Loving You: A Cowboy Romance (Texas Hill Country Romance Book 1) (5 page)

Popping a strawberry in her mouth, Annie asked Joan if there were more biscuits and gravy to put out in the dining room for the dinner guests. It was 6:30 Wednesday evening.

Joan filled up the platter and Annie turned around to walk into the dining room.

There by the hall entrance to the kitchen, leaning against the wall was Cord. He was wearing tight dark blue denim jeans, a tight black T-shirt, black cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, firmly placed on his head.

Annie tried to show a look of indifference and hoped he didn’t notice she was drooling. He looked so sexy and dark.

The corners of his mouth slowly curved up and she could have melted like butter.
Damn, he noticed.

“Hi” she said softly.

“Hi, you ready to go?”

“Um… no, I can’t, I’m working,” she said, looking at the plate of biscuits and gravy in her hands.

Joan took the plate from her hands and left the room.

“We had a date.”

“Um, about that, I’m going to have to canc-”

“No, don’t,” he interrupted her. “Don’t you dare cancel. You should have called me if you were going to cancel.”

“I don’t have your num-”

“No, no, don’t even go there. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you since Sunday. I know Calista told you. You didn’t want to talk to me. Come on, come out with me, I’ll explain.”

“I told you, I’m working.”

Joan came back in the kitchen. “Go on, honey, I got it. You did so much today, already. I can handle it. There isn’t much left to do anyway. Go on, go. Cord, say hi to your folks for me.”

“Will do, Joan.”

Annie looked from Joan to Cord. She did do more than was expected of her that day. She prepared and served snacks to the guests, prepared dinner, and she made a fresh berry tart with mascarpone cream for dessert because Joan had a doctor’s appointment. Not that she was complaining. She really enjoyed her baking.

“Go on, get out of here. I’ll see you in the morning.”

With that, Joan turned around and carried the berry tart to the dining room.

“I’ll give you a few minutes. I’ll be outside,” Cord said. He, too, turned and walked out of the kitchen.

Annie paused a moment then ran up the stairs to change from flat sandals to a pair of sandals with heels. She left the short white dress with navy blue horizontal stripes on. She checked her face, removed the clip in her hair and blew it straight real quick. She picked up her purse and left her room.

As Annie walked out onto the porch, she saw Jake talking to Cord, who was leaning against a,
WOW,
is that a new Chevrolet Camaro?
It was black with two broad, white stripes on the hood and in the back. She walked over to the guys. Smiling, she said, “Hey, Jake.”

“Hey, gorgeous. You two going out?”

“Just grabbing a bite to eat,” she said.

“Just, huh, must be more than just, Cord never takes this car out on a week night.”

They all laughed.

“It’s beautiful,” Annie said as she turned to Cord.

“Thank you. You ready to go?”

“Yes.”

He walked her to the passenger side door.

Jake walked away. “Make sure you have her home by ten or I’ll have to get my shotgun out.”

Cord met Annie’s eyes. “Dickhead,” he mumbled, and Annie smiled. She knew the guys were close knit and he was not angry at Jake.

After she got in the car, Cord closed the door and walked around to his side and got in, started it up, and they drove away.

“Oh, is this a stick?”

“Yeah. Do you know how to drive one?”

“No, I had a boyfriend who drove a stick. He tried to teach me once but I kept stalling. I think he thought I was going to break it or something.”

“It’s not hard.”

“To break?”

“No, to drive,” Cord said smiling as he stopped the car. He got out and went to her side and opened the door.

She gave him a puzzled look.

“I bet I can teach you in the next ten minutes.”

“I doubt that.”

“Come on, give it a try.”

“Okay,” she said, and got out and went around to the driver’s side.

Once in the car, he began the lesson. “You know you have an extra pedal on the floor?”

She nodded.

“It’s the clutch, and it’s the one all the way to the left. Then you have your brake in the middle, and the accelerator on the right.”

He paused as he watched her identify each pedal. He then pointed to the gear shift and reviewed the arrangement, “
1st is up and left, 2nd is down and left, 3rd up center, 4th down center, 5th up right, 6th gear down and right. Reverse is far right. Got it?”

She looked at him like he had two heads. He chuckled and repeated it all. “Now take a moment to absorb it all.” After a while he continued. “Good?”

“I think so.”

“Okay, repeat it to me.”

She did.

“Good girl.”

Then he identified the hand brake to her. “Anytime you need to stop if you’re confused, don’t be afraid to use it.”

She nodded.

He gave her a few more instructions. He made her practice pressing and depressing the clutch and getting used to the sounds.

“Okay, you ready?”

“Yes,” she said as she shook her head no.

He laughed. “Relax, you’ll be fine.”

“Okay, here goes. Please don’t stall, please don’t stall, please don’t stall,” she repeated over and over as she started it up.

Boom, she stalled.

“Ugh,” she said and looked to Cord with puppy dog eyes and a pout.

Cord laughed, shaking his head.

“Let’s try that again. This time try balancing a light downward pressure on the accelerator while slowly releasing pressure on the clutch pedal.”

She nodded.

He watched her concentrate. She looked so cute biting her lower lip. 
             

She started it up again and was moving. She looked at him in surprise and smiled.

He slowly guided her through the shifts.

When they were on open road and she was comfortable, she said to him with a wicked smile. “Let’s see what this baby can do.”

“Go for it,” he said. And she took off.

“She drove doing 65 – 75 and on a curve she glanced over at Cord with a smile.

“Are you holding the ‘Oh Shit’ handle?” She looked up over the door where his hand was holding the handle.

He followed her eyes and laughed. “Hah, you call it that, too. I thought it was a country thing.”

“Nope.” She looked in the rear view mirror. “Shit, there’s a cop behind us.”

He turned to see the lights of the squad car on.

“Slow down,” he told her.

And that was where she panicked.

“I don’t know how.” She sounded distressed. “What do I do, how do I do it?”

The cop used his loud speaker. “Pull over, now,” he said.

Cord calmly talked her through stopping.

The cop came over to the Annie’s side of the car.

“License, registration, insurance,” the cop demanded without bending down to see her, so all Annie saw was his mid section.

She looked through her wallet for her license and Cord rummaged through the glove box for the insurance and registration.

The cop continued, “Do you know I clocked you going 75 in a 50.”

“Oh, um, I’m really sorry, sir-”

“Hey, Jimmy,” Cord said as he handed the papers to him through Annie’s window.

“Cord McCreedy, that you?” asked the cop, who bent down to see Cord sitting in the passenger seat, and for the first time got a look at Annie.

“Yep.”

“It looked like your car, but it being a week night, I thought, nah, couldn’t be.”

“Are you kidding me?” Annie turned to Cord and asked, laughing.

Chuckling, he shrugged. “This is Annie. She’s the baker Joan hired at the B&B.”

“Oh yeah, Calista’s friend from school. How you doing, sugar?” he asked in a typical southern drawl.

She tried to give him her license as she said, “Good, thank you, sir.”

He pushed the license back to her and said, “That’s fine, Annie, no need to see it. Just slow down a little. Wouldn’t want to give Cord a heart attack if a deer runs out in front of his car or something, now, would we?”

“No sir. Thank you, I will.”

Cord stuck his hand out her window and shook Jimmy’s hand. “Thanks, man,” he said as Jimmy shook it.

“No problem. Just don’t mention it to Sheriff Landry or he’ll have my badge,” Jimmy said chuckling.

“Not a word,” Cord replied.

Jimmy walked back to his squad car and drove away.

“Would the Sheriff really take his badge away?” Annie asked when they were alone.

“Hell yeah. He’s Jimmy’s daddy and it wouldn’t be the first time he took Jimmy’s badge away,” Cord said as he opened the car door to go around to the driver’s side. “I’ll take it from here, darlin’.”

They pulled into a little, out of the way, honky-tonk he liked. He decided not to go to Roxy’s for a while. Not that he expected those guys he and Rory fought with to be there. Roxy’s was their usual hangout and he never saw them there before. They most likely will never step foot in there again.

Once out of the car, Cord took Annie’s hand in his and they walked into the bar.

The bar itself was full but the booths were half empty. He motioned to a woman, who Annie took to be the hostess, his usual booth. She nodded as he walked Annie over. Once seated, Alice came over with menus. She was an older woman, thin, with big red hair and a weathered face. She looked to be in her mid to late forties.

“Hi, Cord, how are you, hon?”

“Good, thanks, and you?”

“Oh, you don’t want to know. Becky’s pregnant again. Different father. Don’t know what I’m gonna do with her. Why couldn’t she meet someone like you, sweetheart?”

“Aw, you know I’m one of a kind and-” they both said at the same time, “-they broke the mold.”

“So you keep reminding me,” she said with a chuckle.

“This is Annie,” he said gesturing to Annie. “Annie, this is Alice. She owns the place.”

“Please to meet you,” Annie said.

“Pleasure’s all mine, sweetie. Lucky girl,” she said mostly to herself.  “Two beers?”

Cord looked to Annie with a question in his eyes.

“Oh, no please, I’ll have a diet coke?”

“Sure, with or without lemon?”

“With.”

“Cord?”

“The usual.”

“Right. Need a few minutes to order?”

Again, Cord looked at Annie.

“Yeah, thanks,” he said.

“No problem, honey.” And Alice was gone.

When they were alone, Cord explained to Annie that Becky was Alice’s daughter, and she already had two kids with two different fathers. Only being twenty-three, it looked like she wasn’t slowing down anytime soon.

“What, you’re not interested in being baby daddy number four?” Annie grinned.

“Yeah, no, I don’t think so,” he replied while lifting up a corner of his mouth in a lopsided smile that Annie thought was adorable.

“So, what do you want to eat?” he asked as he opened a menu and perused it.

“Oh, um, I’m not hungry.”

He looked at her, over his menu.

“I didn’t plan on going out tonight, so I ate dinner back at the house.”

He put the menu down and stared into her eyes.

Alice came by with their drinks and to take their order.

“Cheeseburger with fries, and an order of nachos. Bring that at the same time,” Cord said.

“Medium rare?”

“Yeah.”

“Guacamole?

He looked to Annie, but she didn’t offer any hint.

“Yeah, thanks,” he said as he handed the menus to her.

“Be out soon.” With that Alice left them alone.

Cord watched Annie grab a strand of her hair with her right hand and absently started twirling it. Her left hand was on her drink.

“Thanks for agreeing to come out with me tonight. I need to explain some things-”

“No need to, you don’t owe me an explanation.”

They sat quietly looking at each other for a long time. Tim McGraw’s ‘Better than I used to be’ had been playing in the background, on the juke box.

After a while, he sighed, grimaced, and removed his hat. He ran a hand through his hair.

God, why does everything he do look so hot,
she thought to herself, while studying his face.