Loving You: A Cowboy Romance (Texas Hill Country Romance Book 1) (14 page)

“Hi, sweetie,” Annie said with a huge smile of her own.

“Are you Uncle Cord’s girlfriend?” she asked excitedly.

Annie smiled and looked to Cord. She really had no idea how to answer that question because they never discussed it before, but seeing how his parents were in ear distance, she was hoping that Cord would say yes, even if it were not true, just so his parents wouldn’t think she was just some girl.

“Yes, sweetheart,” he said without missing a beat and Annie found herself letting out a breath she didn’t even realize she was holding and smiled at Kimmie and Cord.

“She’s pretty,” Kimmie said.

“Yes, she is,” Cord replied.

He turned to see his parents watching the exchange and said, “Mom, dad, this is Antoinette Amanti. Annie, these are my parents, Evelyn and Cal McCreedy.”

Annie was looking at a short, thin woman, who clearly had Native American blood running through her, with high cheekbones and long glossy black hair. She was a very pretty woman, Annie noted.

His father was an older version of Cord. The same hair color, though he had a bit of gray on the sides of his head which made him more distinguished looking. He was the same height and had the same eye color and shape.

“Um…” Annie bit her bottom lip shyly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, both,” she said nervously.

Cord’s dad smiled warmly and put his hand out and said, “It’s nice to meet you, too, darling.”

Annie shook his hand thinking that Cord inherited that killer smile from his father. Then she looked to Evelyn who looked none too pleased to meet her.

“Hello, dear,” she said curtly.

“Uncle Cord, can I go horseback riding, can I, can I?”

Cord looked to his parents.

“Kimmie, Uncle Cord has to work,” Evelyn said.

Kimmie turned to Cord and sticking out her lower lip in a pout asked, “Can I go pet Warlock, pleaseeeeee?”

“Yeah, sweetheart,” he said and she squirmed to get out of his arms. He put her down and she ran toward Warlock’s stall.

“Don’t pull his mane!” Cord yelled to her back as she was running. He caught sight of Hank and nodded his head.

Hank walked to Warlock’s stall to keep an eye on little Kimmie.

“So, what brings you here?” Cord asked his parents.

“Jamerson Fairchild stopped by yesterday. He was very upset with the way you spoke to him-” His mother started saying. “-And tell me you didn’t train a rifle on him,” her voice grew louder.

Annie quickly removed her hand from Cord’s and started to back up. “Please excuse me. I’m going to go see Warlock, too.”

Cord tried to reach for her hand but she moved farther away.

“It was a pleasure to meet you both,” she said, and turned and walked, without looking back, to Warlock’s stall.

“Cordell McCreedy, what were you thinking? How could you carry on like that with her?”

“Evy,” Cal said.

“No, Cal, it’s not right. He is supposed to be with Lisa. Now he has compromised that and will have to work to get back in the good graces of that family. You need to stop seeing this girl right away.”

“Mom, what are you talking about? I’m not in the slightest bit interested in Lisa, and as you saw for yourself, I am most interested in Annie,” he said with a cheeky smile.

“Cordell, Jamerson said you and Lisa went out a few weeks ago. Now you’re seeing someone else. You are going to be thirty years old. When are you going to settle down already?”

“Mom, stop. First off, it was over a month ago. It wasn’t anything special. Not interested, never was, and as for me going to be thirty, I’ll decide when and if I settle down. Not you,” he said sounding a bit irritated.

“Cordell, you watch how you talk to your mama,” his father said sternly.

Cord looked from his mother to his father. He nodded his head. “Yes, sir. Now if there is nothing else, I do have to get to work.” He paused. No one said anything further so he turned and walked to Warlock’s stall.

“Cal?” Evelyn said. “Where are you going?”

“To get Kimberly so we can go home.”

Cal walked to Warlock’s stall and noticed Cord was holding Annie’s hand. He studied the way his son was looking at her and she him. He cleared his throat to let them know he was there. They turned around.

“I just want to collect Kimberly and we’ll be on our way.”                                

“Kimmie, Grandpa says it’s time to go,” Cord said.

“Aww, do we have to?” she moaned.

“Yep, Grandma is waiting. You have Jaycee’s birthday party this afternoon,” Cal said.

“Yippee!” she said, all of a sudden forgetting Warlock. She turned to Annie and said, “I have a bootiful new pink dress to wear.

Yippee!” Annie exclaimed as she bent down to the little girl. “I bet you’re going to look so pretty in it.”

Cord and Cal chuckled as Kimmie nodded her head.

They all said goodbye with Cal warmly addressing Annie, and Annie watched a warm exchange of a son kissing his father goodbye.

Cord sighed then said, “Well, that went well, don’t you think?”

Annie just looked at him like he was crazy.

“What? You don’t think so?” He smiled.

Annie looked at him, looked at Warlock, who was studying her, then looked back to him. She slowly grinned and shook her head and said “Cordell.”

As he laughed, he also thought about how much he liked the sound of his name on her lips.

Cord waited for Annie to enter the B&B before he pulled away to head back home. He was supposed to drop her off the night before, but neither of them wanted to leave each other.

After they got past their encounter with Cord’s mom and dad, it wound up raining the rest of the day, so they never did go horseback riding, but they stayed in and rode each other instead, as well as, ate and watched TV.

He got up early with her to drive her back to work.

Annie walked in to see Joan already preparing for the morning breakfast. She grabbed a cup of coffee, put on an apron, and got right to work with a silly smile on her face that did not go unnoticed by Joan.

“So, how is Cord?” Joan asked with a chuckle.

“He’s good,” Annie answered, sounding all giddy.

“Honey, the silly grin on your face is priceless.” Joan laughed. “I know Cord a very long time. He’s a good friend to my kids, and his family has been wonderful to them, too. He’s a nice boy with a good head on his shoulders.

“Yes, I think so, too.”

“You know, I don’t think I have ever seen Cord so smitten. He’s dated all different girls, never the same girl more than twice-”

Annie looked alarmed at the revelation.

“-Oh, no, what I mean is I don’t get that with him now. He hangs around here more now than ever.

“I don’t think I’ve seen him around here during the week since he was a kid in high school. Always the weekend. He and Jake would double date or go out carousing, but weekdays, no. He’d be busy working.” She paused to take a sip of coffee. “But I also get the feeling he’s been waiting for you for a very long time.”

Annie tilted her head in a confused manner. “Long time? Joan, we just met.”

“Hmmmm,” Was Joan’s reply and Annie had a perplexed look on her face as Joan went into the dining room to set up the buffet table.

Annie turned around from the counter to go to the refrigerator to put the fresh fruit platter she was working on, in to chill, until breakfast time at 7:00 am. She almost dropped the platter when she did because one of the bikers, Ron, the big burly one, was in her personal space.

He backed her up so her back leaned against the counter and placed his hands on the counter on either side of her so that she was trapped. He came in so close, looking all scruffy and reeking of alcohol.

Except for the morning before, they interacted with each other usually in the dining room at breakfast time. Ron commented on how much he loved her apple pie. ‘It’s just like mom’s,’ he had said, and Annie went to the buffet table and got him another piece.

She wasn’t afraid of him, but he was a most intimidating man.

“Ron, you’re up early,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant, even though she felt anything but.

“That blonde bitch is looking to hurt you.”

“Who?”

“Open your eyes, Annie”

Annie gasped, “Lisa?” She asked.

Ron didn’t confirm or deny. He arched a brow as he took a cantaloupe slice off the platter and popped it in his mouth. “I like you, Annie. Tell that cowboy of yours to keep a close eye on you.” Then he grabbed another piece of fruit and turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Joan came back in to see Annie looking frazzled. “Honey, what’s wrong?” 

“Nothing,” she said as she went to the fridge to put the fruit in it. She didn’t want to burden Joan with her problems. It was nice of Joan to let her work and live there, she couldn’t pass on her worries to her too. Worries? It may not be anything anyway.

She began to feel a bit overwhelmed. “I’m going to go get some fresh air. I’ll be on the back porch for a while.

“Sure honey. Take your time,” Joan said as she watched with concern as Annie walked out the back door.

Annie walked on to the back porch, thinking about what Ron said. She walked over to the love seat swing and sat down.
Looking to hurt me? Lisa? Should I tell Cord, or anyone for that matter? What if he’s lying? Why would Ron lie?

Right around that time was when the little kitten would come up and rub itself on her calf.

Annie bent down in search of him. When she did, she let out an ear piercing scream. There was the kitten, half sticking out from under the swing, throat slashed and in a pool of its own blood.

Joan was the first to reach her. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

Annie couldn’t speak. All she could do was stare at the poor kitten as tears flowed freely from her eyes.

Jake and Calista ran out, and Calista saw where Annie was looking and let out a scream, too.

Ron and Tommy ran out the back door and saw the dead kitten. Ron had a knife in his hand.

Jake took one look at Ron and flung himself at him. Ron slipped and fell on the porch steps, taking Jake down with him. Jake tried to wrestle the knife away from him.

Annie yelled “Jake, stop! Stop it!”

Tommy pulled Jake off of Ron.

Ron came up and dropped the knife. “Back off, dude. I thought Annie was being attacked.” They both had been heaving. Ron raised both hands in a kind of surrender stance.

“Yeah, she’s fine,” Jake said into his cell phone. He had been talking to Cord while pacing the floor of Annie’s bedroom as his sister consoled Annie.

Annie didn’t want Jake to call Cord. Because of the rain the day before, Cord had a lot of work that day.

Joan went back to the kitchen to attend to the guests who began making their way down for breakfast.

Ron and Tommy offered to remove the kitten and bury it.

“Cord.” Jake paused. “There’s more, bro. The bikers that are staying here implied that Lisa is looking to hurt Annie.”

There was a pause. Cord was talking on the other end.

“No, man, they’re cool. They warned Annie this morning.” Another pause. “Okay,” Jake said and he handed the phone to Annie.

“Hey, baby,” Cord said through the phone.

“Hi,” Annie replied back meekly.

“How are you doing, sweetheart?”

“I’m okay.”

“I’m just going to jump in the shower and head on back to you-”

“No Cord-”

“I want to see you.”

“I’m okay. You need to work. I’ll be fine. Calista’s here with me.”

“Put Jake on. I’ll ask him to drive you to me-”

“No, please, I want to be alone right now.”

There was a long pause before Cord agreed.

“Okay. Can I see you later?” he asked, suddenly not sounding too sure of them and realized he was holding his breath for her answer.

“I’d like that.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later. Call me if you need anything.”

“Okay. See you later.” She said then hit the end key.

He found her sitting on the loveseat swing on the back porch, and watched her from the back doorway. The sun had begun to set and he found out from Calista that she hadn’t eaten anything all day. He could tell she had been crying.

Her feet were tucked under her. When she sensed he was there, she looked up and flew out of the swing and into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his waist.

Cord crushed her to him and planted little kisses on the top of her head. He felt her trembling and knew she was crying again.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he said.

She leaned back to look at him. “Oh, Cord, that poor thing. Who could do something like that? Why?”

“I don’t know, Annie.” He was truly at a loss. He couldn’t believe that Lisa did it like Jake said Ron suggested. But he also believed Ron didn’t do it. He wouldn’t have warned Annie a few minutes before the discovery.

Cord placed an arm behind her knees and picked her up. He walked her over to the swing and sat down with her in his lap and her head resting on his chest. They sat like that in companionable silence for a good half hour.

Jake and Jennie walked up the back steps.

“Hey, guys.” Jake said.

Jennie went to sit down next to Cord and Annie. “Annie, I’m so sorry,” she said.

“Thanks,” she replied.

“We’re going out to Luigi’s for some pizza. Why don’t you come along?” Jake asked them.

Cord leaned back to look at Annie. “Did you eat anything?” Even though he knew the answer.

“No.”

“Come on, let’s go feed you,” he said and to his relief, she said yes.

After dinner, Cord brought Annie to her room. He told her to undress and get in bed.

She went into the bathroom and came out a few moments later wearing his black T-shirt from the day before.

“I was wondering where that went.”

“I told you I wanted it.” She smiled up at him.

“Well, you look much better in it,” He liked that she was wearing his clothes.

“I beg to differ,” she said as she climbed into bed.

Cord started to unzip his pants.

“Cord, stop. We can’t do this. Joan-”

“Knows I’m staying. Just sleeping, Annie, I have too much respect for you, and Joan, and Jake and Calista for that matter, to do anything you didn’t want to do.”

“Thank you, but I really am feeling better now. It’s not necessary.”

He removed his jeans and sat on the bed. He sighed.

“I’m not okay. I need to hold you. I’m wrecked knowing that Lisa might have something to do with this.”

She nodded her head and said, “Okay.”

He took his shirt off leaving his briefs on. He shut the bedside lamp and crawled into bed with her. He reached for her and wrapped her in his arms.