Cowboy's Barmaid: A Small Town Military Romance (Lucky Flats Ranchers Book 2) Read online

  “Of course, she’s beautiful.”

  “Do you mean hot like you want to jump her bones, or beautiful like a pageant-woman hot?”

  I held the back door open and helped her inside. “Mason please stop your wife from torturing me.”

  “Isn’t that one of the perks of being a kid sister?” He strolled into the kitchen and kissed his wife before herding her to a chair with a thick pillow on the seat. “Don’t move until I tell you to.”

  She smiled up at him. “I’ll have some ice water please.”

  I laughed at the perplexed look on Mason’s face, but he jumped into action to grant her wish. “I’ll have one too,” I told him, barely containing my mirth.

  “Get your own, unless,” he turned quickly and shot me a quizzical look. “Are you pregnant with my baby too?”

  “Aw, honey you don’t remember?” I patted my flat stomach, still Ranger ready, and pouted.

  “You two are ridiculous,” Sage declared and held her hands out for her glass. “Sierra isn’t here yet?”

  “Nope. She’s running late, said to start without her.” Mason called for the rest of the family and took a seat beside Sage. “She said don’t even think of holding dinner for her.”

  “Fine. Let’s eat. I’ll go grab Mitch.”

  “Don’t you worry about a thing, I’ve got the cutest grandson in the world,” Mason’s mama, Tammy said as she walked in, Lily and Tanner following behind her. “Hey Jack. I heard there are two offers on the old Carmichael place.”

  I’d heard the same because nothing ever stayed a secret for long in Lucky Flats. “Molly asked me to meet her tomorrow morning, so I’ll know more then.” I hoped the seller didn’t try to jack up the price. A new ranch has a lot of overhead. I didn’t want to think about all the expenses so I turned back to the table. “Tanner aren’t you leaving soon?”

  “Yeah. In a few days. Need to get settled for a couple days before the Halloween weekend in Louisiana.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Hopefully I can find some type of Mardi Gras trouble to get up to.”

  Tammy laughed and swatted in his direction. “You should try to get up to making me some grandbabies trouble.”

  Me and Sage tried to hide our guffaws. But Mason’s shoulders shook and he covered his eyes, unable to control the laughter.

  “You already have two fully formed grandchildren and another one baking in the oven woman, what more do you want?” Tanner stared at her, a look of confusion on his face.

  Tammy looked at him and held Mitch up. “More grandbabies. Do I need to spell it out for you, or maybe you want a drawing?”

  “Ugh Ma, stop it. Please.” He pretended to gag, making Sage and Lily laugh. “No more talk of grandbabies or sex, please.”

  “What’s sex,” Lily asked, pulling a satisfied laugh from Tanner.

  The door opened and shut in the front, sending the room into a quieter murmur, though not quite quiet. Boot heels sounded on the scuffed wooden floors and before she appeared, I knew who it would be. Because even her fucking walk was sexy.

  “Sage Winchester-Manning I hope you’re in labor girl, because as soon as that baby is out of you I’m gonna kill you!”

  Sage snickered. “I guess that means your costume was delivered?”

  “You sneaky little scoundrel, I swear I will find a way to make you pay for this.” Sierra flashed that sultry smile that could drop a man to his knees at two hundred paces. “Good evening y’all. Hope you saved some for me.” She spotted me and went still, darkening her gaze and spreading her smile. “Jack,” she said and winked at me before dropping a kiss on everyone else at the table. “Good to see you again,” she whispered when she’d done her rounds, voice husky and low.

  Like a shot of whiskey.

  Straight to my cock.

  Sierra

  I puzzled over why Molly Brown asked to see me as I sat in her office, staring out the small window that overlooked a bush with a few closed-up roses. She asked me to show up at nine in the morning.

  Nine o’clock, when I was the bar until one, and I didn’t make it to bed until three thanks to a group of rowdy ranch hands puking on one of the pool tables. And now I sat waiting for her to show up. For the meeting that she called. But I had hope that she had good news for me.

  She’d better.

  Fifteen minutes after nine Molly waltzed in wearing a candy apple red suit with heels no Texas woman from the back country would be caught dead in, and she made them work with a capital W.

  “Hi Sierra. We’re just waiting on the other interested buyer, and then we can get started.” She flashed a bright red smile and dropped down in her leather office chair.

  “Can I get a hint?” I didn’t give a damn about another interested buyer, I wanted my land.

  “It’s better if we wait.” She gave me that small professional smile that sent chills down my spine. I wasn’t getting my land back.

  “I’d rather you just tell me that you’re going with the other buyer so I could go home and get some sleep.”

  “Patience, Sierra.”

  I rolled my eyes at her and focused on the shrub just over her shoulder. Finally, the door opened again to reveal the last person I expected to see. Jack Winchester.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I have an appointment with Molly,” he told me with a confused frown.

  “So do I.” Realization sank in a moment later. “Oh, no. What the hell is going on?”

  We both turned angry stares on Molly. She invited Jack to sit, completely unaffected by the anger simmering off both of us. “This place was on the market for a while, and then out of the blue it’s gotten two offers. The seller is now thinking maybe they can get more. I’ve tried to convince them that this was just a fluke, but they want to up the price by another fifty grand.”

  “Fifty grand? Do they need to sell the place to buy more of the crack they’re obviously smoking?” Because that’s the only way I could see how they could justify raising the price like that.

  “What about a counter offer,” Jack asked, his blue gaze intense and total business.

  “That’s why I called you both in. Sage, you told me that you were thinking about turning the place back into a ranch. But you don’t have the time to run it yourself, and you haven’t found a ranch manager yet.”

  “I have a lot to figure out, Molly. But that’s not really your business, or the seller’s.” I crossed my arms to stop myself from reaching across the small pine desk and choking the hell out of the impeccably dressed realtor.

  “Right,” she sent an apologetic grin my way and pushed on. “Jack this will give you more of a cushion for your operating costs.”

  He looked just as confused as I felt. And madder than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

  “What will?” His words held more bite than he normally used on anyone but me or Sage. Molly sat up tall, and folded her arms in a move I was sure she practiced in front of a mirror.

  “You two can purchase the land together and split the costs, the chores and the profits!” Leaning back in her chair with a proud smile fixed on her face, she waited for her pat on the back.

  I wanted to pat her, all right. On the nose. With my fist. “You want us to buy the ranch together?”

  “Yes?”

  Right. “And what made you think this was a good idea?”

  “Well honestly Sierra, I thought that since you and Jack are practically family, you both would rather compromise than see the ranch go to someone else. Or remain vacant.”

  Damn her for being so good at her job. I didn’t love that she made a good point, but I could concede the point. In my mind.

  “I need to think about it,” I told her. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to share the property with him, but it might kill me if I didn’t get over this stupid crush on him.

  Jack stood, a furious expression on his face. “Think all you want, but my answer is no! I don’t want to work for someone else, and I don’t want to be par
tners either.”

  Wow. I nodded as his words sank in, each syllable cutting into my flesh like shattered glass. Why I let his words hurt me as much as it did, I couldn’t say, but it’s something I needed to work on.

  “Great. Molly send a counter offer with an increase of fifteen thousand. I’ll just have a small herb and vegetable garden instead of making it a working ranch again.” I just wanted my home back. The ranch was a dream for another day.

  “Are you kidding me?” he roared the question at me. “You can’t possibly mean to let all that land go to waste!”

  “If it means I get the property, then yes.” I stood and got in his face. “What do you care, anyway? Outbid me or get the hell out of my face, Winchester!”

  Jack let out a grunt that was equal parts anger and raw hunger, at least that’s what I heard when I laid eyes on all that uncoiled intensity. “Molly can you give us a minute to talk please?”

  “Sure. Holler when y’all need me!” She strolled out, her ridiculous heels clacking loudly on the floor.

  As soon the door clicked shut behind her he turned to me. “You really want this place?”

  “I do. Jack, it’s my home, and I don’t need to have a working ranch to have the land. I’m fine with that. Are you?” I could tell by his demeanor he wasn’t fine with it at all, but I crossed my arms and waited, ignoring how hot, sexy and downright alpha he looked glaring down at me.

  “You don’t have time for a ranch.”

  “Since I won’t have a ranch, it won’t be a problem.”

  “I don’t want a partner,” he insisted, raking a big calloused hand through his cropped hair.

  “You said that already, and I believe I rescinded that offer.” He was just getting started, so I settled in my seat and waited for the show.

  “It would be a disaster.” He said it more to convince himself than me, I think. “You don’t want to share land with me.”

  I didn’t know if I wanted to share the land with him either. It was hard to tell, because I liked Jack. Even aside from the stupid, ill-advised crush, I liked him. Partnering with Jack would allow me to have just about everything I wanted for my future. But then again, I’d be sharing living space with the man who fueled all of my sexual fantasies since I was a girl, and had a starring role during vibrator time. And I went through plenty of batteries thinking about Jack Winchester. His fit body, deep blue eyes, the graceful efficient way he moved, and that lazy grin that made a girl want to make every last one of his wicked commands come true. But still…

  “I don’t?”

  “Do you?”

  “Depends,” I shrugged. “Where would you live?”

  “Since I’m not the fucking help, I’d stay in the main house.”

  “Then I guess I’m open to talking about it. I guess.”

  “Well don’t do me any damn favors Sierra.”

  I smiled at his fiery temper. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Jackie.”

  “Don’t call me Jackie,” he admonished with a scowl that only made me laugh. He stood and began to pace. I could see the gears turning in his head, spinning something fierce, and it was a beautiful sight. Long jean-clad legs that bunched and flexed with every stride, his tight round ass formed a perfect question mark with every step. Made my belly clench low and deep. Yeah, living with Jack might blow out my budget on batteries.

  “She’s right, you know. As loathsome as you might find it to share the place with me, it’s the ideal solution for each of us.”

  He didn’t like it, not at all. He wanted that land for himself at the original asking price, and the seller had thrown a wrench in his plans. “Why do you even want this with me?”

  “I don’t want it with you Jack. But I don’t want to lose it either. And like I said, it works for both of us. But it’s up to you.” I stood and gave him a long intense stare because I had a feeling that no matter what happened with that piece of land, things were about to change.

  He looked like a world of trouble and I already knew it would hurt so good.

  ***

  Halloween was just over a week away, and instead of lying in bed wrapped around a big strong muscled male body, I was putting paper lanterns up all over the M&M Ranch. With the only person who could get me to give up hours of beauty rest to help her out.

  “Was it necessary to have four different lanterns?”

  Sage bobbed her head up and down. “Yes. Some areas will have less light for romance or ambience, and others will be well lit for food, conversation and all that crap.” A laugh bubbled out of her as she popped out another lantern and slid it across the table. “That’s the last one,” she told me, but I heard what she didn’t say.

  The lanterns were done, but there was more work ahead. We left the lanterns on the table inside the barn and headed outside towards the table being attacked by a million pumpkins. I groaned.

  “Pumpkin carving?”

  “It’ll be fun, you can even make some very dark and scary like I know you’re dying to!”

  The problem with having a best friend who has known you all your life was, they knew you well. “Fine, but I want it noted that I’m doing this in protest.”

  “Noted,” she told me as we sat down in front of two medium-sized pumpkins. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay living with Jack?”

  Absolutely not. “Yep. We’ve already decided that he’ll take one side of the main house and I’ll take the other.” At least that was our tentative agreement until we were able to do a more thorough inspection once we received the keys.

  “I know that honey, but this is Jack. The guy you have, for some reason, had a burning in your loins for since you first discovered you had loins. Sorry to tell you this, but it took me and Mason about five minutes to start knockin’ boots once we started living together.”

  I groaned at her lewd gestures and suggestive eyebrow wiggling, dropping my head in my hands. “We will not be knocking boots Sage. Jack looks at me and you know what he sees? Another little sister. I’m working on getting over my thing for him as we speak.” And it was actually starting to work. As long as I didn’t see him. Smell him or spend any time around him.

  “Oh,” she nodded in slow exaggeration, “is that what’s happening? Because it looks to me like denial.”

  I ignored that, shaking out pumpkin guts a little harder than I needed to in an effort to get the frustration out of me. I couldn’t think about Jack and his deep ocean blue eyes, or his strong arms that couldn’t be contained by any t-shirt known to man. Instead I thought of something unpleasant.

  “How close are we to being done with decorations?”

  “The pumpkins are it. I’ve recruited Jack and Tanner to add cobwebs and ghosts and all the scary stuff. I’ll show you the kids room when we’re done out here, it’s great. Super scary.” Sage had decided to make it a community wide party which meant everyone would show up, with their kids, and the party would last all night.

  Great. “And the booze?” Because if I had to endure the busybodies in town asking when I’d find a nice young fella to settle down with, I would need copious amounts of alcohol. Since the bar would close early on Halloween I would be able to have a few beers without worrying about counting the register with a fuzzy brain.

  “I placed the order in Houston so I’ll need you to pick it up because I can barely fit behind the wheel these days,” she said giving her belly a loving rub.

  “That’s fine, since I’ll need to go get a poncho to cover me up from the ridiculous costume you bought for me.” I glared, but Sage was completely unaffected.

  “You’re gonna look hot in it and you know it.”

  “I might, but only because I’ll get to see you in your costume.”

  Deep chocolate brows furrowed in confusion that quickly morphed into wariness. “But I don’t have one yet.”

  “You didn’t think I’d let my pregnant best friend go without a costume for her own party, did you?” I should have felt bad for the mischief, for enjoying her d
iscomfort as much as I did, but if I sewed my whole costume together it wouldn’t be bigger than the bandana Jack had tucked in his back pocket when he worked the farm.

  “Um, no?”

  “Of course not. It’ll arrive today or tomorrow, and you’ll love it. I swear.”

  Her face turned a hilarious shade of pink. “Fair is fair, I suppose. I just hope it doesn’t make me cry.”

  “Ha! I’m not falling for that Sage, you’ll love it and you’ll look great in it. End of.” She would love it and I wished I could see her face when she pulled it from the box.

  Sage looked at me again with that soft, sympathetic look on her face and I groaned. “Are you really certain that living with Jack is safe?”

  I barked out a laugh. “Yes, I am. If he saw me as something more than the sexless friend of his little sister, then something would have happened already. So trust me, I’m completely safe.” As much as I wished it were different, each day I told myself the truth. One day soon it would sink in.

  “Yeah but Jack is pretty great. Living with him will be difficult, and what about when he brings women home?”

  “Opposite side of the house Sage. What he does is his business and vice versa.” I knew it would happen, and I just hoped that I was well and truly over him by the time that happened.

  “I have a feeling things are about to get really interesting,” she rubbed her hands together, full of glee and mischief.

  Worst of all, I had a feeling Sage was absolutely right.

  Jack

  “Are you upset we’ll have to share the west wing of the main house?” I knew Sierra would say she wasn’t upset, but I’d seen the look of abject horror on her face when she realized the east wing was, at least temporarily, uninhabitable. I just didn’t understand why it was such a big deal.

  “It’s fine Jack. It’s not like it’s the first time we’ve lived together and shared a bathroom.”

  Her words sounded good, but she kept her gaze trained out the SUV window, on the flat ranch land we passed on our way out of Lucky Flats. Her shoulders, her whole posture was defensive.