9781631052323ForeverKindofCowboySullivan (4 page)

“Easy
girl.
Lighten up, would you?” He tipped his head to the side as a grin spread across
his lips. “I’m not about to get married to someone I don’t know and am not
hopelessly in love with, so calm down.”

She
blew out a forced exhale. “Good. Me either. I want to be madly in love with the
man I marry someday.”

“I hope
you find him soon. You’re a beautiful woman and being out there on the market
can be hectic.”

“You’re
teasing me now.”

“Yes, I
am.
Stop being so serious.
We’re two friends having a
nice evening watching a movie with popcorn.” He held up a piece to feed her.
“Nothing more.”

For the
next few hours, they joked, threw popcorn at each other and generally had a
good time. It was something she’d needed. The stress of the garage, not having
a dating life
or a steady boyfriend had gotten to her.

“So
what kind of girl
do
you like?”

“Well,
let’s see. Someone who is confident, real, likes kids, is close to her family,
not so much into being the eye candy on my arm, but who likes to dress up once
in a while and hit the town so every man in the room can’t take his eyes off
her.”

He
flipped off the movie since the credits were rolling at the end of
City of Angels
.

She
dabbed at her eyes with a tissue from the box next to her on the table. That
movie always made her cry. “Sorry.”

“For
what?”

“For
blubbering.
You probably didn’t need to see me with traces of mascara running down my
face.”

He took
the tissue from her hand as he turned her face toward his. She sucked in a
breath as he gently wiped the smudge from beneath her eye. He was so close she
could feel his breath on her lips. A shiver raced down her back when he stopped
and looked down into her eyes. He leaned in like he planned to kiss her, or
wanted to at least, and she closed her eyes in anticipation.

A bang
in the hallway startled them both into a quick separation. “Sorry, kids.”

“
It’s
fine, Dad. Did you need something?”

“Just
getting a glass of milk.
Heartburn is killing me tonight.”

“Are
you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m
fine, honey. You two just keep doing what you were doing,” he said with a wave
of his hand.

The
refrigerator door opened before the sounds of something being poured into a
glass reached her on the couch. She glanced at Jeremiah who seemed to be
contemplating something as he studied the picture on the wall above the
fireplace with a hell of an intense look in his eyes.
What is he thinking? I feel really stupid now, hoping he would lean in
and kiss me. It shouldn’t be like that between us. We’re friends. Nothing more,
right? He doesn’t want anything but friendship from me.
She wondered why he
looked like he was going to kiss her then.

“I
probably should get on home,” Jeremiah said, climbing to his feet. “It was a
great evening. We’ll have to do it again sometime.”

“How
about tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yeah,
are you busy?”

“No.”
He shoved his hand into his front pocket to retrieve his keys. “We could go to
The Dusty Boot to shoot some pool or throw darts.”

“Sounds
like fun.”

“Okay.
I’ll pick you up about seven unless you want to get some dinner beforehand.
Maybe Aunt Anne’s diner?”

“Sure.
Sounds like fun.”

“Great.”
He shuffled his feet for a second. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then. Since
we are doing dinner, I’ll pick you up at six.”

She got
to her feet to walk him to his car. Dare she hope he would try to kiss her
goodnight? A girl could always dream, right? “I’ll walk you out.”

As they
walked to the door, she turned to glance at her father who stood holding up the
kitchen island as if his life depended on it while he sipped his glass of milk
with a smirk.
Jerk
. He knew how she
felt about Jeremiah since she never kept anything from her dad.

The
cooler night air hit her in the face as they walked outside toward Jeremiah’s
truck. “Thanks for tonight. It was a lot of fun even though things started
rather badly.” She rubbed her arms to ward off the chill.

“We
discussed that. Be yourself. I like the Callie I know from the garage.”

“Okay.”

“I like
the fancy dressed Callie too, but don’t make yourself up to be something you
aren’t. I think you just like dressing up sometimes to be all girly.”

“Sometimes.
It’s nice to be a woman
occasionally.”

“Tell
you what, put on a pretty blouse or tank top tomorrow night with some jeans
meant to show off your curves and you’ll be just right.”

She
smiled at the thought of the perfect jeans for what she had in mind. “I can do that.”

“Good.
I’ll be interested to see how your ass looks.”

“You
like my ass?”

“You
have a very pretty one. Mind you, I’m an ass man.”

“You
don’t say?”

“Yep.
I love me some pretty, curvy
butt in a nice, tight pair of jeans.”

“I’ll
see what I can do then.” The smile curving his lips made her want to kiss him
all the more, but she figured it wasn’t the right time.

“I’ll
see you tomorrow.”

He
leaned in and kissed her on the forehead.
Damn
it! A little lower, please.

“Thanks,
Jeremiah.”

He
climbed into his truck, started the engine and pulled away from the curb.

She
stood near the edge of the lawn, watching as he drove down her street. With a
heavy sigh, she headed back into the house and her lonely bed.

“How’d
things go?” her dad asked as she shut the front door behind her.

“Fine.”

“Did he
kiss you?”

“It’s
not like that between us, Daddy. He’s just a friend and I think that’s all
he’ll ever be to me. I want more, but he doesn’t see me as girlfriend
material.”

“Well
maybe you need to make him see you as the woman of his dreams.”

“Maybe.”
She shrugged before she poured
herself a glass of milk from the refrigerator as well. “I don’t think we’re
very compatible on the romance level though.”

“Why do
you think so?”

Cold
milk felt good on her throat, spreading through her chest. “I don’t know. He
doesn’t act like he’s interested in me as a girlfriend.” She leaned against the
counter, sipping on the white liquid in her glass as she contemplated exactly
what to do about Jeremiah Young. Could she convince him she was everything he
wanted and needed in a woman? She wasn’t sure. Confidence wasn’t one of her
strong points, especially when she compared herself to the women in town like
Lydia. “I’m not his type, Dad. He’s always been seen with girly girls, not
someone who works on cars.”

Her
father wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. “You have
to understand one thing about men, Callie. They don’t always know what they
need until it slaps them in the face. There is a reason that boy hasn’t settled
down with a girly girl. Maybe he wants something different, like you.”

“One
can hope.”

“Bide
your time, sweetie. He’ll come around.”

Callie
finished off her glass of milk, kissed her dad goodnight and headed to her room
to try to sleep. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to with the way tonight went or
maybe she would dream of Jeremiah kissing her. That would be cool. Not like she
didn’t dream of him often anyway, at least now she knew the look in his eyes
when he was about to kiss her, making the visual more potent.

Chapter Four

Jeremiah
pulled up his chair in front of his desk at the ranch before he opened his
desktop to his bank account. He pursed his lips as he nodded. He was almost
there. Almost to the point where he could leave the ranch as a hand or
financial advisor or whatever you wanted to call him. He’d made his first
million two years ago. Now he was closing in on ten.

Birds
chirped out the window of his office as he glanced outside. Fall in Bandera
took on a burnished hue as the weather had started to turn cooler in the
evenings, but the days could still be rather hot. For some reason, he felt the
need to visit the barn, soak up the atmosphere, the smells, and the general
cowboy way of life today. Maybe he’d talk to his brother Jeff for a bit. It
seemed they hadn’t talked in forever.

Jeff
had his own life going with his girlfriend, Terri, and their kids. They seemed
happy although he figured Jeff would have married her by now. Poor guy was so
gun-shy over marriage he wouldn’t do the deed and put a ring on the girl’s finger.
Terri seemed happy with the way things were, but Jeremiah figured deep down she
wanted what every woman wanted, a happy marriage.

How did
he feel about matrimony? He wanted a wife someday, someone to come home to,
someone to help raise their children together. The picture of
Callinda
Lewis popped into his head as he stared out the
window. Why her? Why now? Surely he didn’t feel anything besides friendship for
her, although he had been about to kiss her the night before when her dad
interrupted them. What would that kiss have been like? She said she wasn’t a
virgin, that kind of made him mad, but he didn’t quite understand why. Maybe it
was the fact that some kid had taken advantage of her in high school. He
wouldn’t have, would he?

Hard to
say, he was all about getting laid back then, just like any other high
schooler
, but Callie was different. Good girls didn’t do
those kinds of things.

Had it been at prom for her?
 
He thought about asking her.
Maybe not.
It really wasn’t any of his business anyway. But
who had she given her virginity to?

His had
been some years before that. An older woman at the ranch had cornered him in
the barn when he was sixteen. She’d been all about teaching him how to please
her and boy did
he
ever! He used the skills she’d
taught him over her two-week stay to learn all he could about making love to a
woman. The women he’d been with since seemed to like his prowess. He smiled and
then frowned. Could he take Callie to bed?

“What
the hell? Why am I even thinking about getting her onto any old flat surface?”

Not
that he didn’t want a hot partner in the sack, but Callie?
Well maybe. She sure looked
gorgeous in that red dress she’d worn the night before. He pulled off his hat
before wiping the sweat from his forehead. His jeans felt a bit tighter when he
thought about how well she’d filled out that material. She was just a friend,
right? He shouldn’t be thinking about her all dirty like, but man, he’d wanted
to kiss her when her dad interrupted. Her lips had looked so
tempting,
he’d almost lost himself in her mouth for a minute. Good thing her dad had stopped
that nonsense. He couldn’t afford to get tied up with a good girl. He’d always
played the field and that’s how he liked it, at least for now.

Later
he would think about a wife, not now. He needed to get the family on an even
keel with their money so they wouldn’t have to worry for the long haul. His
parents kept a pretty good eye on the bank account so he kept a different
account for what investing he’d been doing. If they ever found out about him
hiding their money, they’d kill him. He tapped a few keys on the keyboard,
pulling up the account information for the ranch. He’d been investing pretty
heavily for them for the last year. The sum had a few more zeros than there had
been when he’d started. He was proud to say the ranch now had at least enough
to cover them for awhile should things go south.

His mom
stopped in the doorway to his office just as he clicked off the page.
“Jeremiah?”

“Hi,
Mom.”

“What
are you up to this morning? You don’t usually work on the weekends.”

“Not
computer work anyway. I was checking on things from the stock’s closing
yesterday to see where things were.”

“You’ve
become quite the financial wizard, son.”

He
smiled as his mom put her hand on his shoulder to peek over at the computer
screen.
“Yeah.
Things are going well.”

“When
are you going to let your dad and me in on the buying and selling of stock so
we can invest for our retirement?”

“Soon.”

“Good.
I’d like to sit down with you to talk numbers. You know I have a degree in
mathematics.”

“I
know. It’s probably where I got my love of numbers.”

She
leaned in to kiss him on the cheek.
“Probably.”
She
turned to go out of the office, but stopped for a second. “Oh, how was your
date with
Callinda
Lewis last night?”

“It
wasn’t really a date, Mom. We were just hanging out as friends.”

“You
know you could do a lot worse than her. She’s a nice girl.”

“I
know.”

“You
should think about her on the girlfriend level. She’d be good for you.
Nice, down-to-earth kind of girl to go with my wild son.”

“I’m
not wild. I’m tame compared to some of my brothers.”

“True,
but you aren’t the settling down forever kind of cowboy right now and I think
you should be.”

“Why?
I’m not that old yet.”

“You’re
getting there, son. Just like your brothers, you don’t want to think about
being with one woman. I’ve heard about your escapades with the women of Bandera
and San Antonio. I think you need to find a nice girl. I think
Callinda
Lewis is just what you need.” She pressed her palm
to his cheek before she turned back toward the door to leave. “Think about it.”

Great.
That’s all I need is to have Mom on the Callie Lewis bandwagon. Once she sets
her mind on someone for one of her sons, there’s no stopping her meddling.

He
didn’t need to think about it since he’d already been doing a lot of it about
that particular woman since last night.
Damn
it!
He was a forever kind of guy, right?

With a
flick of the switch, he turned off the monitor on his computer. He climbed to
his feet as he scraped his fingers over the stubble on his chin. He’d have to shower
and shave for his date with Callie.

Shit
. Even he was thinking of their
meeting tonight as a date when he shouldn’t be. He didn’t need the complication
of a permanent woman in his life until he was ready to move on from being a
cowboy. He might get there sometime, but he sure wasn’t ready yet.

It was
still early in the day. Not yet noon. He might just take a group of riders out
on the next excursion, just for the hell of it. He hadn’t done a ride along in
forever it seemed. He might be out of practice a bit, but being a cowboy since
he could walk, the whole thing came naturally to him. You get right back on
when you fall off.

Lunch
would be served soon so he’d get with Jeff then so they could talk business
with his dad too. He needed to get their take on the expenses for the coming
month before the guest population died off at the end of September. After Labor
Day, things were slower around the ranch for guests, but the cattle business
never took a break.

He
adjusted his hat on his head to settle it low on his brow as he glanced down at
his work clothes. Dusty boots, Wrangler jeans, standard cowboy hat and western
style shirt. He sure looked the part anyway.
 
With a wiry twist of his lips and a shrug,
he walked out before shutting the door behind him. Not that anyone would mess
with his computer, but he didn’t want to take the chance. He wasn’t ready to
reveal just how well things were going with his own finances, much less the
ranch.

The
lunch bell clanged in the distance, signaling food was served although the
guests ate first and then the family. The ranch had a few empty beds the last
week or so, but there were still several people hanging out for those last few
days of summer before things wound down. He knew of a few single ladies who
were checking out the cowboys on the ranch this week. They’d given him the eye
yesterday before supper. He knew his mom’s rule of getting together with the
guests, but he wondered if it might be a good idea to check out one. He had an
itch that hadn’t been scratched lately.

What about Callie?

There
she was in the forefront of his mind again. He didn’t need to think of her when
he thought of bedding a lady, but there she was making herself a present part
of his thoughts without regard to the fact that he wanted to keep things
strictly friends with her. Did he? His thoughts strayed to how she’d looked in
her slinky little red dress last night, bringing randy images of her to the
front of his brain. Maybe she would be interested in taking their relationship
to a friends
with benefits status?

Hmm
.

When he
rounded the corner of the stairs to walk into the dining room, he was struck by
the group of people milling about. With a family of nine boys, his own group
made up a large portion of the people in the room and with the addition of some
of the boys and their significant others, made for an even bigger group.

The
single women he’d been eyeing yesterday had already sat down to eat at the back
end of the dining room tables.
“Jeremiah?
Come sit
with us.”

He
tipped his hat before he got in line to get his plate.
Nothing
like a little female company to make the hours go by faster.

Once he
got his plate of food, he stopped by the family table to tell Jeff he needed to
talk to him after lunch before he headed toward the ladies at the back of the
room.
“Ladies.”

A
petite brunette scooted to one side. “Sit by me.”

He took
the seat and laid his hat on the bench between them. “Are you ladies having a
good time?”
The woman next to him, what was her name.
Oh yeah, Brenda.
“How about you, Brenda?”

“Well,
yes. I mean there are all kinds of things to do on a place this size, but we
wanted to get to know the cowboys
a lot
better than we have, if you know what I mean.” She squeezed his thigh as she
batted her eyelashes at him.

He
glanced over at her, raising his eyebrow in question. Nope, he wasn’t mistaken.
Desire was written all over her face. He might take her up on that offer after
a ride this afternoon. Maybe he’d take her for a private little outing down by
the creek where two people could get to know each other a little bit. “How
would you like to go for a ride with me this evening?”

“I
would love to.”

“I’ll
meet you here about six.
After supper.”

She
smiled as her friends gasped and sighed. They finished lunch with the
conversation floating around him of typical female proportions. He couldn’t keep
it all straight since he wasn’t up on the latest fashions in New York, Broadway
musicals, what the celebs were doing in Los Angeles, or even what the latest
weather forecast was if it wasn’t for their area. Yeah, he kept up on financial
news, but women didn’t care about that sort of thing.

When he
finished his meal, he excused himself with work to be done never ending on a
ranch and left the ladies to gossip amongst themselves.

He
dumped his plate into the wash basin for the dishes with a smile toward Mandy
who had just come out to grab the dirty plates. “What are your plans for
tonight, Jeremiah?”

“Oh, I
have a late night ride with a lady who is a guest here. I’m supposed to meet
her at seven.”

“That’ll
be great. I’m sure she’ll enjoy your company.”

Mandy
grabbed the dishpan right before she disappeared through the double doors
leading to the kitchen.

He
pulled off his hat and
rake
his fingers through his
hair. Why did he get the feeling he was forgetting something? He shrugged.
Apparently, it wasn’t important.

His mom
walked up behind him as Mandy left through the doors. “I thought you were going
out with Callie tonight?”

“Shit.
I’d forgotten about that.”

“Well
you can’t be in two places at once.”

“No.
I’ll cancel with Callie.”

“Why?”

“It’ll
be better that way. I don’t want her to get the wrong idea, Mom. Two dates in
two days? If she thinks there is something going to happen between us, she’s
mistaken.”