Rode Hard, Put Up Wet (Rough Riders #2)(83)

“Stay out of this, Macie. This is between Jack, and me.”


“But—”


“Turn around, coward. I won’t sucker punch you, like you sucker punched me.


"Cause I wanna see teeth fly when I belt you in the mouth for tryin’ to steal my girl.”


Jack eased the stool around slowly.


Carter braced himself and cocked his fist.


But the man facing him wasn’t Jack Donohue. It was his brother Colby’s friend, Trevor Glanzer.


“Trevor? What the hell are you doin’ here?”


“Plannin’ on kickin’ your butt as soon as I finish my pie. What is wrong with you, Carter? It ain’t like you to pick fights.”


Carter ignored the question and glanced at Macie. “Where’s Jack?”


“How should I know? He’s your friend.”


“Because last night…” Damn. Could he be wrong? Could he really be that paranoid?


Yes, when it came to Macie all rationality vanished.


Because he loved her.


Wildly.


Out-of-his-freakin’-mind-all-or-nothing-kind-of-love.


Without taking his gaze from Macie, Carter said, “Trevor. Step outside for a minute.”


Trevor mumbled something and slipped out the door.


“Please fill in the fuzzy details.”


Macie’s eyes narrowed. “After you passed out, Jack passed on the real reason you’d asked him here, and I passed on being any part of it.”


“Really?”


“No. I went Wahoo! and screwed his brains out while you were sacked out in the lawn chair.”


The feeling of relief nearly buckled his knees. “So you didn’t, I mean, you don’t want that?”


“A ménage? I was kidding about multiple cowboys, Carter.”


“You were?”


“That’s not something I’m interested in trying at this point in my life.” Those all-knowing hazel eyes clouded. “Hey. Did you just call me your girl?”


“Yes, you are my girl.” My everything.


“I am not a girl, Carter McKay.”


“Girl, woman, whatever, you’re mine and I was ready to kill my best friend for makin’ a move on you.”


“He didn’t.”


“Lucky for him.” Carter stalked her, until her back was against the cement wall.


“Kiss me and make me all better, darlin’. Your sweet, hot kisses heal my damn foolish pride.”


Macie whispered, “You are such a dumbass,” and lifted her lips to his for the sweetest kiss on the planet.


When Carter could feel his heart beating again, he picked Macie up and threw her over his shoulder. He yelled, “Velma? Macie’s takin’ a sick day. She’s feelin’ a mite poorly.”


Velma poked her head through the doorway and grinned. “That’s fine. Just make sure she’s here tomorrow.”


“She’ll be here bright and early with bells on.”


She sighed. “Definitely better than dinner theater.”


As Carter carted Macie outside, she said, “Trevor? Umm. Tell my dad I won’t be home tonight.”


“All night,” Carter added and tossed her in his truck.


Macie expected Carter to play grab-ass with her on the way to his place. But he was strangely subdued. He parked and looked at her.


“Stay here until I come getcha, okay?”


She nodded. After ten minutes passed, she couldn’t stand waiting any longer. She snuck inside the darkened trailer and heard him thumping around in his bedroom.


“Carter?”


“I thought I told you—”


“Yeah, I know. I don’t listen very well.” Macie paused in the doorway and watched him wrestling with a set of silky peach-colored sheets. Which, by the looks of it, were a size too small, which was probably the reason they wouldn’t fit on the bed. “What are you doing?”


“Screwing this up, apparently.” Disgusted, he tossed the sheets aside. “I wanted it to be perfect.” A sound, half sigh/half laugh, rumbled from his chest. He scrubbed his hands over the stubble on his face. “But there ain’t moonlight, hell, it ain’t even night. I don’t have candles, or soft music, unless you count Faith Hill. No flowers. Or champagne. Now I can’t even get the damn sheets on the bed. And to top it off, I have wicked hangover.


Some romantic setting, huh?”


“Why are you setting a scene? I don’t need all that for you to seduce me.”


Carter looked at her. Her breath stalled in her lungs. Those blue, blue eyes held everything she’d ever wanted and he was looking at her. Offering it to her.


“It’s not about seduction. It’s about love. I love you, Macie. Really, really love you and I’ve never said that to another girl—woman—in my whole life. And I wanted it to be perfect when I told you—”


His words were cut off when she launched herself at him and kissed him. When Carter realized she was crying, he pulled back.