Cowgirl Crazy (#2, Cowboy Way) (10 page)

Her heart kicked then sped up in her chest.
Randy evidently was interested. She hadn’t misinterpreted anything.
“I’ve had enough of bars. If I never saw the inside of one again,
I’d be a happy girl.” And that was the god’s honest truth. But
Randy didn’t know she worked at the Cowgirl, and she wasn’t about
to tell him. This man would probably think she was loose if he knew
that. He’d definitely have a different opinion of her that was for
sure.

“
The lake is always open,” he
replied with a shrug and hesitant smile. “You want to pick up a six
pack and ride with me out there to talk?”

“
That sounds like a perfect date
to me,” she said with a wide grin. A perfect first date, with a
near perfect man. Now, if she could just convince her body of that,
she’d be in good shape. “I’d really like that…” Then a thought hit
her. She’d promised Heather that morning that she would be home
early this evening. They had a date with one of her regulars
tonight. Twyla didn’t really want to do it, this was her only night
off, but she needed that money.

It was too good to pass up.

“
But? You’re not interested?”
Randy filled in, his face deflating.

Twyla smiled up at him. “Oh, I’m definitely
interested. But I have plans with my roommate tonight. Maybe next
Sunday? I work all week.”

“
Aren’t you off at night?’ he
asked taking a step back.

Heat flooded her face, and she stammered.
“Um…no, I ah, work nights.”

His eyebrows lifted. “What do you
do?”

“
She’s a stripper at the Crazy
Cowgirl,” a very familiar gruff voice said as Ryan rounded the
front of the truck. “So take a hike. She’s not your kind of
woman.”

It
had
been him she’d seen dashing into
that stall. He was following her! Spying on her! And now he was
lying to Randy to boot.

“
What the hell are you doing here,
Ryan?” she growled pushing past Randy to shove Ryan’s broad chest.
“I am not a stripper, and you are not my keeper! Get
lost!”

He leaned down to put his nose to hers. “Thank
the good Lord for that! You’re into so much trouble, even I can’t
keep up with you. If your brother was here—”

Twyla pushed him again, and he staggered back.
“Well, he’s
not
here, and
you
are not my
brother
, Ryan Easter.”

“
Um, I’ll see you next weekend for
our lesson, Twyla,” Randy said, and Twyla heard a new tone to his
voice that sounded very near disgust. It definitely told her that
Ryan had succeeded in running him off. Randy would never ask her
out again, because Ryan made him think she was a loose woman.
Trash. Anger pushed up her throat to fill her skull to the point
she thought it might crack open.

Ryan grabbed her shoulders and his fingers dug
into her skin. “Well, I’m close enough right now. Zack sent me here
to see what kind of mess you’d gotten yourself into and bring you
back. Now, you’re going to load your pretty ass up in that truck
and we’re going to your apartment and loading up your
stuff!”

He shook her a little to emphasize his words.
Twyla narrowed her eyes, and balled her fist. “The only thing I’m
loading is my pistol if you don’t get your hands off of
me.”

Ryan evidently realized what he was doing, or
he was afraid she would shoot him, which as mad as she was she very
well might do just that. His face turned bloodless as his fingers
relaxed, and he rubbed her shoulders a second before his hands
dropped to his sides.

“
I’m sorry, Twy—I didn’t mean to
grab you.”

“
You’re right you are sorry…a
sorry sonofabitch,” she spat, as she turned and moved around the
truck door to get inside and slam it. Twyla rolled down her window,
and took a deep breath to get a grip on the urge to kill him. “The
best thing you can do is get back in your truck and head back to
the circuit. I don’t want you here. Tell Zack the same.”

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Ryan stood there a moment, dumbfounded at the
way Twyla was acting. He watched her peel out of the parking lot
onto the main road. As out-of-control as the tail end of that truck
was as it lost traction in the loose gravel when she pulled out is
just how out-of-control Twyla was right now too. She had lost
traction in her life, was doing things the old Twyla would never
have done in a million years. Like threatening to shoot him. The
look in her eyes told him she would have if he didn’t turn her
loose. Like dancing at a bar half-naked for money, and agreeing to
go who knew where out in the woods alone with a man she barely
knew.

Wild. She was as crazy as a wild mustang right
now, and he needed to figure out how to rein her in. One thing was
for sure, the tactics he’d used so far weren’t working. Ryan was no
closer to convincing her to come back with him than he had been the
day she left. He had to come up with a different plan of action or
she was going to run right off the cliff she was headed toward. And
he would lose her for good.

At least he’d been able to run that
city-slick, sharpshooting cowboy off. What self-respecting cowboy
wore pressed fucking jeans and a button down shirt out to a barn?
The chaps he wore definitely hadn’t seen any work either. They were
as clean and spit-shined as his damned boots. Hiding in that damned
hot stall all day watching that man as he watched Twyla had been
sheer torture. It had only taken him a few minutes to figure out
that guy was after Twyla, working up to asking her out. The way he
smiled at her, looked at her, and fucking touched her when he was
supposedly giving her a lesson.

Ryan knew what lesson the man was trying to
teach her, the same one he’d been fighting himself to keep from
teaching her for years, and he wasn’t about to let that happen.
There was no way he could stay hidden when the man put his arm
around her to walk her out to the truck. He knew the moment had
arrived, and he wasn’t about to stand by and watch it
happen.

If not for his interference, they would
probably be out by that lake right now making out. The thought
turned his blood to ice water in his veins. That’s how damned crazy
Twyla was right now. She would’ve gone out to the woods alone with
a man she barely knew, maybe gotten raped or who knew what else. No
matter what she said, Twyla did need a fucking keeper. She was off
her lead now, headed straight toward disaster, if someone didn’t
jerk her back to reality.

Zack had always been the one with the lead in
his hand, but Twyla was a full-grown woman now, could do what she
wanted. And Ryan was here, so he guessed he would have to be the
one to figure out how to do that.

He’d temporarily turned her by telling Mr.
Fancy Pants she was a stripper. At least that had gotten the
uptight, obviously rich, asshole off of her scent. His description
wasn’t that far removed from what Twyla was actually doing at that
bar anyway. Flashbacks of her dancing on that bar seized his brain
and cold chills zipped down his spine. If Fancy Pants saw what Ryan
had seen at that bar he wouldn’t be walking away, he’d be running
like his ass was on fire. He looked like his typical woman was
refined and country-mannered. Twyla was as far removed from that
description as a dairy cow in the midst of a herd of beef
cattle.

Twyla was more Ryan’s type. Rough around the
edges, sassy as hell and country beautiful. At least today she was,
without all that damned makeup and the sexy clothes she wore at
that bar. Today, he thought she was the girl he knew again, the
same one who’d been mooning after him for years. The one he’d
wanted for ten years too, but run from to keep the peace with her
brother. To keep the family he so desperately needed.

Ryan couldn’t have been more wrong. He now
realized that girl may very well be gone for good. Twyla seemed to
be serious. She had finally given up the chase. The coldness in her
tone with him told him that this wasn’t just about her being angry.
She really was done with him and had moved on.
I’m
done
.

A sharp pain shot through his heart and he
rubbed it. He really believed she meant that now, and this
situation was not going to be fixed with a little return flirting
or a few smiles. It was like he’d lost every bit of power he’d ever
had with her. Twyla was a different girl now. Ryan had to come up
with a different way of dealing with her, or he was wasting his
time here.

He was gonna lose her. It was time to shit or
get off the pot, as his surrogate daddy, Mr. Taylor, was fond of
saying. If he didn’t fix this soon, he’d have to go back to the
rodeo without her, and Zack would not be happy. Ryan wouldn’t be
either. Because that would mean he’d have to leave her here to the
mercy of slick, calculating cowboys and her wild-ass crazy friend’s
whims.

After that, the odds were he’d never see her
again, except at occasional family gatherings. Because he’d be her
brother. Just like he’d said he wanted for years. He’d have to
watch her date other men like that cowboy, bring them to those
gatherings with her, introduce them to her parents. Maybe
eventually watch her walk down the aisle to marry one of them,
while he sat there wanting to kill them both, eating his heart out,
because he didn’t have the balls to upset the applecart and tell
her how he felt about her.

No, that wasn’t happening.

Ryan only had two days left to convince her.
But first he had to find her. As fast as she was driving when she
left here, she could be halfway to Timbuktu by now. Ryan ran for
his truck, and hopped inside and cranked it. He’d check the
apartment first. She was dusty and sweaty from her day outside
playing shoot-em-up with that cowboy, whatever the purpose of that
was. He knew the first thing she’d want before she went anywhere
would be a shower.

Even though he knew she wasn’t a girly-girl,
flowers type of woman, Ryan thought that might be a good start to
setting things right between them. He stopped at a grocery store on
the way to the apartment and picked up a bunch of spring flowers,
and a box of Twinkies. He made it to the apartment complex right at
dark, and immediately zoned in on Twyla’s beat-up pickup parked
beside Heather’s newer, black truck. He knew she hadn’t had enough
time to finish her shower yet, and since Heather was there, if he
went up and knocked he’d have her and her damned mace to deal with
instead of Twyla.

It was better for him to park and wait a few
minutes, he thought, finding an out of the way spot where they
wouldn’t see him if they looked out the window. He pulled in and
settled to wait a few minutes. Sliding down in the seat, he leaned
his head back against the seat and closed his eyes.
I have plans
with my roommate tonight
.

With those two, and Heather at the helm, there
was no telling what those plans were. The possibilities made his
stomach curl. Well, whatever the plans were, Ryan planned on
canceling them. He and Twyla needed to talk, and that was going to
supersede any plans she might have made with Heather. Ryan nodded a
couple of times, but then the vibrations from a powerful truck
engine woke him up.

He sat up in the seat and leaned forward over
the wheel, as a fancy burgundy diesel dually truck pulled into a
spot near the stairs. The one directly beside Heather’s truck. The
door opened and a man in a suit, cowboy hat and shiny black boots
hopped down. He reminded Ryan of that man on that show Dukes of
Hazzard. What was his name? Oh yeah, Boss Hog.

Short, round and dressed to the nines, the man
looked up at the upper floor, before he made his way up the stairs.
His arm swung upward and Ryan noticed that he clutched a large
bouquet of flowers of some kind. Must have a hot date with the
little old lady that Ryan had seen come out of the apartment next
door to Heather’s. Biting back a laugh, Ryan relaxed back in the
seat, until he saw Boss Hog stop at Heather’s door to
knock.

The door opened and Heather filled the doorway
smiling at the man. He shoved the flowers at her, and she buried
her nose in the bouquet. From all appearances, it looked like
Heather had a hot date with Boss Hog tonight. Somehow that didn’t
surprise him. She seemed like the type who wouldn’t have a problem
with finding a sugar daddy. Well, Twyla sure wasn’t going to be
following her lead there. Ryan would make sure of it. Heather
leaned down and gave him a peck on the cheek, then invited him
inside. The door shut and Ryan knew he’d have to wait until Heather
left to go up there to see Twyla.

He relaxed back against the seat again, but
then confusion claimed him as Twyla’s words popped back into his
head.
I have plans with my roommate tonight
. He sat straight
up. If Heather had a date with Boss Hog, how the hell could Twyla
have plans with her? Flashes of her and Heather’s ‘act’ with the
shot glass at the bar speared his brain to mix with the fact that
Boss Hog was in the apartment with them and Ryan was out of the
truck in a hurry.

“
Sorry, Boss, ain’t happening,”
Ryan mumbled as he slammed the truck door and strode toward the
stairs. By the time he reached the landing he could hear his heart
pounding in his ears. Just as he rounded the railing, the front
door swung open and Heather walked out dressed in her
dancing
clothes, followed by Twyla, then Boss Hog. Twyla
stood beside Boss, looking nervous while she watched Heather fish
for her keys in the bag on her shoulder.