Page 71 of Caught By A Cowboy

“Kendra…” She takes a long, deep breath. “Now that I located my good jeans, I…I was wondering if maybe tonight you might–”

“You coming dancing, Kendra?” Kyle strolls out from the kitchen and interrupts, wiping the blood from his nose that I’m sure wasn’t there when he came in. “Me and my bro here are hitting up a bar in the city, it’s a real hoot.” He slaps his brother on the shoulder, clearly pissing him off.

“Dancing?” Kendra’s eyes widen and I don’t know if it’s out of shock or excitement.

“Well, Tyler here don’t do the dancin’ part, he got two left feet. He much prefers to watch but I could teach ya a thing or two,” he promises resting his elbow on his brother's shoulder and crossing his feet.

Tyler side-eyes his brother and I hear the growl he makes under his breath all the way from over here.

“Sounds great.” Kendra smiles at them both.

“Better have yaself ready by eight, girl.” Kyle winks at her while Tyler places his hat back on his head and nods her a subtle goodbye.

“You’re such a fuckin’ jerk.” I hear him utter under his breath as he shoves his brother out the door and closes it behind him.

“Looks to me like you're causing trouble in my yard.” Jace looks across at Kendra.

“Are you seriously going to go with them tonight?” I check, I don’t even know why I’m so shocked when she answers me ‘yes’. Kendra’s always looking to have a good time.

“Of course, I am. When two handsome cowboys offer to take you dancing, you don’t question it…you get your boots on.”

“Kendra, do you even have boots?” I laugh at her.

“Nope, but you do.” She lifts her fork to her mouth and scrapes the meat off it with her teeth.

“That was the most awkward dinner ever,” she whispers to me once we’re in the living room by ourselves. I can just about make out Jace and Jamie through the kitchen door as they do the dishes together, the same way they always do every other Sunday. I just wish I could hear what they’re talking about.

“I can’t believe he’s spent his whole life thinking that guy was his uncle when he’s hi?—”

“Will you keep your voice down?” I scold her, doing my best to listen in. “I don’t know if Jace wanted me to tell anyone, yet. He’s still very confused about it all.”

“Mads, I think he’s going to be confused for quite some time. His mom isn’t here to give him any answers, either, it must be tough.”

“I know, I just wish I knew how to make all this easier for him.” I’m still mad at him for keeping so much from me, and for thinking that I wouldn’t want him if he didn’t have this place. I’d still want that man if he was living under a bridge.

Though, he’s more than made up for his judgment errors by fulfilling all my needs, earlier this morning. Now, I’m just hoping that he and Jamie can eventually start to bond with each other. Jamie may be a hard man but even from the first time I met him, I could see he had Jace’s best interests at heart.

The men join us when the kitchen’s straightened out and when Jamie makes his excuses to leave, Kendra quickly stands up.

“I noticed there's a vacant shop in town, that cigar store next to the salon.” She blurts her words out before he can make it to the door.

“That's Billy McGee’s place.” Jamie’s eyes shift over to Jace’s in a way I really don’t like.

“Well, I was wondering if you knew who I could talk to about taking on the lease?”

“You want to lease a building in town?” I question her.

“Mads, it's always been my dream to own my own store, and I’ve seen some serious crimes of fashion since I’ve been here. Imagine how well a little boutique in the center of this quaint little town would do.” She looks full of hope and ambition and I can tell from her tone that she’s been thinking about this for a while.

“So, you intend to stick around?” I try not to get my hopes up, but all the evidence seems to be pointing in that direction. I really didn’t think I could ask for much more but to have my best friend here with me would be the icing on the cake.

“My online business is doing well, I can still run that from here.” She smiles.

“This is the best news.” I move as quickly as my body will allow to get to her and ignore Jace’s warning to be careful when I wrap my arms around her body and squeeze her tight.

“That is good news.” Jamie smiles. “But I’m afraid the store is owned by Billy, and he’s been missing for some time now.”

“Well, I heard about that.” Kendra’s got that clever look on her face that she always gets when she thinks she has the inside scoop. “I was in the diner, picking up some pie for little JJ here.” She taps my tummy affectionately. “And Jean told me that the sheriff is going to be launching a murder investigation. Something about new evidence. No one seems to have had a nice thing to say about the man, was he so terrible?” she questions.

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