by BWWM Crew
In Love With A Cowboy
By Tasha Jones
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Jada just loves her life living in a small town. It's the perfect place to raise her daughter, and the charm of the people around her always make her feel at home.
Her only problem is her Ex, who's the Sheriff and constantly goes on power trips and gives her a hard time.
But when she meets a mysterious stranger in a dashing cowboy hat and boots she can't seem to be intrigued as strangers don't come through town often.
But as the stranger's past unfolds, Jada realizes they are connected in more ways than she ever imagined, and while she starts to fall for him, her life starts getting more complicated than she can handle.
Will Jada and the mysterious cowboy find love? Or will his past stop them from enjoying their bright future?
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Copyright © 2015 Tasha Jones. All rights reserved. Including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the author.
WARNING: This book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language. It may be considered offensive to some readers. This book is for sale to adults ONLY.
Please ensure this book is stored somewhere that cannot be accessed by underage readers.
Dedicated
To My Loving And Faithful Readers. Bless.
Prologue
Jada
When I walked into the police station, there he was again, laying down in the cell. To my shock he got up and opened the cell which seemed to be unlocked. His blue eyes and broad shoulders complemented his dark slacks and clean cowboy hat. His boots matched his sandy hair, and while he was built, he had an air of mystery to him which I couldn't put my finger one. Who was he and why was he in the cell, and more importantly where was the Sheriff? I shuddered thinking of the reasons, but something inside me drew me to him.
Tanner
The second she walked in, I knew I would make her mine. She was curvy, confidant, and had braided her hair in the most amazing pattern. I was new in town but it was just a matter of time before she was with me. That is unless she finds out about my past...
Chapter 1 - Jada
Westham was the kind of small town that still held onto the Wild West. There were traditions and values here that had never really caught up to the modern times. Even though technology had crept into people's lives in the form of cell phones and wireless internet, the townspeople really consisted more of cowboys than businessmen.
The town was small enough so everyone knew everyone else’s business, and there were no secrets. Like the fact that I’d dated Sheriff Dean for a good two years, long enough to become pregnant and have his baby, but that we’d never made it as far as marriage. Some things just weren't meant to be I always told myself. They also knew that Keisha was my pride and joy and I put up with anything, including the damn sheriff, to give her the life that she deserved.
There were upsides to living in a small town though. Everyone knew each other and when it did so happen that there was some emergency, I could drop Keisha off with anyone in town and know that she would be alright. At six years old Keisha was comfortable staying with pretty much anyone, although she preferred Mrs. Cole, our next door neighbor and about the closest thing she had to a grandmother.
I would have liked to give Keisha the world , the best education, as many toys as money could buy and clothes fit for a princess. Parenting was like that. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible, but she was such a good kid that she didn’t miss all that. All Keisha cared about was spending time with me. Kids had such a different way of looking at love. Money didn’t matter, time did, and I loved her for that.
I kissed her on the head and kneeled in front of her when I dropped her off at the Play Center.
“Mrs. Cole will come and get you after lunch, and then I’ll pick you up after work, okay?” I said to her, running my fingers over the neat braids that lay side by side over her head. We’d gotten our hair done exactly the same last week when we’d taken a trip to Houston together to spend some quality time together. Her caramel skin glowed.
“Can’t Mrs. Cole drop me off at the shop?” she asked.
“Not today, sweetheart. I have to do a lot of boring paperwork. You’ll have more fun at Mrs. Cole’s. You like it there, don’t you?”
She nodded. “I like spending time with you at the shop better,” she said and flashed me a half smile. A sharp pain, one that I knew as guilt, wedged itself in between my ribs.
“I promise on Saturday you can come spend the day with me,” I said. She hugged me and ran away to play with her friends who were all huddled under the big oak in the back of the garden.
“Children are so easy to talk to, aren’t they?” Marie, the class assistant, appeared next to me. “One moment she’s upset you’re leaving and the next it’s like none of it happened and she’s happy as a clam.”
I nodded, even though it wasn’t about that at all. I couldn’t have asked for an easier child. Keisha never complained about having to stay somewhere or wait or not being able to get something. The guilt was all mine. She was a good girl. My rose, my jewel, my everything.
“Mrs. Cole will pick her up at two,” I confirmed with her and left the Play Center. One more year and I could send her off to school. It would be easier then, when she would be stimulated by learning how to read and write and she could spend time in my office doing homework when I did the shop’s admin work.
I drove the short distance to the café in the middle of town. Casa Bonita was a long, narrow shop, squashed between a bunch of other stores, but it had large windows and I’d strung up fairy lights everywhere the sunlight didn’t reach. It had sanded wooden floors and white cast iron tables and chairs, with a crafts section. When I walked into the shop the bell above the door jingled and Christine came out of the office.
“Morning, Jada,” she said and looked at her wristwatch. It was almost opening time.
“Did you order the extra...“
“Spoons, yes,” she said and smiled. Christine was young, just out of school and she’d wanted to travel. How she’d ended up in Westham I didn’t know but she liked working as my assistant here so she stayed.
“How’s Keisha?”
“She’s fine, eager to spend the weekend here again. I don’t know how a kid can love this place.” I put my handbag under the counter and opened the cash register.
“It’s amazing here. The lights and the crafts and oh… the dreams you can hang between them. I would have loved it here as a girl too,” Christine said. She bundled her blonde curls together and tied them down with an elastic before she put on the lime green apron that had Casa Bonit
a written on it in yellow calligraphy.
“Shall I open?” she asked and when I nodded, she turned the sign in the glass door around that said come in, we’re open.
The coffee crowd was always roughly the same. In the mornings we served moms who took some time off from being moms. Lunch time brought a mix of people, and in the afternoons we offered kids decaf cappuccinos and biscuits for the little ones who were done with school.
Sheriff Dean walked in through the door just before three. He hooked his thumbs through his belt loops and looked around. He’d gained weight since we’d dated. He still had his muscle, his arrogant attitude and the don’t-mess-with-me scowl on his face, but he’d developed a beer gut that didn’t look so attractive in uniform, and the moustache he grew, two shades darker than his sand-colored hair, made him look about as mean as he was behind closed doors. The café wasn’t very full, but the few faces that were present turned toward him. When Sheriff Dean walked in, everyone knew about it.
“Looks like you’re having a quiet day today,” he said. “Where’s Keisha?”
“Mrs. Cole’s watching her.”
“I thought you would keep her here with you.”
“I can’t do that every day, Dean, you know that. You can’t take her to work with you all the time, can you?”
“I would if you’d let me.”
I sighed. That wasn’t the point. I didn’t like Keisha spending time with her father at work. I didn’t really agree with Dean’s moral values and he didn’t think of her when he did something that wasn’t acceptable for a six-year-old to see.
“I can’t look after her all the time. I have to be here to make money.”
“I’m forking out cash for this frilly piece of crap so you can be more flexible with your time. Kids need attention, Jada.”
I was getting angry. He was saying things in front of my customers that they didn’t need to hear. All it took was one person hearing enough of a story to tell over to the next, and we’re the headlines at the gossip mill again.
“Can we talk about this later?” I asked.
“I’m going to be busy later,” he said and his expression was hard and unforgiving. He wanted this to happen in front of everyone. He liked being the center of attention. If it was at my expense, even better.
“Alright, can we step into my office?” I asked, glancing at Christine who understood what I wanted and nodded that she would cover for me. Dean grunted but followed me through the door and I closed it behind him.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I don’t want to talk about everything in front of the customers.”
“When else are we supposed to talk? You won’t let me into your house.”
“That’s because you can’t respect me,” I said. There had been enough times where he’d barged into my house and shouted at me, told me I was doing the parenting thing all wrong, that if he had a say in it he would have Keisha taken away from me. I’d been terrified at first, until I’d spoken to someone and found out I didn’t have to worry, the law wouldn’t take Keisha away from me as long as I could care for her.
“The money you pay in child support isn’t enough. I have to work to keep food on the table. So I have to get someone to watch Keisha until I’m finished working, so that we can go home to a real house and not a box under the bridge, where we would have been had it not been for my hard work.”
Dean was looking around the office, thumbing my files as we spoke. He paused at my college course work. I was trying to get a degree in business management while I ran this place so that I could maybe one day take it over from Dean and get him out of my life. I didn’t know if that was ever going to happen. Neither the degree nor the getting-him-out-of-my life part was going very well at this point.
“Please don’t go through my stuff,” I said when he lifted his hand to one of my files and started to pull it out. He paused, his hand still on the folder, and looked at me.
“I don’t know why you’re bothering with this,” he said.
“I still want to go somewhere with my life, Dean. Just because I got pregnant when I was twenty doesn’t mean I can’t have a life. Maybe even my own business.”
“Why, babe?” he said. “I’m taking care of you.”
I closed my eyes for a second and breathed deeply, calming myself. The thought of having to answer to him for the rest of my life was enough to kick start a panic attack. When I opened my eyes again he’d taken out the file and flipped it open.
“Do you mind?” I asked. I hated it when he got into my stuff.
“I do, yes,” he said calmly. But he turned around and put the file back where he found it. I felt myself relax. He turned to me, and his blue eyes were watery like he’d been drinking. I took a deep breath but I couldn’t smell any alcohol on him. But it was still early. There was still time.
“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have this shop in the first place. I was the one that got it for you, and do I need to remind you I’m the one that can get rid of it again? It’s still in my name, you’re listed only as a manager. And when you have no job, will child services let you keep Keisha?”
My blood drained from my face even though I knew it was just another threat to get me to do what he wanted. He would never get rid of the shop, it gave him too much pleasure to have something to hold against me. But I loved the shop. Casa Bonita was the one thing I’d poured my heart and soul into. It was all for Keisha. I didn’t like to think about losing it, losing her, and Dean knew exactly what buttons to push.
“Look, I get it. You don’t think I’m doing this right. And okay, so you’re her dad, you get to have your opinion. But I’m doing the best I can, and until the court tells me it’s not good enough, it’s going to have to do.”
Dean nodded and walked toward the door like the conversation was over. As sheriff, he was under the impression it was his right to do so.
“Just keep in mind that things can change, Jada. I have rights to Keisha as a parent, and I have rights as the owner of the café. You don’t want anything to go wrong, do you?”
He left and I stayed behind in the office, feeling like all the fight had been sucked out of me. When I lifted my hand to my hair, my fingers were trembling. I sank down into the chair and dropped my head into my hand, elbow on the desk. I knew he wasn’t serious about making life hell for me. He liked to point out that he could because he had power in a lot of different places in my life. He would never ruin Keisha’s life. She was the one thing in the world he actually loved.
His threats still got to me every time, and made me feel like I was going to collapse. How was it possible that a relationship that had been so short in the grand scheme of things, two years really wasn’t that much, would haunt me forever? I loved Keisha with all my heart, but she was the reason Dean stuck around.
Sometimes I wished I could just runaway with Keisha, and get away from him forever.
Chapter 2 - Tanner
Going to Westham was like travelling through time. I tried to avoid it as best I could, and I’d managed for almost nine years. When my boss had told me to come out here I’d fought tooth and nail, but he’d insisted and well… here I was. And on a Friday, no less. I was going to spend my weekend in a patch of dust.
I would have to see Dean, too. Our relationship since our parents died consisted of phone calls twice a year for our birthdays. We knew very little about each other’s life and I preferred it that way. I didn’t want to be close to him. That meant that he would be able to hurt me again somehow. And that was never becoming for a man, being hurt and all. He’d stayed on in the dump of a town after our parents had died; I’d left for a better life. Thank god I’d found it, too. I missed my old life as a cowboy sometimes, but my new one was better for me now.
I didn’t get along with my brother at all. He’d gotten stuck somewhere in the sands of time along with the town, and he thought he was judge, jury and executioner, being the little sheriff, making sure that nothing went wrong.
My phone rang just as I set foot on the dusty tarmac outside the Lazy Eye Hotel, the same place I’d stayed the last time.
“I want you back in Houston in a few weeks,” my boss barked over the speaker.
“I wasn’t planning on staying any longer,” I answered calmly. On my list of least favorite places in the world, Westham was top five.
“You just make sure you don’t mess up that paperwork, I don’t want to have to send anyone down there again.”
Oh, I was going to make sure this place was as far from our radar as possible. We ended the conversation and I pushed my phone back into my pocket. I walked into the Lazy Eye and nodded at the secretary. The secretary looked run down, like a life behind the reception desk was chewing at her.
