Twin Cowboys for Tamara (13 page)

“Good to have you home.” He felt her stiffen beneath his fingertips, watched her glance dart around the room before landing and resting on Jess.

“It’s, um, good to be…back.”

He heard the slight tremor in her voice as she avoided saying
home
, a tremor like she fought back tears, then she cleared her throat and squeezed his hand again.

“So, you going to sit down and have some of this Welcome Home cake, make sure there’s as little left over for me as possible?”

“Leave it to him, he’ll eat the whole thing by himself,” Jeremiah said.

“I’d be grateful. Better for my hips and thighs.” Tamara chuckled.

“
Ay
, I keep telling her she is not fat. She is perfect.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Jax said and watched as Maria placed a saucer with a hunk-disguised-as-a-slice of cake on the island in front of Tamara.

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“It is a celebration. Eat!”

Tamara grinned, pulled the plate closer and picked up the fork beside it. “Is she always so bossy?” she asked no one in particular but all four men present quickly chorused, “Yes!” before bursting out into laughter.

Maria paused in the middle of the kitchen with her fists on her hips. “
Ay
, then how come no one listens to me?”

Jax went to her, gently massaging her shoulders as he had Tamara’s. “Aw, we listen to you, Maria. We just have to give you a hard time before we do what you say.”

“And make me say things twice.”

“Only because we love hearing the musical lilt of your voice and your beautiful Castilian accent.”

Maria poked him in the stomach with her index finger. “You are
such
a flirt!”

Jax leaned in and kissed her nose. “But you love me anyway.”

She put an arm around his waist and stood on her toes to peck his cheek before giving him a sound smack on the butt. “Now go sit down and have some cake and ice cream.”

Jax saluted. “Yes, ma’am!”

Maria and Bailey finished doling out servings of cake and ice cream until everyone had a saucer and bowl in front of them and had started to dig in.

For a long time just the sound of silverware scraping across ceramic could be heard and Jax about thought he’d explode from the tension hovering over the room. The tension between Tamara and Jess alone practically suffocated him, overwhelmed him until he wanted to get up, grab both of them by an ear, drag them to the middle of the room in front of everyone and make them kiss and make up. Jax could see they wanted to.

Jax sighed and could see he’d have to dig in on this assignment and that neither Tamara nor Jess would make it easy for him. He’d always liked a challenge though.

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Gigi Moore

“So, Tam, how’s business in the Big Apple? Litigation keeping you busy?” Jax asked, just for something to say and maybe get everyone else curious and to talking. The unnatural silence got to him, like having nothing to do. Even if the snooze button had been created for people like him who only saw a sunrise under duress, once Jax got out of bed, he didn’t feel right unless he had a sport to play or had some other way to work up a sweat. Perpetual motion best described him.

“Litigation is what it is. It keeps me busy and it has its ups and downs.”

“More ups than downs I reckon if the looks of that fancy luggage I saw Jess pulling out of the truck is any indication,” Bailey mumbled, but everyone at the island heard, including Jess, all the way at the opposite end of the island.

“There’s nothing wrong with being paid well for what you do,” he said.

“I don’t need you to defend me.” Tamara gritted her teeth and turned on her father. “But now that Jess mentioned it, there
is
nothing wrong with being paid well for what I do. I worked hard to get where I am and big deal if I like nice luggage. I earned it.”

“No one’s saying you didn’t.”

“Then what’s your beef? You haven’t said word one to me since I got here, but the first words you do let out of your mouth are a criticism.”

“Ain’t nobody criticizin’ anybody. Bailey’s just missed you is all.

Same as we all did,” Jeremiah put in.

“He’s got a strange way of showing it.”

“Don’t see why I’ve got to show you anything. You already know I care about you.”

“How would I? The last time we spoke you spent the entire time outlining all my faults and the big mistake I made in leaving here.

And since I’ve been in New York, you haven’t bothered to call or speak to me. So if that means you care, then yeah, I guess I know.”

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“Phone works both ways, missy.”

“I don’t see why I have to make a move toward reconciliation when you made it perfectly clear how you felt about me leaving home even before I got involved with Noah. You just used him and his age as an excuse to punish me for wanting to leave.”

“If that’s what you think.”

“I don’t even know why I bothered to come back. It’s plain to see you don’t need me here, and that I’m far from welcomed.” Tamara pushed away from the island with an abrupt shove, the resultant noise of her chair legs scraping against the laminated wood floor deafening in the suddenly silent kitchen. She threw down her napkin and got up from her chair. “I’ve suddenly lost my appetite. If someone could just tell me which room I’m in…”

Jax stood. “I can take you.”

“No, just tell me.”

“I will show you to your room,” Maria said, showing each man at the table her wrath with a withering glare. She stood and put an arm around Tamara’s slim waist to guide her toward the doorway.

Jax stayed standing, and Jeremiah, Jess and even Bailey joined him as Maria led Tamara out of the kitchen into the hallway.

As soon as the women got out of earshot, Jeremiah threw his napkin down on the island top. “Well, what was that all about? Her first day back and you go and treat her like a pariah? I told you to be nice to her.”

“I know what you told me, but I also know that Tamara would see through nice like glass. I’m just being myself, warts and all.”

“Yeah, that’s for sure. But I know what you’re doin’ too. And don’t think alienating that gal is going to get you off the hook.”

Jeremiah stood and pointed a finger. “Remember what I said, you old coot. I want more than a lick and a promise.”

“I remember, ornery cuss.” Bailey warily looked at Jax and Jess before glaring at their father. “Just leave me be. I know what I’m doing.”

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Gigi Moore

“You’d better because I’m countin’ on you to make the gal’s stay a pleasant one and for you two to kiss and make up.” Jeremiah suddenly turned on his oldest, ignoring Bailey’s grumbling. “And that goes for you too. Whatever went on between the two of you on the way out here, you’d better do your best to make things right, or there’s goin’ to be hell to pay from me. Ya hear me?”

“Loud and clear,” Jess muttered.

As if Jess didn’t have enough to deal with worrying about making things up to Tamara on his own, Jax thought, now the ol’ man put the pressure on.

Without further comment, both Jeremiah and Bailey turned to leave, each in opposite directions. Jeremiah went passed Jax toward the living room and Bailey went passed Jess out the back door, presumably to his small ranch style house down the road a piece.

As soon as they left, Jess stared at him and asked, “Do you know what’s going on between those two codgers besides GOMS?”

Jax chuckled at his and Jess’s secret code name for Grumpy Old Men Syndrome and shook his head. “I haven’t the faintest.” But more than ever he intended to find out, especially if it had anything to do with threatening his plans to get Tamara and Jess back together.

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Tamara finished unpacking and putting away her clothes as if she planned to stay for a while, but after the scene down in the kitchen, she doubted her ability to make it through dinner before hightailing it out of Dodge.

Despite her age, heated confrontations with her father still left her breathless and near tears. And like she had when she’d been a young girl, she’d wisely run off to her room away from him. If she’d stayed in his presence, she would have said something she would later regret, or she would have cried.

Tamara didn’t let anyone see her cry, not since she’d learned that once you let anyone know they could hurt you that bad, drive you to tears, that person had power over you. And no one, but no one, had power over Tamara Carpenter except Tamara Carpenter.

But boy did it hurt, holding in the tears until Maria had settled her into her room and finally left her alone behind the closed door. It hurt a lot to know that the old man still had so much influence over her emotions. She shouldn’t care a lick about what he thought of her.

She’d proved she could make it on her own, that she didn’t need him to make her dreams come true, that she didn’t need his approval. Why couldn’t this be enough?

Because since she’d been a little girl and could see the sun in her daddy’s smile she’d been looking for not just his unconditional love but his approval.

Tamara knew this as well as she knew her own face in the mirror, but try getting her to tell her daddy that.

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98

Gigi Moore

She had half a mind to march right down stairs and over to his house to give him a piece of her mind since unfinished business still stood between them.

Tamara thrust her hands out in front of her to see them still shaking. She wasn’t sure what caused it—the idea of another confrontation with her father or the aftereffects of Jax’s hands on her shoulders.

Whew boy, she had been hard-pressed to act like his nearness didn’t turn her on, or that the thought of him and his lying brother making love to her at the same time about drove her to her knees in a puddle of lust.

What
drove
her to even consider a threesome with two cowboys nine years her junior? Cowboys she used to babysit! Had she lost her mind?

Her nipples grew hard and tight, tingling at the memory of Jax’s body heat, the memory of his clean tangy scent. He smelled like evergreen and aspen trees in bloom. And her breasts told her they had no nickel in a dime of denial, and didn’t care what her mind thought,
they
wanted some action, and they wanted it now!

God, had they been erect while she’d been downstairs in the kitchen? And, if they had, had anyone noticed?

She’d been back less than a few hours, and she’d already been more embarrassed than at the most embarrassing incident in her life when her father walked in on her and Noah in the barn. At least back then she’d had an excuse, the stupidity of youth on her side.

What excuse did she have now?

If she admitted the truth to herself, it would pretty much be the same excuse she’d had back then, besides the youth factor. She’d suffered from raging hormones. It seemed like the older she got, the more she wanted sex. But not just any sex. She wanted hot, make-her-body-sing-for-several-days-after sex, which Jess had given her. Good thing too, because the memories of what she’d shared with him in that Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.

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motel room would have to last her since she had no intentions of letting him get near her again.

At least this is what her brain said. Her body made plans to play Benedict Arnold at the closest sign of an opportunity, the turncoat.

It had to be the crisp, clean Colorado air, something in it that made her appreciate the sensual so much more than the city air ever had. She’d never reacted to men in this gotta-have-him-now way in New York as she had since she’d been back and gotten a look at Jess.

The fresh, unpolluted country atmosphere seemed to bring her closer to her more basic self, made her needs clearer to her, and intensified her wants.

Tamara closed her eyes now, letting the memory of that infamous day seep in, her father’s anger and disappointment tangible forces riding her spine and tightening her heart in her chest even so many years later.

She’d thought herself so grown back then, that she knew it all, but her father had quickly shown her the consequences of her actions, that her actions didn’t just affect her but others too. The others in her case had been Noah, and the twins who Tamara later learned
had
been in the barn, spying on everything she and Noah had done.

The thought of those innocent nine-year-old boys watching her make out with Noah had been as, if not more, mortifying than her father catching her. Knowing that she had fallen in their worshipful eyes crushed her enough that she felt numb by the time Jeremiah handed down his decree and fired Noah and her father grounded her for the rest of her time on the ranch.

For all of August, she’d been an emotional zombie, going through the motions of doing her errands, preparing for her trip to New York, but her soul not really into anything, at least not until the time came to leave.

The closer her departure date came, however, the more animated Tamara became, until she thought she’d scream for joy at the top of her lungs in celebration of her approaching freedom.

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