Page 91 of Wrangled Up

“Uh…” No point in denying it. Everyone and his Uncle Jeb had seen her making out with both Tucker and Christian tonight.

“You know of a guy by the name of Leon?”

An icy finger trailed down her spine. “Yes,” she heard herself say, though she longed to spin on her boot heels and run away.

The man was in his late forties—close to Leon’s age. “I’ve known Leon from way back,but recently I’ve been working with him.” He glanced up as a man stumbled down the hall, pushing past them to get to the restroom.

“Working with him how?”

“Look, I want to talk to you about this, but not here. Not now. How can I reach you?”

Alarm bells went off in Claire’s head. The last thing she’d ever do was pass out her contact information. “Well, I…”

“The fair. You going to the fair tomorrow? Everyone goes. It’s a big deal.”

Claire’s stomach pitched and heaved, knowing she had to make a decision about the deal she’d struck with Darcy. “Yes, I am.”

“I’ll meet you after the wood-chopping competition.” He flexed his arms when he folded them over his chest. “I’ve won two years in a row.”

“That’s nice. If you’ll just excuse me.” She pivoted on her heel and took off back to the main room.

She bounced across the floor, stopped at the bar to grab a few more beers and met her men at their place against the wall. Christian pulled away from the wall with an intense look of want spelled all over his face. Tuckergnawed at the piercing in his lip, as he often did when he was about to make her feel really good.

Passing them each a bottle, she leaned in seductively. “Drink ‘em down, boys. I feel like kicking up my heels.”

* * * * *

“What a piss poor day for the fair,” Tucker muttered. He pulled his hat lower to avoid the nonstop sprinkle that was quickly turning into a soaking rain. He had two horses and an alpaca to offload from the trailer, though he’d rather go home and curl up in bed with Christian and Claire.

His boots dug into the mud. Christian joined him at the trailer, and as quickly as possible, they unloaded Boom Boom, whose event was first. The horses could comfortably hunker down in the dry trailer.

Claire got out of the truck and trudged back to the trailer too.

“You can stay in the truck till the event, sweetness. No point in letting those pretty curls get soaked.” Tucker eyed her frombeneath the brim of his hat. She wasn’t herself today. Was she nervous about her event?

The area milled with other cowboys and ranchers unloading various animals. Letty had driven up with a friend from the ladies’ guild and would use Claire’s phone to text Christian when he needed to come get the jars of the tomato and applesauces she was presenting to the judges.

Claire’s head snapped up and a flush mottled her beautiful face. Tucker followed her gaze to see Darcy and Leon headed their way.

His stomach knotted as he prepared for the worst. He didn’t feel like having a word match here in front of everyone. As far as he knew, only Claire and Christian knew of his money. Leon, on the other hand, flaunted it to all.

Today he wore a long drover coat against the rain, and Darcy had on a pink fringed leather jacket with rhinestones that matched.

“There’s my blue ribbon winner!” Darcy grabbed the leash out of Tucker’s hand and started to lead Boom Boom away.

“Hold up. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“This is my alpaca. I’m showing her in ten minutes. We made a deal.” She shot Claire a look.

Oh fuck.His gut hollowed out.

His family had gotten to Claire. What had been said or done to her? In one step, he was beside Claire and had her tucked against his side. Christian looked as befuddled as he felt. Apparently Claire had held this information close.

Tucker looked straight at Leon. “Tell me what is going on.”

A snide smile spread over the man’s face. If Tucker hadn’t long ago learned to hate him, he would now. It was one thing to fuck with him, but with Claire?

He glared at him.

---