Page 6 of I Want Crazy (Loco, Texas 3)

Since when did you join the pity-party brigade?

He definitely didn’t want to go home now. They hadn’t even made it through Kill Bill Volume Two before Rand was passed out and drooling on Jake’s shoulder, and the image was branded in his brain. He’d watched Jake pick her up and carry her back to their bedroom, disappearing for a few minutes. When he’d come back out, though, they’d finished a beer and talked, but it had been strained. When Jake had finally yawned, Red had taken the hint to get out of there, but it was early, and he was too wired with conflicting emotions to sleep.

Why don’t you go home and write your novel?

Pushing on the gas, he ignored the voice of reason and headed to the only other bar in town, Wyatt’s Tavern. Red usually avoided Wyatt’s because the crowd was more keyed up than at the Watering Hole and he almost always ended up in a fight with some drunk cowboy with little-man complex. Sometimes it sucked being the biggest guy in town.

He pulled into the packed parking lot and blew out a deep breath.

Change was good, right?

* * *

Jessie wanted to get a look at the competition, and she had a few words for the crowd at Wyatt’s.

Rowdy. Loud. Assholes.

She’d been sitting at her little table in the corner for half an hour, and even though she’d finished her beer a while ago, she still hadn’t gotten up. Instead, she’d been eyeing the group of cowboys in front of the bar who grabbed any girl’s ass that passed and made obscene gestures as they walked away. Jessie had been in hundreds of bars and knew the type; they got drunk, and the bartender either kicked them out or let it go as long as they didn’t get violent. And it looked like the guy popping beer tops off behind the bar was the latter.

Wyatt’s was bigger than her new bar and used the extra space for a stage and large dance floor. Right now, the band played with a high twang that grated on her nerves. She was more of an alternative, top-forty girl.

Jessie saw a couple of the cowboy’s nudge each other and figured it was about another girl, but it was Big Red. Jessie ignored the warmth that spread from her chest to her abdomen as she watched him. For such a big guy, he moved with a quiet grace.

He seemed to be scanning the room for somewhere to sit, a scowl on his face, and when his gaze fell on her, his expression darkened. She didn’t even bother smothering her grin. Something about irritating the large man sent a flash of excitement through her body. She didn’t want to admit how many times Big Red had come to mind in the last twenty-four hours. There was something really wrong with her; that was all she could figure. Only someone with serious issues would go from sophisticated intellectuals to loud, brawny cowboys.

Or maybe you like him because he doesn’t hide his emotions like Will.

Why couldn’t she just put Will and what he’d done to her from her mind? When she’d met him, she’d been twenty, and Will had been an amateur filmmaker who wanted to follow in the footsteps of Stanley Kubrick. He was a mix of hipster and bad boy that made her feel daring and special. And the fact that her dad had hated his guts made her want to hang on to him more. It had taken a year of living with Will for her to see exactly what her father had known upon that first meeting: Will Archer was a dirty, lying scumbag. If only she’d realized it before he’d blown her reputation to shit.

She hadn’t found out about Will’s “home movies” until after graduation and she started going into job interviews. The first two had seemed promising, and she’d looked the part as best she could. Long sleeves to hide her tattoos, her blonde hair up in a twist instead of rolling wildly over her shoulders. But when she’d walked into that corner office and shaken the interviewer’s hand, he’d paused and his jaw had dropped.

“You!”

She’d had no idea what the man was talking about, no clue that Will had hidden cameras all over the bedroom they shared. She couldn’t have imagined that a man she’d loved and trusted could have taken their most intimate moments and sold them to the highest bidder.

She hadn’t even been the only one. She’d gone back to the apartment and searched through his computer until she’d found them all, dozens of videos of her and other women, all in their bed.

They’d arrested Will and confiscated his laptop, cameras, and videos. By the time Will had paid all of the parties’ restitution, she had ended up with five-hundred thousand dollars, which she’d used to drive across the country and buy her new bar.

Jessie Dale, born and bred California girl, settling down in nowhere Texas. Will would never think to look for her here, and the last thing she wanted was Will getting out and finding her.

She could still remember his violent reaction when they’d read the verdict. He’d yelled and thrown a chair until the guards had restrained him, slamming him face down on his lawyer’s desk. As they’d cuffed him, he’d turned and looked right at her. All the anger was replaced by an eerie smile that had left her feeling cold.

“I’ll see you soon, baby.”

His parting words, the violence she hadn’t even realized he had inside him, and that smile had warned her she had never met the real Will Archer until that moment. She wasn’t the type of woman to be scared or intimidated by any man, but that little insight into Will’s dark side had her packing her shit and leaving town before the sun set that night. She’d mulled over their relationship a lot those first few weeks and realized there had been signs of Will’s true character. She had just ignored them. Maybe if she hadn’t been acting like such a spoiled brat, her life wouldn’t have been screwed all to hell.

Men should have been the last thing on her mind, but she was actually disappointed when Big Red turned away from her and went to the bar. Apparently, he hadn’t gotten over his dislike of her renovations, but that was just tough shit. She was here to stay, and he wasn’t going to intimidate her.

But Red wasn’t the only one who seemed unhappy with the Watering Hole being closed. She’d gone into the hardware store for more paint today, and a dopey-looking guy with some pretty fantastic tattoos had questioned her at every turn. When she’d finally, and with as much patience as she could muster, told him that when she had a reopening day in mind, he would be the first to know, he had gone off to talk to another customer, shooting her disgruntled looks all the while. She’d heard the owner call him “Bubba” as he was walking out the door, and it reminded her of the movie Sweet Home Alabama. Only instead of the welcome home to the place you always belonged, she was getting a more get the hell out of town vibe.

So, she was going to have to put aside her issues with the local’s music and their closed-minded attitude and make some friends. The lady who owned her hotel seemed nice, but besides that, Jessie hadn’t met any other women who hadn’t taken one look at her and turned up their noses. Then again, she’d found that most women were a pain in the ass to be friends with. She’d always hung with more guys than girls.

Her gaze found Big Red again by the bar, and she played with the label of her bottle as she contemplated befriending the foul-tempered man. One thing was for sure…if she could get him to accept her plans for the Watering Hole, it was a step in the right direction.

Considering his reaction to a little plaster and paint, do you really want to be around this guy when he explodes about something major?

He was also the only person who had really talked to her, besides Bubba the Interrogator, and she had no interest in listening to him yammer on. Besides, she was tired of sitting in the corner by herself. She was bored, and the tall, burly cowboy was the only kind of distraction she was wi

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