Page 4 of I Want Crazy (Loco, Texas 3)

Finn spoke slowly, making him feel like a child. “Regardless of how much you hate her decorating style, it’s her bar now.”

“But, you don’t know—”

“Don’t make us waste a trip down there to put you in handcuffs.”

There was enough weight behind the threat that made Red believe him. Disloyal son of a bitch.

Red slammed down the phone and faced off with the interloper once more. Her triumphant little smirk would have made him stand his ground under normal circumstances, but suddenly he felt inspired to write for the first time in days.

With a wolfish grin, he leaned over the bar toward her. “This ain’t over, California. Not by a long shot.”

He turned to walk away, but her voice stopped him. “I look forward to it, Texas.”

Gritting his teeth, he walked out and headed for his Dodge Charger.

Oh, honey. You picked the wrong bear to poke.

* * *

Jessie Dale wiped her hands on the overalls and admired her work. She had dreamed of owning her own sports bar and grill, and everything that had happened over the last couple of years had finally given her the chance and excuse to do it. The minute she’d seen pictures of the Watering Hole online, she’d wanted it. It was exactly like the places her dad used to take her when they’d watch the 49ers on Sundays and Mondays, filling up on hot wings and root beer. Those were her favorite days, and she remembered them all.

Pulling a long neck from the fridge, she sat down on one of the stools. She hardly remembered her mom at all. She had left when Jessie was barely two, and although her dad always told her it had nothing to do with her, she had a pretty good feeling it had to do with her realizing motherhood didn’t suit her. It was fine, though. Her dad had been her hero. He had helped her with homework and never hesitated to tell her when he got a bad feeling about one of her friends, or even her boy

friends. The first time he’d met her ex-boyfriend, Will Archer, he had said, “That guy is a bum.”

Sighing, she took a long pull of her beer. She missed her dad. Well, she missed the way things used to be before he’d remarried. It had always been the two of them, and they had done everything together. She’d known he’d gone out with women, but he’d never brought any home to meet her. At least not until high school. He’d brought over a sweet-faced, tall woman who was reed thin and wanted to be her friend. And Jessie had hated her on sight. At first she’d tried to talk to her dad, to break them up, but they had already been seeing each other for a year, and he had met her girls. He was really serious about her.

When her dad had married Silvie, Jessie had been a senior, and it had thoroughly rocked her and their close relationship. Especially since Silvie brought along two other daughters a few years younger than Jessie. It was bad enough sharing her dad with another woman, but sharing him with two stepsiblings had been too much. Her dad had talked about her going to UC Davis, where he’d gone to school, since she was five, but she was so mad, she wanted to hurt him. She knew it had been a selfish, dick move, but she had taken the scholarship to the UCLA and hadn’t bothered coming home for several years.

Her dad had been hurt, but she had pretended not to care. He had taken on a whole new family, a family she hardly knew, without asking her, and she was supposed to just be okay with it?

Two years after leaving home, she met Will, and he was hot. With smoky gray eyes, black hair, and tattoos, he had been gorgeous and deep. When she’d finally gone home for Thanksgiving three years after leaving for college and brought Will with her, her dad had hated him on sight. It had caused a huge fight between them, and she and Will left, but she had felt sick the whole drive back to LA. It had taken over a month for her to get up the courage to apologize to her dad, but even then, things had been different. And when her world had come crashing down two years later, she’d ended up with a money settlement and a thrashed reputation.

Her dad had wanted her to move home for a while, but she had never felt like she fit in with Silvie and her two perfect princesses. So she’d traveled for a year and finally started looking for a place to settle down. When she’d arrived in Loco two weeks ago, she’d paid cash for the Watering Hole and taken the keys with excitement. The only thing the previous owner hadn’t warned her about was the rough cowboys who frequented the bar. She’d met a few of them in the grocery store already, and they’d sneered at her when they found out she was from California.

Like Big Red.

Grinning at the nickname, she had to admit the crazy man was a good-looking guy, especially when he smiled. He wasn’t her type, though, even if she hadn’t been taking a break from dating. She liked men who were handsome without being muscle-bound gym monkeys, who liked the same kind of music and movies. Art-school types…

Which worked out so well for you last time, right?

Thus the reason why she should avoid men of all sorts, because she tended to attract crazy assholes. Her instincts could not be trusted.

Chapter Two

Saturdays were his best writing days, and for the first time in a month, Red woke up early and found himself in front of his laptop, tapping away at the keys. Maybe it was the burst of anger and frustration still boiling inside him from the encounter with California, but by the time he went to shower for movie night, he had ten thousand words down, not including the five thousand from the night before.

Movie night was a tradition going back to seventh grade, when his best friend, Jake Hansen, and he would get together for a genre-movie marathon at their little buddy Miranda “Rand” Coleman’s ranch. Rand was two years younger and feisty as a riled badger, but there was something about the spunky brunette that had drawn them in. They had spent almost every Saturday together for fifteen years and taken turns picking the genre. This week it was Rand’s turn, which made him wonder if they’d be stuck watching Eastwood, Kilmer, and Estevez pretend to be cowboys.

Not that Jake would say anything, not unless he wanted to sleep on the couch again.

It had been over a year since Jake and Rand had tied the knot, and the whole situation had put a strain on their relationship. Red had realized his feelings for Rand while she was pretending to date Jake. When Red had offered to marry her and help her secure her inheritance, he’d thought that Rand and Jake had been play-acting their feelings for each other. It hadn’t been until after Jake’s reaction to his proposal that he’d realized there was more between them. It had been hard when she’d picked Jake over him. After his initial anger, he’d tried to play it off as no big deal, but a small piece of him would always be Rand’s. Despite his disappointment, he was glad Jake had gotten over his issues and admitted his feelings for her. It wasn’t hard to see how much she loved Jake, and as long as she was happy, Red wouldn’t have to kill his best friend.

Still, sometimes their whole lovey-dovey smoochy-smoochy was hard to stomach.

At exactly six o’clock, Red pulled into the Double C’s driveway and parked in front of the house. The one-story ranch house with the wraparound porch had been his second home for half his life, and he didn’t even bother knocking as he came through the door.

“Hello!”

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