Page 42 of Braving the Storm
I twist my lips into a smile. “Oh, is it now?” He’s still holding my hand, and his eyes have crinkled around the edges in that sexy kind of smile guys like him can totally manage to pull off without even trying.
“Stôrmand over there…” He gestures with his chin in the direction of the booths. “Are you here with him tonight?” It’s a genuine question; he’s not being pushy or demanding. But I can tell straight away he knows exactly who my uncle is and isn’t keen to tread on any cowboy boots.
However, none of that helps me where my awkward search for an answer is concerned. When I take a fraction too long to answer, I already see him start to withdraw.
“Oh, no.” I laugh. Do I sound carefree? Like it’s the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard? “That’s my uncle.” I sure as shit hope that came out sounding natural, because, to my own ears, saying that word out loud feels like fingernails down a chalkboard.
Westin—Wes’ smile brightens. “Uncle? Shit, ok, wasn’t expecting that.” He shakes his head and blows out a breath.
“So, what happens next, now I’ve answered your question…” With my free hand, I take a swig of my beer.
From across the room, I swear I can feel eyes on me, but I refuse to look in the direction of that booth, or the waitress who might be straddling his lap by now for all I know.
“I don’t want to disrupt your family dinner plans, but is there any hope a beautiful girl like yourself could put up with a rough-around-the-edges cowboy over coffee?”
Do not cringe at being referred to as family.
“Are you asking me out on a date, ‘just Wes?’” I allow a smile to creep over my lips. Please and thank you. I mean, coffee is a good enough start, and from the look of him, this mancould show me a good time around Crimson Ridge, I’m sure of it.
“You name the time and place.” He’s still got my hand wrapped in his, and as he says the words, his thumb slides over mine, and while it doesn’t exactly shoot sparks through my blood, it feels nice.
“Tomorrow? I’ve got some things I gotta do around town, so I could use a coffee, even some lunch if you cowboys eat?”
“Oh, we know how to enjoy a meal, don’t you worry about that.” His eyes stay firmly fixed on my face, but my body flushes all the same at the cheeky insinuation hidden behind his polite mountain charm.
Yup. Cowboy here can absolutely sweep me off my feet and show me a good time. All my prayers have been answered.
We quickly exchange numbers and make plans for our coffee and lunch date tomorrow, which sounds entirely wholesome, but I’m secretly hoping it will lead to some very unwholesome behavior in the not-too-distant future.
As I float away, feeling a little more confident in the new Briar Lane who is determined to find her feet in Crimson Ridge, I look up to see the sight of the waitress with perfect hair, whom I never want to see again in my life, placing our meals down on the table.
Sliding back into the booth, I attack my plate in an attempt to fill the awkward silence stretching across the table. All while the most ferocious yet stunning set of blue eyes opposite me remain cold.
And the entire time, they’re brutally fixed on me.
Chapter 14
Fuck this shit.
Fuck having to endure watching a bar full of assholes stare at my niece like she’s a slab of meat all night. Now I’m the lucky guy who gets to take her home, take her to my bed, and for all my sins, I can’t do anything more than wish like hell our circumstances were different.
Didn’t know you were an uncle there, Storm. At least you’re not her dad or some shit, but either way, hope you don’t mind. Briar and I got chatting over at the bar before, and we’re gonna meet up to grab a coffee in town tomorrow.
I’ve known Wes for a long time. He’s helped at a few of the same ranches as I have, is decent enough, and on the face of it, he’s someone who is the perfect kind of guy to treat Briar the way she deserves to be treated.
But goddamn, if I didn’t want to slam his mile-wide smile into the bartop when he came up to me as I paid the check. Chatting away all sparkly-eyed because the prettiest girl in this whole godforsaken town simply looked his way twice. Screw him and his perfect country boy bullshit. I already had to damn well sit there watching on as she smiled and flirted and gave Westin Hayes her number within all of two seconds. Then, to top it off, had to put upwith the prick coming to regale me with all the details of the scene I just witnessed.
She even told the asshole that I’m her uncle. For fuck’s sake.
Why that pissed me off so much is a question that doesn’t bear answering.
I can’t have this girl, yet I want her so fucking badly, and I’m about one more interaction like the one tonight from threatening every male with a pulse in this entire goddamn state to stay the hell away from her.
Thank fuck, she and Kayce seem to get along just as friends because I’m not sure how I would have explained to Colt that I’d reversed my truck over his son and dumped that blond idiot’s body over the ravine if he’d shown even the slightest hint of interest in Briar.
He can give her horse riding lessons, and that’s about as much as I’m willing to tolerate.
The truck bumps over the shingle as we draw up to the cabin. We’ve both been silent through finishing our meals and for the duration of the drive back up the mountain. There are a thousand things I want to say to Briar, but none of them are appropriate, and certainly the thingsI don’t want to say but want to doare even less appropriate.
