Page 65 of I Want Crazy (Loco, Texas 3)

She made a noise he thought might have been a sob, before she scoffed. “Yeah, right. You need entertaining and perhaps inspiration for your next book.”

“Dammit, no. Don’t try to act like you don’t care! Don’t act like you don’t feel the same way I do!”

Her icy stare stopped him cold. “Whatever I may have felt for you died the minute you used me to further your career.”

With those last words, she was out the door and gone from his life.

And instead of chasing after her, he sat down on the couch and stared at the orange roses, which had looked so pretty in the store but seemed to wilt before his eyes.

He’d told her he loved her, and it hadn’t mattered.

* * *

“I kind of understand where she’s was coming from,” Rand said, giving him an apologetic look.

He returned it with a glare. “You c

an be replaced.”

“No, she can’t,” Jake said, kissing her head as he sat next to her on the couch.

“You too? You’re supposed to be my friends. You know, take my side,” he grumbled.

“We are on your side, but given what Jessie has been through, I understand why the book flipped her out.”

Red nursed his beer and wondered why he thought coming over here would be a good idea.

Because you didn’t want to be alone?

“Seriously, man, call her again and try to apologize. Offer to pull the book.”

“I have been calling for three days, and nothing,” he said, slumping back against the couch. “Maybe it’s for the best. She broke half my dishes. She was always making fun of me—”

“If that’s the case, then why do you care?” Rand asked.

Because…because she’d made him laugh. She’d made him really think about the future.

And without her you feel like part of your heart is gone?

Dammit, when did he become a sappy cheese ball? He should forget her. She had a ton of baggage, and the last thing he needed was her crazy rubbing off on him.

Only, with the way he was feeling, he wanted crazy. He wanted her calling him Albert and giving him that teasing smile. Hell, he’d settle for just hearing her voice again.

Chapter Nineteen

Jessie was sitting on the back porch of her childhood home, staring out across the rolling hills to the mountains beyond. It was a beautiful place to live, with the pine trees and the small-town life. Only, since she’d been home, she hadn’t been able to appreciate any of that. All she’d done was cry and compare it to the overgrown trail behind the bar, the fields of cows, and the men, well…

None of them were big, redheaded, heartbreaking assholes.

“Jessie, honey?”

Jessie brushed at her cheek, wishing her stupid tears would stop, and looked over her shoulder at her dad. “Hey.”

Her dad was medium height with a stocky frame and a shaved head. He’d worked as a district manager for a large grocery chain for years and when he retired, he’d grown out a handlebar mustache full enough to make Yosemite Sam proud. She would have teased him about the facial hair if she wasn’t so miserable.

He sat on the lawn chair next to her and frowned. “Whoever he is, I’m going to kill him.”

That brought out a smile, reminding her of Red. If he hadn’t betrayed her so badly, her dad and he may have gotten along. “I never said there was a guy.”

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