Sam stared at his partner. “Are you really going to eat that?”
“Every bite,” he swore. “Maybe you’ve had enough people who gave a shit about you in your life, but I haven’t. She made this herself, and I’ll be damned if I don’t eat it, despite the fact that Canadian bacon is far inferior to honest-to-goodness American bacon. You’re going to eat it, too. It might hurt her feelings if you don’t.”
“Fine.” Sam tried the melon. “At least I have dinner to look forward to. Promise me she won’t get up from our table at the steak house and take over the kitchens to make us something healthy.”
“I promise nothing. That woman is a force of nature.”
Sam nodded. “That was smart of you to set up a fun night for her mom.”
“It’s all about breaking down the stop signs she’s going to put up.” He was a firm believer in plowing through obstacles. He never tried to go around something when he could smash through. “She wants us. She’s a little scared. We need to treat her like a fractious mare.”
Sam’s eyes lit up with mirth. “Yeah, I get what you’re saying. We need to sneak up on her real quiet-like, and then, when she’s calm and stuff, we jump her, force a saddle on her, and ride that baby until she can’t imagine a time we weren’t on top of her.”
“Exactly,” Jack agreed as his phone rang. He pulled it out and checked the number. It was familiar so he answered. “Hello, Christa, how are you doing this morning? Are you checking to make sure Abby got to work? I assure you she is one hundred percent here and giving us both hell. Whoa…what do you mean? They wrote what? Tell Mike not to have it towed yet. I want to see it for myself. We’ll be there in half an hour.”
“Eat fast, Sam.”
“What’s up?” Sam took a drink of coffee.
“Looks like someone in this town doesn’t see how sweet our Abigail is,” Jack said in a low growl that let everyone who heard it know there was going to be trouble.
Chapter Nine
“I love you,” Abby said into the phone.
“I love you, too, Mom,” her daughter replied. “I just worry about you being in that town. I hope you’re finding something to do there.”
Abby felt herself blush. “Absolutely, baby. I’m finding plenty to keep me busy. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
When she likely wouldn’t tell her precious baby girl what she was really doing in Willow Fork. Jack and Sam. Yep. She’d been doing two hot cowboys, and she would very likely do them both again tonight if all went well.
She hung up with her daughter and went back to looking at herself in the mirror, trying to get her makeup just right.
“You look beautiful, Abigail,” a soft voice said behind her. “But then, you always were. Even as a child, I knew you would be a beautiful woman someday.”
Abby turned from the slightly warped mirror in the tiny bathroom and smiled at her mother. The trailer was small, and there was only the one bathroom. Her mother leaned against the doorway. “You look like you’re feeling better.”
Diane Moore was a handsome sixty-year-old woman. Her hair was the same auburn color as Abigail’s, though she’d stopped dealing with grays years before and now they had mostly taken over. She was dressed in a charcoal gray pantsuit that was slightly too big for her. Diane had joked that falling off the porch and breaking her hip had done wonders for her figure.
“I’ve had a very good therapist.” Her mom winked at her. Abby had taken her to and from the rehab facility and diligently made sure she did every exercise.
“You look pretty yourself, Mama.” Abby gave her a careful hug.
She patted her graying hair. “Well, Abigail, you never know who you might meet playing bingo.” Her mother crossed her arms and suddenly looked serious. “Are those old biddies leaving you alone?”
She didn’t want to think about them tonight. “Don’t worry about it. I can handle them.”
“You shouldn’t have to. I should have taken care of it back then.” Her mother looked so sad that Abby turned and reached out to her. “I should never have let you leave.”
“I didn’t give you a choice. You know I couldn’t stay. There were too many bad memories. You would have lost your job and your pension for nothing.”
“How dare that Ruby Echols think you weren’t good enough for her son? I’m glad she didn’t have anything to do with raising Lexi.”
Thinking of her daughter made her smile. If there was one thing she didn’t regret it was raising Lexi outside of Willow Fork. She’d thrived in Fort Worth and she would conquer Austin. Her baby could be anything she wanted to be. “I am, too. Now stop talking about people who don’t matter. I have a date tonight.”
“Are the boys picking you up in that tank of Jack’s?” her mom asked as she turned back to the mirror and applied some gloss to her lips.
Abby winced. Jack’s truck was already in the shop. Sam had picked her up from work earlier in the afternoon. He’d used their time alone together to get her all hot and bothered again with an impromptu make-out session.
“I think we’ll have to use Sam’s Jeep. I kind of put a dent in the truck.” Her mother frowned, and Abby suddenly felt like a teen again. She crossed her arms defensively over her chest. “I had to get to work. He can’t blame me. Well, he did, but let me tell you that man’s bark is way worse than his bite. Underneath that rough exterior, he’s a big old teddy bear.”
“I doubt that seriously.” Her mom sounded incredulous. “Oh, he might be around you, but make no mistake that Jack Barnes is one dangerous man. He grew up real rough.”
Abby turned around, lip-gloss suddenly way less interesting than what her mother was saying. “I know his mom died when he was young.”
Christa had told her that much, but she hadn’t known a whole lot more about Jack’s history.
“I don’t know the whole story. Jack doesn’t talk about it, but I know no one claimed him after his mom died. He grew up in foster care, and that’s where he met Sam. The first time I met Jack I thought maybe it had damaged him, you know. Sometimes when a person doesn’t get enough love as a child they become cold and distant. Jack seemed to be that way.”
“He isn’t.” Abby leaned forward. She wanted her mother to believe. Jack was anything but cold. Even when he tried to keep his distance, he’d been caring. He’d been unsure and scared, she realized now. He hadn’t wanted to get close until he had been sure she wouldn’t reject him out of hand.
“Everyone knows that.” Her mother patted her hand. “But don’t make the mistake of thinking because he’s gentle with you that he can’t take care of himself. When those boys first bought that ranch, there were people in town who treated them badly. Their lifestyle was odd, to say the least. It didn’t seem to bother Jack, but it made Sam upset when people treated him like dirt. Do you remember Frank’s?”
Abby nodded. “I sure do. It used to be the only bar in town. I remember they had some strict rules. No liquor could be served after midnight, even on a Saturday, and there was no dancing and no loud music.”
The town had restrictions, and though Frank’s was a private club, it had to follow the rules.
“They refused Sam a membership,” her mom said. “The only place in town where he could get a beer and they wouldn’t let him in the front door because Frank Webb thought he was gay.”
“Asshole.” Sam was so social. It would bother him to be closed out. “I’m glad they went out of business. What a jerk.”
Her mother’s face was practically gleeful. “They went out of business exactly six months after they told Sam he wasn’t welcome. Two weeks after they tossed Sam out on his butt, The Barn opened up. It was on some land in an unincorporated part of the county, so the rules didn’t apply. Is it so surprising that everyone in town flocked to a place where they could drink and dance and listen to whatever music they wanted, however loud they wanted it?”
“That was a very happy coincidence.” She should check out the honky-tonk. It sounded like fun. Christ
a and Mike were regulars. She bet Sam could dance. Conversely, she would probably have to coax Jack to take a turn on the floor with her. It would be worth it to have those big arms around her as they swayed to the music.
“Coincidence? Whose land do you think it was on, baby girl? Jack Barnes called some friends of his, and he gave them the seed money and the land to open the place on. He crushed Frank Webb. I’m telling you this not because I think you should be wary of the man. I want you to understand that he takes care of his own.”
A hundred questions popped through Abby’s mind. “It makes you wonder. How does a boy with no family and no connections end up with a huge spread? How much do you think he and Sam spent on the ranch?”
“All I know is sometime between turning eighteen and being basically homeless after he aged out of the group home he lived in, and when he and Sam started Barnes-Fleetwood five years later, they came up with roughly five million dollars. I heard Bernard, the city treasurer, talking about it, and that’s what he figured it cost to start up their business. I doubt they earned it flipping burgers.” There was a knock on the door. Her mom leaned over and kissed her cheek. “That’s my ride now. You have a good time tonight, Abigail. You let those boys take care of you. I won’t wait up, honey.”
“Okay, Mama. Have fun.” She watched her mother disappear down the narrow hall. As she finished getting ready for her date, her mind whirled with the possibilities of the night to come.
* * * *
Jack’s jaw dropped when Abby opened the creaky door to her mama’s run-down single-wide. Nothing that gorgeous should have been in a sad trailer. She deserved to be walking down a grand staircase, making an entrance worthy of a princess.
“Damn, you’re going to give every man in the county a heart attack.” A low whistle came out of Sam’s mouth.
“Do you like?” She twirled so they got a good view.
Jack took in the sight of her in an emerald green dress that clung to her delicious curves and showed off her creamy, ivory skin. Her auburn hair hung past her shoulders in soft curls that made him want to thrust his fingers in and feel the silky softness of the locks. He loved the fact that she had curves. It made her soft and feminine, and it took his breath away that such a lovely creature wanted him. And there was no doubt in his mind that she wanted him. It was there in her hazel eyes as she looked at him. He had to take a deep breath.
Dear god, he was really, deeply in love for the first time in his life. It was amazing and scary and made his gut twist in a knot at the thought of losing her.
When he and Sam had talked about finding a woman to marry, he’d thought Sam would fall in love and he’d go along for the ride. He would need to like the woman, of course, and he had intended to be good friends with her, but he hadn’t expected for his heart to seize every time she smiled at him or his knees to feel weak when she took his hand. He even liked it when she gave him hell. He wondered for the first time what she would look like in a wedding dress.
“Hey,” she said softly, looking up at him with gentle eyes as she smoothed down the fabric of his dress shirt. “What’s wrong, Jack?”
He pulled her close and breathed in the sweet scent of her hair. She always smelled like peaches. He’d started to crave the fruit.
“Nothing’s wrong.” He wasn’t lying. Everything was perfect.
Sam came around the other side, and he hugged her from the back. Abigail sighed and leaned against him, obviously loving the way they surrounded her. Sam looked over her shoulder solemnly at Jack. Sam knew. He’d known all along that this woman was theirs.
“You look stunning.” Sam laid a gentle kiss on her shoulder.
“There won’t be a man in town tonight that will be able to keep his eyes off you.” Jack frowned at the thought. She looked really amazing. There was no question Abigail was the most beautiful woman this town had probably ever seen. She was sexy as hell, and her sophisticated dress bespoke years of big city living. “Maybe you should put on a sweater.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Not on your life. I will not cover up this work of art with a staid, old sweater. I assure you, the people around here have seen a cocktail dress before.”
“Not the way you fill it out, they haven’t.” He was already thinking about how he was going to handle covetous eyes. He would stare them all down. He could handle it if all they did was look, but the first hand that touched was likely to get ripped off.
Even in heels, she had to go up on her toes to press her lips against his.
“You like the way I fill it out?” The question was husky and did all sorts of things to his cock.
“I love the way you fill out everything, darlin’.” All of his previous thoughts were lost in that haze of lust that seemed to follow Abigail around. He let his hands roam the curve of her hips as he deepened the kiss, tasting the mint of her mouth and groaning as her tongue reached out to his.
“Hey, I want in on that action, baby.” All too soon, Sam was turning her head toward him and taking her mouth with his own.
Jack didn’t feel a surge of jealousy as Sam’s mouth slanted over Abigail’s. Watching his best friend with their woman just made Jack hot. He let his hands find her amazing breasts, slipping his palm up and cupping them through the green satin of her dress, satisfied with the way the nipples pebbled for him. All he had to do was push the bodice down and he could have them in his mouth. If he pushed the dress up, he could go down on his knees and taste her sweet pussy. He liked the dress even more. She should wear dresses more often. They were awfully convenient.
“Hey, someone said something about feeding me.” She pulled away from Sam, her tone light and teasing. “This is our first official date, misters. I will not have it be said that I’m easy.”
Sam grinned down at her. “You might not be easy, baby, but I assure you I am hard.”
Abigail kissed him affectionately on the cheek as she righted her dress and grabbed her purse. “You’re always hard. I’m coming to rely on the fact.” She grabbed Jack’s tie and smoothed it down. “You look too good tonight to stay in. You’re not distracting me. I want my night out.”
“Whoa, there!” Sam struck a pose. “I would like to point out that I am the good-looking one in this partnership. And the charming one.”
“And the sarcastic one,” she finished for him as she opened the door. “And Jack is the dark, sexy, broody one who steals women’s panties.”
“Just yours.” He didn’t want her to think he routinely engaged in panty theft. It was something special he did just for her.
“Well, I found a way around your tendencies toward absconding with my underthings. I’m not wearing any.” With that and a happy laugh, she ran toward the Jeep.
Sam immediately ran after her, asking if she was serious, and Jack stood there with a smile on his face. His best friend in the world was chasing their future wife around a tree, swearing he was going to get his hand up her skirt to see if she was lying. All the warmth in the world waited for him. All he had to do was step out the door and he could be a part of it.
He hesitated. All the warmth was out there, but there was risk involved. It wasn’t simply that Abby could leave them or change her mind or fall in love with someone else.
She could die. It happened all the time. His own mother had died when he was six years old, leaving him all alone in the world. Sam’s parents had died. Abigail’s husband had passed on. It was inevitable that he would have to deal with it. Abby would die someday and so would Sam. Jack didn’t know how he would ever be able to recover if that happened, but what choice did he have? The way he looked at it, he could take the risk or walk away.
Jack walked through the door. In the end, there was no choice at all to be made. He loved them. That was what mattered.
“Leave Abby alone, Sam,” Jack commanded as he made sure the door was locked. “We’ll find out soon enough what’s under that dress. I promise. Let’s feed her because she’ll need the energy.”
&nbs
p; * * * *
Abby shivered, even in the warm interior of the car. Sam kissed her throat and moved up to her ear. They were cuddled up in the back of the Jeep while Jack drove. Sam was taking advantage of his “alone time,” as he called it, to make out while they made the hour-long drive to town. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to last for sixty minutes of Sam’s exquisite torture while they drove into Tyler. They had only been driving for ten minutes and she was ready to push him down and jump on top of him.
It would ruin her dress, though. She didn’t want to walk around in a dress that was obviously wrinkled from use.
“Hey, you two, hop out and let them know we’re here,” Jack ordered from the front seat as the Jeep rolled to a stop.
She was aware that he’d watched them through the rearview mirror, and she’d caught him smiling at her. The car was stopped in front of an austere-looking building she knew only too well.
Sam was already opening the car door and getting out before she’d fully processed what was happening.
“Delbert’s?”
She was a little dazed at the prospect. Delbert’s Steak House was one of two nice restaurants in Willow Fork, though The Treasure Cove hadn’t been around as long. Delbert’s was the place for the wealthy people in town to be seen and the poor people to aspire to go. It was exactly the type of place she meant to avoid.
“Yes, it’s the nicest place in town.” There was a satisfied look on Jack’s face. “Nothing but the best for you.”
He looked so happy with himself and earnest that she found herself letting Sam ease her out of the car. Sam gave Jack a salute to let him know he would follow orders, and the Jeep pulled off to go around the building to park.
“Come on, sweetheart.” Sam took her hand to lead her into the building. “We’re a couple of minutes early. Let’s get you warm and we can wait for Jack in the bar.”
She stopped under the elegant green awning. It was lit with pretty twinkle lights. “I thought we were going into Tyler. You said we were going into town.”