Loving You: A Cowboy Romance (Texas Hill Country Romance Book 1) (3 page)

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Dan said as he, Jake, Rory, and Cord were rafting, well, more like floating, down the river in life vests and helmets.

“The Pedernales is too calm, especially in the summer. We should try the Sabine. Now that river is pumping,” Dan said.

He was another close friend. These four boys grew up together and did and experienced everything together.

They shared everything, thrills, clothes, secrets, fears, high times in each other’s lives as well as low, and there were a lot of low times. From Dan’s father always beating him when his father got drunk, to Rory’s car accident that landed him in the hospital for three weeks while he healed, to probably the most devastating of all, when Cord got the news that his older brother, Jacob, who was a sergeant in the army, was killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb five years earlier. That was a tough one. They all knew Jacob and respected him and his decision to enlist after 9/11.

Cord will tell you that he’s okay with it, but the three friends knew, and saw the sadness, still there, in his eyes.

They got drunk for the first time together. They got into their first bar fight, together. They even shared girls, either at different times, or once in a while you’d get a girl willing to take on two, three, and heck, once there was a girl, Rita Wilson, who took on all four at the same time.

Cord and Jake did four years of college, Cord at Texas A&M, and Jake at LSU. Rory did two, but he commuted.  Dan went to U of C in San Diego for two years before the funds ran out. Yet time away from each other only strengthened their bond.

They were a tight bunch and proud of the fact that they remained good friends since first grade. Everyone around them knew not to mess with one, cause then you messed with all four. That’s not to say they were bad guys. They were good guys, they wouldn’t go looking for trouble, but if trouble found them, they would never back down.

“This sucks,” Jake said. “Let’s get out of here and meet the girls. Before I left the house Annie was cooking us up a nice lunch. I’m starving.”             

“Yeah, I’m with you on that, bro,” Rory said.

“I can’t wait to meet this Annie. You’ve done nothing but mention her to me for the last two months. Incidentally, I wished you guys would have called me the other night, I’m itching to get into another bar fight.”

“Yeah, right after the guy pinched Annie’s ass, I should have said ‘please wait, sir, I need to go get a friend before I beat the shit out of you’,” Cord said, a little bothered by the fact that Dan couldn’t wait to meet Annie.

They all laughed except Cord.

Annie and Calista pulled up to the swimming hole the same time Jennie and Lisa did. They set up blankets and laid out whatever food didn’t need cooling, those they left in the coolers. Annie took a peach from one of the coolers and sat down against a rock.

“Wow, this place is beautiful, and is that a waterfall I hear?”

“Yes, it’s just around that boulder over there,” Jennie said, pointing to her left.

Annie sat in silence taking in the scenery, while the three girls talked about anything and everything.

The lush green grass, the trees of different heights and shades of green were breathtaking, and the cloudless cerulean sky above just added to the natural beauty.

After eating her peach, she got up and threw the pit away in a plastic garbage bag they brought for just that reason. She pulled her black hooded dress up over her head, folded it, and tucked it in her backpack. Then she went to lie down on one of the blankets to sun herself.

“Got to work on the tan, you know.” Calista laughed, remembering how toward the end of every spring semester at college, they would head down to the Jersey shore, usually Belmar. Once in a while they would hop on mass transit and head to Annie’s old stomping ground, ‘Coney Island’.

Jennie removed her cover-up and laid down next to Annie as Calista sat with Lisa and talked. Calista and Lisa were close friends, but she felt Lisa’s trepidation of having Annie here. Albeit, if push came to shove, Calista would take Annie, anytime, over Lisa, but she didn’t want Lisa to feel left out because of Annie, and she knew Annie wouldn’t want her to ignore her friend.

Dan whistled. “Lord, gentlemen, I do believe we hang with the finest looking ladies in all of Texas,” he said as he and Cord bent down to lower the cooler full of beer they were carrying.

The boys walked up, and Annie felt excitement and butterflies inside at seeing Cord again. She rose up on her elbows and zeroed in on him. He was not wearing a cowboy hat, nor was he wearing a shirt, and, wow, did he look amazing. His hair was black, short in the back long in front. It was swept to the left of his forehead with the longest part hanging past his brow. His chest was chiseled. He had large pectoral muscles and a six pack stomach devoid of any fat. She noticed his hip bones form the shape of a V, and there was a slight dusting of hair which tapered down to a straight line past his bellybutton and disappeared in his swim shorts. 

She scanned down his body and noticed how defined his calve muscles were. When she looked back up to his face, she blushed. He was watching her watch him. He had a cocky grin on his face.

Cord saw her lying on a blanket and upon hearing Dan’s whistle, he saw her propping herself up on her elbows.

Damn, she looked good in her pink bikini and, holy shit, was that a diamond string hanging from her belly. Cord thought that was so sexy looking. It looked even sexier on her flat, toned stomach. Her hair was hanging down and so soft looking, he fantasized about running his hands through it while her full, lush lips were wrapped around his cock.

“Hi. You, pretty lady, must be Annie, the pastry chef from college. I’m Dan. I’m sure Calista has told you all about me, and it’s a pleasure to meet you, sweetheart,” he said loudly, and dripping with charm for all to hear.  He made his way over to Annie and extended his hand, and Cord wanted to rip it out of its socket.

Annie shook his hand and shook her head. Dan was good looking, too.
Damn, Calista has some hot friends
, Annie thought.

”It’s a pleasure to meet you, but Calista never told me about you.”

“No? Not even once?”

“Sorry.” Annie winced and shrugged her shoulders.

“Calista, what gives? How could you not tell this beautiful woman about me?”

Calista laughed hysterically, knowing full well that she mentioned him to Annie and that Annie was just playing.

“Knock it off Dan. She could see your charming bullshit a mile away,” Calista said. Everyone laughed, except for Dan.

“Ouch, Calista, you hurt my feelings.”

“Oh, please, you have no feelings,” she said, and all but Annie laughed, although, she wanted to also, but wouldn’t in front of him. She just met him.

“Calista, you-”

“That’s enough, Dan,” Rory interjected.

He let go of Annie’s hand, and with a nod and a wink, he walked back to the cooler for a beer, then went and sat on a rock near Jake, who was already sitting next to Jennie.

Cord breathed a sigh of relief. Relieved Annie didn’t fall for Dan’s charm. He took a beer out of the cooler while Jake was recapping their water adventure and started to make his way to Annie when Lisa got in his face and planted a kiss on his lips.

God damn, why was she always doing that? He pulled away and looked to Annie. Lisa turned Annie’s way, too, and saw the disappointment on her face and smiled at her.

Annie saw their kiss and when they both looked at her, she quickly turned toward Jake and pretended to listen to his story.

“Come sit with me,” Lisa said to Cord.

“No,” he said curtly, and she backed off, hoping Annie didn’t hear the way he spoke to her. She went back to sit down.

The boys, except Cord, told their own version of their adventure. Cord just sat and brooded over his beer.

They ate, drank, teased, and mingled with each other for the next hour or so. Everyone, well, everyone but Lisa, praised Annie on her fried chicken, salads, and club sandwiches. Jake even brought out a bottle of Pinot Noir wine, from the cooler, for Annie, knowing that was her favorite type.

Lisa huffed, annoyed that Annie was getting special treatment.

After the food was put away, Rory said, “Last one in is lugging all the supplies back to the car by themselves.”

He quickly got up, dragging Calista, and started running toward the water. Everyone was on the move, stripping down to bathing suits and running.

Cord and Jake grabbed the rope they brought, and ran to the tree that was hanging over the water and Cord climbed it and tied the rope to it.

Back on land, Jake grabbed the hanging end and flung himself into the water. Rory got out and used the rope to fling himself in too as did Jennie and Dan. Annie and Calista swung from the rope also. The only one that didn’t was Lisa.

They all laughed and frolicked about in the water. Rory went underwater, beneath Calista, and came up with her on his shoulders. Calista screamed “Chicken fight!”

Jake went beneath Jennie, and came up with her on his shoulders. Calista and Jennie pushed and shoved playfully.

Annie screamed “Go, Calista!” While Lisa and Dan rooted for Jennie. Cord was amused by the whole thing. Then Jennie went under.

“Woohoo!” Calista screamed. “Who’s next?”

Cord got closer to Annie, and before she realized it, he went under and brought her up on his shoulders. She and Calista laughed hard as Cord and Rory moved closer together.

Calista and Annie pushed and pulled each other while laughing. Calista almost knocked Annie off of Cord’s shoulder, but she was able to right herself with Cord’s help.

“Don’t let me get all Bensonhurt on you,” Annie teased.

“Don’t let me get Fredericksburg cute on you,” was Calista’s retort.

Calista got the upper hand and was able to bring Annie down, and she right behind her. They both reached the surface of the water at the same time, laughing and coughing, and swam to each other and embraced.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Dan said. “Anyone else getting turned on right now?” He teased.

Both Calista and Annie swam to him and dunked him.

He came up laughing. “What, what’d I say?”

The chicken fights continued with Lisa on Dan’s shoulders. She asked Cord if she can get on his shoulders, but he said he was done playing. They were taking on Jake and Jennie.

While they were playing, Annie swam toward the waterfall. Cord saw her and followed. She felt him behind her and waited for him to catch up, then they proceeded.

She, Cord noticed, was a strong swimmer, like him.

Climbing up the rock behind the fall, Cord hoisted Annie up by gently pushing her backside up as she grabbed onto the rock with her hands and lifted herself. Touching her sent a warm sensation straight to his groin. He hoisted himself up with ease. 

“It’s beautiful,” Annie said, sounding a bit breathless from the swim as she turned around to see him right behind her.

Cord gently pushed her against the back rock. He folded his arms over her head and said, “Yes, she is,” as he stared into her eyes.

There was a long pause. They were content to quietly study each other, before Cord asked, “Are we good?”

Annie knew he was referring to the other night at the pool. “Yes.”

“Good.”

Then he leaned down and kissed her, softly first, and when she opened up, he became more demanding, taking what she offered. He brought his arms down and wrapped one around her waist and he cupped the back of her head with his free hand so she wouldn’t pull away, but that was far from her mind, anyway.

She wrapped her arms around him.

He explored her mouth with his tongue and became lost in her sweet taste. Their tongues became entangled and he tilted their heads to reach even deeper. He wanted more, much more of that kiss, of her.

To his dismay, Annie struggled to break away. He finally let her go with a perplexed look on his face, and panted.

“What?”

“Lisa,” Annie said, also panting.

“What about her?”

“What is she to you?”

“Nothing.”

Annie looked at him quizzically.

“Annie, what do you want me to say? I told you the other night, she’s not my girlfriend.”

“Right, right, she’s your fuck buddy.”

“Come on, let’s not go there. It was one time. I don’t have nor ever had a fuck bud-, well, okay, but definitely not her.”

He watched her and knew when something caught her eye behind him. He turned to see Lisa through the sheer sheet of the waterfall, bobbing up and down in the water, watching them a few meters out. She turned and swam back to shore.

As soon as he turned, Annie ducked away from him and dove into the water. He dove in after her.

Lisa reached the shore first with a scowl and not talking to anyone. She was drying herself with a towel when Annie got out.