Last of the Red-Hot Cowboys (7 page)

That wasn't a woman's typical response to his kissing. “I'm sorry. I jumped the gun.”

“You jumped more than the gun, buster.” She put her horse into a stall, checked the hay, filled the water, brushed past Trace.

He followed her as she sashayed toward her own beat-up blue truck, the one she'd driven from Virginia. “Ava.”

“What?” She moved a mountain of paper and horse stuff from the front seat to the back.

“Can you forget that happened?”

“Easily.” She got in her truck, switched the engine on, rolled down the window. “I already have.”

He jumped back as she peeled away, shredding his gravel drive. Trace grinned.

She might try to forget, but that kiss was going to last him a while.

It had to. He wasn't touching the lady again—she was going to have to make the next move.

* * *

“That sorry womanizing—” Ava ceased her muttering for a second, refusing to think about the raw passion that had washed over her when Trace kissed her. “Rat. An opportunistic rat, that's what he is.”

And a sexy-hot kisser. She certainly couldn't overlook that—but nor was he getting any points for it. She didn't need any complications right now, and there was no way Trace Carter was anything but a complication.

Yet that had been the best, hottest kiss she'd ever experienced. In fact, if they hadn't stopped kissing when they had, she might have fallen a few more devastating inches.

I've vowed to stay away from his type
.

But staying away from Trace's hard body wasn't going to be easy. Her phone rang, and Ava pulled to the side of the road to answer. “Hello?”

“Are you still with Trace?” Judy demanded.

“No.”

“Good. Meet me at Hattie Hanover's. We have things to discuss. Urgently.”

The line went dead, and Ava sighed, pulling back onto the road.
Urgently
. Judy
was
urgency. Actually, Judy was on a mission, but she hadn't quite worked out all the parts to the mission, which wasn't in her favor. She was running out of time to create the team she wanted.

Ava wasn't going to leave Judy in her hour of need. Maybe Hattie Hanover had a magic wand or something she could wave over Judy—over all of them.

They needed a plan more than a wand, because apparently the plan that Judy had wasn't working worth a damn.

* * *

“That was some major bullshit,” Buck said to his business partners. “Carter just can't walk in here and steal our customers.”

“They weren't paying customers, but they were bringing in calls from folks who saw them riding in the ring, who were interested in riding lessons for their brats,” Jake added.

Fallon shook his head. “Those guys really get under my skin, including my good brother Declan. What the hell do we do now?”

Rebel tossed a pitchfork into the corner, startling some horses in nearby boxes. “I don't know, but those Outlaws aren't the princes of Hell, the way everybody treats them like. They came back from serving with their heads big, and some decorations, and folks around here practically genuflect when they walk down the street.”

“I kind of had my eye on that little Ava,” Fallon said, “and that's what really chaps my ass.”

“Yeah, well, I managed to sweet-talk that redheaded friend of hers into a night on the town,” Jake said, and they high-fived him.

“How'd you get that past Judy the Judgmental?” Rebel demanded.

“I just played my cards right. Sweet talk will get you far,” Jake said. “I acted like Trace, all stick-up-my-butt honorable.”

“Honorable?” Buck snorted. “Judy'll tell her you're a snake. She'll say you're Jake the snake because that's what she always says, and that'll happen before you ever get to taste those lips of Cameron's.”

“But he has got a good idea,” Fallon said. “Maybe we can't fight the Outlaws on the business side, but maybe we get at them from the feminine angle.”

Buck looked interested.

They all were interested.

“Anything to fuck up the Outlaws,” Jake said.

“All's fair in love and war,” Fallon agreed.

“A little payback for stealing our business,” Buck said.

“They're not the princes of Hell,” Rebel said, “and it's time someone let them know.”

They shook on it.

The Rolling Thunder Café was across the street from Redfeathers, but it served a far different clientele. Run by wise and sweet-natured Hattie Hanover, the place served up good food and gossip in abundance.

Ava sat down next to Judy in the bright yellow booth, and Harper and Cameron took the other side. The Rolling Thunder was a bright, sunshiny café, and if you liked grits, black-eyed peas, and green chili corn bread, you were in luck.

Hopefully Hattie had a recipe for Mayor Judy. Ava ordered a glass of tea with lemon, as did Harper and Cameron, then they settled in to wait for Hattie to make her way over from the busy lunch counter.

Five minutes later, Hattie pulled a chair up to the booth, wearing a big smile as she hugged Judy before she sat down. Ava thought she looked like Dorothy Dandridge: dark-complected with a beautiful, calm smile. Ava felt herself relaxing just looking at Hattie's friendly expression.

“These ladies are my Hell Belles, Hattie,” Judy said, and Hattie nodded to all of them in turn as they introduced themselves. “I need some advice about getting my team off the ground.”

“So I hear.” Hattie smiled. “And, I hear that Trace and Company won't help you with training.”

“Not with bullfighting.” Judy shook her head. “We can train with the Horsemen, but that's got Trace and the other men in a twist. Trace is a little sweet on Ava,” Judy explained.

“Trace isn't sweet on me!” Ava shook her head. “And I'm certainly not sweet on him.”

Judy and Hattie looked at her, their gazes understanding.

“You know, Trace hasn't gone out with anyone since he dated Dee Tompkins,” Hattie said. “Still bugs him that she became one of Ivy Peters' girls.”

“That was a bad, bad thing,” Judy said. “I'm keeping my girls away from that
place. Ivy's the devil. She'd probably try to get my team away from me.”

“We're not interested in anything except being Hell Belles. Right?” Ava said to Cameron and Harper.

She thought her friends looked a little guilty—or concerned—but she wasn't sure why, so she went back to focusing on the issue Judy wanted to discuss with Hattie.

“Anyway,” Hattie continued, “since Trace and Dee broke up last year, he hasn't been seen with another woman. All Trace does is fish.”

Ava didn't want to examine too closely why Trace's dating availability interested her. She told her heart not to perk up at the news, felt annoyed when it didn't listen to her advice.

“And work,” Judy said. “It's made him so ornery all the time.”

“All work and no play,” Hattie said.

“Trace is a very dull boy.” Judy sighed. “Anyway, he flat-out won't even consider it.”

“Trace says he'll teach me to ride,” Ava offered.

They stared at her, so Ava continued.

“And he's got an idea for making us—”

“I know, I know.” Judy waved a dismissive hand. “He wants my girls to be a riding team, a decoration, and not a working squad.”

“Is that terrible?” Hattie asked.

“How do we set ourselves apart?” Judy asked. “Every girl in this county can ride.”

“You can't, Mayor,” Hattie said, and the Belles gasped.

“But I know a lot about it,” Judy said, with a guilty glance at her girls. “You don't have to be able to play the instrument to know when the music's right.”

“You can't ride, Judy?” Ava asked, stunned.

“I did when I was a girl,” Judy said slowly.

“She did until she got her kidney kicked by her horse,” Hattie said, patting her friend's hand. “Now she stays off horses.”

Judy sighed. “We're going to get this figured out.”

“If you learned to ride,” Hattie said, “Trace might take your idea more seriously.”

“He doesn't think a man will let a woman bullfight for him. He says a man wants another man helping him out when he's facing injury. I should have known better than to pin my hopes on the Outlaws,” Judy said. “But there's just nobody better, and I want this team first-rate.”

“If we give Trace's way a shot first,” Ava pointed out, “maybe he'll change his mind later. When he realizes we're all very determined about this.”

“Why?” Hattie asked. “Why bullfight?”

“I've grown up around bullfighters,” Ava answered, “had brothers who rodeod. I heard the stories at night about the bullfighters, and how not every bullfighter is a good one. There are those who make the riders feel real good knowing he's out there in the arena, and then there's others they wish weren't. If you ever had a brother who couldn't get loose of his bull when his bull was dragging him around like a puppet, trying to kick the life out of him, you'd know how critical it is to have a brave, talented bullfighter in there staying fearless for you.”

They all gawked at her.

Ava shrugged. “I'm just saying, maybe some folks don't think that's a real job. Maybe they don't realize that bullfighters aren't entertainment. The men on the back of those bulls have families they love, families they're trying to feed, and they deserve committed protection just as much as anyone else does.”

“That's probably the reason Trace's sweet on her,” Judy told Hattie in a confiding tone. “She wears her heart in her eyes like that when she talks, and you just kind of melt listening to her.”

Ava shook her head. “Ladies, matchmaking will get you nowhere, I promise.”

“I wouldn't mind Saint Markham being sweet on me,” Cameron said. “But I'm pretty sure he didn't notice I was alive.”

Hattie and Judy shared a glance, laughing.

“You don't have to worry about any of the Outlaws. They know
every
woman's alive,” Hattie said. “Anyway, Judy, I think I agree with Ava on this one. Trace is so stubborn you have to get at him another way. Let him work with the girls the way he wants to. At least they'll be riding, getting their horses worked out. You don't want to have anything to do with the Horsemen; you know you were just using them to get on
Trace's last nerve.”

“I think she succeeded,” Cameron said. “I have a date tomorrow night with a Horseman.”

The surprised women turned to Cameron.

“Well, we were training there,” Cameron said, “and he's cute—”

“Who's cute?” Ava demanded. The Horsemen were good-looking enough, if you liked them rough around the edges.

Trace was rough around the edges, yet somehow sexy.

And arrogant—a definite drawback.

“Jake Masters,” Cameron said.

Judy gasped. “Not Jake the snake!”

“Oh, honey, no,” Hattie said. “You don't want to do that.”

“It'd be like going over to the dark side,” Judy said, her doe eyes wide. “I feel like a proud mama to you girls. You can't go out with Horsemen!”

Steel slid into the booth next to Judy. “What are you ladies plotting about now?”

Judy gave him an aggrieved look. “ ‘Plotting'? Why is it that women plot, but men strategize?”

The sheriff laughed. “Whatever you do, darling, you do it beautifully.”

Judy shook her head at her beau. “Tell Cameron why she doesn't want to go out with Jake the snake.”

The sheriff seemed pained. “Jake used to date Ivy Peters, for one thing.”

“What's so bad about that?” Ava wondered.

Steel looked up at the ceiling, and Judy glared at him. “You don't want anything to do with getting Ivy riled,” Judy said. “The reason Ivy dated Jake the snake is because Ivy is truly Poison Ivy. They deserve each other.”

The sheriff was still trying to look innocent, and Judy was having none of it. “I don't allow my man to go near Ivy's place. If Steel has to go out there, he has to take an Outlaw with him. Either Trace, Saint, or Declan, I do not care which—even if Declan is Fallon's twin brother, I can trust Declan to guard Steel. Just someone strong to keep Ivy's arms from wrapping around my man. Bad things go on at Ivy's place.”

“Aw, Judy,” Steel said.

“What's wrong with it?” Harper asked.

“It's not a classy joint,” Hattie said. “Ivy Peters' Honky-tonk and Dive Bar. You can imagine that they attract a different clientele than the Rolling Thunder.” She shrugged. “Ivy's on the outskirts of town, where she belongs, in my opinion.”

“But in spite of that,” the sheriff said, knowing he was taking a chance, “they pay their taxes and they do charity work. They're not all bad.”

Judy's glare could have frozen summer rain into icicles.

“Jake seems so nice,” Cameron said.

“It can't hurt for one night, can it?” Ava asked. Cameron looked so dismayed that everyone was raining on her date that she felt sorry for her. Cameron shot her a grateful glance.

“You don't know them,” Judy said, “so if you go, you take Ava.”

“Me?” Ava said, wishing she'd kept her mouth shut now.

“And Harper.” Judy was adamant, and Hattie nodded in agreement.

“And Trace,” Hattie said.

“So it won't be a date,” Ava said. “It'll be chaperonage.”

“That's the idea,” Judy said. “I don't know what you see in Jake the snake, although I will admit that he has that dark-haired, god-bodied charm that's irresistible to women.” She sighed. “False advertising, if you ask me.”

Cameron raised a hand in surrender. “I won't go, if you really think I shouldn't.”

“Maybe you shouldn't,” Ava said. She had more than passing acquaintance with snakes, and if Hattie and the sheriff seemed unwilling to endorse Jake, there was no reason for Cameron to take a chance on getting bit.