The Wild Ones (5 page)

His skin is tan, like he spends a lot of time outdoors without his shirt on.  And, considering the weapons this boy is packing, I think he’s doing the world a favor when he does it. 

My eyes travel to his big hands as he rubs them over Runner’s side.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Jenna whispers, again voicing what is going through my mind.

He’s bathing a horse.  One of
my father’s
horses.  What the…?

I had been heading for Firewalker’s stall, but now I veer toward Trick and Runner.  As I approach, he looks up, his gray eyes raking me appreciatively from head to toe.  He grins up at me. It’s lopsided and just about the sexiest thing ever.

“What are you grinnin’ at?” I ask.

“You are a walking, talking teenage dream in those jeans.”  I blush.  Of course.  His grin turns into a smile.  “You sure that’s how you want to start this conversation?  Remember how it ended up last time?”  My cheeks burn and I know they’re fiery red.  He chuckles.  “Maybe I just should’ve said ‘hi’ instead.”

I ignore him and come back with my own question.  “What are you doing here?”

His smile falters a bit and he frowns.  “Isn’t this where you expected me to be?”

“Um, no.  Why would I?”

“That’s a good question.  You came looking for me.  I figured you’d have a reason.”

“No, Jenna and I came out to go for a ride.  Why would I look for you here?”

I’m fascinated by the string of emotions that flit across his face.  At first he looks confused, but then he looks like he wants to laugh, like it’s a joke.  Then he looks more confused and that turns into disbelief, like in his mind he’s saying, “No way!”  But then, much to my surprise, he looks aggravated.  No, scratch that.  He looks downright mad.

“You’re Jack’s daughter.” 

It’s a statement, not a question.  And he is
not
happy about it.  

“Yes, I am.”

“Damn!” I hear him mutter under his breath.

“But that still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here.”

He pauses, running his fingers through his damp hair.

“I work here.”

“Oh,” I say, dead pan.

There’s a long, very uncomfortable silence that stretches between us.  His reaction tells me all I need to know about his position on flirting with the boss’s daughter.  I wonder if he’s as disappointed as I am.  I don’t even know why I feel that way, but I do. 

You have a boyfriend, dummy!  Why does it even matter?

“Well, if you need any help getting your horse ready, just let me know,” he says dismissively.  He gets right back to spraying down Runner as if Jenna and I aren’t standing two feet away.

I do my best not to stomp off, but it’s hard. I feel like throwing a fit that only a two year-old could be proud of.

Jenna’s scrambling beside me.  She looks back and then grins over at me.  “He’s totally watching you leave.”

For some reason, that makes me feel a little bit better.

CHAPTER TEN- Trick

“Man, I haven’t seen a girl get under your skin like this since high school.”

I look at Rusty over the top of my mug.  “Who’re you kidding? She’s not under my skin.” 

“Riiiiiight,” he says with a grin.

Ignoring him, I glance around the bar for any familiar faces.  Lucky’s is the only bar in the area and me and my friends have been coming here since we got our first fake IDs.  Since the fairly small town of Greenfield started growing a few years back, I’d begun seeing more and more strangers in the smoke-filled room.  But tonight, I’m not looking for a stranger.

My eyes stop on the back of a blond head.  I recognize the girl standing at the bar, her curvy figure barely concealed in a pair of tiny shorts and a tank top.  It’s ReeAnn Taylor.  She’s always been into me.  She’s good-looking and, more importantly, she doesn’t have a boyfriend
or
a father who could fire me.

“Don’t even think about it, Trick.”

“Think about what?”

“ReeAnn.  Tappin’ that won’t get the rich girl out of your head.  Only one thing will.”

Cami.

I growl into my beer.

Why does she have to be his daughter?

“Look at it this way, you can always find a job someplace else.”

“Like where?  The Hines ranch is the only thoroughbred farm for a hundred miles or more.”

“Well, do something different.”

“Like what?  Without my degree, I can’t get a job doing anything else that pays as well as Jack does.  And we need the money.  I didn’t leave college to come home and get a job because I had nothing better to do.  You know I had no choice.”

“Well, maybe you could—”

“Just forget it, Rus,” I interrupt.  “It is what it is.  I’ll just stay away from her and everything will be fine. It’s not a big deal. She’s just a girl.”

In an effort to prove my point (as much to myself as to Rusty), I get up and walk over to ReeAnn.  When I stop beside her, she turns around, almost right into my arms.

She looks up at me with her pretty brown eyes and smiles.  “Did you come to ask me to dance?” she asks.

“Would you have said ‘yes’?”

She nods and slips her hand into mine.  I lead her out onto the dance floor just in time for a slow song.  She plasters her body against mine and winds her arms around my neck. I can feel her breasts rubbing my chest and her hips swaying suggestively against mine.

It would be too, too easy, wouldn’t it?

I ignore the fact that I don’t want easy and I tighten my arms around ReeAnn’s waist. She tucks her face against my throat and snuggles in, purring like a contented cat.  Her perfume smells nice, but it’s a little strong.  I try not to notice how it smells nothing like fresh strawberries.

I push that thought right out of my head as soon as it arrives and I let my hands trail down ReeAnn’s back to her hips.  I feel her fingers dive into my hair and she leans into me, rubbing her lower body against mine. I think to myself that I could probably get into this if she keeps doing what she’s doing.

That thought stops in its tracks when I look up and my eyes crash into the violet ones I’ve been seeing far too often.  Cami and her friend, Jenna, are standing not ten feet away, underneath the Lucky’s sign.  They must’ve just arrived. Cami’s staring at me like I have two heads.

Right on cue, ReeAnn wiggles in my arms like she’s trying to remind me I should be thinking about her, not someone else.  I look away from Cami and try to focus on the girl trying to crawl inside my shirt.   But it’s no use.  Suddenly, ReeAnn’s perfume is suffocating me, her skinny arms are choking me and her sexy-little-kitty noises are just plain annoying me.

With a sigh, I loosen my hold.  I finish the dance with ReeAnn, but only just.  All I can think of is getting away from her, getting out of this bar and getting into a nice, warm bottle of tequila.   I know from experience there’s a special kind of oblivion at the bottom of the bottle and that’s just what I need on a night like tonight. 

CHAPTER ELEVEN- Cami

The sun is streaming through the window right into my eyes.  Normally, I wouldn’t mind waking up to that, but today…not so much.  Like unwanted flashbacks from war, the scene I stumbled upon last night won’t leave me be.  Even when I squeeze my eyes shut, I can’t seem to stop seeing Trick and that girl all wrapped around each other. 

Makes me sick!

I refuse to consider why it bothers me
at all
or how pathetic it must’ve seemed when I left Lucky’s less than thirty minutes after arriving.  I should’ve known the night was gonna blow.  Jenna didn’t even want to go to begin with.  Me and my bright ideas. 

That’s what you get for going to a place like that when you’ve got a boyfriend anyway.  You
wanted
to run into him and you got what you asked for.

I roll over and pull my pillow over my head.  I’m not ready to face the day yet.

“Cami!  Cami!”  It’s Drogheda and she’s shaking my shoulder.  Something must be wrong for her to be in my room waking me up.

“What?” I ask, sitting straight up in the bed, startled.

“You sleep like the dead this morning,
chica.
 I’ve been banging around in the kitchen for over an hour and still, you sleep.”

“Sorry. I didn’t get much rest last night and I’m still tired.”  I must’ve dozed off after I woke up the first time, because I didn’t hear all of Drogheda’s finely-honed skills of annoyance.

“What’s the matter,
mi Camille?”

That actually makes me smile.  Drogheda is the only person in the world who can get away with calling me Camille, and only because she makes it sound like an endearment rather than the name I hate so much.

“Nothing,” I reply with a shake of my head.  I don’t look her in the eye.  Drogheda’s got some kind of crazy sixth sense and she can tell when I’m lying to her.  I’ve learned it’s best to avoid eye contact.

She stares at me, moving her head when I move mine until I’m forced to look at her. 

“You tell me now, missy!”  Drogheda can be very no-nonsense when the occasion calls for it.

I sigh.  “It’s nothing really.  Just this guy.”  I sit up and tuck my hair behind my ears.  “And I mean, I’ve got a boyfriend, which makes the whole thing just really stupid.”

“What whole thing?  Tell me from the beginning.”

So I do. I tell Drogheda all the not-so-sordid details.  It surprises me when she grins.  And, for Drogheda, it’s a pretty devilish grin, too.

“What did I tell you? 
That boy
is not the right one for you.  Didn’t I tell you you’d find the
right boy?”

“Drogheda, Brent is a great guy.  Didn’t
I
tell
you
that?”

“Aye-aye-aye!  That’s all I hear for years now, but
this
is what I want to hear.  I want to hear you tell of a boy who gets in your head,” she says, tapping my temple with her finger, “and in your heart, too.”  She taps my chest over my heart.

“But Brent—”

“Pssssh,” she says, waving her hands at me.  “I don’t want to hear any more excuses,
mi Camille. 
Keep that boy around if you must, but don’t turn your back on this new one.  You have to give love a chance.  When it’s real, it will find a way.”

My laugh is short and bitter.  “Can it find a way around Jack Hines?”

“Have faith,
chica. 
Love can even find a way around your father.”

Drogheda’s smile is sweet and encouraging, just what I needed this morning whether I knew it or not.  Impulsively, I lean over and wrap my arms around her neck.

“What would I do without you, Drogheda?”

“You’d be lazy all day, that’s what.”  She slides off the bed and swats at me with the dishtowel she’s still carrying.  “Now, come eat your breakfast so I can clean up the kitchen.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming!  Give me a minute,” I complain good-naturedly.

Drogheda rolls her eyes in exasperation and walks away, muttering something in Spanish that I can’t understand, but sounds awfully cute.

Somewhere between my bedroom and the kitchen, I decide to go see the only person I can think of who might know more about Trick than I do, which isn’t much.

My father is sitting behind his desk when I walk into his office.  This is the first time I’ve seen him since I got home.  I notice a little gray at his temples that wasn’t there at Christmas.  Otherwise, he looks the same—short, dark hair, tan skin and sharp blue eyes that see right through me when he looks up.

I smile brightly.  “Morning, Daddy.”  I lean against the door jamb and yawn.

“I was beginning to wonder if I was going to get to see you at all,” he says with a smile, laying his pen to the side.  He leans back in his chair and steeples his fingers as he watches me.

“Sorry.  I’ve been with Jenna the last few days and I guess you’ve been…what?  Checking out new horses?”

He shrugs.  “Nothing you need to be concerned about.”

“What if I want to be?”

He frowns.  “What’s the supposed to mean?”

I walk on into his office and sit down in one of the big leather armchairs that face his desk.  “Daddy, I’m thinking of spending the summer learning more about the business.”

“Why?”

I shrug.  “Because I want to.  You know how much I love horses.  But I’ve always just loved riding them.  I’ve never really seen the business side of things and it’s something I’m interested in.”

His smile isn’t very big, but it is full of pride and pleasure, which makes me feel good.  Maybe he’s been waiting for this day all along.  Who knows?

“I think we can arrange some kind of internship then.”

Internship.  Inwardly, I roll my eyes.  I should’ve known Jack Hines wouldn’t throw the least bit of nepotism my way.  “Sounds good.  I thought maybe I could make a couple of trips with you this summer. You know, check out new horse flesh and meet some of your contacts.”