Page 6 of Make Me Crazy (Loco, Texas 2)

She gave him a dubious look as she sat next to him. “Because I don’t believe in false advertising. Now, hush up. I want to watch this guy get sliced up.”

“Morbid.”

“Entertaining.” She contradicted.

They settled back against the couch and Jake watched her more than the movie. The straight slim nose was nice with the light sprinkling of freckles: a guy could find that kind of thing endearing, especially if he counted the freckles with his lips.

As appalled as he was by that idea, the sight she presented when she looked over at him, a smear of pizza sauce running from the corner of her mouth to her chin brought him back to reality like a cold shower.

“What are you staring at?” She asked, the nose he had been admiring moments before scrunched up at him.

Oh yeah, live with her charm? Not happening, even if it could help him buy the store. “A brat with pizza on her face.”

“Gone?” She asked after swiping at it vigorously with a napkin.

“Give it.” He said, reaching for the napkin.

“Just tell me where it is, and I’ll get it,” she said, holding the napkin away.

Snatching the scratchy piece of paper from her, he took her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Hold still.”

“You make me crazy,” she muttered as she obeyed.

“Likewise,” he countered.

Less than a foot stretched between them, nothing that had never happened before, but this was the first time he’d ever noticed the black flecks in her dark brown eyes or the way her lashes fanned her cheeks without any make up or artifice. As he wiped gently at the sauce, he heard her catch her breath, and he wondered what she was thinking. Was she surprised? Was she feeling the same strange fascination with him as he was with her?

“Is it gone?” She asked, her voice so soft he had to bend to hear it.

Clearing his throat, he released her chin and broke the spell. “Yeah, sorry, it was in a weird pattern.”

“Thanks.” Sitting back away from him, he noticed she scooted further away and tucked her knees up, like she was trying to protect herself from him.

Moving back himself, he watched as Freddy terrorized a new group of teenagers on the screen and pondered what this new fascination with Rand meant. Was it the fact that she was about to take this giant step (albeit a false, business transaction step) towards growing up and he was still here, hanging with his friends on Saturday night and going to his same management job he’d had for the last five years? He’d never committed to anything, not a woman, not a decision about his future. He had always planned to get married someday, have kids, and own his own business. Was all this weirdness with Rand because she was being forced to face the future, a future that terrified him?

Rand’s booing broke into his deep doldrums and she looked over at him with a raised eyebrow. “What? You said I could boo and hiss.”

Maybe her reaction to him was all in his head. She certainly didn’t act like it had fazed her in the slightest. Not the way it had affected him.

Next week I’ll call the bank manager and talk to him about a loan, he thought with determination. Facing the future head on is what any mature twenty seven year old would do.

Glancing towards Rand, he just hoped his new steps towards maturity shook off the bizarre sparks between the two of them.

Chapter Two

As Rand got ready for church the next morning, she was preoccupied with thoughts of Jake and her insane reaction to his touch. For a moment it had seemed like he was going to kiss her, but she knew that couldn’t be it. Jake liked girls that were ultra-feminine, and she would probably break something if she tried on a pair of heels. No, Jake wasn’t interested in her, but something else was going on. She just didn’t know what.

She walked out of her bedroom, trying not to trip as Scout weaved in and out of her legs. Stopping briefly to fill Scout’s bowl, the bi-polar Calico growled while she ate, like Rand was going to take her food away.

“You know, for a cat that would have died without me, you sure are an ungrateful little snot.”

A low growl was her answer as she walked out the front door and across the large porch, staring out across the ranch as she stepped down the stairs. Green fields surrounded by trees, with a creek running just beyond; it was a beautiful piece of land, but to her, it was more than that. This was her home. She’s spent the better part of her life, putting her blood, sweat, and tears into it. Her granddaddy’s will stated if she didn’t marry, then the ranch would go to her only other relative, her cousin Percy. Percy lived in Chicago and had no interest in The Double C, unless he could sell it for a profit.

Over my dead body. As she climbed into the truck, she kept thinking about her choices as far as men went, but the only man that seemed to fit was Doctor Jay.Well, not the only man, but the only man that would work, she amended as the image of Jake pushing her hair back flashed in her mind.

Pulling out onto the road, she cursed herself for obsessing. She had gone twenty five years without obsessing about a man, except for maybe Branson, but he was a yellow livered dog. He wasn’t worth the cow shit on her worst pair of boots, and she still kicked herself for thinking there might have been more than meets the eye. Granted she had been barely eighteen at the time, just a dumb kid, but after what her no good daddy had done to her mama, she should have been able to see right through him.

She drove through the heart of Loco, Texas and smiled at the closed signs in the windows. Most of the shop owners took Sunday as their day of rest seriously, with the only exception being the gas station at the end of town. The old buildings had been repaired and repainted over the years, and had adopted the “loco” theme for nearly every business. Whether it was Crazy Al’s Food and Drug or Nuttier than a Fruitcake Bakery, the town’s gimmick worked well.

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