Blame It on the Cowboy

by Delores Fossen

  “Resting bitch face again,” the photographer grumbled.

  Logan gave him a look that could have frozen hell, and the guy must have gotten the message that this was not a good day for a photo shoot. “Maybe we can try this again next week,” he said, gathering up his equipment.

  Logan didn’t stop him, though it would have been easier just to finish this now. The guy left, and Greg came right in and put a small brown paper bag on Logan’s desk.

  “I popped over to the café and got one of those lemon thingies,” Greg said. “Thought you’d like one, too. It’s right out of the oven.”

  Logan glanced in the bag. It didn’t look like something that’d caused such a fuss. Then he took a bite, and his taste buds applauded.

  Yeah, it was worth a fuss, all right.

  “I guess Reese left the recipe with Bert?” Logan asked.

  “Nope. Reese baked these herself.” And with that bombshell, Greg was halfway out the door.

  “Reese baked it?”

  Greg stopped, stared at him as if that were a trick question. “I thought you’d heard by now. She didn’t leave town, after all. She’s staying a while longer so she can do Mia’s birthday party.”

  Logan cursed the flip-flop feeling he got in his stomach and hoped it was from the lemon thingy and not because Reese was still around.

  Greg kept staring at him. “Say, you’re not going to try to run her out of town again, are you?”

  He was about to blast Greg for that, but then Logan had to mentally shrug. He had indeed nearly run her out of town. It hadn’t worked, though. Even after she’d spelled it out that if she stayed they’d end up in bed together.

  Which they would.

  Logan only wondered if it was too soon for them to do just that. Yeah, it was stupid. He needed to stay away from her, but since that clearly wasn’t going to happen, he might as well find out what it would be like to be with her when he was sober.

  He checked the time. Reese’s breakfast shift should be over in ten minutes so he grabbed his cowboy hat and headed for the door. He didn’t make it far. Logan got another whiff of lemon, and Jason came in, stuffing his face with one of Reese’s tasty pastries.

  “Hey, did you hear?” Jason asked. “Reese didn’t leave town, after all.”

  “I heard.”

  And apparently Jason had not only heard the news, he’d paid her a visit since he was chowing down on the lemon thingy. That visit had no doubt been to ask her out again. Even though this was going to sound like he was calling dibs or marking his territory, Logan figured it was time for his friend to hear the truth. There were man-rules about this sort of thing, and Logan had gotten to Reese first. That meant she was hands-off for Jason.

  First, though, Logan shut the door. There was no reason for Greg to hear his dibs-calling. “The night after my botched proposal to Helene, I went to a hotel in San Antonio, met Reese and slept with her,” Logan told his old friend.

  Jason stopped chewing, his jaw frozen in a twisted angle. Then he laughed. Really, really laughed. “Right. Like you’d go for someone like Reese.”

  Logan huffed. “It happened.”

  Jason finally quit laughing and swallowed the rest of the pastry. “Oh, I get it. You were drunk.”

  “Drunk-ish.” Which, of course, sounded stupid. Yeah, he was drunk, but judging from Jason’s tone, he was about to dismiss it as something that wouldn’t violate a man-rule of a guy going after a woman who’d been his drunk best friend’s lover.

  Jason kept staring, perhaps processing that, and he shook his head. “I just don’t see you two having a one-nighter. Any nighter for that matter. So, are you the reason she came to town?”

  “Only in a roundabout way. She gave me something and wanted it back.”

  More staring, more processing. “You didn’t knock her up or anything, did you?”

  “No. I used a condom.” Several of them, in fact, but there was no reason to share that with Jason.

  Jason made a sound of amusement. “Well, I gotta say, I didn’t expect this. But obviously you haven’t picked up where you two left off.” He paused. “Have you?”

  “No,” Logan repeated after a pause of his own.

  “Where do you see things going with Reese?” Jason came out and asked.

  It was a good question. Logan didn’t have a remotely good answer. It would sound shallow for him to say he was only interested in having sex with her, especially when he was still concerned that with her family history she could tarnish the reputation of the company.

  “I’m not sure,” Logan admitted. “But Reese doesn’t tend to stay in one place for long. Six months at most so I suspect in a couple of months, or even sooner, she’ll be leaving for greener pastures.”

  Logan couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t as if he could offer her anything but sex. Hardly an offer that would tempt a woman like Reese to stay put. As attractive as she was, she wouldn’t have any trouble finding another guy to sleep with. One who wasn’t accusing her of running a con.

  “Until she leaves for those greener pastures, is she hands-off for me?” Jason asked.

  “Yes,” Logan said without hesitation. It was hard enough being around Reese, but it would be very unpleasant to see her with his best friend.

  “All right.” Jason bobbed his head. “I guess this means you’re finally getting over Helene. You are getting over her, right?”

  Logan nodded. It wasn’t a lie, either. He was getting over her. He wasn’t there yet, though, but this thing with Reese didn’t have anything to do with what he’d felt for Helene. It had to do with trust. He just didn’t want to put his heart out there for another stomping.

  There was a knock at the door, and a second later, Greg opened it and stuck his head in. “Logan, you have a visitor.”

  “I need to be going, anyway,” Jason said, checking the time. “I’ll see you at Lucky and Cassie’s engagement party next month.”

  This was the first Logan was hearing of a party, a reminder he needed to get his head out of the clouds and keep better tabs on what was happening in his own family.

  “Who’s the visitor?” Logan asked Greg after Jason was gone.

  “A woman. She says she’s a friend of Reese’s.”

  Logan hadn’t meant to groan, but he hoped this wasn’t another “friend” like Chucky. “Show her in,” Logan said.

  He wasn’t sure what to expect, but at least the woman who came through the door didn’t look like a con artist or a rooster. She was in her twenties, tall and looked like a model. Logan figured if Jason had gotten a glimpse of her, then he’d be hanging around for a while longer.

  “I’m Jimena Martinelli,” the woman said, “the closest thing Reese has to a sister, and I’m here to warn you that if you’re dicking around with her, I will cut off that dick and roast it in a fire pit.”

  Okay, maybe not as normal as he’d originally thought. Logan hoped this woman’s idea of dicking around didn’t mean just sex.

  “Is there something specific I can do for you?” he asked. “Something that doesn’t involve my dick?”

  “Yeah, you can stop treating Reese like she’s a gold-digging slut. She’s not.” Jimena folded her arms over her ample chest. “The only reason she slept with you was to tick off a box on her bucket list.”

  Logan nodded. “She told me.”

  Jimena seemed a little surprised that he knew about the list. “Did she also tell you that she really liked you?”

  Now Logan was the one who no doubt looked surprised. “No. But then she hardly knows me.”

  “Right.” Said with all the sarcasm one word could have.

  Apparently, Jimena thought a night of sex equaled getting to know someone. And in some ways it did. But there was still plenty Logan didn’t know about Reese.

&nb
sp; “I just want you to understand that Reese isn’t as tough as she looks,” Jimena went on. “You were the first man she slept with in nearly two years.”

  Again, Logan was sure he looked surprised. But then he remembered that might not even be true. Maybe this was Jimena’s weird attempt at matchmaking.

  “I have several things I need to do,” Logan tossed out there. Including a chat with Reese to find out why she’d decided to stay in town, after all. “Was there anything else?”

  Figuring there wasn’t, Logan took out his phone so he could make some calls on his walk to the café. But Jimena didn’t budge. She also didn’t look as much in a dick-roasting mood as she had when she’d first come into the office.

  “Was there anything else?” he repeated, sounding as impatient as he suddenly was.

  “Uh, I heard about your ex. About you walking in on her with another man. A man who was dressed like a clown.”

  Logan groaned again. “I won’t discuss that with you.”

  “There’s something you should know.” Jimena took out her own phone. “I’ve been seeing a guy. Elrond Silverman. He’s not the right letter of the alphabet, but sometimes I let that slide.”

  Logan didn’t have a clue what that meant, and he could possibly be dealing with someone who was mentally unstable.

  “Elrond worked for you,” she added.

  “So? A lot of people work or have worked for me.”

  She nodded and came closer, holding out her phone screen for him to see. “Last night, we got a flat tire when we were in Elrond’s car, and this was in the trunk.”

  Logan figured there was absolutely nothing on the screen that he wanted to see. But he was wrong. The first thing he noticed was the porcelain tit. One that he recognized because it was a perfect match to the one Helene had given him.

  Of her own right breast.

  Hell. Had this Elrond stolen it?

  Logan tried to remember the story Helene had told him about it, but all he could recall was that she’d said it had gone missing.

  “Does it look familiar?” Jimena asked.

  It took him a moment to realize she wasn’t pointing to the boob but rather to what was next to the boob.

  A clown suit complete with a big red nose.

  CHAPTER TEN

  REESE FELT THE flutter in her stomach when she saw the man in the doorway of the café. But the flutter fluttered away when after her initial glance she realized it wasn’t Logan but rather Lucky.

  “Glad I caught you before you left,” Lucky greeted.

  Since she already had her purse in her hand and had been going to the front door to lock it, he’d barely caught her in time. Even if she hadn’t been there, it wasn’t as if she would be hard to find since Reese had managed to keep her apartment at the Bluebonnet Inn.

  “First, I’m pleased you’re staying,” Lucky continued. “Logan needs someone to keep him off-balanced a little.”

  She wasn’t so sure of that at all. “There’s nothing going on between Logan and me.” Something she’d been saying to Bert, Sissy Lee and Sissy Lee’s brother when they brought up that Logan was the reason she was staying on a while longer.

  Lucky made a sound that he didn’t quite buy that. “All right. I’m glad you’re staying, anyway. I heard about Chucky. You know if he bothers you again, all you have to do is tell Logan or me.”

  For some reason that put another flutter in her stomach. Not a sexual one this time but a warm unfamiliar feeling. “Thanks. I’m not used to people having my back.”

  “Well, your friend Jimena seems to be looking out for you.”

  No more flutter. Just confusion. “How do you know Jimena?”

  “Ah, hell.” He groaned. “I just figured Logan had told you that she paid him a visit earlier today.”

  “I haven’t spoken to Logan since last night.”

  Lucky tried to dismiss her words with a shrug. “I’m sure he’ll tell you about it when you see him.” Reese wanted to hear about it now, but Lucky just continued talking, and it wasn’t about her friend. “Cassie and I are excited about you doing our engagement party.”

  Reese nodded. “Cassie called this morning, and we talked about that. She said she was looking at the end of next month.”

  “Uh, could you do it sooner? Like maybe the end of this month?”

  “Sure. That works out better for me, anyway.” In case she decided she needed to get out of town.

  The end of the month was only two and a half weeks away, and at first Reese thought the short notice was what was causing that funny look on Lucky’s face.

  “And maybe don’t fix anything with bacon or coffee,” he added.

  It was a strange request, but maybe Cassie simply didn’t like those things. “No problem. Since Cassie wanted a brunch, I could do—”

  “We’ll need to make it an afternoon or evening party instead. Will that be a problem for you?”

  She shook her head, and maybe it was the shaking that caused Reese to connect the dots. “Is Cassie pregnant?” Judging from the deer-caught-in-the-headlights look, Reese wished she hadn’t asked.

  Or guessed correctly.

  “You can’t tell anyone,” Lucky insisted. “Not yet. Cassie and I need to figure out a way to tell the girls first. And we don’t want to do that before Mia’s birthday party. We don’t want to take anything away from her special day.”

  “I understand, though in this town nothing stays secret for long,” she reminded him.

  “Yeah,” he said without hesitation. “But don’t even tell him.” Lucky tipped his head toward the glass front door where Logan was standing.

  Reese felt another stomach flutter. Logan had finally come. It was about time. She figured he must have heard by now that she was staying in town, and after the warning she’d given him about them landing in bed, Reese figured he’d either run for the hills…

  Or run for her.

  She was hoping for the latter.

  Reese made a zipping motion across her lips for Lucky. A motion that she prayed Logan hadn’t seen because he seemed suspicious when he came in.

  “Engagement party stuff,” Lucky explained to his brother. “Did you get some of those meetings rescheduled?”

  “No. I’ve got to leave tonight for Dallas.”

  Reese hated to feel disappointed by that. She should just hit herself in the head with a frying pan. It would be less painful than all this second-guessing, fluttering and fantasizing she was doing about a man she could never have.

  “What about you?” Logan asked Lucky.

  “I’ve got to head over to the school right now for Mia’s program. Apparently, the pre-K did picture poems complete with painted macaroni borders.” He grinned. “Bet you never thought you’d hear me say something like that, huh?”

  From all accounts, Lucky had been a serious player so it probably was a surprise that he was now attending school programs and talking about macaroni art projects. Still, it seemed to suit him, and he appeared to be happy. If not a little shaken by the news of Cassie’s pregnancy. She wondered how Logan and the rest of his family would take it.

  Wondered, too, why Logan was here.

  He certainly didn’t pull her into his arms and drag her to the floor after Lucky left. Not that Reese especially wanted him to do that…or maybe she did…but it didn’t look as if he had kissing, sex, floors or flutters on his mind. And she soon remembered why.

  “Did Jimena really visit you?” she asked. She also locked the front door so that no one else would come wandering in.

  “She did. She threatened to cut off my dick and roast it.”

  Reese groaned. “She doesn’t mean it. And she had no right. I’ll call her and set her straight.”

  “No need. That wasn’t the only reason
for her visit.” He took out his phone and showed her a picture. “Jimena texted this to me so I’d have a copy.”

  It took Reese’s brain a moment to make sense of what she was seeing A porcelain boob and a clown suit.

  “Please tell me Jimena got that boob from the Dumpster,” Reese said.

  Logan shook his head. “She found this in the trunk of her boyfriend’s car.”

  “Elrond,” Reese provided. Then she knew the reason for Logan’s look. And the reason he’d come. He wanted to find out if she knew anything more about this. “You believe Elrond was the one with Helene that night?”

  “It’s not just possible, it’s highly likely. After all, Helene was the one who hired him. I didn’t have any dealing with him or the rest of the crew who redecorated the building.” Muscles flickered in his jaw.

  Obviously this was bothering him, and Reese couldn’t let it bother her that he was bothered. After all, he had a right to know if this clown had indeed been the one who’d had sex with the woman Logan had intended to marry.

  “What will you do if you find out he’s the one?” she asked.

  He shook his head, put his phone away, and that was apparently the only answer Logan was going to give her. “So, what made you decide to stay in town?”

  Reese was thankful for the change in subject but probably not as thankful as Logan was. “I’m surprised you don’t know that from the gossip.”

  “I heard a couple of theories. One was that you wanted to give me food poisoning for trying to run you out of town. Another was that you were too broke to leave. The dark-horse gossip was that you were pregnant with either my baby or the clown’s.”

  Even though she hated to be the center of that much speculation, of any speculation, really, Reese had to laugh. “The clown’s? When and where exactly was I supposed to have slept with the clown?”

  He lifted his shoulder. “The gossips didn’t exactly connect that thread.”