Page 39 of Wannabe in Wyoming
“I was just doing my duty, as you know all about from personal experience. And I don’t mind if I do. Please, call me Grady—I’ve got the night off.”
Nathan moved to stand behind Willow, holding his beer in one hand and keeping his other wrapped possessively around her shoulders. “Duty or not, I still appreciate it. Though the way Willow here told the story, she had it well in hand.”
“Very true.” Chuckling, Grady accepted his beer from Maddie, who’d brought it over without being asked.
“Put that on my tab, please,” Nathan told her before turning his attention back to the sheriff. “I still feel better knowing you’re around to look out for her when I can’t be here. That ex of hers has a reckoning coming if he shows his face again.”
“I’ll tell you the same thing I told Annie Oakley over here, make sure it’s justified, but I’d prefer if you didn’t kill him. The paperwork for that is a bitch.” He gave Willow a wink. “Care for a shot, girl? I remember you seemed to like them well enough last time.”
Groaning, she covered her face with her hands and replied through her fingers, “No. Never again will I do shots with you, or Maddie or Jeremiah for that matter. It took me two days to recover from the last time.”
“Willow! What else aren’t you telling me?!” Nathan sounded appalled, but the grin on his face and amusement in his eyes belied his tone. “You got drunk with thesheriff?”
“Ugh, yeah. And Maddie and Jeremiah and a bunch of other people. After I shot at . . . I mean,near,” she emphasized, looking pointedly at the lawman, “my ex, Grady told me it’s like a rite of passage for Wyomingites to get drunk after they shoot at . . .nearsomeone. So, I believed him. I mean, why would a sheriff lie, right? Jeremiah drove me here, and I swear, after Grady told everyone the story, half the bar bought me drinks. I had no bar bill that night, but the headache lasted for days. If anyone brings Fireball anywhere near me tonight, I might just puke on you—fair warning.” In reality the evening had turned into an impromptu party, with the local ranchers welcoming her into the fold, so to speak. Some were still salty about her father, but most of them had put that aside. The problems she still encountered around town seemed to be from a group of church ladies and anyone related to the Jenkins family.
It was a bit weird how she’d been shy, with few friends back in Philly, where her tattoos, pink hair, and nose stud had fit in. But in the Rock, where none of those things were common, she was coming out of her shell and having more fun than she’d had in years, if ever.
When their food arrived, Grady excused himself to let them eat, inviting Nathan to shoot a game of pool when they finished. Maddie’s shift was about to end too, and she said she’d keep Willow company while Nathan and Grady played.
Three hours later, Willow stood with her back against the wall, drinking a soda, and laughing at a drunk Nathan. If the man was a charming rogue when sober, he turned into a Casanova after he got a good buzz going. When not taking his turn at pool, he couldn’t keep his hands off her—to the amusement and delight of the entire bar. After his fifth beer, and the two shots they’d done with Grady, she’d switched to straight Coke and managed to sneak the truck keys from his pocket, earning a nod of approval from the lawman.
“Listen h-here, Sheriff—” Nathan began before he was interrupted by his own loud hiccup. He mumbled an apology and pointed at the older man with his pool cue. “All this country music isn’t good for the soul. I mean, it’s so damnsad.Sosad. Who the hell wants to be sad all the fuckin’ time? Not me. Not that I am. Look at that gorgeous woman over there.” Winking at her, he leaned forward and lined up his shot. “She makes me so damn happy, and this sad-ass, cryin’-in-my-beer, my-dog-died-and-took-my-truck, country twang bullshit ruins that for me.” Grady opened his mouth to respond, but Nathan kept going. “Or is it my wife died and took my truck? No, it’s definitely my dog died. Right? Whatever, it doesn’t matter. It all sucks.”
“Nathan, my friend, you’re not going to change many minds around here. Sure, we listen to rock and such, but country music holds our soul and that won’t be changing anytime soon.” They’d been arguing good-naturedly about the pros and cons of country music for a while now.
Flapping his hand in dismissal, Nathan finally took his shot. And missed. Again. He really was terrible at pool and got worse as his buzz got better. “What the fuck? I swear this table is crook’d.”
“Baby, the table is fine. It’s you who’s crooked.” Willow pointed down to Nathan’s feet, noting he couldn’t stand still and was swaying widely from side-to-side.
“Oh.” He looked down and carefully, and very slowly, moved his feet to shoulder-width apart, bracing himself like he was standing on the rolling deck of a ship instead of a barroom floor. “You’re right, Wannabe. Look at that!” Mumbling to himself, he moved to take another shot, even though it wasn’t his turn, and stumbled again.
Handing her unfinished drink to Maddie, who nodded and shooed her off, she stepped over to her very drunk boyfriend and wrapped an arm around his waist. “Come on, soldier boy, time to get you to bed.”
“Soldier boy? Try s-soldier man!” She laughed when he leaned down and sniffed her hair loudly. “Goddamn, Wannabe, you smell so fuckin’ good. How come you always smell so nice? I could just eat you up. Hmm . . . now that,thatis a fine idea. Let’s go. See ya, Sheriff!” Waving, Nathan led the way. She guessed when he decided he was ready to go, he was ready. Not that he’d be eating anything when they got home, except maybe a sandwich to soak up more of the alcohol in his gut.
Grady and most of the other patrons laughed loudly and waved goodbye in return, accompanied by shouts, catcalls, and shrill whistles. Nathan spun around, almost tripping over Willow, and took a bow to the crowd. Grabbing his arm and waist, she barely kept him from face-planting. “Come on, Nathan, you’re going home to bed.”
“Not without you, I’m not. I have plannnssss.” He drew the word out as if it had ten syllables instead of one.
“Of course you do, and you can feel free to tell me all about them. In the morning.”
Sure enough, Nathan was snoring half-way home. He was passed out cold, with his face smashed against the window and his mouth hanging wide open. Willow smiled and was tempted to pull over just so she could take a picture of him with her phone.
After she got them back to Skyview and parked the truck, Nathan woke up just enough to stumble his way inside and into her bed with her assistance. Willow stripped him of his boots and clothes, evading his wandering hands and ignoring his begging the entire time. She couldn’t help but laugh at his pout when she tucked him in, leaving a glass of water and pain reliever on the bedside table.
“Go to sleep. I have to take care of the chickens and check on Ethel, and then I’ll be back.”
“’Kay,” he mumbled into his pillow, already falling back asleep. “’Ov you.”
Her heart seemed to skip a beat as she froze for a moment, not sure if he’d really just said what she thought he had. Pushing the ridiculous notion aside, she did her evening chores quickly before undressing and climbing into bed beside him. He muttered something before rolling over and wrapping her up into his arms, sighing heavily into her hair. “Mmm . . .”
She drifted off, her mind and heart full of possibilities of their future. She was afraid to hope for too much, but the man holding her was breaking all her barriers and making it impossible not to.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Ready, solider?”Willow asked, putting on the cowboy hat she’d apparently bought after her first riding lesson, before grabbing the truck keys and a denim jacket for later when the temperature was expected to drop.
They hadn’t done much yesterday, besides binging on theFast & Furiousseries while pigging out on junk food, mainly because of Nathan’s massive hangover. It’d been a while since he’d gotten that intoxicated—well over a year—but Willow had insisted she hadn’t minded. In fact, she’d called him a cute drunkard.
