Page 5 of Texas Hold Em'
I smiled to myself.
I saw the way he looked at me when I came out of the bedroom in nothing but a T-shirt this morning. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he was already noticing my body. If I had to use it to my advantage?
So be it.
CHAPTER 3
JAMESON
“Does she snore?” Abel threw an arm around my shoulders and jerked me back and forth as we walked across the gravel in Grant’s backyard. “Or does she whisper sweet nothings in your ear all night long?”
Gabriel, who walked alongside us, cracked his back with a sharp twist to the right before scratching at stubble under his chin. “The Ranger’s a good girl, Snake. She wouldn’t get in bed with the likes of our Tex.”
Abel grinned and released me with a playful shove. “Yeah, do you suppose she’s more into lawyers or realtors, huh?”
I waved them both off. “Beats the hell out of me. All I know is she takes up more space than she’s worth.”
Gabriel threw his head back with a snort. “All five feet and two inches of her? I know you’re a particular motherfucker who likes his shit a certain way, but you can’t convince me a chick with a body like that isin the way.”
“Look, Joker,” Abel said, “we know you wish Jackson sent her home with you, alright?”
“I’d treat her right,” Gabriel said innocently.
“You’d send her running right back to Austin,” Abel said.
We hit the back steps to Grant’s porch, where all the others lounged on old wooden chairs with their boots kicked up on the coffee table. Jackson played absently with the dog tags around his neck while Grant twirled a toothpick around his tongue and pinched it between his teeth.
Suzie and Mason sat in one corner, wedged between cushions with their fingers knit together. Brody and Knox chuckled about some joke muttered under their breath and looked up when we reached the top of the stairs.
Abel nodded around at the others. “Good news is Tex hasn’t run the girl out of Dodge yet.”
“Unless she’s packing her shit to hit the road as we speak,” Gabriel added.
“She’s not running,” I grumbled. “She’s comfortable. She’s been spending every night in my bed, in fact. I’m a better host than I look.”
Jackson looked up at me from beneath his brows before leaning forward in his chair to rest his elbows on his knees. “You’re fucking her already?”
“What? No.”
“You just said she was sleeping in your bed,” Jackson said.
“Yeah,” I said, “and I’m crashing on the couch.”
Brody snickered. “Ouch.”
Abel smacked my shoulder. “You’re letting her walk all over you, man.”
I saw a flash of Carrie’s yellow bedsheets pulled tight over my mattress and grimaced. “She’s been through a lot. I wanted her to have a room she could go to and close the door. You know, for privacy.”
Suzie chimed in. “I think that’s sweet.”
Mason chuckled. “You hear that, Tex? She thinks it’s sweet. Has anyone ever used that word to describe you before?”
Jackson laughed.
I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “Just your mom, Mace.”
Everyone laughed, including Mason. Suzie pushed up out of her seat with him and brushed past me with a sympathetic look. “Ignorethem. There’s a reason Jackson asked you to take her in, not one of these guys. She’s better off with you.”
