He walked up just as the man was saying “So, if you change your mind about wanting a sight-seeing partner…”
“She won’t,” Cooper snapped, surprising even himself with the anger in his voice.
Josephine started and turned around.
The man looked surprised, and disappointment mingled with anger flashed across his face for the briefest moment before he turned on that ingratiating smile again.
Cooper didn’t like how quickly the man went from smiling to furious to smiling again.
“Of course. My apologies.”
Josephine grabbed Cooper’s arm and steered him away from the table to a corner of the room. “What was that all about?” she demanded.
“I could ask you the same question. Did I leave you unsatisfied last night?”
“Unsatisfied? Hell no. You left me so I can hardly walk. But why were you getting all snappish just now? I already told the guy no.”
“I don’t like him,” Cooper said, scowling. “I get a really bad vibe off of him.”
“Uh uh.” Josephine was looking at him skeptically.
“That’s because you have the hots for our Miss Josephine,” Cheyenne popped up behind them, making Cooper and Josephine start.
Josephine shrugged apologetically. “That’s Crooked Creek for you. Apparently, everybody’s business is everybody else’s business.”
“You learn fast,” Cheyenne nodded appreciatively.
“There’s something about him that bothers me,” Cooper frowned, shaking his head.
“You mean, something other than the fact that he wants to get in Josephine’s pants?” Cheyenne asked, before rushing off to serve a group of ranch hands who were pounding their fists in unison at the end of the bar.
Josephine looked exasperated. “What are we even doing with each other? What is going on with us?”
“I don’t know. We’ve got a strange relationship based on overwhelming attraction and mutual distrust. I know it’s not fair for me to ask, but-“
Cooper’s phone buzzed again, and he grabbed it and glanced at the screen. “Hold that thought. I’ll be right back,” he said to Josephine, and walked outside.
It was Deputy Mancini’s phone number. “Hello, Lorenzo. What have you got for me?” Cooper asked.
“Maybe good news. A couple of forest rangers spotted some activity at a hunting cabin owned by a man who vacations here every summer. I checked, and he’s in New York City, and nobody’s supposed to be staying in his cabin. When the rangers went in there, they could tell that someone’s been staying there recently, and they found a pack of matches from a Pennsylvania bar, and a receipt from a Burger King in Bitter Valley. We’re going to stake the place out overnight. I’ll swing by and pick you up if you want; where are you?”
“I owe you, Lorenzo! Meet me in front of the Mercantile.” He glanced back at the Dry Gulch Saloon; a group of men walked out onto the street, laughing, but he couldn’t see Josephine from where he stood.
He turned and walked away, stomach churning.
He was about to catch his quarry; why did he feel ill instead of elated?
Because odds were good that he’d be arresting Josephine’s brother tonight, and then she’d never speak to him again. The realization was surprisingly painful; he felt a dull ache spreading outward from his chest, a pulsing sorrow at the thought of what Jason’s arrest would do to her.
But damn it, she’d known that from the day he first met her. He was doing his job. He was arresting a fugitive. Would she really hold that against him?
Of course she would. She was fiercely loyal to her younger brother, and in a way, he couldn’t hold that against her. Unless she was also collaborating with her brother in some way, which he prayed she wasn’t.
He walked towards the Mercantile with leaden steps, but he was determined. He would do the right thing, no matter what the personal cost.
Chapter Ten
“Coffee?”
Josephine sat upright with a jerk.
She’d fallen asleep on the loveseat, sometime after 4 a.m.
Cooper had never come back to the Dry Gulch Saloon. He hadn’t called. He hadn’t texted. She’d teetered between worry and anger all night long.
Sleep had been impossible. Was he hurt? Was he stranded somewhere?
Apparently not, because he was standing in front of her the flesh, hair rumpled, faint circles under his eyes as if he’d been up all night, button-down shirt wrinkled and creased…and still heartbreakingly handsome.
Damn him.
Cooper set a tray with two coffee cups on the small table in the corner of the room. “I’m sorry about last night,” he said. “I bought croissants, too.”
Silently, she peeled back the coffee cup lid.
“Two creams, one sugar. I remembered how you like it.”
She took a healthy swig of coffee and a bite of buttery croissant.
“Just so you know, I wasn’t out with anyone else last night,” he said. “I was working. And no, I didn’t find him.”
She looked him steadily in the eye and took another big sip of coffee.
“So, uh, I guess you weren’t out with anyone else last night either? Right?”
She shrugged, and felt mildly gratified to see the look of dismay on his face. “You weren’t, were you?” he asked insistently.
“Cooper. You were out all night looking for my brother, obviously. This isn’t going to work with us. Your top priority has to be arresting my brother; it’s your job. I understand that. But I don’t think I’ll be able to live with it if you hunt him down like an animal and bring him back in handcuffs.”
“Josephine, I know he’s your brother. But every day that he’s out here is another day that he’s deliberately on the run, violating parole, with no explanation.”
She winced. There was an explanation; he was hunting for lost treasure, and once he’d violated parole, there was no point in him going back until he found the treasure. But she couldn’t tell Cooper that.
“Can’t we work something out?” His tone was pleading.
“We’re pretty much at an impasse here. I’m going to ask Betsy if I can go stay at her house while I’m in town. I’m pretty sure she’ll say yes.”
Her heart lurched in her chest as she said it, and she stared down at the coffee table, blinking hard to keep from crying and hoping against hope that Cooper didn’t notice.
Getting involved with Cooper had been a terrible idea from the start.
She glanced at her watch. “Oh, damn. I have to hurry.”
“Going somewhere?”
“Out,” she said curtly.
She rushed into the bathroom and shut the door behind her, showered quickly, and was out and dressed in low heeled boots, jeans, and a t-shirt, in five minutes flat.
He looked at the boots. “Those kind of look like horse riding boots.”
“Yep. Cheyenne lent them to me.”
A car horn blared outside, and Josephine walked out without looking back at him. He scrambled after her and slammed the door shut behind him, locking it quickly.
Cheyenne was outside, idling her car, and Betsy was in the front seat.
When Josephine opened the back door and climbed in, Cooper slid in next to her before she could shut the door.
“What’s he doing here?” Betsy asked, scowling at him.
“What’s the picnic basket for?” Cooper asked, noting the wicker basket between Cheyenne and Betsy on the front seat.
“Oh, we have her brother in there. We were going to smuggle him out of town, but now you’ve busted us,” Betsy said coolly.
“Should I kick him out of the car?” Cheyenne asked.
“I guarantee you I’ll find another ride and be on your tail in sixty seconds,” Cooper said.
“It’s true. He’s damned resourceful. I guess he can come with us,” Josephine said, looking at him skeptically.
“Cheyenne’s going to teach me how to ride a horse,” she told Cooper. “Or how to fall
off a horse, more likely.”
They rode in silence, with Cheyenne and Carlotta shooting Cooper dirty looks, and Betsy staring at the road straight ahead, and Josephine looking away from Cooper, out the window.
“Nice country out here,” Cooper said.
“I’m tired and cranky from being up all night wondering where the hell you were, and I’m not feeling up to the whole making polite conversation thing,” Josephine said shortly.
“So why don’t you go horseback riding some other day?” Cooper asked, but she ignored him.
After a few minutes, he tried again.
“Where’s Carlotta? Isn’t she usually your other partner in crime?”
“Out committing crime,” Cheyenne said coolly. “She’s robbing a bank, actually. She likes it when her husband handcuffs her.”
Outside of town, they came to a smaller road. Down the road, they drove under an archway which announced that they were entering the Jackson Ranch, with a large steer’s skull on top of the sign.
Inside the ranch, they parked and walked over to the stables.
Cheyenne led the horses out one by one, and she and Betsy began putting saddles on them.
Suddenly Josephine was starting to doubt the wisdom of their plan. She’d just worked up the courage to pet a horse the other day, and now she was supposed to climb on top of one?
She looked askance at the horse that Cheyenne was leading towards her, tall and gleaming brown with a glossy black mane and tail. It loomed over her, casting a long shadow, and stamped its hoof in the dirt.
“They come with ladders, right?” Josephine said. Betsy and Cheyenne threw back their heads and laughed.
“I don’t think he can hold my weight,” Josephine said, genuine fear in her voice.
“You’ll be fine,” Cooper said, placing his hand on her shoulder.
Somehow, despite everything, with his hand on her shoulder and him by her side, Josephone felt her panic ebbing.
Cheyenne showed her how to put her left foot in the stirrup. After several attempts, clinging on to the saddle’s pommel with sweaty hands, she managed to swing her right leg up and over, although she still felt strongly that some kind of stairway, or maybe a winch to gently lower her on to the horse’s back, would be a much better system.
The things I do for my brother, she thought.
Cooper needed no help with the horse that Cheyenne let him ride. He climbed on as if he’d been riding his whole life.
“So, you know your way around a horse,” Josephine said as they headed down a trail behind the farm’s property.
“My grandfather had a farm. I’m not Olympic material, but I know which end is which. And I’m not saying that I think you girls would try to ride off and leave me, but if you did, I’d be able to keep up.”
“Curses, foiled again,” Betsy said in a bored voice.
“Cooper, if I could ride off and ditch you, I would, but if this thing started moving faster than a trot I’d have heart attack,” Josephine said, annoyed.
They set off at a slow, leisurely pace, along a trail behind the stables. At first Josephine clamped her legs against the saddle in sheer terror, but as they rode, she slowly started to relax.
The bouncing of the horse was soothing, and Cheyenne guided the line of horses skillfully through the woods, on a sun dappled trail, with the wind gently rustling the trees above their heads.
After a while Cheyenne encouraged her horse to break into a trot, and Josephine and the others followed suit, until finally they came to a riverbank.
“The lovely Crooked Creek,” Cheyenne said, gesturing. She unstrapped the picnic basket from her horse’s saddle, and set it on the ground.
Josephine bent over and rubbed her thighs as the horses drank from the river.
“I’m going to be sore tomorrow, aren’t I?”
“You’re going to hate me in the morning,” Cheyenne laughed.
“Oooh, you’re in good company. She’s said that to most of the male population of Crooked Creek,” Betsy said, ducking when Cheyenne good-naturedly swung at her.
Crooked Creek flowed by, and willow trees trailed long branches by the rivers edge. In the distance, the mountains were giant blue-grey cutouts on the horizon against the azure of the sky.
“This spot is beautiful,” Cooper said. He looked at Cheyenne suspiciously. “Why are you smiling at me like that?”
She flashed a huge, evil grin. “I’m glad you like it out here. You’re going to be here for a while.” And she and Betsy were back on their horses in a flash, and before Cooper could stop them, they were racing back the way they came, and Josephine’s and Cooper’s horses were following them at a gallop.
Cooper cursed and yelled “Get the hell back here!”
But they were vanishing into the woods, in a clatter of hooves.
He swung around to glare at Josephine, who was sitting on the grass, laughing at him.
“You were in on this, weren’t you?”
She shrugged. “They’ll be back in a few hours. We’re six miles outside of town. It’s not really worth your while to walk that far. You wouldn’t find them anyway.” She pulled a folded red and white checkered blanket from the basket and spread it out on the grass.
He blew out a breath of frustration. “I hate to burst your bubble, but I asked Deputy Mancini to follow Betsy. He’ll have followed the car to the ranch. When he sees Betsy and Cheyenne come back without you and me, he’ll come out here and pick us up.”
“I hate to burst your bubble, but Deputy Mancini got a call from his wife telling him that he urgently needed to come home. And when he comes home he’s going to find Carlotta in a negligee, and the twins are at her mother’s house. I guarantee he’ll forget you exist for the next few hours.”
Cooper had quite an impressive array of swearwords in his vocabulary, and he used all of them while Josephine calmly set out sandwiches, soda, and slices of pie on the picnic blanket.
“You can sit there and curse all day, or you can enjoy a picnic by the river in one of the most beautiful spots on the planet,” she said.
Grumbling, he sat down.
They ate roast beef sandwiches slathered with mayonnaise and mustard, and washed it down with cans of coca cola, and then moved on to apple pie with a buttery crust.
Then they sat side by side, looking at the mountains in silence.
“I wish you wouldn’t move to Betsy’s,” Cooper said finally.
“I wish you wouldn’t arrest my brother.”
“When I find him, I won’t have much choice, Josephine. That’s what I do.” He put his arm around her shoulders, and she felt a wave of heat roll over her, and her nipples sprang to attention.
“So, about last night…you never clarified whether or not you were out with anyone else,” he said.
“You mean, I never clarified as to whether I stayed home or went out and painted the town red, after you said you’d come back and then instead you vanished? I was actually worried about you, you know.”
“I’m sorry. I wish there was a way I could have called you. This whole situation is really awkward. The last thing I want to do is hurt you.” He turned to look at her.
“You still haven’t answered me. About last night.”
“Seriously?” she groaned. “You really want to know if I was out getting lucky? Are you actually, genuinely, jealous?”
“Yes,” he gritted out.
“Well, Cooper.” She paused. “Last night…for pretty much the entire evening, after I got off work…” He stared at her intently.
“Instead of hitting up the local honky tonk and partying with cowboys, or going out on a date with the hot Spanish guy who asked me out, I was sitting in my room, alternating between going out of my mind with worry and plotting ways to torture you when you came back.”
“Oh, thank God! I was hoping you’d say that.”
“Screw you. Jerk.” But she couldn’t keep from smiling.
He tightened his arm around her shoulders. �
��I’m not giving up, you know. Even if I have to arrest your brother, I think we can make it work.”
She shook her head. “I don’t.” Her heart was heavy when she said it, and she felt a coldness sweep over her at the thought of ending things with him, of never seeing him again. But how could they ever work things out between them?
“I’m still not giving up. I’m quite persistant. And believe it or not, when I want to be, I can be very charming.” He grabbed the back of her hand and kissed it. She tried to stifle a giggle, but couldn’t.
“And I happen to know that you find me quite attractive.” He began kissing his way up her arm, his soft lips caressing her skin, and she let out a small gasp.
“Oooh. You cocky sonofabitch.”
“True on all counts. And I want you to get naked. Now.” His voice took on an air of command which sent shivers of desire racing up her spine.
As if hypnotized, she pulled off her t-shirt over her head, and then stripped off her bra. Next came her jeans and boots and underwear, all tossed in a pile on the ground.
“Now you,” she said, but he shook his head, smiling.
“Stand there like that. I want to look at you.”
Sunlight poured over her like warm honey and a gentle breeze ruffled her hair. Self-conscious, she crossed her arms over her body, in front of her stomach and breasts.
He shook his head, his smile gentle. “Josephine, I’m going to teach you to love your body. Lie down on that blanket.”
Desire sizzled through her, and she lay down as ordered, with her dark hair fanning out over the checkered squares. Trembling, she placed her arms down by her sides, revealing herself to him completely.
When he looked at her, there was no judgment in his eyes. There was lust, and tenderness, and a gleam of anticipation.
To him, she was beautiful. She saw that in his warm gaze that slowly, appreciatively, swept her from head to toe, drinking in every inch of her full-figured body, her rounded belly, her fleshy thighs, her full breasts.
How could it be? How could he see beauty where she saw thick waisted, chubby rolls of flesh?
He knelt down and with infinite tenderness kissed her neck.
Curvy Girls: The Big Girl and the Bounty Hunter Page 8
