Page 68 of Hotter 'N Hell

I hadn’t really considered that. But did a lot of the women in the congregation flirt with him? I didn’t stick around after Mass to watch, and I wasn’t at any of the other meetings he had during the week. The thought of him flirting back with one of them had jealousy slowly clawing its way up out of the hole I’d tried to stuff it in. I didn’t get to be jealous of him. He wasn’t mine.

“I’m starving,” I told him.

“Right behind you,” Crow replied.

He was very literal about that. He stayed right behind me, all the way to a picnic table, where Mary was waving me over. When I sat down across from her, he sat down beside me. Mary glanced at him, then me, then back to him before dropping her gaze to her plate and picking up her fork.

“I just love creamed potatoes without any lumps. The smoother, the better,” she said before shoveling some in her mouth.

I had never given much thought to the consistency of mashed potatoes, but I smiled anyway.

“Do you ever go to the rodeo?” Crow asked.

“Never been! I want to go though. I just never have,” Mary replied, bright-eyed.

Crow hadn’t been asking her, but I did not want her to know that. When he didn’t reply, I knew he was waiting on my answer.

I looked at Mary. “You should put that on a to-do list. Then, make yourself check it off when you do it. That way, you’ll get around to it. I work best with checklists.”

Then, I turned my gaze to Crow, not missing the amusement in his eyes at my attempt to keep that from being awkward orembarrassing for Mary.

“I’ve not been in a while,” I told him. “It’s been about a year.” I left out that it had also been with my dead ex and the night he met Halo. Something I had forced Gathe to tell me when no one else would.

“How do you feel about bull riding?” he asked.

I swung my gaze to Mary. “What about you? Ever watched bull riding on television?”

She pushed her glasses up her nose. “I watched this series on Netflix. Loved it! It was calledWildfire. Anyway, there is a character that comes in as a love interest of one of the main characters for a season. He’s a bull rider. I watched him, but”—she made a pained face—“he got killed on one of those bulls. I cried for a solid hour after.”

That was not what I had expected. I did my best to keep my face neutral and not smile. “That’s, uh, tragic,” I replied.

“It was!” She seemed truly upset over it.

I turned to Crow, who wasn’t covering up his amusement. I had a right mind to stomp his foot. He had better not laugh at her.

“I think it’s exciting, but then I’ve never seen anyone killed riding one before, so…” I told him.

“Neither has she. It was a TV show.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, and he ducked his head to hide his grin.

When he composed himself, he looked at me. “What about going with me on Friday night? I won’t be on it too long, and I promise not to die.”

I had been picking up the roll on my plate and paused. Was he asking me out?

“You ride bulls?!” Mary almost shouted.

This time, Crow wasn’t amused. His eyes stayed locked on me. What did I say?

“Sounds like the exciting table.”

Jude’s voice startled me, and my gaze snapped off Crow to see Jude watching me.

“Oh, it is. Father, did you know Crow rode bulls?” Mary’s amazement made me think perhaps Crow should have asked her out.

“I believe I’ve heard it mentioned,” Jude said.

I was staring down at my plate now. Not sure where to look. My mac and cheese was currently what I was studying.

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