Loving You: A Cowboy Romance (Texas Hill Country Romance Book 1) (22 page)

The gang showed up, all but Dan, and Lisa, of course. They bullshitted and joked while they ate and drank. Calista and Jennie helped Annie clean up and now it was time to leave. Cord got quiet as the night went on. Jake was taking Annie home that night. She had to work in the morning and he didn’t want her to go. He was feeling a sense of loss.

He walked into the kitchen and Calista and Jennie saw that he zeroed in on Annie so they quietly left the room. He walked over to Annie and cornered her against the counter with his body. He brought his arm up and twirled a strand of hair around his finger.

“So soft,” he murmured. “I wish you could stay,” he said with his nose gently touching her nose.

“I want to… but-”

“But you can’t. I know.” He pulled his head back and they gazed into each other’s eyes for a long while.

“Text me when you get home.”

“Okay.”

“Thank you, Annie, for taking care of me,” he said then he pressed his lips to hers and kissed her sweetly.

“Ahem…” Jake cleared his throat.

Cord broke the kiss. “Not now, Jake.”

“Sorry, buddy, I still have to run Jennie home first.”

“Okay,” Cord said. He sighed and then he put his arm around Annie’s waist and walked her to the front door.

That night while Cord was in bed alone, he thought about how much he loved having Annie with him. He could be happy with her in his life forever. He just knew it in his gut. She was the one. He knew it four years ago when he first saw her on Skype, and heard her voice, especially her giggle. He knew it before the last few days, but these days confirmed it one hundred percent. But how could he tell her not to go to Paris? These were her plans. Being here was only temporary for her.

How was he supposed to go on without her in his life? He wouldn’t settle for anyone else. He sighed heavily, took a pain killer, and closed his eyes. Eventually he fell into a restless sleep.

For the next three days, Annie would finish work then go to Cord’s house with food for him, and to help him recover even if that meant just to keep him company. He was feeling much better by Tuesday, but he wanted her there so he didn’t say anything.

She would wrap his arm, and shower with him.

He would cop feels while she was washing him and after she helped him dry off, they would hit the bed, or the couch as that thought was still in his head, and he wanted to take her there, to play.

For the remainder of the week, they didn’t see each other but they texted and talked a few times a day.

On Sunday they all went to Pedernales Park.

Annie got to the park first with Jake, Jennie, and Calista. Cord’s eye was much better and he didn’t use the sling anymore, but the arm was still in a cast so Rory picked him up on the way.

“Annie, relax. He’ll be here soon.” Calista said laughing as she noticed her friend constantly looking back toward the parking lot.

“I know.” Annie shrugged. “But I can’t wait.”

“Piece of fruit?” Calista asked Annie, holding out a peach to her.

“Fruit? Yes, eat fruit. You, too, Jennie, have a piece of fruit.” Jake rambled.

Calista and Annie gave each other a knowing look and smirked as Annie took the peach, while Jennie didn’t show a sign she understood.

“Someone’s talking,” Calista whispered to Annie. Annie nodded her head.

“Who?” Calista asked.

Annie shrugged. “I can’t imagine Rory telling your brother. Jake would probably beat the crap out of him.”

They both sniggered.

“Oh, they’re here,” Annie said. She threw her peach pit in the garbage and then she ran to the parking lot to meet Cord. When he got out of the car, Annie flew into his arms. He picked her up with his good arm and she wrapped her legs around his waist.

“Hi,” she said softly.

“Hi,” he said and he kissed her.

“I missed, you,” Annie said when they broke the kiss.

“I missed you, too. You feel so good.”

She swung her legs down and they held hands as they walked to the picnic site.

Cord, Rory, and Jake stood by the edge of the water drinking a beer while Calista had a beer in her hands, and Jennie and Annie sipped wine that Jake opened and poured for them. The girls had set up a picnic lunch that they each helped to prepare back at the B&B.

“Hi, Jimmy, hi, Amber,” Calista said as Jimmy Landry and his wife came down to the picnic site.

“Hi, ladies,” he said.

Jennie and Calista went over to Amber and gave her a kiss.

“Hi, sweetheart,” Jimmy said to Annie.

“Hi, Jimmy.”

“Annie, this is my wife, Amber,” Jimmy said as Amber came back to his side.

“Oh, hi. It’s nice to meet you,” Annie said smiling.

Amber said hello with a smile of her own as Cord walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “Hi, darlin’,” and gave her a kiss on her cheek.

The rest of the guys were there too and everyone said their hi’s and hello’s.

They were all relaxing and chilling when Dan came up to them. Again everyone said their hi’s and hello’s, except Cord. He just nodded.

“Shit, McCreedy. What the hell happened to you? Annie smack you around?” He chuckled as he paused too long on Annie, blatantly moving his eyes up and down her body.

Cord was sitting, leaning against a rock in a ribbed tank and long shorts, and Annie, in a purple bikini and a diamond belly chain, was between his legs, and she felt him freeze.

She placed a hand on his thigh and stroked him softly. She began to feel him relax and he put his good arm around her waist to gently squeeze her.

“Had an accident,” he said to Dan.

“Yeah, I heard, man. How are you feeling?”

“Good,” Cord said, looking anywhere but at Dan, and Dan felt the tension so he nodded his head and went to the cooler and pulled out a beer. He strolled over to where Amber and Jimmy were sitting and sat down to join in their conversation.

Cord leaned in and rubbed his cheek against Annie’s.

She smiled at the feel of him.

He brought his lips to her ear. “How do you do it?” He asked.

She turned her head slightly. “How do I do what?”

“Calm me. Just your touch calms me the fuck down.”

She turned her upper body to see him and he brought his lips down to hers.

“Cord, man, you even hear what I said?” Rory asked.

“They’re at it again,” Calista said, giggling.

Cord looked at Calista and gave her a silly grin that made her laugh even more then turned to Rory, “What’d you say?”

“Jake said you’re pulling out of bull riding at your parent’s fundraiser next weekend. That true?”

“Yeah,”

“You’re defending your title in the bronc riding though?”

“Hell, yeah. Storm is looking real good, too.”

While Cord was talking with Rory, Annie and Calista had their own conversation going.

“You still need to pick out an outfit for the line dancing, Annie. We’ll go shopping this week.”

“No, I’m not going to go,” she said to Calista quietly, hoping Cord didn’t hear her. But, alas, he had heard her.

He stopped talking to Rory, mid-sentence, and turned his attention to Annie.

“What do you mean you’re not going?”

“Well, for one thing, you never asked me,” she whispered, not wanting to have that conversation in front of everyone.

“I thought it was a given that you would come. So, I’m asking you now to come… with me.”

“I um… I have to tell you, I really don’t think your mom and dad would want me there.” She brought her mouth to his ear to whisper that last statement.

“I don’t care what they want, I want you there with me. It’s a lot of fun. You’ll have a good time. The party is so big, you may not even see my parents all night.”

“Cord, please understand. I don’t want to go.”

“No, Annie, you’re coming, end of story,” he said with finality.

She said no more on the subject. She got up and walked to the edge of the water and then kept walking until she was in the water. She was fuming.

Cord sat there looking dumbfounded at Jake, and all Jake could do was shrug.

Calista got up and went into the water to talk with Annie.

“Hey, what’s going on, Annie?”

“Twice, C., twice. His mother caught us twice, in the middle of doing it. How am I supposed to face this woman? She wouldn’t even let me see Cord in the hospital. The woman was downright hostile. She clearly hates me. She’s not going to want me there, just like I don’t want to be there,” Annie spewed.

Calista sighed.

“And now he’s giving me orders. I’m coming, end of story. Really? What the fuck is that?”

They heard a splash and turned to see Dan swimming to them. They looked to the shore and everyone was getting ready to get into the water. All except Cord, he was sitting there, watching Annie and Calista, and he scowled when Dan swam to them.

Jake started it. He picked up Jennie and threw her into the water. Rory picked up Calista and threw her into the water. Dan picked up Annie and threw her into the water. The girls came up from under the water laughing. Everyone was throwing or trying to throw everyone into the water.

Then the chicken fights started. Amber on Jimmy versus Jennie on Jake. Amber won. She took on Calista and Rory. Calista won. Dan looked at Annie, who was bobbing in the water near him. He dove under her, and after Annie struggled to get away, he picked her up on his shoulders and walked over to Calista.

Annie giggled, and Calista’s forehead creased as she sucked in a breath while pulling her lips back, knowing that Cord was going to be pissed.

Annie just shrugged, and put out her arms to try to take down Calista. Calista countered as they laughed.

All the while, Cord was watching and stewing from shore. He didn’t want to go into the water because he still had his cast on.

Annie got the upper hand on Calista and was able to knock her off of Rory’s shoulders. Dan flipped Annie but caught her in his arms before she hit the water. She quickly struggled to get out of his arms. She really didn’t want to make Cord angry.

But it was too late for that. She looked to the shore and when she did, he turned away and walked to the cooler and took out a beer, popped the cap and guzzled it. He took a seat in one of the many beach chairs set up. Annie noted that, as it was far away from where they were originally sitting.

“Let me go,” she said, sounding all pissed off, and she slapped Dan hard in the face.

He dropped her and stepped back. Everyone in the water saw it, but Cord didn’t.

Annie stormed out of the water, and walked to her backpack. She pulled out a towel, while keeping an eye on Cord.

He glanced her way, took a sip of the beer, and then averted his eyes to the water.

Annie started to make her way over to Cord but he looked back to her.

“Don’t,” he said. And she froze for a moment then nodded her head slowly and turned back.

She came face to face with Calista who gave her an understanding look and Annie distressingly shrugged. Her eyes, watery.

Jake walked over to Cord with two beers. 

“What’s up?” he said, handing Cord one of the bottles of beer.

Cord took the beer and took a swig.

“I’m gonna beat the shit out of Dan, man,” he said as he ripped the label on his beer bottle.

“Uh-huh, yeah. I get it, but, you sure?” Jake asked.

Cord just looked at him.

“You and Dan are friends a long time. I know you’re really into Annie and all but she’s gone in another, what, month and a half, two months? You willing to throw away a lifelong friendship over her?”

Cord looked to Annie then to Dan, then back to Annie. “Yeah,” he said nodding his head as he looked back to Jake. “Yeah, I am.”

Dan saw Cord looking his way so he walked over to join him and Jake.

“Your chick’s got a strong hand,” Dan said as he stood in front of Cord and looked down at him.

Cord looked up to Dan and saw that the right side of his face was red and in the shape of a small hand print. He looked to Annie, who watched their exchange, then back to Dan. He smiled slightly, nodded his head, and took a sip of beer.

Jake brought out his guitar and began to strum. He started to sing softly, ‘Drunk on you’ by Luke Bryan, and then before you knew it one by one they all joined in. All, except for Annie and Cord.

When that song was over, Jake quickly went into The Eagles, ‘Take it Easy’. Even Annie sang along. Cord didn’t.

Calista got up, went to the cooler and brought out some fruit. She walked over to Annie and plopped down, offering her some. They both sat and ate cherries and strawberries. Amber got up and went to sit with them, then Jennie did. The girls were having a fun time. There was a lot of laughter coming from there. Amber was a fun girl to be around. She told them her story of giving birth to her first born and how green Jimmy was throughout it all.

Jake was still strumming while the guys talked quietly and joked.

Jimmy walked over and sat near Cord.

“So, I did some digging. Seems that Treemont is in the same motorcycle club as Billy Hanson.”

Billy Hanson was the bartender at Roxy’s.

“He told one of his buddies that under the request of Lisa Fairchild, who was blowing him at the time, he cut the brakes of the car,” he said, then he took a sip of beer.

Cord tipped his hat back on his head.

“He didn’t know the car belonged to you. Said when he found out the car belonged to you, he went ballistic. He didn’t want to fuck with you. Lisa told him the car belonged to some bitch who threatened her.”

Cord looked in Annie’s direction and caught her looking at him. She tipped her head to the side in question. He turned back to Jimmy.

“Can you pick him up?”

“We want to. My dad wants to talk to you first. Thinks you might want to wait to see if we can implicate Lisa, too.”

Cord nodded his head. “Yeah, yeah, I want that. Get her the fuck off my back for good.”

“Go see my father tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Thanks, buddy.”

Jimmy kept noticing Cord look at Annie. Before he walked away from Cord he said, “Talk to her, man.”

Cord looked back to him then to Annie again and nodded. But it had gotten late and Calista started the cleaning up process.

Everyone pitched in and packed up the cars. Annie was supposed to go with Cord in Rory’s car. They had made plans to stay at the pool house that night.