The man, Chris, as she recalled the woman from the coffee shop calling him, nodded. “I’d be happy to. What’s the number, Elmer?”
Gwen let out an exasperated sound and had the juvenile urge to kick him. But when he glanced at her and winked as she rattled off the number, she found she wasn’t nearly as irked as she let on. He wasn’t GQ handsome by any means, but when he smiled like that with his eyes, she found that she couldn’t be upset with him for the earlier incident.
He was still squatting there in front of her, purposely shielding her from the wind with his big, solid frame, she realized. She heard a woman’s voice answer the call and he sat a little more upright with the phone to his ear. He seemed surprised. “Teresa? Is that you? Yeah, it’s Chris Potter. Listen I’m up at Divine Drip and a friend of yours”—he covered the receiver with his hand—“what’s your name, darlin’?”
Again with the endearments. Where’s this guy from? “Gwen Henderson.”
The cowboy’s jaw dropped the moment she said her name and she heard Teresa squawk and jabber unintelligibly over the phone. She sounded a tad pissed.
The cowboy reached out and carefully pushed the fuzzy, flapped hat off of her head. In a dazed voice, he said, “It’s you.” He handed her the phone, which was warm from his hand when she placed it to her ear. He stared at her like a calf looking at a new gate.
“Hello?”
“Gwen, what in the fucking hell are you doing? Trying to scare us all to death?”
Teresa cussing? She’s serious.
Gwen could hear a man speaking consolingly to Teresa in the background, probably Angel or Joaquin.
“Hi, Teresa. Yeah, it’s me. I’m sorry if I worried you. I just needed some time to think.”
“Three damned days of not returning our calls! Just posting pictures in all those isolated places. You drove a ton of miles. Did you sleep at all? Oh wait, that’s right, you camped one night by yourself in Big Bend? A mountain lion could’ve eaten you!” Gwen heard the male voice in the background again “No, damn it, I will not sit down! Yes, please do that. Thank you, Angel. Okay. Gwen, Angel wants to talk to Chris for a second. Will you put him on?”
Disgruntled for being cut out of the conversation, Gwen frowned as she handed Chris his phone.
Chris held her gaze as he spoke. “Yeah. Looks really tired. We’re up at Divine Drip, in the parking lot. She bumped her elbow, and her hands are in need of attention. Otherwise she seems fine. She’s got a flat on her horse trailer which looks like it’s on its last damned legs…” He paused and gazed at the truck and trailer as if he was seeing it for the first time. “Julián is out on Interstate 10 looking for her but he’s looking for her fancy rig.”
Julián is looking for me? That was the last thing she needed right then. Why couldn’t people just let her do what she needed to do? She pulled her hat down lower on her head and wanted to go hide in her bunk and sleep—for a few decades.
Chris made an affirmative sound, chuckled, and handed the phone back to Gwen. “Hello?”
“Gwen, this is Angel. I’m on my way to get you right now, sweetie. Chris will change your flat tire and bring the truck and trailer out to the Divine Creek Ranch. Is that okay with you?”
She didn’t like everyone doing for her, making decisions for her, and standing over her like that. “I don’t mind changing the flat. You know I’ve done that a time or two. It won’t take me long and then I’ll drive out there.”
“Sweetie, Teresa is beside herself with worry. Let Chris change the flat and bring the truck out. He said you’ve injured your hands.”
“Just hard use, that’s all.”
“Did you really camp in Big Bend all by yourself?”
“Yes, but I had my .38.”
“You’re well traveled so I won’t give you a geography lesson, but do you know how damned close you were to the Mexican border? I wouldn’t want to be you when Teresa gets a hold of you, sweetie.” Angel chuckled before adding, “But I’m glad you didn’t get eaten by a mountain lion. Ow! Woman! I’m going! Gwen, I’ll see you in just a few minutes. Just so you know, Teresa is in a mood and it’s all your fault.”
Gwen smiled when she heard the good humor in his tone. “I’m sorry, Angel. See you in a few.”
She handed the phone to Chris and he said, “If you think your phone is just misplaced, why don’t you give me your number and I’ll dial it, see if we can’t locate it that way.”
Yeah, that puts my number in your call history. “Very smooth, cowboy.”
“Darlin’, I have a whole collection of lines to try out on you. That was a sincere offer.”
“So…you know Julián Alvarez?”
“You could say that,” he said with a nod as he stood to his full, intimidating height again. His muscular chest was so broad there was no way she could wrap her arms around his shoulders. And his arms. Damn, they were like tree trunks. His hands looked like they got a lot of hard use. Big and strong. Capable. But she knew they were also gentle. They’d been almost hesitant as he’d pushed the hat back from her head earlier. She could imagine how careful he would be undressing a woman. Her heart thrummed with excitement that was just as quickly dampened as she realized he was explaining how he knew Julián.
Oh you loose woman, you!
“Darlin’?”
“I apologize. I got distracted.”
Chris grinned broadly, good-natured humor in his eyes. Then he actually flexed his biceps and turned so she could see it bulge against the snug sleeve on his denim shirt. He tapped the large, solid mass of his arm and said, “Feel that, gorgeous. Hard as a rock.” His eyes twinkled as she poked him experimentally and then he said, “At your disposal, darlin’. Now why don’t you show me where your jack is.” She glanced at his crotch for just the briefest of seconds and looked back up into his eyes. He chuckled as if he could see the exact moment her mental imaginings went X-rated.
I want to hit him! But I also want to hug him. How could any woman resist him?
She whacked at her slightly muddy butt as she rose from the dirty fender and led him around to the rear of the horse trailer. After unlocking the security gate, she revealed the tools, and the spares. Her dad had given her extras just in case.
Chris peered at the tires and frowned. “Two of these are already flat.”
“I changed those while on the road.”
He glanced at her hands, disapproval clear in his eyes. “You want to tell me why you’re traveling all on your own, and why you’re not driving the fancy rig Julián told me about?”
She bristled at his proprietary tone and attitude. “Long story, and—it’s really none of your damned business.”
“Okay, little prickly pear,” he murmured as he lifted the good spare and the jack from the horse trailer. “Angel will be here any minute. He’ll want to get you somewhere warm and I imagine that Teresa is already cooking something for you.”
She stifled a smile, thinking that he might just know her friends well. “How do you know them?”
“If you’d been listening instead of ogling this fine body, you’d know that, sugar britches.” He bit his lip, unsuccessfully stifling a laugh as he drug the jack around to the flat tire.
Oh, you asshole! Her cheeks went red-hot because he was right. He’d caught her eyeing him up and down, including the rather substantial bulge at his groin.
“It’s not often I meet someone of such height. You’re rather intimidating.”
He squatted next to the trailer, sliding the heavy jack in place as though it was a toy. Her arms still ached from lugging it out of the trailer twice in the last two days. He cast his warm brown gaze up at her. “I don’t mean to be intimidating, darlin’.”
He turned his attention to the task at hand and she watched his profile, and the way his shoulders and arms rippled and bulged as he operated the jack. He was a teaser, which she found irritating as hell in a man, but she thought she could put up with watching him move for a long time.
She shook her head to clear it. “So tell me what I missed before.”
“I work out at the Cook Ranch, with Julián. We’re also close friends.”
“I’ve never met you in all the times I’ve visited Divine. Why is that?”
Chris shrugged and lowered his gaze to the wheel as he began loosening the lug nuts with a wrench. “Not much on nightlife I guess.”
“I see. And you know Teresa and Angel?”
Chris smiled, evidently sensing that she wasn’t assuming that he was aware of their polyamorous relationship. “And Joaquin. Yes, I do.”
“The Warners?”
He nodded. “Yes, including Adam and Ethan.”
She was surprised by how relieved she felt that he knew them well. He was a big flirt and acted single, but she checked his hands for a ring anyway. Men could be real dogs sometimes.
“So, has Grace been matchmaking for you?”
Soft laughter rumbled in his chest. “She’s tried.”
“She has a gift for it, or so I hear.” She stifled a giggle, thinking of Grace’s matchmaking efforts on her cousin Jayne’s behalf. On a visit to Divine earlier in the year, she’d been surprised to see Julián and Seth Carter looking about ready to go at it in The Dancing Pony. Seth had acted every bit the territorial alpha male as he took his thoroughly soused girlfriend from Julián’s arms and carried her out of the nightclub.
Gwen had done her best to ignore the pit that had temporarily opened in her chest at the sight of Julián holding another woman protectively like that. He’d explained the circumstances to her a bit later, but the surge of possessiveness had been disturbing, nonetheless. Seth and Jayne had been married early in November so Grace had counted them as a solid matchmaking “win.”
Chris said, “I’ve heard that she has a gift for matching people up too. I guess that wasn’t the case with me.”
“No? Not your type?”
He shrugged again, and she noticed a slight change in his teasing demeanor. “More like I wasn’t her type.”
Her heart went out to this gentle giant, who didn’t make eye contact with her again as he continued working. Something inside her reached out to him for the briefest—
Don’t you dare! You’re not staying. You shouldn’t have even learned his name, damn it! Should’ve kept it at “Cowboy”!
Attachments just made it harder to leave. As it was, she missed Julián dreadfully every time she left Divine after a visit. This guy was getting under her skin way way too easily. And she was in Divine, after all. Ménage Central.
Don’t be tempted. You have a ranch to win back. Everything else pales in comparison to your dream. Remember?
Chris paused in his efforts to tap his phone screen and then cradled the cell phone between his ear and his massive shoulder as he continued loosening lug nuts. When the call connected he said, “Hey. I found Gwen for ya. Yeah. Angel’s coming to get her and she’s going out to Teresa’s place at the ranch.” After a brief pause he chuckled and added, “Yeah, I’ll tell her, with pleasure.” He glanced at her, chuckling as he ended the call and held it out to her. “Input your number in my phone and see if you can’t locate your phone. When you’re done, you can erase the number. Although I wouldn’t call you unless I knew you welcomed it. I’m a gentleman…usually.”
She chewed her lip as she took the phone from his warm hand. “What did Julián ask you to tell me?”
“He said when he gets a hold of you, he plans to spank your sweet little ass until it turns hot pink.” At her gasp, he held up his hand defensively. “Don’t shoot the messenger, Elmer. Although I’ll admit I’d gladly help him.” He laughed as her cheeks went up in flames, and then he went back to his labor, whistling a happy tune.
She ignored him as she practically stabbed her fingertips through the screen typing in her number to call her phone. I pity the fool who tries to take a hand to my ass!
Oh yeah? Then explain why that thought just made you wet between the legs.
Chapter Four
Chris tried not to stare at Gwen as she pounded her phone number on the keypad. She was seething. Absolutely furious. And he couldn’t take his eyes off of her. Thankfully she ignored him as she walked toward the door on the old, stainless steel horse trailer, which probably led to her little bunk space. If she’d looked at him, she might’ve guessed at what he was struggling to hide. He drank in the lush curves of her thighs and her ass, encased in faded, muddy blue jeans.
She’s perfect. And she’s my best friend’s girl. Doesn’t matter that she probably doesn’t realize that fact yet. But she is.
She was covered up beneath the heavy, oversized barn jacket again, but he had a good idea that more of the same curvaceous perfection was underneath it. His cock had hardened the instant he’d pushed one side of her coat off of her so he could examine her arm. Her warm, womanly scent had gone straight to his head and all he could imagine was lying with her nestled in his arms, his nose pressed to her throat as she slept beside him.
For once, he couldn’t think of anything smart to say. A lump grew in his throat and he longed for a woman he could cuddle up with on a cold night and hold for hours on end. He’d heard of love at first sight and had made fun of his friends and brothers when they’d talked about it and the women they loved. Now he knew how it felt.
“Aha!” she cried and reached into the small sleeping cabin. Stretching like that put her ass on display in a way that made him want to pant and walk up behind her, press himself against her. Yeah, that’d piss her off for sure.
She stood upright again and held up her phone. “It fell into one of my other boots by the bunk. Must’ve slipped from my pocket.” She swiped the screen with a fingertip and then frowned, looking guilty.
Damn, she’s beautiful.
“Did you get a lot of calls?” he asked as he applied himself to the job.
“I haven’t been looking at my calls at all. I turned the ringer off. There are a bunch.”
“People were worried about you, darlin’.”
“I needed time alone.”
“Maybe so, but you scared Teresa, and she—” Not my secret to tell. “I’m sure you’ll work it all out. Julián was pretty worried too.”
“I see that. He left me several voice mail messages.”
“People care about you.”
“I don’t want—never mind.” A diesel pickup rumbled up next to them in the parking lot.
“Sounds like Angel’s here, darlin’,” he murmured, wishing that he’d had more time alone with her. But she needed attention to her hands and she was probably hungry too.
With his dark eyebrows drawn together in a straight line, Angel stepped around the front of her truck and gestured at it with his thumb. “Gwen? What is this? Where’s your rig?” Chris noticed it when Angel’s jaw dropped as he stared at the old truck. “This is your old rig, isn’t it? What the hell?” He appeared disgruntled as he looked it over and then turned and reached for her. Chris frowned when he caught a glimpse of the forlorn look on her face before she was clasped in Angel’s comforting hug. “Tell me what happened.” Chris wished he could be the one she trusted to turn to like that. He looked away when Angel made eye contact with him over her fuzzy hat.
She murmured unintelligibly and shook her head, her hair getting twisted up inside her Elmer Fudd hat, which looked adorable on her.
From talking to Julián, Chris knew that she had been friends with Teresa, Angel, and Joaquin for a few years, and had known Julián on the rodeo circuit for several years. Chris had competed in rodeo before screwing up his left knee, but he’d never encountered her before, at least not that he could recall.
Angel released her and walked over to him as he put the spare on and began screwing on the first lug nut. “I’m glad you found her, Chris.”
Chris shook his head and smirked. “Nearly ran over her is more like it. She needs ice on her elbow, where she smacked it against the front grill of my truck. Her hands are bleeding too.”
Angel squatted down beside him, a knowing smile on his face. “You okay? You don’t sound like your abnormal self.”
Chris shot him a single-finger salute and kept working. Normally his Jersey ancestry would take hold by that point but he couldn’t think of a single insult to utter. His brothers would be shocked. In his family, the delivery of insults was an elevated art form.
Angel cocked his head and studied him until Chris gritted his teeth. “Why don’t you come over for supper tonight? Teresa is already cooking, even though I’d rather she was sitting down and relaxing. She plans to invite Julián as well.”
“Nah, man. I don’t want to intrude.”
“Bullshit. I recognize the look in your eyes.”
“Whatever. I got stuff to do at the ranch once I get done here.”
“Fine. Bring her rig and one of the ranch hands can drive you back here to pick up your truck. But you’re going to disappoint Teresa. In her present state…”
Chris hated the thought of upsetting Teresa. She needed to be calm, not all up in the air about everything. But he also didn’t want to torture himself, watching Gwen with Julián. Pretending he wasn’t feeling something pretty strong for her.
Fucking sucks. Story of my life. She wouldn’t want to spend time with me anyway. I set her off with every word I say.
He looked back at her, standing by the truck, gathering her personal belongings from the cracked bench seat. The truck had to be at least twenty years old, and must’ve had at least five hundred thousand miles on it, if not double that amount. She wrapped her scarf around her neck and turned to look his way. Their eyes met and held, and his heretofore carefree world narrowed in focus until he only needed the answer to one question. “It depends on if Gwen wants me there or not.”
I’m so fucked. Julián is gonna kill me.
* * * *
Angel grabbed the handled paper bag from the seat. “Want to bring this with you?”
Gwen nodded but she was held by Chris’s gaze. “Yes, I found some things for the boys while I was on the road.”
Angel smiled and took the duffle bag she pulled from the bunk space inside the trailer. “So you were planning on coming to Divine?”
Tangled in Divine [Divine Creek Ranch 14] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 5
