Page 20 of Make Me Crazy (Loco, Texas 2)

Wonder if he kissed his date last night.

The hammer slipped and slammed down on her thumb. Crying out and dropping it to the ground, she held her injured hand and cursed a blue streak. The sucker throbbed so bad, tears formed in the corner of her eyes and she pulled off her glove to assess the damage. Her thumb was already starting to swell and would be black and blue, but she didn’t think it was broken.

Slipping her glove back on carefully, she took a deep breath and grabbed another nail from her belt.

You have better things to do than think of Jake and his revolving door of hussies.

With the peace offering of pizza and beer, Jake waited for Rand.

He hadn’t meant to avoid her, but was struggling with his feelings. On one hand, he knew what he wanted and knew that it wasn’t a wife, even a temporary one. On the other, he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Rand; her kiss, her skin, and the way her perfect, unwrapped breasts filled out a t-shirt.

Even the very hot Laura Anne Gentry hadn’t been able to chase Rand from his mind. He’d ended up dropping her off right after dinner and heading home to his apartment alone.

He saw her walking up to the house; head to toe covered in mud and grinned. This was the Rand he was used to; dirty and messy, not beautiful and sweetly sexy.

“What the hell happened to you?” He called.

Her head flew up and he saw her eyes narrow. “What the hell are you doing here?”

He held up the box of pizza and bag. “It’s movie night.”

She stomped up the porch and snapped, “Did it ever occur to you that I might have made other plans?”

“No, it never occurred to me.” And it hadn’t. Even madder than a wet hen, Rand had never missed a pizza night unless she was sick and even then it was iffy.

“Where’s Red?” She unzipped her sweatshirt, dropping it on the ground and kicked off her boots. His eyes followed her hands as she unhooked her overalls, noticing her wince as she slid them down until they lay in a heap.

“You okay? You looked like you were in pain,” he asked as she stepped out of them, wearing a pair of black long johns and her red t-shirt.

“Hit my damn thumb with a hammer. You didn’t answer me.” She said, her head bent over as she took off her wet socks.

Jake wasn’t listening though. As she lifted each long leg, his mind started to wander, picturing those slim limbs wrapped around his waist as he pushed her against the wall, his mouth coming down on hers as he reached for his zipper, determined to-

“What are you looking at?” His eyes came back up to focus on her dark expression and he took a breath, trying to expel the fantasy.

“Nothing.” He remembered finally she had asked him a question an added, “Red said he had something else going on again.”

“He’s sure been a busy beaver lately,” she said, bending over to pick up the pile of clothes. She opened the door to go inside and Jake followed, watching those long legs and tight, shapely rear until she disappeared into the laundry room.

Get a grip man!

When she came out of the laundry room, he jumped in with, “Look Rand, I’m sorry about last week.” She watched him with those big brown eyes, her expression pointed and he shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t have an excuse, but I promise, it will never happen again.”

The silence was deafening for several ticks.

“Fine.” She said finally, her expression telling him things were anything but. “I’m going to take a shower. Heat up my pizza would you?”

“I thought you had other plans tonight?” He asked, smiling.

“Yeah well, for pizza and beer I’ll cancel it. What movies did you get?” She asked.

He pulled out Young Guns One and Two, Tombstone, and 3:10 to Yuma.

“Wow, you really are sorry,” she said, and he caught himself thinking he liked the way her eyes grew warm when she was happy.

As westerns were not his favorite genre he knew exactly what she meant. “I am.”

“Well I’m going to run and shower before you change your mind.”

---