Page 43 of Rough Stock
“Mmmm-mmm-mmmmmm. Lord, darlin’, this is delicious,” Jensen murmured. “Come over here and let me thank you properly.” Shyanna stepped across from the stove to the table and stood beside the man who’d come to mean more to her than anyone had in a long, long time. She didn’t know what he was going to do, but he just took her hand and kissed the back of it. “Thank you for breakfast, baby. You didn’t have to do it, but I’m glad you did.”
“I won’t do it again while I’m here, so enjoy it,” she said, not thinking about the way she sounded.
That soft voice called out again, “Shyanna?”
When she spun to look at Dora, the older woman gave her a warm smile. “Honey, you can cook in here anytime you want.”
Shyanna shivered a little. “That’s okay. And I’m going to the store later to buy all the things I used this morning.”
“That’s not necessary, really, and I’m sorry for the way I reacted,” Dora said, and Shyanna almost fainted. The woman was apologizing to her! Maybe she’d made a good impression. She’d at least stood up for herself. That was the important part. And for once, someone respected her for it. At least it appeared that way. Her eyes darted toward Jensen to see him grinning down into his plate of food, and she almost laughed.Uh-huh. He knows what happened here!she told herself.
“That’s okay, Mrs.Strader. I know it’s your kitchen, and I was wrong to just come in and take things without asking first.”Peace offering, she told herself.
“No, no, I was wrong to make such a big fuss. It’s fine, honey. I’ll get all that stuff later,” Dora said.Holy shit!Shyanna was shrieking with laughter on the inside.Did she just call me honey?
“I don’t mind replacing it since I?”
“No, it’s okay, really. I’ve got to go to the store anyway.”
“Well, let me give you the money for all of?”
“No,” Dora said forcefully. “It’s not necessary. Really. Now, Jensen, you should take this girl out tonight on a real date and have a good time. This is the closest to a vacation you’ve had in a long time, and you could go somewhere in town. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“Town?” Shyanna asked.
“Yeah. Greenville. It’s the town closest to here that’s decent-sized. I bet we can find something to get into,” Jensen said around a mouthful of casserole.
“Just be careful how into it you get,” Dora scolded, then chuckled.
Shyanna’s inner child breathed a deep sigh of relief. Maybe everything would be okay.
Jensen knew exactlywhat he was looking for, and he knew where to go to get it. As soon as they’d eaten at the closest steakhouse in the city, he dragged Shyanna to the mall, kicking and screaming the whole way. “I hate malls!” she said as they crossed the parking lot hand in hand.
“You’ll like this one. Stop whining,” he said and leaned over to kiss her. She deflected him easily, then laughed at his disappointed face. “Wow. That’s all I get for a steak dinner?”
“In the parking lot, yes. And I didn’t have steak?I had chicken,” she reminded him. That just made him smile bigger. The woman was as stubborn and hardheaded as anyone he’d ever seen. No wonder he loved her so much.
They wandered through the mall, him trying to get her to buy some high-heeled boots and her threatening to kick his ass if he suggested it again. They’d gotten almost to the end of one wing when Jensen said, “Ah. Here we are! Bet you can find some things in here.”
The sign on the front read “Betty’s Western Wear,” and the clothing was almost exclusively women’s. They had a little corner in the store where they had a big rack of men’s jeans folded neatly and sorted by sizes, plus a couple of racks of western shirts. They carried boots for men and women, too, and he saw Shyanna eyeing a pair of them from afar. But that wasn’t why he wanted to come there. As she browsed around the store, he spoke quietly to the clerk at the front, showing her a picture on his phone, and she nodded and walked away.
“Whatcha finding?” he asked when he walked up on her. Both hands had a hanger in them, and she held first one shirt and then the other up in front of her, looking at them in the mirror. “Nice,” he said, nodding.
“Which one looks better?” she asked, still looking at her reflection.
“I like the turquoise-colored one best. The orange one doesn’t really flatter the color of your skin,” he said.
Shyanna turned and stared up at him. “Really? You don’t like it that much?”
“No. I mean, it’s a pretty shirt, but I think they’ve got others here that would look much better on you.”
She looked around the store at all the ladies shirts. “Okay, like which one?” she asked, and she wasn’t being sarcastic. It surprised him that she really wanted his input.
He looked through a rack or two and pulled out a shirt. “This one. I like this one, and I think it would look good on you.” He held up the red and white, very traditional-looking shirt.
“Hmmm.” Taking it from his hand, she walked straight up to a mirror and held it up. “I see what you mean. It looks a lot better than that orange. Okay. I’m going to get the turquoise one and the red one. And I want to look at these boots back here,” she said, pointing to the shoe section.
“Let me have those and I’ll take them to the register for you,” Jensen offered, and she handed them over and headed to the boots. When he’d dropped them off, he made his way to the back and looked down at her feet. “So what did you find?”
