Herd That ARC

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  “Who’s Marvin?” he asked teasingly.

  I shrugged. “I have no idea. That’s just something my granddad used to say to me.”

  He patted me on the thigh as he slid out of the booth. “I’ll go order. Callum, you get Desi’s order. I don’t want anyone stealing our seats.”

  That was true. There were so many people now that there was a line starting to snake out the door.

  Instead of arguing, I watched the two men go, getting in line at the to-go checkout stand instead of standing in the normal line.

  “Do you think they’ll be able to place their orders there?” I asked Desi as I watched the two men.

  “I’m fairly positive that young girl will shit herself when those two get up to her register,” Desi admitted. “I’d do anything for them.”

  I looked at my friend. “You just swore off men forever, remember?”

  She sighed and tore her eyes away from Ace and Callum’s backsides.

  “You’re right,” she admitted. “But Callum’s different.”

  “How?” I asked curiously.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “And don’t think I didn’t notice all that sexual tension practically pouring off of you two.”

  I felt myself blushing.

  “He’s intimidating as fuck,” I said softly. “He asked me out on a date a few days ago.”

  Her mouth fell open.

  “And you went, right? Please tell me that you went,” she pleaded.

  I shook my head. “It was a pity date. He felt bad.”

  She frowned. “What makes you… oh, shit.”

  I looked up at her frown and saw the reason for her ‘oh, shit.’

  It was her ex-husband and his new girlfriend.

  His new girlfriend that just so happened to be Ace’s ex-girlfriend from when he was in high school.

  How did I know that about Ace Valentine?

  Because everyone knew everything about the man.

  I hadn’t even gone to the same school as them—I was a bad kid and had to go to charter school because I was kicked out—but even I knew that Ace Valentine and Marjorie Christmas had once been Kilgore royalty.

  Oh, and Desi’s ex, Mal Stevens, just so happened to graduate with Ace Valentine. Oh, and they were best friends—or used to be a long time ago.

  Before.

  Before the tragedy at the Valentine ranch happened.

  Ace had up and disappeared, leaving everyone and everything behind—including his best friend and his girlfriend.

  A best friend and a girlfriend that were staring really, really hard at Ace’s back.

  “Shit,” Desi breathed. “Look at them. It’s like they’re both staring at a ghost.”

  I looked between the three people.

  She was right.

  Everyone looked at Ace like that, though.

  He’d been home for years now, but it wasn’t often that he’d ventured into town—according to my granddad. Apparently, he hired a service to get what he needed, and that included chicken feed all the way to groceries for himself.

  Not that I blamed him. I’d do the same if I were in his shoes.

  Then again, I had done the same.

  Instead of facing this small town head-on, I’d graduated and run as far away as I could.

  It wasn’t fun being known as the town bad girl.

  I mean, sure, I wasn’t all that bad.

  But I had made one tiny mistake that had cost me dearly for the last two years of my high school career.

  “Oh, shit,” Desi breathed. “They’re going up to him.”

  Ace hadn’t missed their approach. He’d clocked them in the mirror above the menu board that spanned the front of the deli, and the closer they got, the stiffer he became.

  I felt my spine straighten as I took it all in.

  “I’ll be right back,” I said as I stood. “And don’t do anything stupid.”

  Desi scoffed. “I won’t. I need to remain the sane one so that I can get what I want.”

  Meaning she had money coming each month thanks to the goodness of Mal’s heart. Or, well, the goodness of Mal’s father’s heart. Mal’s father loved Desi, and when he’d heard of their split, he’d nearly wept in the middle of the entire town.

  And, despite Mal’s annoyance at his father’s love for his ex-wife, he’d given Desi money to live off of until she got back onto her feet. Which, according to Desi, spanned over the next five years or until she got married again.

  “Good Desi,” I teased as I stood from the booth.

  Ignoring the wobble in my legs, I made my way over to Ace just as the two intruders came up behind him.

  Acting like I didn’t see them, I walked over to Ace and wrapped my arms around his waist, raising my face up to his.

  “Don’t forget my kid’s nacho basket,” I ordered. “And my cookie.” I paused. “I also want a splash of unsweet tea in my sweet tea to try and even out the sweetness.”

  His eyes went from the two who’d approached him from behind down to me, and I knew he knew what I was doing.

  His eyes twinkled as he said, “I heard your order the first time, darlin’.” He teased, “But the sweet tea is new.”

  It was.

  I didn’t really want that, though I could tolerate it. I just needed an excuse to be in his arms.

  And when I was about to pull back, he circled his arm around my hips and held me to him.

  “Next?” the lady at the counter called.

  I moved with Ace, not because I wanted to, but because he forced me to.

  I’d gone into his arms willingly, but now I was there to stay until he let me go.

  Not that I really minded, other than the fact that it felt really good to be where I was at, and I wasn’t really meant to be there. It was like teasing a dog with a piece of meat that he couldn’t have.

  Ace stepped up and expertly ordered my meal, not missing a single thing, not even my chocolate chip cookie. Then, noticing that I was lying out of my ass about the tea, he placed an order for my fully sweet tea, and then took the proffered cookie that the attendant behind the counter handed him.

  “Today, if you purchase one cookie, you get another one half off,” the attendant said.

  Ace looked down at me.

  “Why do you strike me as the type of person who wants two cookies?” he teased.

  I bit my lip.

  It was like he knew me.

  “Umm,” I muttered.

  “I want two cookies, too. That makes four total,” Callum called from behind us. “And I want a jalapeño turkey crunch like hers, only I want double of everything. Plus, I want a Dr. Pepper.”

  I looked at Ace’s brother with surprise. “You’re not allowed to order soft drinks here. It’s either tea or nothing.”

  Callum wrinkled his nose. “Never really did like sweet tea. However, I have tried. Multiple times. It’s just not for me.”

  “Blasphemy,” I muttered.

  “Some things don’t change, do they?” I heard a feminine voice say from behind me.

  Marjorie. The home-wrecking whore who broke up my best friend’s marriage and the same woman who used to have Ace Valentine.

  The woman was such an asshole.

  Ace stiffened once again and looked over his shoulder at Marjorie.

  “Margie,” he said, nodding politely.

  Then he turned around and offered the woman behind the counter his credit card.

  I studied Marjorie’s face as she was dismissed by the badass Ace Valentine and had to hide my grin in Ace’s shoulder.

  Ace pinched me on my ass, and I gasped.

  “What the hell?” I whispered, looking up at him.

  “Your tea is ready.” He gestured toward the counter.

  I turned in his arms, grabbed it, and headed back to the table, using everything I had not to look over my shoulder at him as I moved.

  Desi’s eyes were wide
and lit with happiness as I walked back to the table.

  “What the hell?” she breathed.

  I shook my head, unsure what to say.

  “Marjorie is shooting daggers at you right now,” she said. “That’s a first, because normally those looks are for me.”

  I grinned. “I’m happy to be of service.”

  “What service?” Callum asked, handing Desi her water while placing his Dr. Pepper down in front of him.

  “Desi and that asshole used to be married until he decided that he didn’t like curves,” I explained.

  Callum’s eyebrows shot up.

  “That’s just dumb,” he said. “Real women have curves.” He looked over at where Ace was still waiting for his drink. “I always hated Marjorie. She’s got a smoking bod, but when she opens her mouth, it’s like a dragon spewing fire. Pretty to look at, not so great to bang.”

  “You would know if she was good at banging?” I teased.

  Callum shook his head. “No. Just basing it off of when Ace was dating her. I know that they only did it a handful of times, and from what he told me when we were younger, she wasn’t anything to write home about.”

  “What’s nothing to write home about?” Ace asked as he took a seat next to me.

  I felt the warmth of his body as he shoved his way in and shivered slightly against him.

  “Marjorie’s lack of sexual prowess,” I bluntly replied.

  Ace blinked down at me, then shook his head.

  “I don’t even know what to say to that,” he replied.

  “Nothing to say,” Callum replied. “Though whether it was due to her being inexperienced, or her just sucking, we’ll never know. Ace won’t step near that shit again with a ten-foot pole, especially how she ended it with him.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked in surprise. “I thought it ended because y’all… left.”

  I didn’t really want to touch on the subject of why they left, so I thought it prudent not to go that far into detail.

  I didn’t want to hit on any tough topics if I could help it.

  Ace didn’t reply, but obviously his brother didn’t have a problem answering for him.

  “Ace had to go because we were all picked up by a nice couple in Houston after our parents died,” Callum said with very little inflection in his voice. Like a man would read a boring report. “He and Marjorie talked a bunch on the phone after we left. It was decided that he would stay with her until he finished school. But when he got here, she told him that her father didn’t think it was a good idea for them to be seeing each other anymore and that he couldn’t stay there like they’d originally intended. Made him drive five hours back home since there was nowhere for him to stay here.”

  I shook my head.

  “Did you find out any more than that?” I questioned. “Not that that really surprises me. The Christmas family is a piece of work. Every last one of them are all high and mighty assholes who wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire.”

  Ace snorted. “That family hasn’t changed, either. The day I got back to town, one of the first people I saw was her dad. He made it a point to mention that Marjorie was dating a ‘very respectable man’ and they were ‘engaged to be engaged.’”

  I rolled my eyes. “I heard that, too. How about Mal? I assume y’all didn’t keep in touch.”

  “Nope.” Ace shook his head.

  “Mal also didn’t try very hard,” Desi pointed out. “He talked about the ‘old times’ in school, how he missed the old days where y’all would get together, but never really made any attempt to reach out. Even though I’d found the address where you were living at about a year into our marriage.”

  “I called him once and once only. All he could talk about was… then,” Ace muttered. “I couldn’t handle talking about it, so I never called back.”

  ‘Then’ being the time when his father killed his mother, shot every single one of the children, including him, and left them all to die while he finished himself off. Two of the children had perished before help could get there.

  That day had been the day that I’d been scared straight. The dark path that I’d been taking—full of drinking, wild drunken nights, and partying—had come to a screeching halt.

  I’m not really sure what about the incident had scared me so badly, but I’d decided the moment that I’d heard that I wouldn’t be fucking my life up anymore.

  Unfortunately, I’d already been well on my way to doing it, and had spent the next two years in charter school making up for it. But eventually I’d gotten my head on straight, started making good grades, and had even gotten accepted to a university in Dallas with a scholarship.

  Hell, I hadn’t even known Ace Valentine other than by word of mouth, but his story was enough to change who I was on a fundamental level.

  Having our two thousand acres bump up against the Valentine ranch had been eye-opening. Just a few short miles away, while I’d been drinking in our barn, Ace and his family had gotten shot.

  Ace had almost died.

  “Food’s here,” Ace muttered.

  I sat back, stared at the food that was placed in front of me, and wondered if it was morbid that I was still hungry despite what I’d just been thinking about.

  “Aren’t you going to eat?” Ace asked as everyone took bites of their food except me.

  “Yeah,” I said softly. “I am.”

  Chapter 6

  Hay girl, hay.

  -T-shirt

  Codie

  Lunch was devoured by all, and there wasn’t a single chip left on my plate—courtesy of the two Valentine men who had no clue about boundaries.

  I watched as Ace practically scraped the bowl clean that had once held my cheese dip and shook my head in awe.

  “Did you ever stop to consider that it’s sort of rude to just go grabbing other people’s food off their plates?” I teased.

  Ace placed the bowl down on the table between us and shook his head.

  He’d literally licked the bowl. Sure, he’d used his fingers to wipe the cheese off the sides, but ultimately, he’d licked it. There wasn’t a speck of cheese on the sides in the slightest.

  “You were done with it,” Callum said as he polished off the rest of his drink. “You stopped eating ten minutes ago. We waited until we were sure that you were done.”

  Granted, that was true.

  I’d stopped because there wasn’t a single inch of my stomach that wasn’t filled with sweet tea, chips, queso, macaroni or a potato.

  I was going to be full for at least an hour.

  “Do you think they’re going to stay here all day?” Desi whispered.

  I looked over to where Desi was trying not to look and narrowed my eyes.

  Marjorie was staring at Ace’s back, and Mal was staring at Marjorie staring at Ace.

  “What did you ever see in him?” Callum asked teasingly.

  Desi opened her mouth to answer him, but it was Ace who said, “He used to be a good friend. His follow-through was a little terrible, but ultimately, when I was here, I had nothing to complain about.”

  “I think Callum was talking to Desi,” I snickered.

  Ace opened his mouth, then closed it.

  “Oh,” he said, reaching for his ball cap.

  The ball cap had come off the moment that we’d entered the building. I was sure that it’d go back on the moment that we walked out of it.

  Honestly, I wasn’t sure which Ace that I liked better.

  The one where he was in tight faded Wrangler blue jeans that fit him so well that I was sure they were made for him, paired with cowboy boots, a chambray shirt, and an oversized belt buckle. Or the lazy sweatpants, tennis shoes, tight t-shirt, and ball cap.

  There were just so many things that were good about both looks.

  It was like being told to pick between your favorite children. Or trying to choose if you wanted to eat at Chick-Fil-A or Whataburger. There were
just so many plusses on both sides…

  Ace stood up, and I once again got a good look at his cock in those sweats.

  Was he even wearing underwear? Was that why I could see the mushroom-shaped head? Or the fact that his cock leaned slightly toward the left?

  “Do we tip here?” Ace asked, reaching into his pocket to extract his wallet.

  When he reached into his pocket, he caused the waistband of his sweatpants to lower, revealing a trail of hair that led to the best part of him—a V.

  And dear God, what a V it was. It was the best V I’d ever seen in my life… even in magazines.

  Hell, I hadn’t even gotten a full view of it yet, and I was fairly positive that nothing else would ever compare.

  “No,” I managed to croak. “There’s no reason to. I’ve never seen anyone leave a tip before.”

  He nodded once and shoved the wallet back into his pocket, making the waistband go even lower.

  I licked my lips, unable to stop myself.

  Dear God.

  Dear sweet baby Jesus.

  What was this man doing to me?

  I was fairly certain now that he wasn’t wearing underwear. Pants didn’t ride that low and not reveal an underwear waistband if one was wearing them.

  That was when I reached forward to take a sip of my tea and spilled Desi’s glass of water all over me instead.

  I stared in horror as it soaked through my entire outfit in point two seconds flat.

  My very light pink sweatpants and my borrowed shirt.

  “Shit,” I muttered, wondering what I should do.

  That was when Ace practically ripped half the napkins from the dispenser in one pull and started to shove them into my lap.

  I squeaked and tried to pull away, but the wall prevented my retreat from his ministrations.

  “Crap,” I whispered softly.

  Ace’s eyes lifted to meet mine.

  “It happens,” he said.

  I could feel the water leaking into my shoes now, and I just wanted to crawl into a hole and bury myself alive.

  “You should ride back with them,” Desi suggested as she too stood. “Y’all live right next door to each other.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “But I thought you were going to help me decorate my tree,” I said.

  “I can,” she agreed. “But I have to go to the store to get some ribbon, which means that I’ll be late. Plus, you’ve spilled water on yourself, again. No offense, but you need to go home before anything else happens to you. Or you die.”