for that rank brother of mine.”
Chase just nodded. He wouldn’t suggest family counseling. That’d just get him laughed off the stage.
“But I appreciate the offer.” Ryder studied him. “Reno’s a good woman. You should think seriously about keeping her.”
“I have been.” And it scared him as much as it excited him.
His friend hitched a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m gonna get a few hours sleep and leave before dawn. I need to be home for a morning meeting.” He held out his hand. “Thanks for the use of the studio.”
Chase shook his hand. “No need to thank me. Just pay the invoice when you get it.”
Ryder grinned. “I always do.” He turned and strolled away. “Tell Reno it was a pleasure meeting her.”
“Yep.”
Chase listened to Ryder’s bootsteps descending the marble stairs until the door to the guest rooms closed. He’d like to get Reno’s opinion of the brothers’ situation, but she’d never asked him for details. Maybe she didn’t want to get in the middle of it. Which was a damn good idea. He’d just leave it alone unless one of the brothers wanted to talk about it.
He dumped the rest of his beer down the sink and set the bottle aside. Wandering through the house, he checked the locks on the doors and windows and went back upstairs.
Reno’s steady breathing drew him closer to the bed, but he needed a moment to pull his thoughts back from Ryder and Steel. He silently pushed open the patio door and stepped outside, walking across the tiled balcony to set his hands on the plexiglass half-wall that separated him from the Gulf of Mexico. Waves lapped up onto the beach and night birds called. A slow-moving light far out on the water drew his eye.
He’d like to take a long boat trip. Him and Reno, cruising around completely alone together. He glanced at the low-hanging moon. When would either of them have time for that? He needed to tell her how he felt. Ask her to take time from her writing and teaching to travel with him. Would she give up her old life to test out a new one with him?