Page 37 of Snow in Texas

Jenny was sitting up in bed, the sheet pulled up over her chest, her hair a wild golden mess across her shoulders. Gone was the nervous, cynical woman he’d met just beyond the door at the bar a while back. Her smile radiated softness, its sleepy curve content and vulnerable. She was absolutely beautiful.

“There ought to be some leftover potatoes with ham. I wouldn’t say no to a little of that.”

“Potatoes and ham,” he said, nodding. “Gotcha.” And then, because he couldn’t help it, he stepped up to the bed to kiss her one more time.

He felt one of her hands against his face, the touch fleeting and gentle, but full of affection. Shit. She was good stuff.

He left her smiling in his wake, stepping silently out into the hall, easing the door shut. He was big, but he was barefoot, and he’d grown up knowing how to creep through the cypress forests of his youth. He made it to the common room without making a sound.

He was turning toward the kitchen when the lights behind the bar came on.

He jumped. “Jesus Christ…”

Candy, fully-dressed, stood behind the bar, in the process of pouring himself a Scotch. His eyes were on the amber liquid as it purled up the sides of the glass. “Morning, prospect. Sleep well?”

Colin froze. Did he know? He probably did. Had they been loud? Shit. No, wait, Jen was a grown woman and she…ah, hell. Shit was right. Shit, shit, shit.

Candy’s head lifted, his expression heavily shadowed, jarring sharply with the pleasant lift of his voice. “So. Swamp boy. You having fun fucking my sister?”

Yeah. Shit.

Seventeen

Colin

Candy poured a second glass. “Have a drink. Take a load off.” He glanced up, grinning sharply. “’Course, guess you already did that.”

“Candy–”

“Nah. Don’t talk to me until we’re drinking.”

Colin waited until there was a glass of Scotch in front of him, and then threw it back. He’d been pleasantly sleepy when he left the dorm, but now felt wired and awake. Without being asked, Candy refilled his glass and he sipped at that a little slower.

“You and Jenny,” Candy said.

Colin shrugged. “I won’t deny it. Yeah. Me and Jenny.”

The big blonde Texan studied him a long moment. “I know my sister well enough to know that she doesn’t enter into things lightly.” He snorted. “Or let things enter intoherlightly.”

A tasteless joke for a brother to make, and Colin glared at the man. “If you’re trying to suggest I did something to her against her will–”

“Of course not. To tell the truth, I’ve been waiting on this moment.”

“Then why do you look like you want to break that bottle on the bar and stab me in the face with it?”

“Because she’s my sister, and she’s been through hell,” Candy said. “And even if I was orchestrating this, it doesn’t mean I have to like it all that much.”

“Orchestrating?”

“I’m just one man, and I’ve got lots of obligations. I want someone to look out for Jen.”

“You psychic?” Colin asked, bristling with anger. He felt used, even if that made no sense. “You knew you’d bring me out here and I’d fall for her?”

“Fall, is it?” Candy grinned, the expression wrong and dark, humorless. “Well, that’s better than I thought.”

“Candy.” Colin sighed. “What the fuck? If you want to tell me to be good to her, to not hurt her, fine. Hell, I’m about ten seconds away from tracking down her ex and running a pickax through his eye.”

Candy grinned, widely, genuinely this time.

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