Paige rushed to her side. “Oh my God, Mia. I don’t know what’s gotten into him—”
“Just make sure he gets back in one piece,” Mia interrupted, then with another glance in his direction added, “He’s drunk as hell.”
“No, you don’t understand. I don’t want to have anything to do with him,” she replied, pleading with Mia.
“Mia, calm down,” Ian said.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” she hissed and then whipped her body around, scurried to the end of the bar, and began to attend to a customer.
Paige’s feet were grounded to the sticky, hardwood floors. What a mess she had gotten herself into.
***
A smile crossed Everett’s lips as he watched Ellie dance with a man who owned a ranch just outside the next town over. She always smiled the brightest when she was around him, even though the two of them weren’t necessarily an item yet. Everett shook his head slowly then, taking another sip of his whiskey, let his eyes wander to the bar. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Paige encased in Ian’s embrace. His blood boiled, the thick mess seeping through his veins. He couldn’t imagine the nerve of Ian, who always took his grimy hands and placed them on every beautiful woman he could find. His bottom lip trembled with an emotion he hadn’t felt for a long time. But when Paige shoved him away, standing up and yelling at him, Everett was overcome with a wave of a relief so intense his knees went weak.
He noticed Mia staring at them from behind the bar. Paige saw this too, but Mia walked away as quickly as they had made eye contact. Paige then chased her down the bar and tried to get her attention. Everett took another nervous sip from his drink as he watched the two of them talk, hoping, for Paige’s sake, that the conversation would end happily. But he could see from the way that Mia stalked away, leaving Paige standing shocked and alone, that it did not go well. As if driven by some sort of outside force, he walked toward her. He couldn’t explain why, but the sight of her standing there so obviously emotionally distressed made him want to do something to help her. Before he had traveled half the distance between the two of them, she turned and walked out of the bar.
***
Paige walked as fast as she could without breaking into a run as her tears finally overflowed and ran down her cheeks, hot and frantic. She pressed her lips closed to prevent herself from sobbing, but failed. She wasn’t sure where she was headed when the door shut behind her, but she needed some air and some quiet. People were still entering the bar, so she headed toward the back of the building, looking for an isolated place to catch her breath and get a hold of herself.
“Paige.”
She froze at the sound of Ian’s voice. She hitched her hands on her hips and pressed a frown onto her face that she hoped spoke loudly. “Go away, Ian.”
Before she could turn around voluntarily, he grabbed her arm and spun her to face him.
If the tequila smell was strong before, it was nothing compared to this revolting, alcohol-laden breath which was only a few inches away from her face now. He held both arms to her sides with a tight grip.
“You’re hurting me.” She nearly whimpered the confession but at the last second steeled her voice to try and get through his drunken haze, if a sober Ian was someone who would listen anyway. She wasn’t so sure.
“I’m sorry, honey bee.” His voice purred but he tightened his grip even more. “But I bet you can handle a cowboy like me, huh, city slicker?” He crushed his mouth to hers before she could respond.
Her body responded reflexively, her knee connecting with his groin. He let go of her at once and doubled over. “You bitch,” he sneered and reached out for her ankle, trying to pull her down. She kicked him in the face, sending him backward, where he stilled, the alcohol taking hold. She heard a whistle and turned around.
“Everett?” She could only see his outline standing in the shadow. He came forward into the light.
“You okay?” His easy Texas drawl held a tinge of tension.
Paige nodded, her breath slowing back to normal. “Yep,” she said. “Guess he had more than we realized.” She looked down at Ian, who had begun to snore.
“I just got here in time to see your amazing karate moves,” he said, grinning, but still seemed to be holding his breath.
“Oh, that’s nothing,” she said, flexing her muscle for him. “You should see me after I’ve had me spinach.”
Everett slowly exhaled. “But you’re okay?” he asked again.
She nodded.
He looked down at Ian and said, “I don’t know that I’ll have any luck gettin’ him fired. Aunt Jana will have something to say about that, and considering she’s datin’ his dad . . .” He shrugged.
She put her hand on his arm. “It’s okay. No need to fire him. I think he’ll have enough punishment trying to explain his bruised face and the fact that he got beat up by a girl, and a city slicker to boot!”
He grinned. “I’ll get him to the truck.”
“Thanks.” She smiled and continued back to the bar.
***
The entire ride home, Ian sat sullenly looking out the window from the back of the truck cab. Ellie looked at him curiously and tried to get him to explain his bruised face, but he just grunted about having fallen down. Paige suppressed a smile, and Everett glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She was sitting in the front next to him on the way back to the ranch and was so close that she would have sworn she could hear his heart beat. Ethan was back in the passenger seat and was causing Ellie and Paige to giggle with made-up scenarios to explain Ian’s face.
“I’m betting he was so drunk that he mistook that really big cowboy for a girl and tried to cuddle.” Ellie and Paige burst into laughter, and Everett cracked a smile.
“Shut the hell up,” said Ian. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Back at the house, everyone clambered out of the truck and said goodnight. Ian was the first to leave, without saying anything to anyone. Ellie looked back at Paige and Everett and hurried inside. “No need for you two to rush in. No work tomorrow for you, but I need to get started on some cobblers for next week’s Fourth of July event.” She winked at Paige, whose eyes widened.
Paige climbed onto the porch and started to open the door when Everett touched her arm. “Paige?”
“Yeah?” She turned to him, feeling heat from his body as he stepped closer.
“You know I wouldn’t have let him hurt you, don’t you?”
She wanted to offer up a retort about not needing his protection, but his mouth was on hers. Her arms relaxed and she brought them up to put around his neck, but he pulled back while pushing her away, not in anger or even in shock, but in a tender way.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t—”
Paige’s mouth covered his words, and she flung herself back into his arms. Her head exploded, every synapse of every nerve firing at the same time. A chill ran up her spine as she wrapped her arms around his neck again. The kiss seemed to last an entire lifetime and less than a second all at once.
Everett eventually drew away.
It was over much too soon.
Chapter Eleven
Paige woke up the next morning at her own leisure feeling more relaxed than she had in a long time. The night off had done wonders for her muscles, in spite of the altercation with Ian, and nothing but a dull ache remained in the place of all the tension she had previously endured.
She climbed out of bed and slipped on her singular pair of jeans, the boots that Aunt Jana had given her, a tank top, and a blouse to top it off. She stood staring at herself in the mirror, taking note of the faint glow in her skin, the twinkle in her eye, and the slight smile into which her lips seemed to have been permanently folded. She decided she and Ellie should take a shopping trip into Dallas where she could pick up a few more pairs of jeans.
“Everett,” she muttered as she placed her cowboy hat on top of a head of unkempt curls, the piece that topped it all off. As she looked at herself, she took stoc
k at how much she had changed, and she wasn’t just looking at the tan in her skin. It was as if when the old her—the girl with failure issues and deep-seated fears of being an outsider—stared into that mirror, a new woman—one who could be unapologetically herself in any situation, one who trusted her mind and her body wholeheartedly—stared back. She huffed a quick breath of ecstasy, then left her room.
***
Everett paced back and forth across the length of the barn, the sight of his horse just off the right corner of his vision and Paige just off the left. It was the third Saturday of the month, which meant that none of the ranch hands were obligated to come in, which also meant that it was only he and Paige for the whole day. He sucked in a deep breath layered with scents of hay, the warm breeze that snuck its way into the half-open door to the barn, and the essence of the two horses inside.
In an unannounced flash, his mind thrust itself back to the night before. He remembered himself reaching down toward Paige, tracing his fingers across her incredibly soft face, and he couldn’t help but sustain another round of chills in his spine. He could hardly believe he could find himself so drawn to someone so different than he.
***
Paige hesitated with her hand on the door to the barn, a new kind of nervousness taking over her. Even though things between them in the past had primarily consisted of her trying to defend herself while Everett attacked her with a series of impossible tasks, she now missed the clarity of that dynamic. She had known what to expect from him, and he knew what to expect from her. Now things had been tossed up and reorganized in a way that she didn’t recognize. Was she supposed to be nice to him now? Was she entitled to expect him to be nice to her?
Then a third, and even less desirable option came to mind: that of nothing changing. This would mean the kiss that occurred the night before was nothing but an impulse driven by desperate emotions and a little bit of beer. Her heart flipped at the possibility that not only had this meant nothing, but that he could very well have a girlfriend that she didn’t know about. Her heart flipped again, and she surprised herself with how much that bothered her. They had only shared a kiss, for Christ’s sake, under conditions that were questionable.
With one final umph, Paige forced herself to push open the door. She stopped in the doorway, paralyzed by the sight of Everett pacing back and forth, his long legs taking deliberate steps, one after the other, and his sculpted face cast down. She had not expected the flashback that threatened to overwhelm her, the burgeoning desire to touch him again, or the pure bliss that accompanied all of these emotions. She cleared her throat, causing him to immediately snap his head up at her.
“Hey,” she said, taking another slow step toward her.
He scanned her with his sharp, searching eyes, then smirked. “You ready?” He gestured toward Penelope.
“You bet,” she replied, her lips folding into an identical smirk.
Soon enough, they were both sitting atop their horses headed outside the barn. Paige swept her gaze over the acres and acres of land ahead of them, her heart swelling as it always did, in sheer wonder of the sight. “So, what’s the plan for today?”
He shrugged. “Nothing much really. It’s going to be an easy Saturday.”
She rolled her eyes. “So, I could have stayed in bed?”
He cocked his head to one side. “Would you have really wanted to?” he asked, an eyebrow raised.
She pursed her lips and followed him out into the range. He had a point. As they got farther and farther away from the barn and into the eerily quiet range, she sped Penelope to a quicker trot and came up alongside him.
Although he didn’t make an obvious response, she could have sworn that she saw him glance down at her legs, then smile softly, training his gaze on the land in front of them.
“But really, where is everyone?” she asked.
He shrugged. “It’s a day off. We try to allow the workers both days of the weekend once a month.”
“So, we’re just going wander around aimlessly?” she asked, stretching her lips into a knowing smile.
He shrugged. “I thought you could use the riding practice.”
She chuckled. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t realize that I was being trained to be a jockey.”
Everett glowered. “Please, you wouldn’t last five seconds as a jockey.”
“Which is precisely why you’re training me, right?” she teased. Just as she looked in his direction, he quickly averted his gaze, and she realized that he had been looking at her all along.
He scoffed, shaking his head. “Why is this so hard for me to say?”
“What?” she quipped, not realizing how harsh she was being.
He pulled on the reigns a little, slowing his horse down to a crawl, then turned to look at her, unleashing the full force of his gaze. “Look, I just wanted to spend some time with you alone. There really is nothing for us to do out here, so, honestly if you want to go, you can.”
Her jaw hung stupidly open. She could not believe that he was actually being honest about his intentions. The way that he had just revealed himself in front of her, his honest, vulnerable self, made her want to jump across the two horses and wrap her arms around him. “Of course I want to stay. Why didn’t you just ask?”
He averted his gaze, bowing his head. “Because you never know how people are going to react to things. I’d rather know before I ask.”
“But, you just can’t know,” she replied, her brow furrowing.
He nodded. “Well, it’s the only way for me to survive around these parts.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, the journalist in her scraping for every detail.
He threw her a cautionary glance before continuing. “Well, I don’t really fit in here.”
She scoffed, thinking back to what Ellie had told her the night before. “Join the club.”
He flashed her a confused look.
She just shook her head. “I feel like the only people who really believe that they belong around here are the people who have nothing to set them apart.”
“And what do I have to set me apart?” he asked in a curious tone.
Paige shrugged, her face flushing red. “I—I don’t know.”
“I think you do,” he replied.
She pursed her lips, resenting him for putting her in a corner that she could only get out of by singing his praise. “All right, fine,” she started. “I just feel like, out of everyone else, you’re the most mature. You have a kind of . . . well a kind of darkness to you that gives you depth in a way. I never know what you’re going to say or do next, whereas everyone else here . . . everyone in general, is an open book. They respect you here . . . and I do too.”
“Ha!” he laughed humorlessly.
“What?” she demanded.
“They’ll respect me as long as I’m the one who knows all the answers, but they’ll never like me.”
She could feel the frustration welling up in the pit of her stomach, could feel her blood boiling with the fuel of piles and piles of questions. “Okay, fine. Fair game. So why the hell do you think that is?” she demanded. It annoyed her that someone as obviously well-adjusted as Everett could think this way.
“Because Aunt Jana makes sure I don’t forget that I’m not welcome here,” he brooded.
Paige ducked her head. “Why do you think you’re not welcome?”
“Well, I’m not actually related by blood to her or Arlo . . .” He stopped, then took another deep breath. “My mom died when I was five years old, and my dad . . .” he muttered, his voice breaking, “My dad was Alfred White, Aunt Jana’s husband.”
“So she married Alfred after your mom died?”
He shook his head. “Alfred wasn’t married to my mom. He was married to Aunt Jana.”
Paige started to shake her head but widened her eyes as she comprehended. “So you’re . . .”
“The bastard son of Aunt Jana’s cheating husband? Yep, that’s me.”
“But
then I don’t understand. If you’re not Arlo’s grandson, then . . .” Her voice trailed off.
“Then why do I live here with a woman who can’t stand the sight of me?”
Paige nodded slowly, her heart breaking at the way his face contorted into a frown and how his eyes glazed over at the memory of these things. “Arlo never had a son, and he and Aunt Jana have always had a very rocky relationship. I think Arlo felt sorry for me and maybe he thought of Alfred as a son. In any case, Arlo wasn’t always the sickly old invalid you know. He’s the only person who can make Aunt Jana do what she doesn’t want to do. In fact, the way I hear it, Aunt Jana didn’t want to marry Alfred. He was a ranch hand here who was close to Arlo. Like I said, I think Arlo saw him like a son.
“Anyway,” he continued. “Alfred died in a head-on collision and then my mom died shortly after that. So Arlo brought me to live here.” He stopped talking and looked out across the ranch, as if lost in thought.
“But how did Arlo know about you?” Paige urged him to continue.
He looked back at her and narrowed his eyes. “Is this an interview, Miss Prescott?”
She laughed. “Do you see a recorder or a pen and paper?” Then her face got more serious, and she reached over and punched him in the arm. “And hey! Is that what you really think of me? I may be a city slicker, but I’m not heartless, Mister James.”
His face softened, and a smile played at the corners of his eyes. “Ouch.” He rubbed his arm playfully. “Please tell me you didn’t eat spinach for breakfast.” He laughed, and she returned the light chuckle. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. This must be the most I’ve ever told anyone without a few beers in me first.”
Paige smiled. “I’m honored, but back to my question—”
“Oh you’re goooood . . . ,” he interrupted. “Okay, and the question was how did Arlo know I existed?” She nodded. “The thing you gotta know about Alfred is that he was an honest man who owned up to his mistakes. So I was never a secret. Why Aunt Jana didn’t leave him as soon as she found out, well, you’d have to ask her. I suspect Arlo had something to do with that. So, there you go. Arlo showered her husband’s bastard with affection. You could say that Aunt Jana’s feelings for me are . . . complicated. But she doesn’t want me around. Why should she?”
Dare To Love A Cowboy (Canton County Cowboys 2) Page 10
