Page 4 of Mister Cowboy
The noise in the room erupted as everyone clinked their glasses together in celebration. Tina smiled with an approving smirk.
After he took his place in the corner, his eyes looked for January at the bar. She was gone, probably to enjoy what was left of her birthday. His lips pulled into a half smile at the memory of her shocked face when she realized he was the reason her night had been ruined. She’d been right about one thing. This party was lame. And so was the idea of him hanging around and being “approachable”.
He let out a sigh as Tina turned to him. “The realtor called again about the ranch. I think she’s anxious to get the place on the market. It’s worth a killing, I’m sure.”
The idea of making money off the old family ranch should have had him calling her back. He was as excited to make that call as he was about being at this party.
“It’ll still be worth a killing in another month when things settle down at work.”
Tina shot him another disapproving look, but his cell phone vibrated in his pocket, giving him a reprieve from her questions. Though, after he saw who was calling, he wished he hadn’t looked. Henry had been calling nearly every day since their father had passed. He wasn’t sure what he could possibly want after all this time, but he wasn’t ready to find out, either.
Resigned, he said, “I gotta take this,” and walked toward the exit, but declined the call before putting his phone to his ear.
“Brecken!” Tina called after him, but he didn’t stop. He needed to get out of there, and he’d meant what he’d said earlier—no one was going to have any fun with the boss hanging around.
The cold air greeted him as he shoved the heavy bar door open, but he ignored the bite as he crossed the street to his car, climbed in, started the engine, and pulled into the late-night traffic.
He could keep delaying the inevitable, selling the ranch, which had its advantages. If he didn’t sell, then he didn’t have to go there and deal with all the memories and stuff left behind. On the other hand, he could buck up and deal and be done with it. The phone calls he’d been dodging would probably stop too.
He hung a right, gritting his teeth as he mulled over his next steps. Maybe he could task Tina with whatever was needed to get the ranch ready to sell. The sound of his own laughter filled the car as he imagined Tina telling him to go straight to hell.
3
January
Crossingthe street with her phone in hand, January scrolled through the birthday wishes posted by family and friends. She was lost in the world of social media when the blare of a horn and squeal of tires caused her to jump back just in time to miss colliding with the car headed straight for her.
She held a hand up to her chest and tried to steady her heart rate. She was too shocked to notice the driver as he exited the car until his voice called out over her erratic breathing.
“I could have run you over. What in the hell were you thinking crossing the street with your head buried in your phone?”
Just like that, her heart went from beating wildly out of control in fear to beating wildly out of control for a very different reason. Brecken was standing in front of her. She looked between his sleek black sports car, which was only inches from her legs, and the man, who was standing menacingly before her. His suit jacket was gone and the top button of his shirt was undone, revealing tan, golden skin at the base of his neck. There was a wild look in his eyes. Fear? Anger? Both? She didn’t have time to decide before her vision went fuzzy around the edges, adrenaline cutting off her ability to take a decent breath.
“Are you hurt?” he asked when she still hadn’t spoken. His voice was softer this time, but his body still appeared tense.
Placing a steadying hand on the hood of his car, she answered as she tried to calm her nerves. “Yes. No. I-I think I just need a moment.”
As the last word left her lips, she swayed, and he caught her in his arms before she collapsed on the hood of his car. “Easy. I got you,” he whispered, sweeping her up and cradling her against his chest as he moved to his passenger’s side.
She relaxed against him, not caring in the least that he picked her up as if she weighed nothing. Any other time she would have scoffed at the idea of almost fainting, after all, she wasn’t a damsel in distress. And as soon as she could get her knees to stop acting like Jell-O and her lungs to work like they should, she would actually act like it.
He placed her in the front seat of his car and squatted down beside her. His eyes were shadowed with concern that she hadn’t expected. “I think we should take you to the emergency room and have you checked out. You look a little pale.”
“I’m fine. You didn’t even hit me—just scared me.” Still, she attempted to sit forward in the seat, only to be met with a wave of dizziness that had her leaning back again.
“Okay. I assume your boyfriend is still working. Is there someone else I can call for you?”
January’s eyes popped open. “Boyfriend?”
“Michael.” He nodded in the direction of the bar.
“Yes, I mean no.”
His eyes crinkled as she struggled to piece together a coherent sentence.
“Yes, he’s working, but no, Michael isn’t my boyfriend. We’re just friends.” She sat forward slowly, taking a couple of deep breaths until her stomach settled and her equilibrium returned. “I live right up the street; I’ll be fine to walk. Thank you for not running me over,” she said in a mocking tone.
She swung her legs out of the car, expecting Brecken to move back out of her way. Instead, he braced his hands on either side of the open door. “I’d really feel better if you had someone with you until your pretty pink color comes back.”
