Page 4 of Bred By the Cowboy

Red shakes his head and sighs. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to get confrontational over nonsense. Just my own frustrations. Look, man, I like your sister. Like, a whole lot.”

There’s an earnestness to him that’s a lot less cocky than the Red I remember from those football games. He’s still a douchebag, but he seems to be a more reserved one at the very least. One I can communicate with. I think about how to approach this, ask him what he means about the ranch, what Annie has been telling him.

Only for Annie to come running up to me and grab me by the arm. “Angus! Red!”

There’s no color in her face, she’s panicking. “What’s the matter?”

“Dolly was talking up some boys from out of town, just playing, and... uh... they don’t like being played with, I guess. They’re trying to get her into their van and...”

I don’t need to hear any more. I look around and see Dolly pushing back against some guys I don’t recognize and I storm on over there.

“No. I really don’t want to go anywhere, just let me get back to my friends...” I hear her saying as I approach.

“Come on, we can have so much fun together, let’s go back to our dorm,” one of them says.

“No, I just want to go home now.” Her voice wavers.

“We’re going to show you such a good time.”

“Here’s a good time for you,” I say, turning one of them around and driving my fist right across his jaw. He falls like a bag of bricks.

“The hell,” another one of them says, turning to me.

He gets a fist to the face too.

I take Dolly by the hand and pull her away from them. To my surprise, Red is right behind me, covering our escape, but there’s no pursuit. Once the cowards were shown proper resistance, they hustled into their van, its engine firing up and then pulling away from all of us.

“Oh God, thank you,” Anise says, holding her friend's hand.

“Yes... thank you,” Dolly echoes, those beautiful brown eyes of hers looking up at me.

The thought that anyone might want to harm her infuriated me. The jealous thought that she could be with anyone else is calling to me as well. I’m falling deeper and deeper in love with this woman by the moment, whether I want to or not.

4

DOLLY

In all mylife in these small towns, no man had ever stepped up like that and knocked someone out just to defend my honor.

Angus is the first, and he did it without so much as a second thought. It’s so surprising coming from a man I knew to be rude and off in his own little world, who I thought didn’t care about anyone but himself.

“Do you want to head home? I know that whole mess was a bit of a mood killer,” Red says. He had agreed to be our ride home originally, before Angus volunteered to drive us.

I shake my head. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t want to ruin the night for you,” I say, forcing a smile. Annie’s really hopeful about where tonight is going to go, and I don’t want to ruin things for her by ending the night early.

“You don’t look like you’re in any condition to stay here, Dolly,” Annie replies. “Come on, we can go home, don’t worry about it.”

“I’ll take her home,” Angus says, continuing to be uncharacteristic. “You two can stay and keep enjoying yourselves. As long as you bring my sister home in one piece at the end of the night.”

Red cocks an eyebrow, but he nods. “Of course, I’ll take care of her. You take care of Dolly.”

Annie has a warning of her own to shoot back at her brother. “Don’t you do anything stupid, Angus.”

“Why would he?” I snap. “I think he’s proven he’s more trustworthy than a whole lot of guys here.”

Annie smiles. “Then take care of yourself, Dolly.”

The two of us return to Angus’s truck. He’s silent as he pulls back onto the road to Burly, and remains as such during the whole ride. There’s a coldness to him that digs at me, and it’s annoying because I know there’s warmth within him that he won’t let escape.

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