by Becky McGraw
Dean swallowed hard, got a grip on his suddenly active libido and the boot then pulled it. He held her leg a moment longer than necessary, because he couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to stroke the smooth, soft skin of her inner thigh with his thumb. His dick got harder. With a growl he dropped her leg, then picked up her other foot to remove the boot. When it slid off, he noticed the size of her feet. His mother’s feet were small, because she was petite too, but this woman’s foot was even smaller. She was smaller.
And that’s when it hit him, right between the eyes. Tina Montgomery looked a lot like his mother. Acted like her too. Even though she wasn’t young anymore, his mother was still beautiful. She was the most amazing woman he’d ever known. The only woman in the world he trusted. She didn’t get mad often, but when she did you better find a place to hide. One thing he could count on with her is she would always tell him how it was without holding punches.
Dean didn’t have a mommy complex or anything. He usually preferred taller, leggier women too. But maybe that’s what this strange attraction he was feeling toward Tina Montgomery was about. Whatever it was, he didn’t have time for it. The feed store was going to close.
Dean knelt beside her and leaned inside the car to study the gear shift. “Reverse looks to be down and over to the left,” he informed her.
He inhaled and her soft, flowery scent surrounded him. It wasn’t overwhelming, it was subtle, but called to something inside of him. The scent fit this woman perfectly. Soft and feminine. Everything about Tina Montgomery screamed girl, except her salty attitude. Cindy had the same attitude, only coarser, and she had been tall and lanky. A country girl to the core. This woman was her complete opposite. Maybe that was the attraction.
Dean leaned back out of the car so he could get some fresh air. “Make sure it’s in neutral. That’s the center position. Push in the clutch, hold the brake and start it. To put it in reverse, push in on the stick with your palm, then move it down and to the left. Ease your foot off the clutch at the same time you release the brake.”
“Yes, sir,” she said sarcastically. His eyes flew to hers, and he was about to blast her, but he saw hers held teasing laughter.
Dean ignored the tug in his gut and stood to hold the door open. “Give it a try.”
She wiggled the gear shift to make sure it was in neutral. He closed the door and stepped back to watch her fiddle with the controls. The engine cranked smoothly, and she smiled out the window at him. Dean’s lips automatically curved up too, and the pull of his skin felt strange.
After a few grinding tries, she finally found reverse, and her smile widened. A light feeling developed in his chest, and the skin on his cheeks stretched more. The car lurched backwards a few feet, before it died. A laugh bubbled in his chest when she frowned and pounded her tiny fist on the steering wheel.
Dean picked up the rubber boots and walked to the door to tap on the window. She rolled it down, but he opened the door. “That’s fine. I can get out now,” he said, dropping the boots beside the car. “Put those boots on, because there are stickers out here.”
She growled, then jerked the keys from the ignition then pivoted on the seat to swing her legs outside. “Yes sir, anything else sir?” she asked in a snarky tone.
Damn she was cute when she was mad.
“Yeah…have a nice day,” he said with a wink. She growled at his back as he walked off, feeling lighter than he had in a long time. Dean didn’t hold back, he did laugh.
It was almost sundown when he got back to the ranch. After the feed store, Dean had to stop at the hardware store to pick up some wire and a few posts. Big mistake. Walter Sims, the owner, decided he wanted to catch up.
Dean didn’t want to be rude to the old-timer who had been good to his family. Before he could escape though, he had to talk about his daddy’s condition, Cord’s coming back home with a new wife, and beef cattle prices. They talked about that so long Dean could probably quote the current prices of every breed by memory. That was useless information to him though, since he couldn’t buy any beef cattle at the moment.
And now it was dark. Another day pissed away.
But something good did come out of his conversation with Walter. The old man gave him a lead on a good breeder bull a neighbor had for sale. As if he could afford to buy the bull right now either. Dean knew by the time he got that much money again that bull would probably have third-generation calves old enough to breed.
Huffing a breath, he picked up his hat from the seat and slapped it on his head. He got out and walked to the house. Wishing things were better for them wasn’t going to make it happen. He just needed to be thankful that his daddy was healed. Whatever it took to make that happen was worth it. Even losing the ranch would be worth it. But hopefully it didn’t come to that.
There had to be something he could do to buy new stock.
If his brother would stop trying to convince his daddy to go with some get-rich-quick scheme, maybe they could figure it out. Recovery was going to be a slow and steady race here, not a sprint. Dean had faced the fact that they weren’t going to make the ranch successful again overnight, and he wished his brother and father would too.
Dean’s hand was on the doorknob of the front door when he heard giggling and then a soft curse from around the corner of the wraparound porch. Curiosity set his feet on a path in that direction. He rounded the corner and rocked back on his heels. Tina Montgomery, Laney and Jeremy were engrossed in a heated board game.
None of them noticed him, but he noticed her. She sat cross-legged in a pair of soft, grey sweat pants that were a size too small. The cropped football-type jersey shirt she wore stopped right under her full breasts, leaving a lot of smooth. bare skin visible. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her feet were bare.
She looked fresh, and about sixteen years old. His body reacted instantly, and it pissed him off. Dean dragged his eyes away, and cleared his throat. He pinned his son with a stern look then said, “Jeremy you need to get ready for supper.”
“But daddy we were playing a game,“ Jeremy whined as he glanced slyly at Tina Montgomery for support.
Her full lips pinched, and there was a challenge in her eyes, like she was daring him to argue, when she said, “We’re almost finished here.”
“Yeah, please let him finish,” Laney piped in. Dean’s eyes swung to the tiny blonde girl with the big blue eyes just like her aunt’s. He realized he was outnumbered. If he met the challenge the girls were issuing, insisted that Jeremy leave the game, he was going to have a fight on his hands. It just wasn’t worth it. And it was Saturday.
“Fifteen minutes,” he said gruffly as he walked off.
Excited giggles followed him around the corner, then he heard Tina say, “You’re not sorry, squirt. You’re just too good at this game for me.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Jeremy shouted gleefully.
Dean shook his head, but couldn’t help smiling as he made his way inside the house. Voices in the kitchen told him his mother was getting dinner ready. He walked into the kitchen, and saw Cord and Hope sitting at the table with his father. His mother was leaning against the counter with her arms folded over her chest. Whatever they were discussing must not be pleasant, because none of them were smiling.
“What’s wrong?” Dean asked.
His mother forced a smile and pushed away from the counter, and turned her back to him to flip biscuits from the baking sheet to a plate. “Nothing, honey. We were just talking.”
“About what?” Dean asked, taking a seat at the table with a funny feeling settling in his chest. That his entry into the room seemed to halt the conversation meant he was probably the topic of their discussion. He looked at Cord, whose face he could usually read like a book. Not this time. “What were ya’ll discussing,” he asked again.
His daddy cleared his throat and looked away. “Mama found out from a friend in town that Cindy is remarried and living at a ranch on the outskirts of town. I guess her husban
d got a job there,” Cord informed, looking away too.
Dean’s heart took a dive in his chest, but he mentally dragged it back where it belonged. “To what unlucky bastard?” he asked gruffly.
“Last one she took up with, I think,” his daddy said with disgust. “What was his name?”
“Bobby Jones,” Dean supplied. It was a name he wasn’t likely to forget anytime soon. The cowhand he hired, because he was Cindy’s old high school friend. Dean found out later what Bobby Jones had been was her old high school boyfriend. A man she’d kept as lover behind his back almost the whole time they were married, when he wasn’t out on the rodeo circuit. A fucking bronco rider. The man who Cindy claimed was Jeremy’s biological father.
She’d dropped that little nugget of sunshine on her way off the ranch the day Dean caught them out in the barn and told her to leave. What Bobby Jones probably didn’t know was when he wasn’t around, she cheated on both of them. Faithless bitch. Dean had only married her because she was pregnant, and told him it was his. Doing the right thing had bought him three years of misery, and a son who probably wasn’t his to raise.
“I’m so sorry, Dean,” Hope said, and the sympathy in her voice was his undoing.
He scraped his chair back and stood. “I’m not hungry, since I didn’t get a chance to do any work today with that photo shoot going on. I’ll see ya’ll in the morning.”
Dean left his family at the table and walked down the hall to his bedroom. It was way too early to sleep, but staying at that table a minute longer, seeing his family feeling sorry for him wasn’t an option. What happened to him was his own damned fault. The person they should be feeling sorry for was that sorry bastard Bobby Jones who was stupid enough to marry her knowing she was a cheater. Dean just hoped the conversation ended before Tina Montgomery joined them in the kitchen. Wouldn’t that be humiliating for his dirty laundry to be aired in front of her?
The best thing Dean could do right now was stay away from all of them.
Two hours later, his mind had just settled enough for him to get to that relaxed state between wakefulness and sleep when someone knocked at his bedroom door. Dean wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, so he ignored it, until his visitor knocked the third time just shy of banging. With a sigh, he tossed back the light cover he had over his legs and got up to walk to the door. He pulled it open and didn’t see anyone. Leaning outside, he saw Tina Montgomery headed back down the hall.
“Did you need something?” he asked gruffly.
She stopped then turned back toward him. In one hand she held a plate with a sandwich and the other held a glass of iced tea. She walked back to him and shoved the plate into his stomach. “Your Mama asked me to bring you this. I told her you should starve if you were too good to come eat with us, but she insisted.”
Dean took the plate, then reached for the tea, but she held it out of his reach. “Why didn’t you come to supper?”
“I’m not good company right now,” Dean warned, reaching for the glass again, but she took another step back.
“When the hell are you good company?” she asked with a short laugh. “Your attitude sucks. You could have at least made an appearance. Your mother and your son were worried about you.”
Dean’s eyes tracked down to her perfect belly button, which was on prime display between the hem of her shirt and the waistband of the pants. His dick jerked and he dragged his eyes back to her angry eyes. “Thank you for bringing the sandwich, but I don’t want it with a side of your opinion. Mind your own damned business!”
He stepped into the hall and grabbed the iced tea from her hand, then moved back to lean on the door to shut it. Dean was surprised when Tina Montgomery pushed against it to keep it open.
“You’re right, it’s not my business. But I care about kids, and I have a problem with how you treat yours. That kid cares about you and all you do is either yell at him or ignore him.”
With a growl, Dean let go of the door to walk across the room. He set the sandwich and glass on the bedside table then rounded on the nosy, irritating woman who thought she had a right to judge him. “My son is well taken care of. He has a roof over his head, food on his plate and a family who cares about him. That’s a helluva lot more than a lot of kids have.”
“He deserves your time…and love. You’re his father.”
Maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t, Dean thought. “I love him, and I give him as much time as I have to give. Ranching requires a lot of work.”
“That’s not enough,” Tina Montgomery said, crossing her arms under her full breasts, which pushed over the V in her shirt. Dean had to force his eyes up to meet hers, because they seemed to be glued there.
“You’ve been here all of twelve hours, and you’ve come to that conclusion? Lady, you’ve got a helluva lot of nerve, you know that?” More nerve than any woman he’d ever met.
“Someone needed to say it. Hope knows it. She said the same thing to me, but I guess she’s afraid of you. I’m not afraid.” No, she definitely didn’t look afraid of him. All hundred pounds of her looked ready for battle.
“So you got voted to be the one to tell me this?”
“I chose to tell you. Your family is afraid to hurt your feelings. I think they need to be hurt. You’re an asshole, and need a wake-up call. If someone doesn’t point it out to you, how will you know? From the looks of it, you’re too stupid to realize it on your own.”
With that parting shot, she spun toward the door, leaving Dean speechless. At the door she stopped. “It’s Saturday night, and your family is playing a game of Monopoly. I don’t know why, but they would like you to join them, if that’s not too much trouble.” Dean’s eyes fell to her perfectly formed ass as she walked out of his room.
Monopoly? Dean couldn’t remember the last time his family had played a board game together. He definitely wasn’t in the mood, but couldn’t resist a challenge. And that is what Miss Priss Montgomery had just issued him. He would play her damned game to show her what a good daddy he was. Prove to her he wasn’t the one with a bad attitude. He could do that for one night. She was leaving tomorrow. Thank the Good Lord. He didn’t need her or her aggravation in his life.
In fact, if he never saw the nervy, curvy brunette again, it would be too soon.
CHAPTER FOUR
“No, I’m not doing it,” Dean said, throwing the hoof pick into the tool kit sitting beside the arena rail. He owed Hope Dixon a lot, loved her a lot, but her request wasn’t even in the same arena as the debt he owed her. He’d rather she ask to peel every inch of his skin off then douse him in alcohol than ask him to be a model. That was his brother’s speed, not his.
Dean was curious what went on during those shoots, exactly what his brother had been doing in Dallas while he was gone, so he watched some of the circus they called a photo shoot at the ranch on Saturday. Tina Montgomery and her entourage ran roughshod over those two men who looked as plucked and shaved as any men he’d ever seen.
A chill skated down Dean’s spine.
Those two weren’t men. They were mannequins in cowboy hats. Tina Montgomery had posed, poked and prodded them until she got them into the position she wanted them, so Hope could take their picture. Sort of like the poseable Toy Story action figures his son had.
Well Dean wasn’t an action figure, and he wasn’t a model. He was a real-life cowboy, with real ranch chores to do. If he didn’t get those chores done, he wasn’t going to be a cowboy much longer though. He’d be a broke, unemployed and homeless ex-cowboy.
And the woman he was arguing with would be homeless with him, so he just wished she’d drop it and leave him alone. But it didn’t look like she was going to do that. He unclipped the roan mare he’d been grooming from the cross-ties and clipped a lead rope onto her halter then lead the mare toward her stall, and Hope followed behind him.
She put her hand on his arm. “But Dean, Tina needs you—I need you to do this.”
“No way, Hope.” he said firmly for the fif
th time, as he flipped the latch on the stall and opened it wide.
“Get Cord to do it. He’s the one with the looks in the family.” Dean looked back at her for a second. “I’m just the workhorse, and I’ve got work to do.” He led the mare inside, and unclipped the lead rope. He turned around and Hope was still there, standing in the doorway so he couldn’t pass.
“Please, Dean,” she begged with a plea in her gorgeous green eyes.
After having to play Monopoly with them until almost midnight on Saturday night, Dean was in family overload. Cord told him the game had been Tina’s brilliant idea. Dean decided he didn’t want to see what her next idea of family fun involved, so he had hidden out in his room until he saw the taillights of her white compact car heading down the driveway Sunday night.
Dean had a feeling Tina Montgomery was good at games. She’d won at Monopoly, but she wasn’t winning this game. Even using Hope, a woman he owed his father’s life to, as her mouthpiece wasn’t going to convince Dean to shave his ass and get in front of a camera.
There was nothing that would convince him to do that.
“That’s it Hope,” he said with finality. She sighed then stepped aside so he could walk out and closed the stall. “Ask Cord. I’ll cover his slack here.” Dean always did that anyway, like right now when his brother was supposed to be helping him, he had gone to town with their daddy to look at fucking tractors they couldn’t afford.
Somehow Cord had convinced Silas Dixon, who had been a rancher all his life, that they could subsidize the cattle operation with farming. And according to his brother, they needed a new tractor to do that. Fixing the old tractor they had was on Dean’s to-do list so they could cut hay, but that list was so long these days he had no idea when he would get to it.
At least that offer might get Hope off of his back, and keep Cord occupied so he didn’t have time to cook up new schemes.
Hope surprised him though, when she said, “Tina doesn’t want Cord. She wants you.”
