Page 15 of I Want Crazy (Loco, Texas 3)

As he waited for his coffee to percolate, he thought about Jessie and her ability to turn him into a writing machine. Maybe it was because he wasn’t just going through the motions in his life. He had something to shake up his humdrum existence.

After he showered and dressed, he got into his Charger and drove toward the Watering Hole. He wasn’t exactly sure what he would say to her when he got there, but he was hoping after a few more encounters, he’d finally have a novel to send in.

* * *

Jessie loved Journey. Belting out the words to “Don’t Stop Believing,” she danced in place as she painted the wall black. Her plan was to leave the bottom half cedar with a break and texture the top half. She was going to mount three wide-screen TVs on the walls and another behind the bar. She thought the plain black would look good, especially if she covered the walls in photographs of local landmarks and people. She wanted to draw the townsfolk to her bar, and if they found pictures of themselves spread throughout, it might ease the sting of her changes.

A beam of sunlight came from her left, and she jumped as she turned to find Red standing in her doorway, looking sheepish.

“Sorry. I knocked, but I guess you didn’t hear me.”

Realizing he must have heard her caterwauling, she snapped, “Obviously, or I would have come to the door to tell you to get lost.”

Red held his hands up, and she hated to admit the color of his hair was starting to grow on her. His gorgeous blue eyes were wide, and the smile he gave her ignited those bad, man-is-he-cute feelings she had been trying to suppress.

“I come in peace,” he said.

“Yeah, right.”

As concrete proof, he bent over to pick up the paintbrush, and when he stood back up, waved at the wall. “Where do I start?”

Her jaw dropped. “A few days ago, you were stomping around yelling at me, and now you want to help me?”

“Well, as you pointed out, this is your bar, and as we’ve both witnessed, I’m not exactly welcome anywhere else in town. So unless I want to stay home or head to the next town, I should probably help you out. Because if you are the only one doing all this work, you are going to take forever.”

She wasn’t sure if he was up to something or not, but she couldn’t afford to turn down the help. Besides that, she wouldn’t mind the company, even if he was kind of an ass.

“You can stay, as long as you don’t kiss me again,” she said.

“No problem. I told you, it was like kissing my sister.”

That stung, even if she’d been asking for it. “Oh, so you do that often? I’ve heard stories—”

His cheeks turned an awful shade of pink. “Shut up and point me to where I’m working.”

She almost felt a little bad for teasing him, since he was here to help. Only a little, though. He’d made her feel about as attractive as mud.

“Okay, well, right now I’m painting the textured part black. My plan is to put three wide-screens spaced out, two on this wall and one in back by the pool table. Once we finish with the painting, it will need to dry before we can do anything else.”

“Did you say three flat-screens?”

She took in h

is wide-eyed, eager expression as a good sign.

“And one behind the bar,” she said, smiling.

He started painting the wall with a grin. “I take it back. You might know what in the hell you’re doing after all.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“So what made you want to open a bar in East Texas in October?”

She took her time answering, wondering why he was so interested. “Because you already have a great bakery, and if I opened a drug store, I might end up back on the pipe.”

She kept a straight face long enough to get a load of his. When she burst into peals of laughter, he shook his head at her. “You are a regular comedian.”

“I know. I used to do stand-up.”

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