Just Shoot Me (Cowboy Way, #1) (2 page)

“
Tomorrow?”

“
I thought you didn’t have anyone
in mind?”

Tina heaved another heavy sigh. “I have two
maybes. I’d like to do some test shots. I’m probably spinning my
wheels, but you never know how they’ll look once I slap a cowboy
hat and jeans on them.”

“
I’ll help you cowboy them up,”
Hope assured her. “Don’t worry, T—we’ll work it out.”

Her friend had a helluva lot more confidence
in that than she did. “Whatever you say.” Slapping a hat and boots
on a man did not make him a cowboy. Both she and Hope knew that.
Not the ideal cowboy to represent Texas Tomcat anyway.

“
Keep your chin up, and get your
ass out here tomorrow. Stay the weekend. I need some girl time.
There’s too much testosterone around here.”

“
I need to work this weekend,” Tina
replied flatly. Working was the last thing she needed, but it was
what she had to do if she had any hope of getting this stuff
together for her status meeting with her boss on
Tuesday.

“
It’ll be there on Monday, I
promise. And you sound awful. Stressing about it isn’t going to get
you anywhere. Trust me, I know that firsthand.”

“
Brittany Weston still on your two
yard line?” Tina asked, knowing that was the source of Hope’s
stress. Being sued for five million dollars would up anyone’s
pucker factor. Having the fact broadcast in every paper in the city
multiplied that tenfold.

“
No she’s at the goal line with
inches to go.” Hope huffed out a frustrated breath and Tina wanted
to do the same. Her friend probably could use someone to talk to as
much as Tina could right now. But she also promised to babysit her
niece this weekend. Lori was going away for the weekend again. Her
sister needed to stay home for a change to give Tina a break. And
if she ever saw Lori, maybe she would tell her that.

“
I have to keep Laney this weekend.
I’ll come out tomorrow for the shoot to make sure the models don’t
turn into divas, but I have to come back to Dallas tomorrow
night.”

“
Bring Laney with you. She can play
with my nephew Jeremy,” Hope suggested. “And bring your work, I’ll
help you. No excuses,” she said firmly.

A weekend in the country did sound good. Even
though she wasn’t a country girl, hadn’t ever spent much time out
there, the slower pace would probably do both her and Laney some
good. That kid needed a break. Her mother was going to drive both
of them crazy before long. Tina gnawed her lip, glanced at the
stack of envelopes and then said quickly, “Okay, I could use a
second set of eyes. I’ve looked at so many photographs, I’m
probably not seeing them anymore.”

Maybe being away from the office would give
her a clearer perspective on her vision for Texas Tomcat. And Tina
also hoped in the quiet of the country, she could decide what she
was going to do to help Laney. Lori needed to get her head screwed
on straight, and it was time for Tina to have a serious talk with
her about doing that.

“
Good, I’ll let Cord know you’re
coming. He’ll be excited to finally meet you.”

***

“
Hope is pregnant,” Cord said
happily, looking down at his wife, the perky redhead sitting beside
him who looked at him like the sun rose and set in his eyes. His
brother’s voice echoed through the living room of his mother’s
house, broken only by the crackling of the logs burning in the
fireplace and his mother’s excited gasp. The words ping-ponged
around in Dean’s skull to mold the shock inside of him into a tight
band around his brain.

Hope. His brother’s wife. He wasn’t supposed
to covet her, but he did. She was the kind of woman he needed for
himself. A woman who cared more about other people than she cared
about herself. Someone unlike the woman he had married. The woman
who had given him a son then left him in the dust on her way to
town to meet her lover.

His brother Cord, the man Dean thought was a
flighty, irresponsible tumbleweed, was not only a husband now, he
was going to be a father. In the space of five months, his brother
had become the responsible one of the two of them. Of course his
brother always found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Hope was that pot of gold, and Dean was jealous.

Dean’s claim to fame was being a single
father, who had a failed marriage behind him, and a motherless son,
who may not even be his son, that needed more of him than he had to
give. And now he was playing second fiddle to his brother on a
ranch where he’d invested every ounce of his blood, sweat and tears
his entire life. More so the last three years, while his brother
had been off finding his fame and fortune. Dean was starting to
think that Cord had a horseshoe up his ass, he was so damned lucky.
Not only had he been a famous model making fistfuls of cash in
Dallas, he had been a successful rodeo bull rider before
that.

And while he was off getting famous, Dean had
stayed here keeping the home fires burning, trying to keep them all
fed, and worrying about their daddy. It just wasn’t right now that
he was back, their parents seemed to think the second coming had
happened.

“
When’s the baby due?” Barb Dixon
asked with excitement.

Hope’s green eyes lit up and she leaned
forward. “The doctor says I’m due in August.”

Dean’s eyes fell to Hope’s stomach which was
concealed beneath the baggy sweater she wore. He could just see a
small mound there. Four and a half months pregnant. In four and a
half more she would be the mother of his brother’s child. He’d bet
Hope Car—Dixon wouldn’t be leaving her child to go meet a lover
she’d kept since before she married his brother. Jealousy hit Dean
in the center of his chest and he couldn’t catch a
breath.

Dean shoved up to his feet, because he needed
to get out of there. “I need to check on the mare,” he said. The
pregnant mare who was due to deliver any minute. It was as good an
excuse as any to leave, even though he knew his daddy checked her
not long ago.

“
That can wait, son," Silas Dixon
said with a reprimand in his tone. "She was fine when I checked on
her an hour ago.”

The warning tone fell on deaf ears. Dean knew
if he didn’t get out of there he was going to say something shitty
and ruin his brother’s moment. Then his daddy would really be on
his ass. And he didn’t want to hurt Hope. She didn’t deserve his
anger, even though his brother more than deserved it. “I’ll be back
in a few minutes—congratulations," he mumbled to no one in
particular as he hustled through the room toward the front
door.

Dean's chest finally loosened when he stepped
out on the porch. He breathed in a deep lungful of the crisp night
air. He didn’t wait to see if anyone followed, he strode across the
porch and down the steps. Halfway to the barn though, Cord called
his name from the front porch. Dean didn’t stop. He kept a steady
pace toward the barn and his eyes on the light shining there. He
hoped his damned brother would take a hint and leave him the hell
alone. But his brother wasn’t that smart. Cord called again from a
lot closer just as Dean entered the barn.

“
Wait
!” Cord growled,
catching up to him just as he reached the mare’s stall. His hand
dropped on Dean’s shoulder.

Every muscle in his body tensed, as Dean
fought the urge to turn around and plant his fist in his brother’s
too-handsome face. “What the fuck do you want?” He wished the
bastard would just pack up his wife and move back to Dallas, model
his fucking jeans and leave him and the ranch the hell alone. Dean
couldn’t take a piss these days without Cord in his back
pocket.

“
The best thing you can do is leave
me alone right now,” Dean warned in a low tone that should have
told Cord to back off.

Instead his brother’s hand tightened on his
shoulder and he walked around to get in his face. “What the fuck is
wrong with you, man?” Cord demanded.

Dean huffed out a breath trying to get
control. He looked off at the mare who stared at him curiously over
the stall. “Nothing,” he ground out, brushing Cord’s hand off of
his shoulder. “I have work to do.”

Dean walked over to flip the latch on the
stall, but Cord still didn’t leave. He walked up behind him again
and leaned around him. “You always have work to do. You need to
take a break and relax. Daddy’s better, and I’m here now. Hope and
I can watch Jeremy for you. You have no reason not to take a
vacation.”

“
Yeah, everything is perfect now
that you’re back,” Dean replied sourly, then turned and propped his
arm on the stall door. “Wanna tell me where we’re going to get the
money to buy the spring stock if I don’t stay here and figure that
out?”

“
Hope—“

“
Has given enough. Don’t you have
any pride, man? You think I don’t know, but I know your wife has
given every penny she has to bail us out. To take care of
Daddy.”

Cord’s eyebrows lifted and he looked a little
shocked that Dean knew exactly where that money had come from. The
only reason Dean knew the money hadn’t come from Cord’s modeling
and savings like he told the family was because he had been present
for Hope’s meltdown when she was served the hefty lawsuit from
Brittany Weston for screwing up her wedding. A woman with a trust
fund the size of Hope’s shouldn’t have batted an eyelash, but she
had fallen apart.

Right then Dean knew something was very wrong,
so he point blank asked what he’d suspected all along. If all the
money that had fallen from the sky when they needed it most was
from her trust fund. She squirmed, danced for a while, tried to
protect Cord, but when Dean pressed her she finally came clean. She
was a good woman, and his brother had used her enough.

“
I paid her back a lot of it,” Cord
replied indignantly.

“
So you can borrow it from her
again?” Dean accused. “She has her own problems with that lawsuit
she’s fighting with that woman in Dallas.”

“
Fuck!” Cord stepped back to shove
a hand through his perfectly combed hair, evidently even more
agitated that Dean knew about the suit too.

“
My sentiments exactly,” Dean
replied with a dry laugh. “We’re fucked,” he said then turned away.
He had work to do, and he was sure his brother had something else
to do.

“
The calendar sales—“

Dean spun around again and held up his hand.
“Are going to finish paying her back. I don’t want that damned
money, and neither does daddy. Ask him how he feels about it,” Dean
challenged, knowing Cord didn’t have the balls.

“
Daddy thinks that money came from
my modeling and investments. It did in a way since I’ve paid Hope
back with it as it becomes liquid.”

“
Fine, and the calendar sales will
make that completely true,” Dean said. “Pay your wife back, and
we’re even with her.” Dean wasn’t taking another dime from Hope
Dixon.

She’d paid off the mortgage on the ranch, paid
for his daddy’s treatments, and the repairs needed at the ranch
before Christmas. Enough was enough. Even if what Cord said was
true and he had paid her back a portion of it, they had to still
owe her a lot more.

“
We all need to talk about it,”
Cord said with frustration. “Me, you, Hope and Daddy need to talk.
We’ll figure something out.”

“
There’s nothing to talk about.
I’ll
figure it out,” Dean said firmly. Dean had been in
charge of figuring things out on his own at the ranch for a long
time now. He’d figure this out too. Without his brother’s input or
his new sister-in-law’s money. Decisions by committee never worked.
The less people he had in the mix, the better. Cord needed to know
that Dean was still going to make those decisions. His brother
might be back, but Dean was still in charge.

The mare neighed loudly, and it wasn’t a
hello. It was time. This conversation was done. “Go get Daddy,”
Dean said gruffly as he opened the stall.

“
But I need to talk about—“ Cord
protested.

“
I’m done talking. Go get, Daddy,
or get your ass in here and help me. She’s tearing,” Dean
challenged. Cord’s face blanched and Dean laughed as his brother
turned on his heel and all but ran from the barn, because it looked
like some things about his brother hadn’t changed. Like Cord’s
aversion to blood.

CHAPTER TWO

Tina knew she was way too early, but she was
too excited about taking a much needed break in the country to wait
a second after five a.m. to hit the road. Laney had been just as
excited. The kid had barely slept last night, and in turn neither
had Tina. At least her niece was catching up on her sleep. Tina
wished she was still in bed too now, but had been driving for over
an hour.

Her eyes got heavy again, so Tina cracked her
window, inhaling deeply of the sweet country air that rushed inside
the car. The temperature dropped inside the car and a chill raced
down her spine, so she quickly rolled it back up. She would sure be
glad when it warmed up. Spring had arrived, because things had
started to bloom, but there was still a definite chill to the
morning air. And she had put up her sweaters and refused to bring
them on this trip. She was going on a mini-vacation. Lord knew she
and her niece could both use it too.