Five for Friday
How about a cowboy story? Spitfire is the first story in my Cowboy Quickies trilogy.
Chapter One
“You promised, Jeb.”
“Aw Liv, you can’t hold me to that. I was drunk and—”
“Get the hell out, you asshole, and don’t come back! I’m tired of your fucking games.”
Rem grimaced as he stood on the front porch of his ranch house, the sounds of yelling coming through the screen door.
Some homecoming.
He saw Liv and Jeb going at it like gangbusters in the foyer. No doubt they’d failed to hear his truck pull up thanks to the battle they were waging. He stepped to the side so they couldn’t see him, trying to figure out what the hell they were arguing about.
“Goddammit, Liv,” Jeb shouted. “Can’t you at least hear me out?”
“Hear you out?” Liv moved forward and shoved her older brother. Rem fought back a grin as he caught sight of his little spitfire. She was a foot shorter than he and Jeb and as she moved, he was momentarily struck dumb by the sight of her firm, full breasts in the too-tight blouse she was wearing.
Christ, was she wearing a bra? How the woman could make blue jeans and simple shirts sexy as hell, he’d never know.
Jeb threw his arms up to defend himself as Rem watched silently. Her slight frame didn’t stop her from putting up one hell of a fight when they pissed her off. She may be small, but she was fierce. “Why the hell should I listen to you, Mr. Shit for Brains, when you never listen to me?”
Scowling at her coarse language, Rem reached for the door only to have it swing open roughly, nearly hitting him in the process.
“Fuck,” Liv said, jumping back. She clearly hadn’t seen him standing there and he’d startled her.
“We’re gonna have to have a long talk about this filthy language of yours, spitfire,” Rem said. “Don’t recall you having such a gutter mouth when my dad was around. Hope you don’t think I won’t hold you to the same expectations as my old man.”
Her tanned face—red with anger—darkened even further at his threat, and he was overwhelmed with the desire to see that same lovely flush covering other parts of her body. He shifted slightly to adjust his jeans, hiding the hard-on she’d produced just by looking at him with those beautiful doe eyes.
Then those same eyes narrowed and Rem shook his head. Damn girl had never practiced one ounce of self-preservation, and as she’d matured into a woman, it seemed that fact hadn’t changed.
“You home to stay?” she asked angrily.
He nodded solemnly and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for her anger to turn on him. She wouldn’t be wrong to want to throw a bit of that fury his way. He’d stayed away too damn long and he wasn’t sure this homecoming would be well received.
“Hey, Rem,” Jeb said from behind the safety of the screen door. “We weren’t expecting you. You really coming back for good?”
Rem muttered a soft “yes” in response but his eyes never drifted from Liv’s face. He’d worried about her reaction to his return for weeks.
“’Bout time,” was all she said as she turned back to her brother. “I meant what I said, Jeb. You run off to that rodeo again and you can just stay away. I won’t spend one more minute of my life worryin’ about you. I’m done with that.”
“Dammit, Liv. Don’t leave it like that,” Jeb said, stepping out onto the porch.
Liv held up her hand to ward off the rest of his words before turning and walking away. She climbed into her pickup truck and pealed the tires as she drove off. Rem fought back the ingrained instinct that told him to go after her. She shouldn’t be driving when she was so angry but he knew chasing her down would only make her angrier.
“You’re going back to the circuit?” Rem asked as he turned to face the man who’d been more like a brother than a best friend for most of his life.
Jeb shrugged wearily.
“How the hell did you expect her to react, Jeb?” he asked. “She worries about you. Bull riders don’t exactly have long life expectancies.”
Jeb walked over to one of the rocking chairs and Rem moved to stand before him, leaning against the railing. “I knew she’d be pissed but dammit, Rem, I can’t give the rodeo up.”
Rem nodded. His friend had been bitten by the rodeo bug at eighteen and Rem knew no force on earth, short of death, would stop him from riding the circuit. Rem had taken off with Jeb after their high school graduation to try his hand at the rodeo as well, but three years of dust, bruises and battered pride had been more than enough for him. He’d quit, returning home for one brief summer before enlisting with the Marines.
Rem rubbed his eyes and tried to ward off the headache growing. “You were gonna leave her alone to run the ranch?” he asked, annoyed at the thought of Jeb leaving Liv on her own.
“Who the hell do you think’s been runnin’ it these last few months since Joe passed? I can’t stay here, Rem. I’ve been living like a zombie. Liv tells me what to do and I do it. I’m not a rancher.”
Rem had believed the same thing when he’d taken off to join the Marines. He thought he’d needed excitement and adventure to give his life meaning, a purpose. He’d thought a career in the military would make his father proud.
So much for that theory .
His old man was gone and their decade-long estrangement would remain an eternal one. He pushed back the regret and guilt that snuck in and attacked his insides when he least expected it. He’d come home to find peace of mind and a quiet life.
Oh Christ, who was he fooling? He’d come home for Liv.
He’d joined the rodeo at eighteen, only to come home at twenty-one to discover the girl next door had grown up. At seventeen, Liv was wild and reckless and so beautiful she made his gut ache. His father had seen the sparks flying between his son and his foster daughter and told him to get the hell out. He’d gotten out and limited his returns to only short visits for nearly a decade.
“I gotta go,” Jeb said quietly.
“So go,” Rem said. “You don’t need my permission.”
Jeb closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the chair. “I didn’t mean to upset her, Rem. You and Liv are the only family I’ve got.”
Jeb and Liv’s parents had owned the ranch next to the Bradley spread. When Mr. and Mrs. Carter were killed in a car accident, leaving their two children orphaned, Rem’s dad had stepped up and taken them in, raising them as his own. Jeb had been seventeen at the time, Liv only thirteen.
“Liv has a temper like a spark in a powder keg. You know that. Once she’s had some time to calm down, she’ll come around.” Even as he spoke the words, Rem wondered at the veracity of them. He’d never seen Liv so angry, so desolate.
Rem’s father, Joe, had died of a massive heart attack six months earlier. He’d come home briefly for the funeral before promptly returning to his unit. His father’s death had cut deeply and left him with a mountain of regret but he was home now, ready to take up the reins of his inheritance and to claim the girl he’d left behind.
“You really quit the Marines? For good?” Jeb asked.
Rem nodded.
“So now you wanna be a rancher?” his friend asked with disbelief. It wasn’t so long ago they’d both turned tail and run away from this place as fast and as far as their legs would carry them.
“Now I want to be a man my father could be proud of,” he said softly.
“Shit, you already were,” Jeb replied.
Rem shrugged and changed the subject. “When are you leaving?”
Jeb grinned guiltily. “Right now. I was hoping to sneak out while Liv was working in the barn. She caught me.”
Rem shook his head, grinning. “Christ. No wonder she was pissed.”
“I left her a note,” Jeb said defensively before laughing. “That woman is mean as a rattler when riled. No way in hell I was gonna volunteer for her abuse. I figured I had a fifty-fifty chance of making a clean getaway.”
“Yeah, well, I hope you have better luck on the circuit.”
“Amen, brother,” Jeb said, rising. “Guess I’ll shove off. Don’t wanna take a chance on her coming back before I leave. I don’t think I’m up for round two. You’ll look after her, won’t you, Rem?”
Rem knew his friend wouldn’t ask for such a favor if he knew the impure thoughts he’d been having with regards to Liv. He’d managed to fight back his attraction to her for years, keeping his distance from her during his short visits home, but seeing her at his father’s funeral had uncovered and kick-started a bunch of latent feelings he hadn’t realized were still there.
“I’ll take care of her,” he said quietly, praying he would be able to follow through on that promise. He had quite a bit of making up to do in regards to Liv Carter and, if her response to his return was any indication, she didn’t intend to make things easy on him.
Spitfire is available at Ellora’s Cave, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony and All Romance Ebooks.
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