Brazen (Brazen #1)(19)

She smiled and held her hands up. “I’m fine, mamacita. English please. My head hurts too bad to keep up.”

“That boy,” Carmen sputtered. “Leaving my niña out God knows where. What was he thinking?” She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. “I ask him when he comes in. ‘Where is Jasmine?’ He mumbles something about you walking back. Walking back! In this heat. Why did you not ride back with him, niña?”

“He made me angry,” Jasmine replied. “And no, I don’t want to talk about it. What I want is a cold shower and fresh clothes. Then I’m going into town for the evening, so don’t hold supper for me.”

Carmen opened her mouth to protest but Jasmine dropped a quick kiss on her cheek and headed for the stairs.

Seth was who knew where, and Zane’s truck hadn’t been here when she’d walked up. She didn’t exactly have permission to use Seth’s truck, but he had said in the past that she could use it when she needed it. If that was a year ago, oh well. She was annoyed enough with him not to care.

Chapter Eight

It took her half of the drive into town to get used to driving Seth’s big-ass truck. She had to lean forward in the seat so she could see over the hood. But she made it to the bar just as dusk fell, and she couldn’t wait to get inside and see who all was there.

She climbed out of the truck and ran her hands over her form-fitting jeans. Then she reached back into the cab and snagged her straw cowboy hat. She shoved it onto her head and glanced down to check her appearance.

Her cropped T-shirt hung just below her br**sts, baring her belly ring and midriff. Her jeans rode low on her hips and clung to every curve on their way down. She smiled. She looked hot, damn it.

Any woman, my ass.

She walked into the bar and peered around the interior. Not much had changed. It was still smoky as hell, and the click clack of balls colliding on the pool table echoed from the back of the room.

A hard arm snaked around her waist and hauled her up against an equally hard chest.

“Jasmine, darlin’, what the hell are you doing here?”

“J.T.!”

She turned her face up to smile at him. He dropped a kiss on her forehead then gestured to a nearby table. “Come have a seat with me.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Don’t you mean come where you can keep an eye on me?”

He grinned and ushered her over to the table. “My days of tossing your ass out of the bar are over. You’re legal now.”

“Not worried I’ll cause trouble?” she asked mischievously.

He winked as he sat down and held up two fingers at the passing waitress. “You and trouble are a given. It’s only a matter of how much and when.”

She shook her head and sat down across from him. “I wasn’t that bad.”

His green eyes twinkled at her. “Yes, you were. Kept me on my toes. Truth was, I looked forward to every weekend. I always wondered what scheme you’d concoct next.”

She rolled her eyes. “It got boring out at the ranch. Seth and Zane were having all the fun.”

“And now?” J.T. asked.

“Now, I left their sorry asses at home,” she grumbled.

“In that case, try not to have too much to drink. I don’t want to worry about your driving yourself home, and I damned sure don’t want to have to lock you up for a DUI.”

She chuckled at the concern in his voice. “Don’t worry, J.T. If I have too much to drink, I’ll crawl over to the hotel and stay over.”

“Or you could just call Seth or Zane to come get you,” he said pointedly.

“I’d prefer not.”

J.T.’s brow creased. They were interrupted as the waitress plunked down two cold bottles of beer in front of them. Jasmine gripped her beer and took a sip as she surveyed the rest of the room.

“What’s going on with you and those boys?” J.T. asked. “Not like you to want to avoid them when you’ve spent the last six years velcroed to them.”

Jasmine winced. “Am I that obvious?”

“Not sure what you’re getting on about, sweetheart. I just wondered if they’d done something to piss you off, and then I marveled at the idea of them being able to do something to make you angry.” He chuckled and shook his head.

She raised the bottle to her lips again and took a long drink. “I’m just here to have a good time. No other reason.”

He nodded and shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing wrong with that.”

She raised her hand as the waitress walked by again. When she stopped, Jasmine leaned forward so the woman could hear. “Two shots of tequila please.”

As she sat back, J.T. frowned disapprovingly.

“Now, J.T.,” she drawled. “I said I’d crash at the hotel if I got too intoxicated. Besides, I’m driving Seth’s truck, and I have no desire to find out what he’d do if I wrapped it around a telephone poll.”

“Oh, shit.”

“What?”

“Does Seth know you’re driving his truck?”

“Well, he does now,” she said with a grin.

J.T. chuckled. “It’s going to be fun as hell to have you around again. I only wish I was there to see Seth shit a brick when he realizes you took off in his truck.”