Bad News Cowboy

A slow smile crossed her lips. Yes, that was what she wanted.

And with her decision made, Kate went happily back to work.

* * *

JACK DID HIS absolute damnedest not to reflect on anything that had passed between Kate and himself in the past twenty-four hours. Because he was sitting in his living room with her two older brothers, his very best friends, men who were like brothers to him. Men who would snap him in half like a matchstick if they had any idea of the thoughts that had run through his mind earlier this morning.

No matter how fleeting said thoughts were.

They had been brief, but they had been way, way outside the boundaries of Safe Kate Thoughts.

For a moment there, when she’d curled her fingers through his hair, those serious dark eyes on his... Yeah, for a moment there he’d thought about cupping the back of her head and closing the distance between them...

And he was going to stop thinking now.

He heard a sudden and violent outburst of profanity and realized he’d missed something on the game.

“Pass interference my ass!” Connor shouted.

“Must be nice to have the refs in your pocket,” Eli grumbled, leaning back on the couch.

“Yeah,” Jack said, only pretending to have any clue what was happening.

Connor snorted. “I just got a profane text from Liss.”

“Is she watching the game in between female bonding moments?” Eli asked.

“You don’t think Sadie is watching the game?” Connor asked.

“She pays just enough attention to football to irritate all of us. Though I imagine that if Kate is around, she and Liss will have banded together to commandeer the remote.”

“Had we opted to watch the game as a group, I imagine she would have showed up wearing orange and black and rooting for the Beavers. Even though they aren’t playing.”

“You chose a real winner there, Eli,” Jack said, happy to be on any topic other than the one his brain seemed intent on focusing on.

“Our love transcends football,” Eli said, lifting a bottle of beer to his lips.

“And my love for Liss doesn’t have to,” Connor said.

“And I’m single, assholes,” Jack added, grinning broadly.

“I don’t envy you,” Eli said.

“Because you’ve forgotten.”

“Forgotten celibacy? Feeling lonely, depressed.” Connor shook his head. “No, I have not forgotten that.”

“Some of us are not celibate,” Jack said. Though, come to think of it, it had been a lot longer than usual since he’d picked someone up.

Which could explain some of the weirdness between him and Kate.

And now he was back to Kate.

“So you and Kate are working on a charity thing?” Eli asked.

A sharp sensation twinged in his chest. It was almost as though Eli could read his mind. Which was a dangerous thing right now. “Yeah. Has she mentioned much about it?”

“No, not really. I was curious.”

“Well, it isn’t just me and Kate,” he said, feeling unaccountably guilty. “We’ve got the whole amateur association involved. And I’m working toward reconnecting with some contacts in the pro association to get them to help, as well. So it’s a whole group effort.”

“To help Alison?” Connor asked.

His question had a tone to it. A suspicious tone. “Yes. Her and other women in her situation. I’m impressed with what she’s doing, improving not only her situation but the situations of others.” Which didn’t sound defensive at all. Not that he had any reason to feel defensive about Alison. It was the entire situation.

“Is there something going on with her?” This question came from Eli. “You and her, I mean.”

Jack was almost grateful they were so far offtrack. “No. I’m sure she’s lovely but hooking up with vulnerable women is not exactly my thing.” Which was a nice reminder. “They want what I’m not going to give.”

“You seem to be giving things,” Eli said.

Well, this was the story of his life. He couldn’t possibly be doing something nice just to do something nice. He must have ulterior motives. Probably extremely dishonorable ones.

“Because I’m a nice person, jackass.”

Eli held his hands up, palms out. “Of course you are.”

“I do selfless things.”

“Uh-huh,” Connor said.

“I have.” Maybe not very many.

“Fine. I believe you,” Eli said.

Jack snorted and stood up, making his way into the kitchen to grab another beer. Of course, he couldn’t be too mad, since Connor and Eli were his oldest friends and they had a lot more context for his behavior than most people did. Still, the citizens of Copper Ridge tended to sell him short. And yeah, some of that he’d earned. But not all of it.

He liked to make people laugh; he liked to provide a good time. He liked to have a good time. And somehow people tended to mistake that to mean he didn’t take anything seriously. As though his ranch ran on charm rather than labor. As though he had lucked into his position on the circuit.

Maybe if he did a good job organizing this charity thing, the town would have to realize that he had the ability to see something through. To do something right, to do something noble, even.

Yeah, noble wasn’t a word typically used to describe him.

Maybe, though...maybe he could get noticed for doing something good. Maybe he could change some things.

Everyone liked him well enough, but no one took him all that seriously. He wondered if that would change if the townspeople had any idea that he carried the same genes as the venerable West family.

No doubt it would, since the oldest of the West children had a fairly large scandal in his past, and yet the town never seemed to talk much about it. As though the influence of Nathan West was mixed into the mist, settling over everything. All-seeing, all-knowing.