Just Shoot Me (Cowboy Way, #1) (7 page)

He was just going to have to keep thinking
about it, and come up with another solution.

Dean dropped the reins, and reached to
unbuckle the cinch under Blaze’s belly. He heard someone come into
the barn behind him and glanced up. His brother stopped in front of
him with fire in his eyes and his fists balled at his sides. The
look on his face said he was ready for a fight. Well Dean was ready
too. A good fight with Cord would probably go a long way to making
some of the anger and frustration inside him go away.

“
What the fuck did you say to
Hope?” Cord demanded, giving him a push when Dean stood to face
him. “And why the hell weren’t you here to go to the auction with
us?”

“
I needed a break,” Dean said
defensively. He shoved Cord with his shoulder as he bent to jerk up
the reins.

“
Break
?!?” Cord yelled
crowding him.

“
Yeah, you know all about taking
breaks, don’t you? Your three-year break almost broke this ranch
and your family. I think I deserve a small one for keeping this
shit together for so long by myself, don’t you?” Dean knew that
would get Cord going. He pushed past him to lead Blaze to the
cross-ties where he removed his bridle to slip on a
halter.

“
I’m sick and damned tired of you
throwing that in my face.” Cord said crowding even closer to
him.

Too close. If Cord knew what was good for him,
he would back off. Dean pushed him away and spat, “And I’m sick and
tired of carrying the load around here. You haven’t pulled your
weight around here in a long time. Going to the fucking auction is
the
least
you could do.”

“
Your pity party is getting old,
Dean. I’m back now, and I’m working as hard,
harder,
than
you are. It’s time you quit taking out your frustrations on the
people who love you, or pretty soon there won’t be anyone left. I’m
beginning to wonder why I do.”

“
Well you might want to work a
little harder. Your
wife
told me earlier she wants her money
back right now, and I have no idea where it’s gonna come from,”
Dean said nastily.

“
Hope wouldn’t say that. She
doesn’t even want the money back. I had to force her to take my
check from the calendar payment.”

“
Well she wants it from me, and I
don’t have it,” Dean informed. His brother needed to feel some of
the stress he was feeling, so he added, “I guess we’ll just have to
get another mortgage on the ranch to pay her off.” Dean leaned back
under Blaze’s belly to loosen the cinch on the saddle. Dean thought
he might up the pucker factor for his brother a little. He was
enjoying himself. “I’ll probably need you to co-sign. I don’t want
to be the only one putting my balls on the chopping block this
time.”

Cord huffed out a breath, then said, “Hope is
at the bunkhouse locked in the bedroom, and I think she’s crying.
What the hell did you say to her?”

“
I just told her I wasn’t doing
that damned photo shoot for that woman Tina. I’m not a model, I’m a
rancher. You got the looks in the family. I have a ranch to run.
You do the damned photo shoot.”

“
Tina wants you to represent Texas
Tomcat?” Cord asked with a laugh.

“
You think that’s funny?” Dean
replied, a little insulted as he pinned Cord with a
glare.

“
Hell yeah I do. Why would Tina
want a grumpy
old
bastard like you to be her guy? What
happened to the two guys she shot with on Saturday?”

Old. His brother was thirty, and Dean was
thirty-four. Considering the ages of those men Tina had at that
photo shoot with her on Saturday, Dean guessed he was old. Those
guys didn’t have to worry about shaving their bodies. They probably
weren’t old enough to grow hair. With all that Cindy had put him
through, it was a wonder Dean didn’t have a headful of gray hair
and look ninety-five. That’s how he felt sometimes. But Tina
Montgomery had asked him to model for her, so he must not look that
bad. As bad as his brother seemed to think he did.

“
Hope didn’t say why they didn’t
work, but she did say Tina wants me to do it now. Those guys did
seem pretty damned prissy for pretend cowboys. Let ‘em actually
work out here for a day or two, and that’ll toughen them up.” Dean
knew all the hard work and problems at the ranch had toughened him
up over the last few years, that was for damned sure. Hell,
according to his family, he was practically tough as an old boot
now. He felt that way too. Worn out and used up.

What the hell was Tina Montgomery thinking
asking him to model for her? Why him?

Dean slid the saddle off of Blaze’s back to
drop it on the ground. But he had other things to worry about than
what that woman thought of him. He bent and hefted the saddle over
his shoulder. “How did the auction go?”

“
Not good. Daddy was pretty upset.
Four of the horses didn’t even sell. They’re in the trailer
outside.”

“
Well, he’s going to be even more
upset when he finds out that Hope demanded her money back,” Dean
said as he walked past Cord toward the tack room.

“
Just do the damned photo shoot,
Dean,” Cord said following behind him.

“
I’d rather be shot. I’ll even load
the shotgun for you,” Dean offered tossing the saddle onto the
saddle rack. “I’m not going to shave all the damned hair off my
body, and coat myself in oil so I can prance around in my
underwear. I’ll leave that to you, baby brother.”

“
I did
not
prance around in
my underwear,” Cord corrected indignantly.

“
But you did shave your ass, so you
looked like a ten-year-old boy. I saw the proof in those
magazines.”

“
You saw my pictures?” Cord asked
with surprise.

To Dean’s own surprise his brother’s face
heated, and he looked a little embarrassed. Embarrassed wouldn’t
begin to describe how Dean would feel if he were in his brother’s
shoes. And that is exactly where Tina Montgomery wanted to put him.
So she could get a promotion. What the fuck did he get out of it,
other than getting the money to pay back a loan he hadn’t even
taken out? Cord and Hope had decided on that plan of action
themselves, without his permission or knowledge even. But that loan
had saved the ranch, and saved his Daddy’s life. It also resulted
in his brother settling down. Dean did owe her a lot.

“
Yeah, I saw ‘em,” Dean said,
remembering his brother in those jeans ads. Shaved and shirtless
looking like a greased pig, showing off his gym generated
muscles.

How could he have not seen them? Those ads
were in every fucking magazine and newspaper he picked up, and on
television too. His brother had been famous, and Dean was sure Cord
got laid every time he blinked at a women who saw him in those ads.
They didn’t impress him, though. Why women would want to see a man
like that, Dean didn’t know. It might sell jeans, but it just
wasn’t reality. It sure as hell wasn’t how he wanted the world, his
family or his son to see him. Regardless of whether it got him
laid.

“
Is shaving the only thing you have
against doing it?” Cord asked, following him out of the tack room,
then back down the aisle toward Blaze.

“
Hell no, it’s not the only thing,”
Dean grated.

“
What else then?” Cord asked
impatiently, but Dean could almost hear the wheels in his brother’s
head spinning.

Well, he could just shut them down, because
Dean wasn’t doing that damned shoot no matter what he came up with.
He had too much work to do. His brother seemed to have forgotten in
the last three years how much work this ranch took to keep
going.

“
Who is going to manage this ranch
while I’m off prissing in front of a camera? And I have a son to
raise. Did you forget that small, but important, fact?” Dean
replied shortly, as he grabbed the towel off of his shoulder and
rubbed at the sweat on Blaze’s black coat.

“
I’ll do the work, just tell me
what you want done. I’ll make sure it gets done. Mama and I will
help with Jeremy, while you’re shooting. Besides, you’ll be here
too.”

“
She wants to take the pictures out
here?” Dean asked with surprise.

“
That’s what Tina told Hope on
Saturday. I agreed, because we need the money. I didn’t know the
shoot would be with you though,” Cord said with a
snicker.

It wasn’t going to be with him, and his
brother sure agreed to a lot on his own these days. But Cord was
right this time, they did need the damned money. Dean couldn’t help
but wonder how much his dignity was worth. “Did she mention how
much?”

“
She offered five grand to use the
ranch for the location. Probably a grand an hour for your time.
That was my rate when I was modeling.”

Dean’s heart shot to his throat, and his knees
went weak. “Holy fuck!” he shouted as the towel slipped from his
hand to the dirt floor.

A cocky smile eased up his brother’s mouth.
The same smile Dean had seen on his face in those magazines, the
same one that women all over the country seemed to go weak-kneed
over. “A lot more than ranching or rodeoing, huh?” Cord asked
smugly.

“
That’s just stupid. Those
companies have more money than sense,” Dean said, trying to
regulate his breathing.

“
Understand now why I shaved my ass
and moved to Dallas?”

Dean picked up the towel, then met his
brother’s eyes. “No, I’ll never understand why you abandoned your
family for money.”

Dean thought about it while he made one more
pass over Blaze’s back with the towel. He didn’t have much choice
really. Hope was forcing his hand. Dean hated being cornered, but
that damned money was too tempting to resist even if she hadn’t
pressured him.

“
I’ll do it, but I’m not shaving my
ass,” he said firmly.

“
You got it. No ass shaving,” Cord
agreed with a chuckle. “I’ll let Hope know, so she can call Tina.
They’ll both be happy.”

Tina Montgomery had outmaneuvered him after
all, and she’d won. Dean was sure she would be ecstatic. He was
going to do the damned shoot, but he wasn’t going to make it easy
for her. She was going to do things on his terms.

CHAPTER FIVE

Friday morning, Tina and her crew of rodeo
clowns invaded the ranch. By then Dean was having second, third and
fourth thoughts about agreeing to this crap. He sat on a stool in
the bunkhouse where they set up what they called a staging area,
while a man who looked as feminine as the women in the group cut
his damned hair. He needed a haircut yeah, but what this guy was
doing to him was way beyond that.

Gel? Hairspray? Definitely not him. And Dean
had about had enough of his flitting around. When the guy named
Paulo reached for the hairspray again, Dean clamped his fingers
over his wrist and gave him a glare. “That’s enough,” he said,
standing but not releasing the hairdresser’s wrist.

“
Daddy, can Paulo cut my hair now
too?” Jeremy asked with excitement as he skidded to a stop beside
the hairdresser. “He said he would cut my hair too.”

“
Not now. Go find Grandma,” Dean
said gruffly, still not releasing his hold on Paulo’s wrist. “Paulo
is finished with the hair for now.”

“
But, Daddy—“ Jeremy started, but
Dean gave him a hot glare. Jeremy’s eyes dropped to the toes of his
dusty boots, and he turned and walked off. Dean swung his gaze back
to Paulo. “Where is Tina?” he asked darkly.

She needed to get this show on the road, or he
was going to do what he should be doing. Helping unload the stock
his father and brother bought at the auction. He wanted to see the
stock anyway. He trusted his dad, but Cord had a way of talking
Silas Dixon into things that Dean didn’t agree with. Dean wouldn’t
put it past him to have talked their daddy into buying peacocks to
stock the ranch, instead of cattle.

Paulo jerked his wrist from Dean’s hold and
folded his arms over his chest. “I haven’t put the wax in your hair
yet to separate it,” he complained. “And I did tell your son I
would cut his hair too.”

Tina Montgomery scheduling this shoot right
away, now when Jeremy was on spring break from school for two
weeks, was just stupid. But according to Hope, it had to be now.
She had some kind of big meeting she needed the photos for. With
his son, and her niece, who must be on break too, under their feet
it would be damned tough for Dean to focus on anything.

This was a shit show waiting to happen, and
Dean didn’t have time for the delays that was going to cause. He
had to get back to his real job. Ranching. And his fricking brother
needed to watch Jeremy like he said he would. And Tina Montgomery
needed to get this shit show on the road. Now. “Where is Tina?”
Dean repeated with a growl this time.

The small man took a step back, and his
perfectly arched eyebrows shot to the edge of his slicked back,
black hair. Paulo tilted his chin to say indignantly, “Don’t get
huffy with me, cowboy. She went out with Hope to scout out
locations.”

“
Well, I need to talk to—“ Dean
grated through his teeth, but stopped when a tall, thin woman
dressed all in black slid her hand through his arm and pulled him
back.