Just Shoot Me (Cowboy Way, #1) (6 page)

He scraped his chair back and stood. “I’m not
hungry, since I didn’t get a chance to do any work today with that
photo shoot going on. I’ll see ya’ll in the morning.”

Dean left his family at the table and walked
down the hall to his bedroom. It was way too early to sleep, but
staying at that table a minute longer, seeing his family feeling
sorry for him wasn’t an option. What happened to him was his own
damned fault. The person they should be feeling sorry for was that
sorry bastard Bobby Jones who was stupid enough to marry her
knowing she was a cheater. Dean just hoped the conversation ended
before Tina Montgomery joined them in the kitchen. Wouldn’t that be
humiliating for his dirty laundry to be aired in front of
her?

The best thing Dean could do right now was
stay away from all of them.

Two hours later, his mind had just settled
enough for him to get to that relaxed state between wakefulness and
sleep when someone knocked at his bedroom door. Dean wasn’t in the
mood to talk to anyone, so he ignored it, until his visitor knocked
the third time just shy of banging. With a sigh, he tossed back the
light cover he had over his legs and got up to walk to the door. He
pulled it open and didn’t see anyone. Leaning outside, he saw Tina
Montgomery headed back down the hall.

“
Did you need something?” he asked
gruffly.

She stopped then turned back toward him. In
one hand she held a plate with a sandwich and the other held a
glass of iced tea. She walked back to him and shoved the plate into
his stomach. “Your Mama asked me to bring you this. I told her you
should starve if you were too good to come eat with us, but she
insisted.”

Dean took the plate, then reached for the tea,
but she held it out of his reach. “Why didn’t you come to
supper?”

“
I’m not good company right now,”
Dean warned, reaching for the glass again, but she took another
step back.

“
When the hell are you good
company?” she asked with a short laugh. “Your attitude sucks. You
could have at least made an appearance. Your mother and your son
were worried about you.”

Dean’s eyes tracked down to her perfect belly
button, which was on prime display between the hem of her shirt and
the waistband of the pants. His dick jerked and he dragged his eyes
back to her angry eyes. “Thank you for bringing the sandwich, but I
don’t want it with a side of your opinion. Mind your own damned
business!”

He stepped into the hall and grabbed the iced
tea from her hand, then moved back to lean on the door to shut it.
Dean was surprised when Tina Montgomery pushed against it to keep
it open.

“
You’re right, it’s not my
business. But I care about kids, and I have a problem with how you
treat yours. That kid cares about you and all you do is either yell
at him or ignore him.”

With a growl, Dean let go of the door to walk
across the room. He set the sandwich and glass on the bedside table
then rounded on the nosy, irritating woman who thought she had a
right to judge him. “My son is well taken care of. He has a roof
over his head, food on his plate and a family who cares about him.
That’s a helluva lot more than a lot of kids have.”

“
He deserves your time…and love.
You’re his father.”

Maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t, Dean
thought. “I love him, and I give him as much time as I have to
give. Ranching requires a lot of work.”

“
That’s not enough,” Tina
Montgomery said, crossing her arms under her full breasts, which
pushed over the V in her shirt. Dean had to force his eyes up to
meet hers, because they seemed to be glued there.

“
You’ve been here all of twelve
hours, and you’ve come to that conclusion? Lady, you’ve got a
helluva lot of nerve, you know that?” More nerve than any woman
he’d ever met.

“
Someone needed to say it. Hope
knows it. She said the same thing to me, but I guess she’s afraid
of you. I’m not afraid.” No, she definitely didn’t look afraid of
him. All hundred pounds of her looked ready for battle.

“
So you got voted to be the one to
tell me this?”

“
I
chose
to tell you. Your
family is afraid to hurt your feelings. I think they need to be
hurt. You’re an asshole, and need a wake-up call. If someone
doesn’t point it out to you, how will you know? From the looks of
it, you’re too stupid to realize it on your own.”

With that parting shot, she spun toward the
door, leaving Dean speechless. At the door she stopped. “It’s
Saturday night, and your family is playing a game of Monopoly. I
don’t know why, but they would like you to join them, if that’s not
too much trouble.” Dean’s eyes fell to her perfectly formed ass as
she walked out of his room.

Monopoly? Dean couldn’t remember the last time
his family had played a board game together. He definitely wasn’t
in the mood, but couldn’t resist a challenge. And that is what Miss
Priss Montgomery had just issued him. He would play her damned game
to show her what a good daddy he was. Prove to her he wasn’t the
one with a bad attitude. He could do that for one night. She was
leaving tomorrow. Thank the Good Lord. He didn’t need her or her
aggravation in his life.

In fact, if he never saw the nervy, curvy
brunette again, it would be too soon.

CHAPTER FOUR

“
No, I’m not doing it,” Dean said,
throwing the hoof pick into the tool kit sitting beside the arena
rail. He owed Hope Dixon a lot, loved her a lot, but her request
wasn’t even in the same arena as the debt he owed her. He’d rather
she ask to peel every inch of his skin off then douse him in
alcohol than ask him to be a model. That was his brother’s speed,
not his.

Dean was curious what went on during those
shoots, exactly what his brother had been doing in Dallas while he
was gone, so he watched some of the circus they called a photo
shoot at the ranch on Saturday. Tina Montgomery and her entourage
ran roughshod over those two men who looked as plucked and shaved
as any men he’d ever seen.

A chill skated down Dean’s spine.

Those two weren’t men. They were mannequins in
cowboy hats. Tina Montgomery had posed, poked and prodded them
until she got them into the position she wanted them, so Hope could
take their picture. Sort of like the poseable Toy Story action
figures his son had.

Well Dean wasn’t an action figure, and he
wasn’t a model. He was a real-life cowboy, with real ranch chores
to do. If he didn’t get those chores done, he wasn’t going to be a
cowboy much longer though. He’d be a broke, unemployed and
homeless
ex-cowboy.

And the woman he was arguing with would be
homeless with him, so he just wished she’d drop it and leave him
alone. But it didn’t look like she was going to do that. He
unclipped the roan mare he’d been grooming from the cross-ties and
clipped a lead rope onto her halter then lead the mare toward her
stall, and Hope followed behind him.

She put her hand on his arm. “But Dean, Tina
needs you—
I
need you to do this.”

“
No way, Hope.” he said firmly for
the fifth time, as he flipped the latch on the stall and opened it
wide.

“
Get Cord to do it. He’s the one
with the looks in the family.” Dean looked back at her for a
second. “I’m just the workhorse, and I’ve got work to do.” He led
the mare inside, and unclipped the lead rope. He turned around and
Hope was still there, standing in the doorway so he couldn’t
pass.

“
Please, Dean,” she begged with a
plea in her gorgeous green eyes.

After having to play Monopoly with them until
almost midnight on Saturday night, Dean was in family overload.
Cord told him the game had been Tina’s brilliant idea. Dean decided
he didn’t want to see what her next idea of family fun involved, so
he had hidden out in his room until he saw the taillights of her
white compact car heading down the driveway Sunday
night.

Dean had a feeling Tina Montgomery was good at
games. She’d won at Monopoly, but she wasn’t winning this game.
Even using Hope, a woman he owed his father’s life to, as her
mouthpiece wasn’t going to convince Dean to shave his ass and get
in front of a camera.

There was nothing that would convince him to
do that.

“
That’s it Hope,” he said with
finality. She sighed then stepped aside so he could walk out and
closed the stall. “Ask Cord. I’ll cover his slack here.” Dean
always did that anyway, like right now when his brother was
supposed to be helping him, he had gone to town with their daddy to
look at fucking tractors they couldn’t afford.

Somehow Cord had convinced Silas Dixon, who
had been a rancher all his life, that they could subsidize the
cattle operation with farming. And according to his brother, they
needed a new tractor to do that. Fixing the old tractor they had
was on Dean’s to-do list so they could cut hay, but that list was
so long these days he had no idea when he would get to
it.

At least that offer might get Hope off of his
back, and keep Cord occupied so he didn’t have time to cook up new
schemes.

Hope surprised him though, when she said,
“Tina doesn’t want Cord. She wants you.”

“
Well Tina can want in one hand and
shit—“ Dean started then cleared his throat when Hope’s amber brows
shot up. He brushed past her to go to the next stall in the line.
“I’m not doing it—end of discussion,” Dean said, but it evidently
wasn’t over yet he realized when Hope followed him
again.

“
That little girl that was with her
out here is her niece. Tina is all but raising her, since her
sister runs around and leaves Laney with her all the time. The kid
has nobody but Tina to look out for her. If she’s successful with
this new line, Tina’s company is offering her a big promotion and
raise. Tina needs that raise and promotion to support
Laney.”

Dean huffed out a breath, and hardened his
heart against the compassion trying to take root there. He
definitely knew what that felt like. Cindy had dumped Jeremy with
him all the time to go out too. “That’s not my problem,” he
grumbled, reminding himself he had enough of his own without taking
on someone else’s. “This family is what I’m concerned
with.”

“
This will help us too, Dean. You
ought to at least listen to Tina’s offer, before you turn her
down,” Hope volleyed.

“
If she wrote me a blank check, I
wouldn’t do it,” Dean said throwing up his hands.

Hope’s eyes watered, and she covered the small
mound of her stomach. Dean swallowed down the emotion that shot up
to his own throat. Her eyes were determined, but her voice quavered
when she told him, “Then I need every penny of the money I loaned
you paid back. She wants to buy a house for herself and Laney and
I’m going to help her do that, since she won’t get her promotion
now.”

“
God, you sure know how to put the
screws to me, don’t you? Why would you care?”

“
Because that’s what friends do,
Dean. She helped Cord and I when we needed her and I’m going to
return the favor. Maybe if you stopped letting what Cindy did to
you make you hard as nails, you would have a friend. Then you might
understand.” Hope dragged her eyes away. “Maybe your son wouldn’t
think you hate him.”

Anger the likes of which he hadn’t felt in a
long time engulfed him. He clenched his fists and grated, “Don’t
you say that woman’s name again. You
and
your friend just
need to mind your own fucking business. I don’t know how I’ll do
it, but I will get you that money back. Every fucking
cent.”

Hope’s lips pinched like she was holding back
a scream. She turned away from him and he heard her whimper as she
stiffened her spine to storm down the aisle toward the barn door.
Rage built inside of him with every step she got closer to the
door.

Dean needed to scream too.

He needed to get away from civilization for a
minute. Visit the place he hadn’t been to in a year to do just
that. Scream. Until he found peace again. Dean’s hand shook as he
unlocked the door to the stall that housed his stallion, Blaze. His
daddy and Cord wanted to run the ranch? Well they could go to the
auction on their own too.

It was nearly six o’clock when Dean finally
rode Blaze back into the barn. He was still frustrated as hell, as
he swung out of the saddle. The solitude he always found out at the
lake at the back of their property wasn’t there this time. Neither
were the answers he needed.

No matter how he sliced and diced it, Hope’s
demand had backed him into a corner he couldn’t escape. He had no
chance of paying her money back without doing that damned photo
shoot. Taking out another mortgage wasn’t the answer. The reason he
owed her the money in the first place was because she used her
inheritance to pay off a mortgage that almost took the ranch from
them. Taking out another one would defeat the purpose of the loan.
And they couldn’t afford a note right now. Besides, they needed the
ranch free and clear for collateral in case his daddy got sick
again. He was in remission, but now he
couldn’t
get the
insurance Dean had been after him to get for years.

The money from the auction today was going to
buy cattle. Last fall, Dean had to sell off the entire herd to help
pay the last mortgage note, before Hope came along and paid it off.
They were starting over now.