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

by Melissa Belle

  We walk across the burnt-out grass of the abandoned lot in silence. But once we’ve reached the street, Ginny says, “You must miss him.”

  I look over at her. “Looking at him with another woman shouldn’t be difficult, right? Just like all the other times he and I dated other people.”

  “I suppose. But I don’t think you ever thought any of those women would last.” She goes quiet for a moment before asking, “You said you finally opened your diary. Starting at the beginning must be kind of hard, isn’t it?”

  I don’t want to say how hard. “It’s not the easiest thing. I feel like I poured my heart out once a year into this little secret journal and then locked it up again until the next year. But I never went back and looked at what my heart was saying, you know?”

  Ginny nods, and her eyes get big. “Is Logan in it a lot?”

  “You know, I’ve only skimmed a few pages so far.”

  And he took up the last entry entirely. The truth is that I want to keep reading. I kind of can’t wait to see what the next Logan Wild entry reveals.

  “Dave stayed out late again last night,” Ginny says as we cross the street. “When I confronted him, we just got into another argument.”

  I flash to Dave and his glassy eyes winking at random girls in Vegas, and then to Ginny standing behind him and using her body weight to hold him up on the stool to prevent him from tipping clear off onto the floor. I remember their engagement party last month when he emerged from the back room with Jennifer Zed, and there was red lipstick all over his face, but he told Ginny that Jennifer took out her lipstick and smeared it on his face for fun.

  I stop walking and say the words I’ve been afraid to for days. “Gin, are you sure you want to send out the wedding invites?”

  Ginny looks past me to the auto shop up ahead.

  “I know as your maiden of honor I’m supposed to stop you from getting cold feet, but I really don’t want you to feel forced into this, honey. You know your parents would let you stay with them if you had to, and my door is always open. I have a spare bedroom you could live in with the baby and…”

  “No.” Ginny shoots me a withering look. “I love you so much, Macey, you know that. But I’ll only say this once—no matter what I say or how I act, it’s just the hormones. What I need from you these next two months is your undying support in me and Dave as a couple. Okay? You tell me we’re great together, and the more uncertain I get, the harder you push me into remembering how much Dave and I love each other. Force me if you have to. That’s your job as my maiden of honor. It’s my only request.”

  “But—”

  Ginny’s eyes close down. “My daddy will be forever crushed if I become a single mother. I’ll be the one daughter of his that disappointed him. I can’t be that girl, Macey. I’ll keep my administrative job at the library so I don’t have to rely on Dave financially, but I must go forward with this wedding.”

  I take a deep breath and put my hand over hers. “Okay then. If that’s what you want, I will do my best to keep you focused on the positives.”

  “Start now.” Ginny’s shoulders relax. “How is Dave heroic?”

  “Um…let’s see. Well, his heroic traits may not be obvious, but that doesn’t mean Dave doesn’t love you. Not all heroes look like fictional characters. Some of the best men are the least obvious choices. And Dave can be very sweet. Remember how he took care of you when you twisted your ankle senior year?”

  “He was really caring,” Ginny says.

  “And how about the time he stayed up with you all night after your big fight with your mama?”

  “That’s another good one.” Ginny gives me a hug. “I’ll focus on those memories. Thanks, Mace. Good luck with what you’re about to do.”

  “I’ll need it.” I tell Ginny good-bye and head down the street to Chubby Lou’s Auto Shop.

  Logan’s truck isn’t in the parking lot.

  But his mother said he would be here by now.

  I step inside the tiny air-conditioned shop and wave hello to Lou.

  “Well, well, well, if it isn’t my favorite bartender.”

  I grimace as I recognize the annoying voice of Reid Wild behind me.

  Out of the four Wild brothers, Reid is the one who loves to tease and irritate. And Teflon Reid seems to get away with just about anything.

  I turn around to face him.

  He’s a handsome cocky ass; I’ll give him that. With that dark hair, blue-green eyes, and square jaw, Ginny calls him “sexy bastard” behind his back.

  “Where’s your baby brother at?” I say. “Your mama said he was here with you.”

  “Should be any minute now. Take a seat. Let’s catch up.”

  I don’t want to catch up with Reid because I know what he’s going to talk about. “I’ll just wait outside for him.”

  But Reid follows me to the door. “What do you think of Logan’s fiancée?” he asks before I can make my exit.

  I pause, working my way into a civilized response. Anything less, and I’ll never hear the end of it.

  “Happy for him,” I stammer before turning and walking out the door.

  Reid won’t follow me in this heat. He’s always hated Texas summers. If he’s not working on the ranch, he chooses A/C every time.

  But apparently, the news of Logan and Gigi is big enough to get people to do things they normally wouldn’t.

  Reid chases me out the door. “Little Lo’s all grown up, I guess, huh?”

  I stare at him in silence.

  All grown up. “I guess he is.”

  “Mace?” Reid leans closer. “You okay? You’ve gone pale.”

  I swallow. “I’m fine.”

  His expression shifts from typical-mischievous Reid to something I don’t think I’ve ever seen on his face before. Concern. Instead of teasing me like I’m expecting, he changes the subject and says casually, “It’s the heat, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” I get out. “The sun is brutal.”

  He reaches out and gives my ponytail a light tug. “I don’t know too much, but somehow, everything’s gonna turn out all right in the end, Macey.”

  “That it will.” I wave awkwardly. “Excuse me.”

  He walks back inside, and I go sit underneath the big oak tree at the edge of the parking lot. Once I’m in the shade, I glance into my purse to make sure the divorce papers haven’t wrinkled, and then I pull out my diary. Might as well read another entry while I wait.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Mama and Daddy got their first official divorce last month. I should have been prepared, but it always hurts when somebody leaves for good.

  Daddy had been drinking a lot, and Mama and I held an intervention with Uncle Benji to convince Daddy to go to rehab. This is his second try—he went once when I was a baby, but it didn’t stick. This one didn’t either. He quit after just two weeks at Hills for Health and was back home and running The Cowherd like always. And like always, Mama woke me up and brought me to the bar with her so together we could get him out to the car and drag his drunk ass home.

  Mama claims her eyes are getting worse now that she’s a mother of four, and she can’t be bothered to read on her own anymore. She says I will be her eyes and her voice from now on. And her ears—she sends me to snoop on Daddy at The Cowherd at least twice a week. She wants to know before anyone else who he’s seeing so she won’t be caught off-guard when some big mouth like Billie Wells stops her on the street and says that she heard Benjamin Henwood is seeing a hot young blond chick.

  I read Emma to her, and as much as I loved it, having Mama hovering over my shoulder and exclaiming over every single paragraph got tiresome. So when I got the chicken pox, the best part was I got to read Northanger Abbey by myself because Mama can’t stand to be around the ill. Or the downtrodden. She’s too downtrodden herself to have much patience for others in that state.

  I was in bed reading when Logan brought my homework by. He sat on the bed with me, leaned back, and put his arms behind
his head. Even though he didn’t say it, I knew he didn’t want to stay around his house and watch his daddy and uncle have yet another fight about the farm while his mother snuck into the pantry to drink her wine.

  Logan took my book out of my hands and closed it. He said I needed real human company instead of fictional characters.

  “Real life isn’t like a book, Mace. You can’t control people the way an author can control the characters in her stories.”

  “You think I don’t know that? Look at my parents—I can’t get them to do anything I want.”

  Logan fumbled with the book in his hand and suddenly asked me if I’d be well enough to go to Dave’s party next Friday night.

  “I really want you to come,” he whispered before he ran out.

  My chicken pox cleared up, and Dave’s parents were out of town, so Ginny and I walked over together.

  We played spin the bottle for the first time. When Logan spun, he got Amy Alder—three times. He never spun me once. Afterward, he pulled my ponytail and asked me if I wished it had been me. I stuck my tongue out at him and walked away.

  But the following week, Dave had another party, except this time we didn’t have a bottle, so we used a stick, shut our eyes, and pointed in a direction. This made it seem a little more contrived—I mean, all of us knew where everybody was sitting, so they could certainly point in a general direction.

  Logan pointed the stick at me. My legs went weak, and my heart raced because I didn’t know how to kiss, and I didn’t know what he’d try to do. He and Amy had definitely used their tongues.

  When we reached each other in the center of the circle, we were both on our hands and knees, and everyone was clapping. I was so embarrassed I felt as hot as the sun must. But Logan seemed cool as ever, and he just leaned in and kissed me—his lips to mine. No tongue, though. And then, it was over.

  “Y’all are chickens!” Dave called out. “What’s wrong with y’all?”

  Logan was already backpedaling to his seat. But I grabbed him afterward, and while everyone was walking ahead, I asked him why.

  “Why what?” he asked me.

  “Why no tongue?”

  “Did you want that?” He looked surprised.

  I furrowed my eyebrows. “What does that matter? The tongue was what we’re supposed to do.”

  He reached over and brushed a stray hair off my face. “You seemed nervous. Were you?”

  “It’s kind of a stupid game,” I said. “Everyone watches you.”

  “I agree.”

  “But you and Amy…”

  “I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about Amy Alder,” he said.

  “Oh.” I stared at him, trying to decipher his unreadable face.

  “Look,” he said. “Anytime you want to kiss me in private, I’m there. Your call.”

  I slam the diary shut just as Logan’s familiar Chevy truck pulls into the auto shop from the back alley.

  “Hey!” I call out to him before he sees who it is.

  Logan squints in his rearview mirror, checking the facts before he has to respond. He’s been doing more of that these days. Ever since he got back from his painting trip. Really, I should call it his engagement trip. I doubt he got much painting done with all of his gallivanting up to New York City and buying a diamond to woo Gigi.

  “Hey.”

  Logan jumps out of the truck and walks over to me. His restlessness is palpable as I watch him consciously suck in a breath like he’s trying to stay calm.

  He glances down at the diary in my hands. “You writing?”

  I shove the diary into my purse. “No.”

  And here we are being awkward again.

  I go for a joke. “How are you feeling going up against Ginny and Dave in the contest? I personally think you’re gonna lose the Darcy title to Dave in a landslide.”

  Logan’s eyes crinkle in amusement. “I didn’t realize you cared so much about the contest.”

  The shadow behind his eyes tells me he’s hiding something, but I can’t figure him out. I’ve always been able to read Logan, and having no clue what’s going on with him these days is disconcerting. My face burns from more than the sun beating down on it.

  But this is the moment I came here for, and I can’t keep putting it off.

  “I just…here.” I reach into my purse and pull out the divorce papers.

  Logan stares at me as he takes the papers out of my hand. He looks down at them and goes to flip through the pages, but I say, “All signed. Don’t worry.”

  He swallows hard and raises his head until our eyes lock. His look so…sad.

  But all he says is, “Great. Thanks, Macey. I’ll file them right away.”

  “Good.” I hesitate and then take off my ruby ring and hand it to him. “And this is for you as well.”

  Logan looks down at the ring sitting in his open hand. “This is yours.” He tries to push it back to me. “It was a gift.”

  But I bat his hand away. “You gave me your bull ring back. And I can’t keep this. Not anymore.”

  His jaw tightens. “Why not?”

  “It’s just not right.” I fight back the emotion. “And you know it, too. I married you with that ring on my finger, and I”—I bite my lip and then blurt out—“you know as well as I do what the ring means, Logan. What it stands for.”

  He shifts uncomfortably from one foot to the other and puts his hands in his pockets. The ring disappears with them, and I almost cry out at the idea of never seeing it again.

  He mutters something about no longer being in the mood to see Reid, and then he turns on his heel and opens his truck door. He steps into the cab and shuts the door behind him.

  I watch his actions like it’s a slow motion movie—that truck we’ve gotten “stuck” in so many times, that back seat I lost my virginity in…

  I sigh and touch my hand to my chest. I’m sweaty all of a sudden. I look up to see Logan staring at me out of his open window. I look back at him for a long moment, remembering every single time we’ve ever made love. And I know he’s remembering, too.

  But then, he peels into reverse, backs out of the parking lot, and he’s gone.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Logan

  I tear out of the auto shop parking lot and drive directly to Rick Murphy’s office.

  “Good. I’ll get straight to work processing these.” Rick goes to take the signed papers out of my hand.

  But I hold onto them too tightly, and he ends up with air.

  He gives me a second look. “You’re sure about this?”

  I force a nod. “I just want to look over them first.”

  “Okay.” He waits while I stand in his office and go through the pages, stopping to stare at Macey’s signature.

  “Logan.” Rick puts his hand on my shoulder. “If you’re having second thoughts…”

  I can’t have second thoughts. Not when it comes to saving Macey’s future.

  “Nope.” I straighten the papers and hand them over. “All set. Thanks for your help.”

  Before he can say anything more, I turn and race out of the building and into my truck.

  I make it to the fishing hole in record time. After parking, I grab my pole and tackle box out of the bed of the truck and head for the riverbank.

  The first thought I had when Macey handed me back the ring was to tell her everything. The whole truth. I’d look her in the eyes and explain what happened.

  Shortly after we returned from Vegas, I was fishing late afternoon right in this very spot. I was totally focused on the water and thinking about you and me and what a mess we’d gotten ourselves into. I wasn’t paying any attention to the few people strolling past.

  But then a guy on his cell phone drifted close to me, and he was talking loudly. But I still wouldn’t have paid him any mind, if I hadn’t heard—

  “Found out his name’s Benjamin Henwood. His saloon is called The Cowherd Whiskey.”

  Something felt wrong. Chills ran down my spine, and I gla
nced behind me. I was completely hidden from view by the massive oak tree, but I could just make out the form of a tall, older man on the other side of the walking path. I’d never seen him around town. He was wearing an expensive suit and an earpiece. His hands were in his pockets as he paced back and forth while he talked.

  “Yeah, I’ve found enough on him to have him put behind bars for life…no, it’s not deserved. All nickel and dime stuff, mostly when he was inebriated, but that’s why I pay you so damn much money—to make something out of nothing. Of course I’m out for revenge after what he did with my wife. Makes him fair game for payback. I’m going to take his life right out from under him.

  “See how he likes it to have something taken from under your nose that belongs to you…no, that’s not enough. I want him locked up, too…last time I was here, my wife and I were passing through, and when I was in the city for business, she spent a couple days on her own in Hill Country.

  “And the bar owner didn’t notice her wedding band?

  “She swears she was wearing it and he just smooth talked her. Put his mouth on hers, his hands on her ass, and then the Goddamn prick took her to bed. My wife told me everything.

  “Crazy redneck drunk…he’ll pay his due for screwing with someone from the Phillips family. Not yet, I’ve got to head out west to Big Bend for a little while. I’m leaving for my plane now, so we’ll talk soon.”

  When he rattled off the name of the hotel he’d be at in West Texas, I filed it away in my memory.

  I put away my fishing gear and hurried out from my spot, but the man was gone. Disappeared. I ran down Main Street but didn’t see him anywhere.

  All I could think was that I have to do something.

  A tug on my line brings me back to Darcy and the present. I reel in the catfish and then immediately release it back into the water.

  As my pulse settles, I remember why I’m keeping this a secret from Macey. I can’t tell her the truth. Not yet.

  When this fake engagement and marriage come to an end, I plan to tell her everything. How her father’s past indiscretions finally came back to bite him. How I left for West Texas determined to find and stop the man who wanted to ruin her family. How I stumbled onto his daughter, who turned out to be the key to keeping Macey and her family from suffering further from Mr. Henwood’s past indiscretions. And how I struck a deal with Gigi Phillips, and then her father, who is the most powerful man I’ve been around. He’s also a man who despises the Henwoods,