Page 16 of Cowboy and the Convict

Mariah blew out a long sigh and had the audacity to act aggravated. "It's not like there's a neon arrow pointing to it."

Janie stared at her friend, eyes getting wider by the second until they burned from her lids stretching so far. "It is literally front and center."

Mariah's earlier smile was completely gone now, replaced by a frown. "I knew I shouldn't have told you. You're still fucking bitter over Griffin falling in love with Dianna."

Janie's head bounced back like Mariah had slapped her. "Are you kidding me right now?" Sure, she hadn't initially been happy about Dianna and Griffin's relationship, but it had nothing to do with her history with Griffin. The reason she'd been unhappy was because Dianna’s amazing—beautiful and smart and successful and sweet and kind. And, up until recently, Janie’s opinion was that Griffin was a piece of shit. But, in the time her boss and ex had been together, she'd seen him be everything she’d wanted. A good and communicative partner who supported Dianna at every turn.

It was the kind of thing that might send her spiraling if she thought on it too long. But thanks to the steady stream of bills and debt she'd racked up while chasing down more unfinished dreams than she could count, sitting and stewing in her own shortcomings wasn't something she had much time for.

"I'm sorry." Mariah's shoulders slumped as she leaned against the counter. "I shouldn't have said that. I know you don't have any sort of feelings for Griffin anymore." She lifted one arm to swipe at a bit of her hair. "I just really like this guy, and you’re kind of shitting on my parade."

Janie sighed. Bitterness was an emotion that always came easily. One she spoke just as fluently as bitchiness and sarcasm. It made her the kind of person you wanted to have your back when shit went down. But it also occasionally made her a shitty friend, too jaded and cynical to simply be happy for someone she loved.

Forcing her tone to soften, she twisted on a smile. "I'm sorry. I just worry about you and don't ever want you to waste time on someone who doesn't deserve you." It was the same sort of conclusion she'd jumped to with Dianna, and it nearly led to the loss of their friendship. She didn't want to make the same mistake with Mariah. "I really genuinely want him to be as great as you think he is, because you’re awesome and deserve someone fucking amazing."

A little of Mariah's smile came back. "Thank you."

Janie stepped away from the sink, coming to rest her hands on Mariah’s shoulders. "But, fair warning, if he ends up hurting you, I might make him dead."

Mariah rolled her eyes on a laugh. "I would say you can't go around killing men who are mean to your friends, but I feel like you’d do well in prison. You'd probably end up running the place."

That was honestly a really nice compliment. Janie grinned at her friend. "Believe it or not, I don't plan on finding out. I’ve gone this long without getting arrested, and it's a life goal of mine to keep that streak going." Not that goals were her strong suit. Or streaks. Or consistency. Or follow through. That's why she latched onto any sort of achievement and held tight with both hands. "So, unless they can start arresting people for outstanding debts, I think I'll be able to remain on this side of the bars."

Mariah’s expression fell a little. "I thought you were starting to get caught up."

Janie sighed again, dropping her hands and turning back to the potatoes. "Caught up is relative. I’ve made a lot of dumb mistakes over the years. It was going to catch up with me sooner or later."

She'd hiked halfway down lots of career paths in her lifetime. That was how she found Mariah. They met during her stint in culinary school. But while Mariah finished and went on to have a great career, she dropped out part way through, realizing running a kitchen wasn't how she wanted to spend her life.

Unfortunately, just because you didn't get a degree, didn't mean you weren’t still responsible for your student loan debt, so her history of quitting cost her dearly. Not only did she still owe money on her time in culinary school, she still owed for the two thirds of a cosmetology degree she had, the time she spent in massage school, and the community college where she took a stab at accounting.

Mariah leaned in to give her a tight hug. “You’ll get it all straightened out.” She pulled back, meeting her gaze. “And you might even meet a nice guy while you’re at it.”

Janie snorted. “I’m pretty sure a nice guy will see me and run in the opposite direction.” She wouldn’t blame him either. Chances were good she’d chew him up and spit him out anyway.

Mariah wiggled her brows. “Doesn’t seem like Officer Peters runs when you cross his path.”

She’d been waiting for her friend to bring that up. They hadn’t had much time to chat since the run-in she’d had with Devon in the bar a few nights ago, and it was only a matter of time before her friend wanted all the details. “That’s because Officer Peters isn’t a nice guy.”

Even as she said it, the words felt less right. Maybe not wrong, but also not entirely correct. Any man who spent two full hours in both police gear and an apron assembling cinnamon rolls, couldn't be all bad. But any man who took every opportunity to point out shortcomings the way Devon Peters did, couldn't be all good either. Regardless, he was pretty fucking good at getting rid of screaming menstrual cramps, so there was a place for him in this world.

"Cut him some slack. He's a widower with three teenage daughters." Mariah went back to their morning task. "He's got a lot going on."

"We all have a lot going on." Janie looked her friend over. "Except for you. You've only got a ranch hand who definitely won't be able to find your G-spot going on."

They'd been friends long enough that Mariah recognized her sarcasm, and instead of being offended, she laughed. "Whatever, bitch. At least I've seen a dick in the past five years."

"I've seen one." Janie dug back into her stack of potatoes. "I just didn't have any interest in touching it." She'd been in enough tumultuous relationships to experience some pretty good sex in her day, but the fallout wasn't worth it. Especially when she learned the better a guy was in bed, the more problematic he was outside of it.

Maybe it was actually great that Mariah's little ranch hand was terrible in the sack. He’d probably treat her like a fucking queen. As long as she invested in a good vibrator, she might just live happily ever after.

The rest of the morning flew by in a blur of food preparation and idle chatter. Like her relationship history, her job history was all over the place, so she'd worked a decent number of jobs over the years. Enough to know that she was lucky to find the two she had now. Working at The Inn and The Baking Rack with people she liked, doing things she didn't hate, was more than she'd had up to this point. Add in her little trailer on the outskirts of town, and she had it pretty good in Moss Creek.

For the first time in her life, things were looking up and—outside of her run-ins with Officer Peters—she was almost feeling pretty good about where she was in life.

For the most part. There was still no forgetting all the ways she'd fucked up to this point—especially as she watched every penny she made disappear from her bank account—but she wasn't making shit worse. No more pretending she could follow through on a career path. No more dreaming she'd find a man to whisk her off her feet.

The revelation was surprisingly freeing. Depressing, but freeing.

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