Loving You: A Cowboy Romance (Texas Hill Country Romance Book 1) (4 page)

Annie went to her backpack, thank God it was in the opposite direction of where Lisa was, and took out her towel and began drying herself while smiling, ignoring Lisa’s death stare.

Cord got out and went over to the cooler and pulled out a beer. He wanted to go over to Annie, but sat on a boulder near the roaring fire that Rory and Jake must have built. It was usually their thing.

When the tension that the whole gang felt died down, everyone resumed talking and laughing and joking.

As the sun began to set, the sky became a kaleidoscope of different hues of pinks and purples. Annie took out a camera she had in her backpack and walked over to the water’s edge, snapping pictures of the breathtaking scenery. Jake went over to her and sat on a rock, drinking a beer as they talked while she snapped away.

Someone turned up the radio.

When she finished taking pictures, she and Jake walked back to the campsite. She noticed the guys had their shirts and cowboy hats on and Cord had a guitar in his hands, strumming away, lightly. A guitar and another hat leaned against the rock next to him.

Jake walked over to where Cord sat and picked up his hat, plopped it on his head and reached for his guitar and started tuning it.

Annie and Calista walked over to the car for some privacy and changed out of their wet bathing suits.

Everyone settled in around the fire. Jennie was huddled next to Jake, who was next to Dan, then came Cord and Rory then Lisa.

Calista felt Annie’s unease, and grabbed her hand after they each retrieved a nectarine from the cooler. Calista told Rory to scoot over, nodding her head in Lisa’s direction. She plopped down and dragged Annie down with her. Annie, to Lisa’s dismay, now sat next to Cord.

Again, everyone talked and laughed as they drank beer. Dan got up and poured a glass of wine for Annie, then settled back down, while Cord and Jake had their guitars in back of them for the time being. Music played softly.

Cord watched the sweet juice from the nectarine drip from Annie’s mouth and wanted to lick it off her. He thought about the kiss they shared. He wondered if she felt the same desire he felt when they kissed.

She felt him watch her and turned to him. She gave him a knowing look as she poked her tongue out provocatively to lick the juice from her lip.

Yep, she felt it too. Cord let out a low groan for Annie’s ears only and she smiled.

One of Annie’s favorite songs began to play and as her smile reached her bright eyes she started singing softly as she turned to the fire:

“Hear my thoughts...”

Jake joined in with her to sing the next part.

Annie didn’t have the greatest voice, but it wasn’t bad. She and Jake sounded pretty darn good. Just at the end of that stanza. Dan shouted, “Gym class…” Everybody laughed at his timing.

Cord took it from there, and Annie was a bit astounded by his beautiful, melodic voice, and when he substituted the guy’s name for Rory’s, they all laughed.

They all hesitated trying to remember what came next, and Calista picked it up and Rory chimed in.

They knew it was corny, but they all had so much fun.

They continued with Annie, again, singing the next part. Jake sang again with her.               

At the next stanza, Jennie, and even, Lisa chimed in.

Dan moved the song along, and finally, Annie, again, but this time, Cord chimed in with her.

They all laughed so much; they didn’t even finish the song but complimented each other on a great job.

“Man, if we planned that, we couldn’t have sung it that well,” Rory said, and they all agreed.

Then Jake picked up his guitar, and Cord followed suit as Jennie turned the radio off.

Cord asked Jake as they were warming up, “Pride and Joy?”

Jake nodded, and then they started singing and playing the Stevie Ray Vaughan song. They all knew it but no one sang along, they were content to listen to Cord and Jake sing.

Cord and Jake continued playing music and everyone sang along to an Eagles song and a Toby Keith song. Jake even played a Carrie Underwood tune, so Calista, Jennie and Lisa could sing. The last song was one Annie never heard before, but everyone else sang along to. She later found out from Calista, it was God Blessed Texas by Little Texas.

It was dark and they grew quiet, each in their own thoughts.

Cord was just content sitting next to Annie. God, she smelled good. She had that clean, fresh scent uniquely her own. He found it intoxicating and he just wanted to put his face to her neck and inhale.

“It’s past my bedtime. It is a school night, you know,” Dan said to no one in particular, but they all laughed knowing that was Calista’s favorite saying. Even Annie knew that. Something she always remembered her mother saying while growing up, whenever she or Jake wanted to go out and the next day was a school day. Now Calista referred it to a work day.

They all pitched in and cleared and cleaned the area in record time.

At the parking lot, Calista got into the driver’s side of her car. Annie was just opening the door to the front passenger seat when Cord came up to her.

“Annie, wait.”

She turned around.

He stood facing her with a most charming grin. He had his hands in his front pockets. Gone was his cool confidence. In its place, there was a nervousness to him which made him look cute and boyish, vulnerable, yet still, something very sexy and charismatic about him.

“Do you want to, maybe, have dinner with me, sometime?”

“I’d like that.”

“Are you free Wednesday night?”

“Um,” she hesitated, “Yes, I believe I am.

“Great, I’ll pick you up at six-thirty?”

“Sure, that sounds great.”

“Great. I um, I’ll see you then.”

He waited for Annie to get in the car and before he shut the door, he bent down. To Calista, he said drive safely, and then he gave Annie a quick peck on her lips. Then he closed the door and walked away. He walked right into Lisa.

“Cord, you have to take me home.”

“What? No. I’m not taking you home. How’d you get here?”

“Jennie.”

“So, you’d better get going. She’s gonna pull out any minute.”

“I told my daddy that you would bring me home. He doesn’t trust anyone else but you, you know that.”

“Geez, Lisa, you gotta be kidding me.”

“No, please, Cord. I told him it would be you. It’s the only reason he let me come today.”

“Fine, get in the truck,” he said as he opened the driver’s side door and got in.

Lisa hesitated; she actually thought he was going to open the door for her.

He caught Calista pulling out, and what bothered him was the look on Annie’s face when she saw Lisa getting into his truck.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Cord said as he banged his hand on the steering wheel three times in succession of his cursing.

He picked up his cell phone and quickly dialed Calista, he didn’t have Annie’s number.

“Come on, pick up, pick up - shit.” It went to voice mail. He dialed again. Again it went to voice mail.

Calista, too, saw Lisa get in Cord’s truck and saw that Annie was offended. When her phone rang, she looked at it. “It’s him,” she said.

“Don’t answer it.”

“Sure?”

“Yes,” Annie said with finality.

Calista tossed it in her bag. It stopped ringing, but a moment later it rang again.

When Cord got home, after dropping Lisa off, he tried calling Calista again, but it went straight to voice mail, indicating she shut her phone off.

Annie rose an hour early that morning. She couldn’t sleep. She was disappointed in Cord, but she was excited about starting her job so she put him out of her mind, which she was finding out, was hard to do, especially when she replayed that kiss by the waterfall the day before. God, that kiss was explosive. Every time she relived it she felt a burst of pleasure shoot out from the very core of her.

She tiptoed down to the kitchen only to find Joan already up with a cup of coffee in her hand.

“Help yourself, it’s freshly brewed,” she said as she lifted her coffee cup to her mouth to take a sip.

“Thank you.” Annie poured herself a cup and added milk and sugar.

“What can I start working on?” She asked Joan.

“How about you work on the cheesecake and lemon squares, and I’ll do the biscuits and muffins? Whoever is done first can start cutting up the fruit for the fruit platter.”

“Sure.”

Annie asked, and Joan explained how she ran the kitchen and what was expected of her. They swapped recipes, and Joan loved Annie’s ideas. They talked while working and realized how well they worked together.

After setting up the dining room, buffet style, Annie hung around the kitchen until the guests finished their breakfast, occasionally checking and replenishing the food. She helped Joan clean up and then was done working for the day.

She was going upstairs to her room when she saw Calista by her bedroom door.

“Come in, we need to talk,” Calista said.

“What’s up, girl?” Annie said as she went to sit down on Calista’s bed.

“It’s Cord,” Calista said and noticed Annie rolling her eyes. “Yeah, I know you’re upset,” she continued, “But he’s driving me crazy. He keeps texting-” She paused as another text came in, “-See,” she said as she handed the phone to Annie.

Annie read it.

  Come on C. don’t be like that. Give me her #. I need to talk to her.

  Sent: Mon, 10:45 am

  By: Cord

“It’s your call, Annie. Do I give him the number, so he leaves me the hell alone?”

Annie hesitated, she didn’t want Calista to have to deal with it all day, but she couldn’t go through with this Cord and Lisa thing anymore.

“No, please don’t, I can’t deal with this. I feel like I’m causing so much trouble. It’s best if I forget him and they can get on with their lives.”

“I told you, she doesn’t mean anything to him.”

“Yes, you did, but actions speak louder, Calista, and actions are telling me something different.”

Just then another text came in.

   Now you’re not gonna answer me? Is she with u right now?

   Sent: Mon, 10:48 am

   By: Cord             

Calista started typing:

   Yes, and she said no to the #.

   Sent: Mon, 10:49 am

   By: Calista

Calista’s phone rang.

“Don’t answer it, please,” Annie begged.

“Okay. I just finished my rounds
.
Do you want to go down by the pool and work on our tans?” Calista asked as she tossed her phone on the bed.

Along with keeping the books to the B&B, Calista oversaw the day to day operations and that included making sure the rooms were clean and restocked, even if that meant she had to clean them herself. Fortunately for her, she didn’t have to that day. The regular maid was there.

“Give me five minutes to change and I’ll meet you down there,” Annie said and she left for her room.

Cord didn’t even bother to leave a message when Calista’s voice mail picked up. He just flung his phone against Storm’s stall, the big black stallion he was breaking in, as he muttered a few choice words. Lucky for him it didn’t break, it just dropped onto a pile of hay but he wouldn’t have known until he picked it up at the end of his work day. 

He wanted to get in his car and drive over to the B&B. Instead, he threw himself into his work. He was pushing Storm hard and Storm let him know that by rearing up and whinnying. After that, Cord became his usual gentle self with the beast and even though he was still angry, just being around Storm calmed him and for that he was grateful. He felt awful for taking out his frustrations on Storm.

After working out the horse, he groomed, as best he could, and fed him before putting him in his stall, and brought out another horse he was training. He needed him ready by Wednesday afternoon. That was when Scotty Lawson, the first hand of the T-Bar dude ranch, was coming to fetch him and another horse he was working with. He also needed to check on a couple of bulls that were being readied for bull riding in another month. That meant he had to head to his parents place and sure as shit, his father asked if he could check on a few things.

He finished so late at the end of the day; he just wanted to grab something to eat and go to sleep. He sent a text to Calista while in bed.

Just make sure Annie’s ready at 6:30 on Wednesday night.

   Sent: Mon, 11:02 pm

   By: Cord

Of course, there was no reply. He didn’t think there would be one.

Just before he fell asleep, he thought about the kiss he shared with Annie and all he wanted to do was kiss her again and taste her sweet lips. He had experience in kissing lots of girls, but none tasted as sweet or had such soft lips as Annie.