Playing With Fire (Tangled in Texas, #2)(39)

That only made Jake hysterical. “See what I mean?” As his laughter came to an end, there was a brief silence. Then he said, “Funny how one woman can make everything around you look so different, isn’t it?”

Cowboy rubbed at the back of his neck and grinned. “Like getting lost in my own backyard.”

I cringed at that, knowing the feeling well myself. After all, it was exactly how I felt every time I was around him. But no matter what Cowboy said, he wasn’t interested in me for anything more than a roll in the proverbial hay.

“Who would’ve thought Cowboy would get an itchin’ for a girl with a brain,” Judd said, grinning.

“Well, if Anna had half a brain, she’d run like hell from the likes of him,” Ox said, thumbing over to Cowboy. Ox chuckled and shrugged his eyebrows suggestively. “So, Cowboy, you get her in bed, yet?”

I mentally gasped. Hey!

No wonder women had such a hard time trusting men. The callous asses were all the same. Always bragging about getting into a girl’s pants. Guess it only proved what I’d thought all along.

Cowboy’s eyes burrowed holes in his friend. “Shut up, prick.”

“Shutting up now,” Ox said, although he continued grinning.

“Damn,” Jake said, glaring at Cowboy. “What’s wrong with you today? You know we’re just teasing. Anna’s a great girl. Why are you being so overprotective and getting wound up?”

“Just drop it, okay?” Cowboy leaned back against a nearby stall barely in my field of vision and crossed one boot over the other in a comfortable-looking position. He sighed. “Look, she’s got bigger problems than worrying about me chasing after her. She’s having some problems with the Barlow brothers.”

“Those turds?” Ox asked. “What the hell would they have against our sweet little Anna?”

Our? Since when had I become theirs?

“She told them if they didn’t stop shooting fireworks over her house that she’d call the police on them.”

“Shitfire!” Ox said, letting loose a high-octane laugh. “For a mouse, that girl has some brass balls on her.”

Judd scratched his head and looked a little worried. “Cowboy, you tell her to be careful with them Barlow boys. Fires have been known to start around them.”

Ox’s comment had made me smile, but Judd’s wiped it away and had my teeth worrying my bottom lip. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“I’m taking care of it,” Cowboy told them.

He was taking care of it? Yeah, right. By doing what—avoiding me?

“If you need any help…” Jake started.

“Yeah, yeah. I know where to find you, Mr. Hotshot FBI man.”

“Look who’s talking,” Jake said with a teasing grin. “You’ve got all the women of Liberty County hot and bothered over that photo shoot you did. Not counting the ones outside of Liberty. I had three female agents in our Houston office ask me to get them autographed calendars. And one of them wants to know if the hat was photoshopped in. Pretty sure she’s hoping to dig up an original proof somewhere.”

“That shit wasn’t photoshopped. Used the hat off my own head and placed it on my other head,” Cowboy responded proudly, making the others chuckle.

I rolled my eyes. Of course he had. Because sexually violating a hat in order to get a rise out of women for the notoriety would be something only Cowboy would do.

“It was for a good cause,” Ox stated. “Those three charities are going to receive way more funds because of what you did.”

He did it to raise money for charity? I had no idea, or I never would have walked away from him at the chili cook-off without buying a calendar…even if I would have thrown it away to keep from eyeing it daily. Damn.

“All right, enough standing around gossiping like a bunch of hens,” Jake said, smiling. “When are you going to go saddle-break that crazy f*cking horse? Or are you going to make one of us do it for your lazy ass?”

Cowboy laughed. A lot. “Like any of you could?”

“How hard could it be?” Judd asked. “Don’t you just mount up and hold on?”

“No, no,” Ox said with amusement. “That’s what Jake does with Emily.”

My God. They were worse than a group of women when it came to gossip.

Cowboy and Judd chuckled, but Jake’s mouth morphed into an irritated snarl. “Might want to watch how you’re talking about my wife, *.”

“God, why are you and Cowboy so sensitive today? You both on your periods or something? Jesus, Jake, you know we love Emily. Hell, we probably like her better than we do you. At least she’s fun.”

“Emily’s not fun. She’s frustrating. There’s a difference.”

Suddenly, a woman cleared her throat somewhere behind them. I hadn’t seen her walk in, but I recognized the sound of her voice immediately.

Apparently, so did Jake. He silently mouthed the word “Emily” to Cowboy and received a terse nod in return.

Then Cowboy beamed with a gleam in his eye, silently letting Jake know that he’d seen her standing behind him the whole time.

Jake turned around to face her, but kept one hand behind his back prominently displaying his middle finger to Cowboy. “Hey, honey.”