Warrior Girl: A Cowboy Romance (Wild Men Texas Book 2)

by Melissa Belle

  Gigi waves the crowd off with a laugh and a shake of that long blond hair, and the mass of people step back.

  And that’s when Logan looks over and sees me.

  His face flushes like it does when he’s nervous, but he gestures confidently in our direction, and Gigi nods and heads right for me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see George and Dye pretend to be busy with other things, but I know them better than that.

  “The famous Austen Macey Henwood! Logan’s told me so much about you,” Gigi says as she reaches me and gives me a kiss on the cheek. Actually, she doesn’t touch my cheek with her lips. It’s an air kiss.

  I smile politely. When she heads for my other cheek, I speak out awkwardly. “Oh, I’m a one-cheek girl, Gigi. Sorry.”

  “Pardon?” She pulls her head back and stares at me.

  God, she looks young. Certainly younger than the bunch of us. I look at her big blue eyes and pouty mouth, wondering just how old she actually is.

  Blake jumps off his stool to introduce himself to her, and Gigi air kisses him and then Ginny.

  None of them notice the measured look between Logan and me.

  He steps closer under the pretense of taking a sip of my martini.

  “My truck got a flat,” he says in a soft tone. “And she didn’t want to walk here in the heat.”

  I tilt my head as I realize he’s explaining why they showed up on his motorcycle.

  “It’s not a big deal,” I mutter.

  “Yes, it is.” He turns away quickly and suggests we all get a booth.

  Blake, Ginny, and I follow the two lovebirds to the corner of the bar.

  As we walk, Ginny whispers to me about Gigi’s boobs and do I think they’re implants. “They look so perky,” she says admiringly.

  “Oh, Macey, your bar is just lovely! So quaint!” Gigi turns back to me and gestures around the room with her perfectly-manicured hand, and it’s then that I notice the ring.

  The diamond sparkles to me from several feet away.

  Holy. Darcy.

  That diamond’s got to be over two carats. Where in the heck did Logan get the money for that?

  Ginny notices the ring, too. So has George and Dye, and I daresay Rusty’s eyeing it himself. In fact, I’d say pretty much all of Darcy will be talking about Gigi’s ring within the hour.

  Logan sits down and gestures for Gigi to join him.

  Blake and Ginny and I crowd in on the opposite side of the booth.

  “Isn’t that beautiful?” Ginny takes Gigi’s left hand in hers and stares at the ring for a moment before giving Logan a pointed look.

  Blake looks at the ring next. “Wow.”

  “Isn’t it gorgeous?” Gigi giggles as she rubs Logan’s head. “I’m still getting used to wearing it myself. I have no idea where Logan gets his taste, I tell you! I was absolutely shocked when he pulled it out of his pocket—did he tell you we were on top of the Empire State Building?”

  My stomach lurches.

  “The Empire State Building?” Ginny says. “You two were in New York?”

  “Oh, yes, for a week before we came here.” Gigi beams. “Daddy and I flew Logan there to meet my mom. She was worried, of course, so we had to make sure she met Logan. She knows what Texan men can be like…”

  She cuts off and flinches like she’s been—

  Kicked?

  I glance at Logan, but his face is blank.

  Blake doesn’t miss it, either. “You okay there?” he asks Gigi.

  “Yes,” she says immediately. “I, um, I banged my foot against the table leg.”

  “Texan men?” Ginny asks. “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, nothing. Anyway,” Gigi continues quickly. “Logan had never been to Manhattan, and the whole weekend was fantastically romantic. We went on a midnight horse and carriage ride, and we rode the carousel in Central Park. And then we…”

  “Wow!” I interrupt her. “That all sounds great, Gigi.”

  “You must feel like Darcy’s too small for you, then,” Blake says with a glance at Logan.

  “No. I mean, you probably think Darcy seems quaint for my taste.” Gigi flips her perfect hair over her shoulder. “But it’s so important to Logan’s family that we marry here. And we may do a destination wedding afterward as well.”

  Ginny clears her throat and nudges my foot with hers.

  “And thank God Logan is officially divorced…” Gigi giggles in my direction, and I fight to hide the surprise I must have momentarily revealed in my widened eyes.

  Logan tenses next to Gigi, and his whiskey eyes lock onto mine.

  But Gigi’s oblivious. “There can be so much red tape in legal matters. I wouldn’t want anything to hold up our wedding, especially since it’s right around the corner!”

  “No,” Blake says slowly and purposefully. “You definitely wouldn’t want anything like divorce papers holding up a wedding. Would you, Logan?”

  Logan’s jaw is so tight now I’m surprised he can move it to say, “Nope. Sure wouldn’t.”

  Gigi smiles at us. “And of course I have to have my Warren in the wedding. I’m thinking maybe she can be the ring-bearer.”

  “Who’s Warren?” I ask.

  “My Maltese. She’s like my child. My first-born.”

  “Oh!” I smile sweetly at Logan. “So Logan’s a daddy already.”

  He frowns. “It’s not like that.”

  “It is!” Gigi says. “Logan’s tried to shirk his responsibilities a bit, I have to say. I’ve been a little disappointed he hasn’t bonded more with Warren.”

  “Well, you know, Logan’s a guy,” Ginny says. “Guys disappoint us all the time.”

  Logan narrows his eyes at her.

  “And Warren is named after me,” Gigi continues. “So she’s even more special.”

  “Is Gigi your nickname?” Ginny asks her.

  “Gigi is one of my middle names,” she explains in a patient tone. “My full name is Warren Gigi Princess Phillips.”

  She abruptly turns to me then and says she’d like to get to know Logan’s ex-wife a little better.

  “Oh,” I say awkwardly. “There’s not much to me, really. Nothing fancy like you’re probably used to.”

  “Right,” she says with wide eyes. “Your life sounds tragic. So difficult. I heard your father just got out of rehab.”

  Jesus. I can’t believe Logan told her that.

  “Mace,” he says quietly, but I purposefully avoid eye contact with him.

  In my effort to appear unaffected, I do the opposite and knock my drink over.

  “Oh no.” Ginny grabs a napkin and wipes up the spill.

  “I mean, I do understand addiction,” Gigi continues.

  I glance up, and for the first time, I see sincerity in her eyes. But they gloss over so quickly. “But my mother’s habit was so brief, and now she’s fine! I mean, how are you ever going to keep your father off the bottle when he owns a bar?”

  “Well, somebody’s gonna run it for him,” I say.

  “Who?”

  Logan opens his mouth to interrupt, but then he shuts it.

  I take a deep breath. “Me, for now. I’m the oldest child, I’ve been working here for years, and Daddy’s passing The Cowherd on to me.”

  “But Logan said you want to be a writer. You must want to have time for yourself.”

  “Um…” My cheeks warm. “I’m planning to…”

  “Her father’s going to take the bar back,” Logan jumps in.

  Gigi glances around the bar like it’s a foreign land. “What about this ghost legend? Sounds like it’s a very big deal in town.”

  “It is,” I murmur. “But it’s not real.”

  “Real or not, the legend is the reason those cameras are outside and why people are chasing you around town.” Ginny points to the bar. “The exhibit up there explains everything about why you two will wear a Mr. Darcy cowboy hat and a Ms. Bennet bonnet as you exchange vows.”

  “Mrs. Wild mentioned that part,” Gigi say
s. “Macey, could you please be sure to have the bonnet dry cleaned? God only knows whose hair that hat has sat on over the years.”

  Ginny giggles. “Can you do the same for me, Ms. Henwood? I’ll also be wearing the bonnet.”

  I elbow her in the arm.

  “Well, Logan and I are a little bit different than you and your fiancé,” Gigi says to Ginny. “I’m sure your boyfriend feels special to you, but this town is just eating Logan and me up!”

  I bite the inside of my mouth and give Logan a hard look. His neck turns red, but he does his best to avoid my stare.

  “This town prefers their heroes polite and humble,” Blake says pointedly.

  “Oh, I certainly don’t mean to offend. But you know...” Gigi bounces up and down on her seat, “Wealthy New Yorker about to get hitched to a local cowboy is like something out of a romantic film.”

  Now, Logan’s whole face is redder than I’ve seen it except when he’s fought with his father.

  “Gigi…” he says in a low tone.

  Gigi goes quiet and cuddles into Logan’s side. But he keeps his eyes on me.

  We stare at each other for over ten seconds in silence while Gigi watches us warily. I don’t know what I’m looking for exactly, maybe for Logan to reveal to me that he’s caught up in an infatuation, not love. But he closes down before I can read anything. His eyes stay open, but they recede into his face, and I lose connection with him.

  Ginny nudges my foot underneath the table and types something into her phone.

  When mine dings, I glance down at the screen and see her text.

  Nightmare. Let’s please leave?

  I raise my head. “As great as this has been meeting you, Gigi, Ginny and I really need to go…”

  “Wait. Macey, I’d like your help with something for my engagement,” Gigi says. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Gigi, being my maiden of honor is actually taking up a lot of Macey’s time,” Ginny says, unable to keep the irritation out of her voice. “Plus, she has a lot of other things going on like running this bar.”

  “Please, Macey?” Gigi asks me.

  “Um…” The last thing in the world I want to do is get entangled in Logan Wild’s relationship to this woman.

  But saying no to a request for help isn’t my strength. I stand up. “Excuse me for a moment while I run to the ladies.”

  I dash out of the booth without looking back.

  Chapter Nine

  Logan

  I make sure to keep my face impassive as I watch Macey walk away. Race away is more like it.

  Knowing it will attract attention, I restrain myself from going after her.

  I thought agreeing to this get-together would be okay. Macey seemed to want it, and I hoped it would help assuage any suspicions my friends might have over how I could possibly be engaged this quickly to someone they’ve never even met. Gigi’s doing her best to act natural.

  But Macey and Gigi are polar opposites. And as much as Macey’s trying to be polite, it’s pretty obvious to anyone who knows her that she’s upset. Blake’s acting like a fucking detective, and Ginny’s giving me strange looks like when she clearly wondered where I got the money for Gigi’s ring. The fact that Gigi’s father bought it for her isn’t a detail I want mentioned; it will just exacerbate people’s suspicions about our relationship.

  “Logan?” Gigi pokes me. “You zoned out there.”

  I take a deep breath and force a grin. “Just thinking about you.”

  “Ahhh.” She plays it up perfectly and tucks her hand around my arm. “Isn’t he sweet?”

  “Logan is sweet,” Ginny says slowly. “I’m happy he found someone who realizes that.”

  “I noticed it right away,” Gigi says quickly. “He’s the best.”

  I make a joke about getting a big head from all these compliments, but my attention is on the empty hallway leading to the restrooms.

  This time, I can’t stop myself from standing up. “Be right back.”

  Macey

  As I make my way down the hallway toward the restroom, I hear the echo of Ginny’s soft tones and Blake’s low drawl responding to Gigi’s squealy, girlish chatter. I imagine Logan sitting there as his right hand caresses his fiancée’s leg under the table, and I struggle to control my emotions.

  I’m surprised how much the New York City trip affected me. Maybe because, except for Logan’s one year in Boston and annual trips to Wild Ranch in Montana for business, he never leaves Texas. But the moment he meets Gigi, he goes ahead and flies to the Big Apple to get engaged.

  Seeing him so serious about someone else…doesn’t feel good. At all.

  I take my time in the restroom, and when I leave, Logan’s standing in the hallway. His dark lashes frame his whiskey eyes, and his mouth is pursed in a worried frown.

  He pushes off the wall and steps toward me. “Hey.”

  I halt. “What are you doing?”

  “I didn’t tell Gigi about your father. Just wanted to make that clear.” His eyes, which have remained dull since he came back from West Texas, swirl to life as his gaze pins me in place.

  “Who did?”

  He hesitates. Just enough that I notice. “She said somebody passing through town mentioned it.”

  “You mean a reporter?”

  He doesn’t answer that, but the pulse in his neck is throbbing.

  And while I still don’t get how he got engaged so quickly, I’m getting a sense of how much this means to him.

  “Okay. Well, Gigi’s…interesting,” I say to break the silence.

  “I know she’s coming off a little strong,” he says. “But she’s not always so—”

  Bitchy?

  “Nervous.” Logan narrows his eyes at me. “Give her a break—she’s meeting my ex-wife.”

  “Yeah, what’s the deal with that?” I say. “Because as you well know, I’m not your ex-wife yet. You lied to her?”

  “Small omission of fact.” His face flushes. “I thought it would be easier for everyone if she didn’t know we were still…”

  Attracted to each other?

  My gaze wanders from his face down to his chest and then further.

  Logan’s voice drops to barely above a whisper. “Mace, two huge favors.”

  I drag my eyes back up to his face.

  “Name them.”

  “Please sign the papers.”

  “That’s favor one. What’s two?”

  “Do your best to be civil to Gigi.”

  “Done.” I shift past him in the hallway. “We’d better get back.”

  When I reach the booth, I beckon to Gigi. She steps out of the booth and follows me through the bar. The whole walk until I stop in the corner of the saloon, I’m wondering what she wants.

  Does she want to make sure I’m not a threat?

  Or is it to ask for some sort of permission? No, that doesn’t make sense. That’s just for the father, I think. And isn’t it the other way around, so Logan would’ve asked her father for permission? I almost laugh out loud at the very thought. I can’t imagine Logan asking someone for permission for anything.

  “I’d be happy to help you out with anything you need,” I say to her.

  “Thank you, Macey. That means so much.” She squeezes my arm. “And I realize you’re super busy. My mother’s already hired a wedding planner from New York City. But she can’t help fill me in on little details that would make my Logan happy.”

  My jaw tightens, but I get out a nod.

  Gigi lowers her voice conspiratorially. “You can’t tell anybody. Especially Logan.”

  “Okay.” I lean closer so I can hear her.

  “He knows my family’s going to throw us an engagement party here in Darcy in a couple of weeks. But I want to surprise Logan with a gift. You know, something really special from me to him. The whole town will be watching us open our gifts, and I don’t want to come off like I’m a stranger to him. It would look…suspicious.”

  The word seems to come
out of her mouth unbidden, and she blushes as soon as she’s said it.

  I cock my head. “Suspicious? I’m not sure I follow.”

  She coughs. “I want to present Logan with something that he would genuinely want, as a token of the beginning of our new life together. And the thing is, I don’t know Logan’s tastes all that well. I mean, it’s only been a few weeks!” She giggles. “And you’ve known Logan your entire life. He said you guys are kind of like brother and sister.”

  Did he?

  “Kind of.” She flushes again, and then almost says the next part like it’s rehearsed, “Which is why I’m not concerned that you two got married. I get it. A drunken night in Vegas—it happens, right? It’s not like it means anything.”

  She says the words with a cavalier wave of her hand, but the shadow behind her eyes tells me she’s not as naïve about her fiancé’s first marriage as she claims to be.

  I force a casual smile. “Right. But I don’t know about an engagement gift. I don’t want to get in the middle.”

  “Oh, you aren’t! I’m asking you to help! Please? Pretty please?”

  “Uh, I…”

  “Macey, I won’t stop asking until you say yes! You have no idea how much I need your help. I feel like everything depends on it.”

  Her tone borders on frantic, and I’ve never been good at turning away the desperate.

  “Okay,” I say. “We could go shopping next Saturday. How’s eleven a.m. sound?”

  “Sounds perfect, thank you!” She throws her arms around me while I stand like a stone, unable to hug her back. But it makes no difference. She’s on cloud nine.

  I’m starting to understand more and more how Logan wound up in a permanent bond with this woman. She’s relentless. I wonder if she’s ever not gotten something she’s set her mind to have.

  I follow her back to the booth in a daze.

  Chapter Ten

  Logan

  I give Gigi a ride straight back to the ranch. The less time we’re out in Darcy the better. Small towns are naturally nosy, and I want to get this whole wedding business done without questions.

  “I think that went well.” Gigi’s voice drags me out of my troubled thoughts. “Except for my stupid comment about Texan men. I’m sorry.”