Authors: Tara Brown
Chapter Five
Steve! Nope, still not scary!
I drove past mom mowing the grass and waved. It was like a field. She was all excited about the lawnmower she could ride on and drive like it was a racetrack, and not a yard at all.
I drove to the elementary school and parked down a block on the road. I grabbed my coffee and headed up the street to the park where I climbed into the fort on the playground and sat. It was overlooking the window I knew was hers. I didn’t know how long I had sat there or how long I'd done nothing but stare at the tree house, but when the lunch bell rang, I realized my butt was completely numb. I pushed myself to my knees and watched as the kids ran out into the schoolyard. My heart fluttered until I saw her. She looked like she was alone, no kids running and playing with her, until a blonde girl walked up. She pointed at the monkey bars. Jules nodded and followed her. I sighed with relief, she had made a friend.
"Hey, champ! You want some more caffeine to add to the unimaginable amount you already have in there?"
I smiled when I heard his voice and turned to see something that almost gave me heart failure. My jaw dropped and a noise came out, not a good noise. It made him smile wide and cheeky. Shit. "What are you wearing?"
He glanced up at the cowboy hat on his head, "What? This? We're in Montana, Evie. These small towns are just like the military—fit in or fuck off. You know, F.I.F.O. We talked about this, Evie."
I scowled, "For your information, I Googled that and it's a food safety acronym, not military. It means first in, first out." My eyes wandered down him like a lazy river. The dark cowboy hat and the blue eyes combined with the stubble and those lips, gahhhh. He looked like sex on a stick. Jesus, help me be strong!
He wore a white t-shirt that hugged his chest and arms, arms I wanted to bite. The belt buckle was the worst. I felt like a raven staring at the shiny object, entranced in its location and size. The tight jeans were too much. I snatched the coffee from his huge hand and looked back at my kid, praying I didn’t just orgasm from sexy-guy overload.
"What?"
I shook my head, "Why are you all local yokel?"
He nudged me, "Evie, believe it or not, my parents have a ranch. I've always been a cowboy. Montana was my choice. I love it here. Big skies, rolling hills, farms, and simple people who are kind and will always help a neighbor out. Besides, I'm the new owner of the tack shop. I am the cowboy riding expert."
I couldn’t fight the good fight and keep my eyes to myself. In my peripheral, I could see his arms and jeans and gahhhh belt buckle. Shit.
He started to laugh, "You are being so weird!"
I shook my head, "No, uhm just tired."
A lady crossed the street in front of the school and made her way into the gate for the park. She started laughing when she got closer, "Oh my goodness. I thought you all were some high schoolers."
I started to laugh and gave Coop a grin, "Not me."
He sighed at me but smiled at her. Even my heart melted when I saw his smile. She blushed instantly.
“Hi, I'm Jon Stapleford. We just moved here."
I climbed down off of the playhouse, dusting myself off and trying to get blood flowing back into my legs, "I'm Evelyn Rolland. This is my brother…"
Coop cut me off, "Her brother's friend. How are you?" That wasn’t the story. He was supposed to be my brother.
She ignored me completely and giggled like a forty-year-old schoolgirl, "I'm the librarian across the road, Ms. Daniels, but you can call me Sheila." She gave me a knowing look, "The high school kids skip out and come here and do things in the playhouse. The little kids see them… it's not good."
I cringed, "Yeah, we were spying on my daughter. She is just on the monkey bars with the blonde."
She glanced over, smiling, "Jules. Of course, sweet girl. Such a great athlete too. The gym teacher was telling everyone how amazing she is."
I beamed, thinking about the major lack of things to do here, "Yes. She is big on sports, always has been. She and her brother."
Sheila stared at Coop for a couple seconds longer and only backed away slowly when the bell rang, "Well, it was nice meeting y'all. Have a great day!"
I gave Coop a look, "Brother's friend?"
He grinned, "When you finally decide to let me have you, Evie, I don’t want anyone in this small town to think we're brother and sister." He chuckled at my flushed face, "Besides, I already have unhealthy thoughts about you. I don’t need to add weird fetishes to the list of bad thoughts I have." He winked and stalked off, leaving me stunned and speechless.
Shit. What did that even mean? He thought unhealthy thoughts about me? He was worse than a teenaged girl with his ups and downs. I was getting whiplash.
I left and stopped at the local coffee shop before I drove over to Jack and Luce's to see the store. I brought in the tray of coffees in that I'd gotten for us and sat them on the counter. The store was small but very cool and high tech. Luce beamed, "Hey! How's it going?"
I cocked an eyebrow, "Since the last time you were spying on me?"
She grabbed a coffee, "We're neighbors now. That is the polite way to greet someone."
I laughed, "I'm on my tenth cup of coffee today and doing great, Marcy. How are you?"
She wrinkled her nose, "Fucking hate the name Marcy."
I snorted. Jack walked in with a smile, as always, "At least your name isn't Vince. I sound like an idiot who wouldn’t know the first thing about computers." He took his coffee from the tray. It was the extra large. No one else drank that much coffee, not even me. That was saying something.
I passed Luce hers, "Have you seen Coop?"
She winked, "Whew! Those Wranglers never suited a human being more."
I scoffed, "That buckle is obscene."
Jack nodded at the back of the store, "He's in the back. He just got here. He can hear us."
I nodded, "Great." When he walked around the corner my face lit up. I shook my head, fighting my smile and nodded, "What's the orders from all the varying people in our lives?"
Jack smiled, "Well, the group, that shall not be named, is curious about the house fire. They are not excited about that. They think we need to cover tracks and stay here on the down low for a while. They think that whoever is trying to kill us will get more desperate and accidentally reveal themselves. They obviously think it's someone in CI or the CIA. They think that whoever James was working for put the hit out and it will get sloppier and sloppier as they cannot find us. Even the organization cannot find us."
Coop nodded, "Exactly what the commander is saying. He thinks we have a mole who was working with your ex. He and I agree that he was not smart enough to pull any of that off."
I gave Luce a look. She nodded, blushing slightly. "Dude, James was a moron."
"I know, but if he was the puppet, who could be pulling the strings? CI is a tight-knit group. They aren’t exactly trusting. Look at us, our assignments have all been need to know and only piece meal. They never give any one person all the answers, they give each person a chunk of an answer. They have hung us out to dry, repeatedly."
Jack nodded, "It's going to take some time to figure it all out—it, and the list. The list is an issue. We only have a short amount of time before we will be expected to start ending the people on it."
Coop cocked an eyebrow, "So weird the commander isn’t on it."
Jack shrugged, "He could just be like James. James wasn’t on it, but he clearly was someone's puppet."
I folded my arms, "The list isn’t important right now though, except Fitz. I wonder where he is?"
"He's on their team, not ours."
I glared at Jack, "He is on my team. He always has been on my team."
Jack put his hands in the air, "Calm, momma bear. I'm just saying that for right now, he is not on our side. We are our side. We are it."
Coop gave me a smug smile, "Just one big happy family."
I shook my head, "I hate you sometimes."
He nodded, "I know. The orders I have are to sit here, play house and keep an eye on the obvious and the obscure changes in the little town."
Luce sighed, "I miss civilization a little bit."
I nodded, "The coffee is piss. I've made my own from the shitty grocery store coffee. Mom made some, terrible. Coop, the cup you brought me sucked. These suck."
Jack pointed at me, "Not at the bakery. It's run by the Smith family, same owners for sixty years. I ran their credit score; statistically-speaking, business owners who are broke or close to it, use lesser-quality ingredients and take more short cuts due to stress and finances. Anyway, they don’t even have credit, they pay cash for everything. They have like one Visa that must be for emergencies or something."
I gave him a confused stare. He shrugged, "It all equals the same thing, old-lady baking and strong coffee."
I rolled my eyes as Luce grabbed his arm, "Come on, honey. I want me some old-lady baking."
Jack looked startled as she dragged him out of the store. I frowned, "I guess we'll watch the store."
Coop laughed, "They better bring me something yummy." He nudged me, "You ready for a workout later, speaking of getting lazy and fat."
I shoved him, "Screw you."
He nodded, slapping his hand on the firm wooden counter. "I do have a fantasy about being screwed in a computer store."
I shook my head, "Well, keep dreaming."
His eyes sparkled, "I will. I always imagined a young, geeky girl but older, tech-savvy lady with glasses works too."
I groaned, "Oh my God, you are a walking contradiction. One minute you want to have geek sex in a computer store, which by the way, I don’t even know what that is…" He opened his mouth but I put my hand up, "And I don’t want to know. And then you're all mean and calling me old and fat and lazy. Then you say," I changed my voice to sound like his, "Oh Evie, it's only a couple years difference, you aren’t that much older."
He laughed, "That’s not what I sound like."
I pointed, "You get my point. You are a head-gaming little bastard. Which is it, am I too old or not?" I realized too late what I'd just asked for.
He sauntered over in his tight pants and cowboy hat. He looked down on me, slipped the cowboy hat off and pressed his buckle into my abdomen, "My point is that I know what you housewives want in an affair, that whole Christian Grey act. You love it. The old ‘be mean to me and tell me what to do’ but really be conflicted about me and make it a chase. You ladies act like you want to be chased down, but let's be real, you like to choose the man you let be in control. But honestly, you like the chase more than we do."
I swallowed hard, looking up into his smug blue eyes.
His lip twitched a grin, "Why do you think you like Servario? He's the ultimate ungettable get, who bosses you around in the bedroom, and then vanishes so you can be in charge of your own life. You are always chasing him."
I had responses, I thought I did, but they weren’t coming out of my parted lips. I had a horrible feeling I was giving him my kiss-me eyes. He bent his face closer to mine, "You know the problem for me though? You make it too easy for me. I like the chase. I'm not like Servario. I don’t want you conflicted about me. I want you to admit you want me, as bad as you know I want you. We could have a fun time if you did, Evie."
Somewhere inside of me a magical thing happened, I mustered up some willpower. It wasn’t my vagina, that ho was already on board, and it wasn’t my brain because that was already closing the curtains and taking my shirt off. It was from somewhere else, maybe my heart, which imagined it might belong to Servario. It might also have been the fact he only wanted fun, and deep down I knew that would never be enough for me. Not with him. Either way, it was amazing. Just as he leaned in to close the deal, I slipped to the side, "Nice try, Skippy." I walked to the back of the store and leaned on the counter, doing my Kegels and taking deep breaths.
Shit.
I wasn't less confused about him and he wasn’t less of a contradiction.
Shit.
It was going to be a hard few months adjusting to Coop in cowboys hats and tight jeans, probably while doing workouts. Not to mention, watching him eat, smile, breathe, or exist.
Being back on the market made me uncomfortable. I was feeling super slutty. My hormones were raging. I needed Servario to satisfy my inner pervert and walk away again, but he was months away from that moment.
Jack and Luce came rushing in the back door. I scowled, "No pastries? No good coffee? Really? You left us here and brought back nothing?" I ignored the fact I sounded like a total bitch.
Jack's eyes were wide.
"What?"
He licked his lips and walked past me. Luce didn’t move but refused to meet my eyes.
"What's going on? Are the kids okay?"
Luce nodded, "They're fine. See." She pointed at a monitor and clicked something. The screen split. Jules was talking at a desk with two little girls and Mitch was listening to his headphones. A kid threw a paper ball at him. It bounced off of him but he didn’t move. The kid laughed and tossed another one but Mitch kept his face down. My insides clenched. I wanted to go to the school and kick the crap out of that kid. Where was his teacher?