MacKenzie Fire(64)

I feel sick inside. Silly me, thinking I could play this sexy game with Ian and not let my heart get involved. Turns out a high school girl crush also comes with the high school girl broken heart when the girl realizes she’s been played. Andie was totally right about me. I don’t do flings very well if this heartache is any indication.

“Wow. A calf? Are you into ranching, then?” She tilts her head to the side a bit, acting like my answer really matters. I feel like I’m being interrogated in a very polite way.

“Parts of it.” I’m supremely uncomfortable right now. All I want to do is bail. “Will you excuse me for a second?” I say, separating myself from the two of them. “I need to go into the kitchen for a minute.”

I take off before either of them can react, and I don’t stop until I’m standing in the corner of the room in front of the fridge. I’m staring at a calendar that has days marked off when someone speaks from behind me.

“Is this the girl who shot Ian MacKenzie? Because if so, I wanna shake her hand.”

I turn around and find myself facing a six-and-a-half foot tall man. Or maybe he’s a bear. He could possibly also be a giant, upright wild boar. A light bulb goes on in my head. This is the man-bear-pig that Andie told me about! I’d met him once before at her wedding, but his hair had been brushed and his beard half this size and neatly combed.

Wow. He looks like a total savage right now in a kind of wild Sasquatch biker sort of way. It’s not totally awful. I wonder what he’d look like with a shave and a nice cut. I’d bet pretty hot, actually.

I hold out my hand and smile. “I am she. And you must be Boog.”

He smoothes his beard out with one hand which really does nothing to tame it, and shakes my hand with the other. “Honored to meet you. It’s about time someone shot that rabble rousing degenerate.”

I totally love this guy already. “Actually, it wasn’t me, it was karma, but same result.”

“Come again?” he asks.

I wave the conversation away. “Never mind. Hey, thanks for inviting me to this party … or letting me come … or not kicking me out.” I realize as I’m talking that I’m kind of a party crasher. “Ian’s my ride so please don’t kick me out.”

“Don’t be silly. You’re the guest of honor here.”

“I am?” I blush over his attempts to make me feel better, even though he’s totally lying. This is way better than my earlier act where I was busy fooling myself with a guy way too hot for my own good in front of way too many witnesses. I’m back on solid ground now, for the most part. Boog is an easy person to talk to.

“Yep,” he assures me. “What can I get you? You hungry? I got some pizza and wings in the other room.”

“No, thanks. I don’t have much of an appetite right now.” Something about a guy named Ian and being his fake girlfriend upsets my stomach.

Boog grins. At least I think that’s what he’s doing. His eyes crinkle up in the outside corners, but his mouth is too covered in black, pube-like beard hair to see his mouth very well. “How about a little chocolate?” he asks. “You like chocolate?”

I snort. “Do cougar scratches burn like a bejesus?”

He laughs really loud and long, holding onto his impressive belly. “I don’t know,” he finally says, “you tell me.”

“Hell yes, they do.” I smile. “Where’s your stash?”

He moves over to a cupboard and opens it up, pulling down a tupperware container full of chocolate bars. “Don’t tell anyone,” he says conspiratorially. “I’m not supposed to eat the stuff.”

I take a bar and rip off the wrapping. “You on a diet?” I bite into it and almost melt with the happiness that’s on my tongue.

“Should be.” He takes a bar too and puts the container back.

“What’re you guys eating?” Ian asks, walking up behind me.

I turn around in mid-chew. My arm goes behind my back in a sad attempt at remaining stealth.

“Nuffing,” I say, working hard at swallowing the evidence.

“Liar.” Ian looks at Boog who’s making no attempt to cover his tracks. “Cheating on your diet again?”

Boog eats half the bar in one bite. “Nope.” When he’s done chewing he continues. “Just getting my daily ration of anti-oxidants, flavonoids, and theobromine.”

It’s kind of fascinating how Boog looks like a man-bear-pig but talks like a professor. It makes me want to spend more time with him to see what kind of secrets he might be keeping.

Thinking that reminds me of Ian and all the secrets he’s keeping, not only from me, but from Ginny. Storm clouds move in over my mood.

“You ready to leave yet?” Ian asks.

“Nope.” I keep eating my chocolate, out in the open now since Boog didn’t try to hide it. “I’m just getting started.” Pushing myself off the counter, I hold up my chocolate bar in a salute to Boog. “Thanks for the energy boost.”

As I’m leaving the kitchen, I hear Boog’s response. “Anytime. Mi casa, su casa.”

Ian says nothing and I don’t stick around long enough to see if that changes.





Chapter Thirty