“You are,” Jake said, still laughing his ass off. “You want this girl so bad, you can’t even see straight.”
What? What the heck was he talking about? Cowboy and I were just friends. Nothing more. There could never be anything more.
“Ya know, sometimes I fucking hate you.”
That only made Jake hysterical. “See what I mean?” As his laughter came to an end, there was a brief silence. Then he said, “Funny how one woman can make everything around you look so different, isn’t it?”
Cowboy rubbed at the back of his neck and grinned. “Like getting lost in my own backyard.”
I cringed at that, knowing the feeling well myself. After all, it was exactly how I felt every time I was around him. But no matter what Cowboy said, he wasn’t interested in me for anything more than a roll in the proverbial hay.
“Who would’ve thought Cowboy would get an itchin’ for a girl with a brain,” Judd said, grinning.
“Well, if Anna had half a brain, she’d run like hell from the likes of him,” Ox said, thumbing over to Cowboy. Ox chuckled and shrugged his eyebrows suggestively. “So, Cowboy, you get her in bed, yet?”
I mentally gasped. Hey!
No wonder women had such a hard time trusting men. The callous asses were all the same. Always bragging about getting into a girl’s pants. Guess it only proved what I’d thought all along.
Cowboy’s eyes burrowed holes in his friend. “Shut up, prick.”
“Shutting up now,” Ox said, although he continued grinning.
“Damn,” Jake said, glaring at Cowboy. “What’s wrong with you today? You know we’re just teasing. Anna’s a great girl. Why are you being so overprotective and getting wound up?”
“Just drop it, okay?” Cowboy leaned back against a nearby stall barely in my field of vision and crossed one boot over the other in a comfortable-looking position. He sighed. “Look, she’s got bigger problems than worrying about me chasing after her. She’s having some problems with the Barlow brothers.”
“Those turds?” Ox asked. “What the hell would they have against our sweet little Anna?”
Our? Since when had I become theirs?
“She told them if they didn’t stop shooting fireworks over her house that she’d call the police on them.”
“Shitfire!” Ox said, letting loose a high-octane laugh. “For a mouse, that girl has some brass balls on her.”
Judd scratched his head and looked a little worried. “Cowboy, you tell her to be careful with them Barlow boys. Fires have been known to start around them.”
Ox’s comment had made me smile, but Judd’s wiped it away and had my teeth worrying my bottom lip. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
“I’m taking care of it,” Cowboy told them.
He was taking care of it? Yeah, right. By doing what—avoiding me?
“If you need any help…” Jake started.
“Yeah, yeah. I know where to find you, Mr. Hotshot FBI man.”
“Look who’s talking,” Jake said with a teasing grin. “You’ve got all the women of Liberty County hot and bothered over that photo shoot you did. Not counting the ones outside of Liberty. I had three female agents in our Houston office ask me to get them autographed calendars. And one of them wants to know if the hat was photoshopped in. Pretty sure she’s hoping to dig up an original proof somewhere.”
“That shit wasn’t photoshopped. Used the hat off my own head and placed it on my other head,” Cowboy responded proudly, making the others chuckle.
I rolled my eyes. Of course he had. Because sexually violating a hat in order to get a rise out of women for the notoriety would be something only Cowboy would do.
“It was for a good cause,” Ox stated. “Those three charities are going to receive way more funds because of what you did.”
He did it to raise money for charity? I had no idea, or I never would have walked away from him at the chili cook-off without buying a calendar…even if I would have thrown it away to keep from eyeing it daily. Damn.
“All right, enough standing around gossiping like a bunch of hens,” Jake said, smiling. “When are you going to go saddle-break that crazy fucking horse? Or are you going to make one of us do it for your lazy ass?”
Cowboy laughed. A lot. “Like any of you could?”
“How hard could it be?” Judd asked. “Don’t you just mount up and hold on?”
“No, no,” Ox said with amusement. “That’s what Jake does with Emily.”
My God. They were worse than a group of women when it came to gossip.
Cowboy and Judd chuckled, but Jake’s mouth morphed into an irritated snarl. “Might want to watch how you’re talking about my wife, asshole.”
“God, why are you and Cowboy so sensitive today? You both on your periods or something? Jesus, Jake, you know we love Emily. Hell, we probably like her better than we do you. At least she’s fun.”
“Emily’s not fun. She’s frustrating. There’s a difference.”
Suddenly, a woman cleared her throat somewhere behind them. I hadn’t seen her walk in, but I recognized the sound of her voice immediately.
Apparently, so did Jake. He silently mouthed the word “Emily” to Cowboy and received a terse nod in return.
Then Cowboy beamed with a gleam in his eye, silently letting Jake know that he’d seen her standing behind him the whole time.
Jake turned around to face her, but kept one hand behind his back prominently displaying his middle finger to Cowboy. “Hey, honey.”
“Don’t ‘hey, honey’ me, Jake,” Emily told him. “So I’m frustrating, huh?”
“Just kidding around with the guys, baby.”
“Uh-huh. Sure you were,” she said, moving closer to Jake and into a position where I could see her through the gate. And she didn’t look happy.
“Need something?” Jake asked, shifting his weight uncomfortably.
“Momma Belle just called and said she’s on her way over. If you think you can hide out in here like you did last time while that crazy-ass woman feels me up again, I’m going to make sure she’s the only one getting any action from me this week.” Emily grinned wide. “Then you’re going to find out exactly how frustrating I can be.”
The other men all snickered, while Jake gave her a solemn, “All right. I’ll be there in a minute.”
Emily put one hand on her hip and cocked a brow at him. “Yeah, I’ve heard that before. I’m not kidding, Jake. If you aren’t out here in two minutes, I’m cutting you off indefinitely.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Jake said, grinning, but eyeing her warily. “Because you can’t do that to me without me doing the same to you.”
“Oh, Jakey,” she said with a sinister gleam in her eyes. “You can’t cut me off. You don’t know who I’m getting it from.” Then she sashayed out of the barn, giggling to herself.
“Emily, that better be a fucking joke!” Jake called out to her as she disappeared from sight. “Emily…?” He waited for her response, but there was nothing but silence. “Sonofabitch, that woman doesn’t fight fair!” He stormed out after his wife.
The others had been doing a terrible job at keeping a straight face, but the moment Jake left the barn, they all keeled over with laughter. I bit my tongue to keep from joining them.
Once they got themselves under control and finally left, I grabbed the bucket I came for and slipped out the barn door as well.
I wasn’t sure what to make of Cowboy’s comments, though they replayed over and over in my head. Had he meant what he said? Or was it him just playing some kind of sick game? I couldn’t bear to get my hopes up only to be let down when he realized he wasn’t attracted to me nearly as much as he was attracted to something he couldn’t have.
Trying to stay busy and away from Cowboy, I arranged the foam plates and plastic silverware in neat little piles. Hank rested at the picnic table, drinking a glass of sweet tea I’d poured for him. “Why don’t you go over and join the others, honey? Floss is bringing the last few things down now, and I’m about to pull the meat off the grill. We’ll be eating shortly.”