Just Shoot Me (Cowboy Way, #1)

by Becky McGraw

  “Oh, God, baby…” she groaned as she stumbled over to her niece. Kneeling in front of her she swiped her bangs to the side to get a better look at the gash.

  Laney’s blue eyes filled and her lower lip trembled. “She called mama a skank and a whore.” Tina knew her niece had no idea exactly what that meant, but she’d bet the other girl did. Laney had just known that girl was insulting her mother. And she was upset enough that she was gone. Tina could understand why the fight happened. Laney was hurting in more ways than one.

  “Oh, I know, honey,” Tina said and hugged her tight.

  The nurse cleared her throat and Tina released Laney to step back. “I just need to put a Band-aid on her cut.”

  “That is not a fucking scrape or a cut,” Dean grated angrily.

  Tina gasped as the nurse rounded on him. Her eyes narrowed, and her face looked like she thought he was the scum of the Earth. “Watch your language, sir!”

  Dean wasn’t afraid of Betty Ballbreaker though. He took a step forward, almost going nose-to-nose with the woman. “Language hell, we’re going to the emergency room. Maybe someone there can determine the difference between a fucking scrape and a gaping laceration that might require stitches,” he grated, taking another step forward. Miss Ballbreaker took a step back and put her hand on her chest. “And then we’re going to the school board! After that maybe the medical board might also be interested to know on top of being incompetent, you must be fucking blind, if you call that,” he pointed to Laney’s forehead. “A scratch, Lady!”

  Tina flinched at the volume and content of Dean’s tirade, but her soul smiled.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave, Mr. Dixon,” the principal said from the doorway. “And when your sister comes back to meet with me, I would ask that she not bring him with her, Miss Montgomery.”

  Tina groaned and helped Laney to her feet. The nurse took a step forward with her bandage, but Tina held up a hand. “I’ll take care of it,” she mumbled as she grabbed a stack of gauze out of the box on the treatment table. Putting her arm around Laney, she led her past Dean, whispering as she passed him, “Come on, before I kill you right here.”

  They got into the hall and Laney sobbed, then started crying. Dean rushed up beside them and grabbed her arm. “I’ll carry her,” he said swooping her up into his arms. “We are going to the damned emergency room to make sure she’s not hurt. That could leave a scar if it’s not taken care of. Or she could have a concussion.”

  Laney wrapped her legs around him and hugged his neck as he carried her toward the front entrance. Tina’s heart wiggled at the sight, but then she got a grip on her emotions and ran after him. She couldn’t afford a hospital visit.

  “Dean it’s a cut. I can bandage it when we get back to the apartment.”

  He didn’t stop, he went out the front door of the school and straight to his truck, which he insisted they take since he wouldn’t fit in her car. Two hours later, they were finally escorted from the waiting room to a treatment room at the emergency department. No matter how much she protested, Dean insisted they stay until Laney was seen. She decided to try one more time.

  “Dean I don’t have insurance to cover this,” Tina grated after he laid a sleeping Laney down on the bed. “Let’s just go back to my apartment.”

  His response was a pointed look, as he sat in one of the chairs in the room and folded his arms over his chest. Tina huffed out a breath and sat in the chair beside him. By the time they dragged themselves back to the truck with butterfly stitches on Laney’s forehead and an icepack on her eye, Tina was worn out and strung out. But she wasn’t broke. Dean had insisted they bill him for the visit. Where he was going to get the money to pay the bill, she didn’t know.

  But he wouldn’t let her pay.

  After he put Laney in the backseat and made sure she was buckled in, he opened the passenger door for Tina. His truck was so tall, she had a hard time getting up inside, so he picked her up and set her in the seat, then like he had with Laney he reached across her to fasten her seat belt. Who was this man, Tina wondered, as she watched him walk around the front of the truck and get behind the wheel. He sure wasn’t Mr. Cranky Pants anymore. He reached for the keys to start the truck and she said, “You feeling okay?”

  He looked over at her with a confused look on his face. “Yeah, fine, why?”

  “I don’t know, you just seem…different today.” He smiled widely and her heart did a little flip in her chest.

  “I am different.” Without explaining his cryptic statement, Dean cranked the truck and headed toward her apartment. Whatever had caused the change in Dean, she liked this new version. But she was scared too, because those soft feelings she had developed for the man were quickly getting softer. In fact, her feelings for the handsome cowboy had definitely taken on a new dimension. One that went way past infatuation. If she let herself bask in those feelings though, she knew Mr. Cranky Pants was still in there somewhere, and she’d probably wind up with a broken heart.

  Tina couldn’t deal with that on top of trying to figure out her current situation.

  When they got closer to home, Dean spotted a fast food joint, and insisted they stop and pick up burgers, so neither of them had to cook. Tina didn’t feel like eating. After her Oreo and chip binge, she probably shouldn’t eat for a month. Especially fast food, but she ordered a burger anyway, and a shake, and it came in a combo so she ordered fries too. She was definitely going to have to find time for the gym soon. As soon as her life wasn’t falling apart.

  Laney was sleeping so Dean just ordered her a kid’s meal for later. Dean parked in the space next to hers at the apartment complex, then hopped out of the truck. Before she could open her door, he was right there lifting her down. Once her feet hit the ground, he bent and kissed her, before he reached inside for the bags and handed them to her. “I’ll carry Laney inside, so we don’t have to wake her.”

  Tina’s mouth opened and she started to tell him Laney could walk, but decided it wasn’t worth the argument she knew she’d have with him. Like at the school. And at the hospital. Laney slept on Dean’s shoulder as Tina shuffled the bags to stick the key into the lock of her door. Tina flicked on the light and groaned at the mess.

  Dean walked inside and turned back to her to ask quietly, “Where’s her bedroom?”

  Tina laughed. “Our bedroom?” She pointed to the bedroom.

  “This is a one freaking bedroom apartment?” he asked with surprise.

  “Yeah, I was saving up for a house, but that’s not happening now.”

  Dean walked to the bedroom, and Tina kicked off her shoes, sat the dinner bags down on the table, and started cleaning up. She was on her hands and knees with a whisk broom and dust pan sweeping up the chip crumbs from the carpet when his large boots suddenly appeared near her knee.

  “We need to talk.” He reached down and took the dust pan and broom from her. “But let’s eat first,” he said, as he walked into the kitchen and dumped the crumbs into the trash. Dean sure was making himself at home here. And inserting himself into her life. She should probably get him out of there, but she just couldn’t make herself do it. Having him here made her feel better about her situation, and she just couldn’t figure out why. Tina got back to her feet, and folded the blanket, picked up the two trash bags and walked to the front door.

  “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Dean demanded.

  She glanced back at him, as she opened the door. “I’m going to the dumpster, of course.”

  “It’s nearly midnight. And if you haven’t noticed, this isn’t the greatest neighborhood.”

  Tina laughed. “I know what kind of neighborhood this is, country boy. I go out to the dumpster at night all the time. There’s a light out there.”

  “Well, you’re not going out there this time,’” he growled and walked over to snatch the bags from her hand. “Where’s the damned dumpster?”

  “At the end of the building around the c
orner.”

  “I’ll be back. Get us a drink.” Was Mr. Cranky Pants back? If so, his transformation into Prince Charming sure hadn’t lasted long.

  “I have water or milk,” Tina fired back. She didn’t know what Dean expected here, but she wasn’t a rich woman. If he expected wine or whiskey with his take-out he was out of luck. She didn’t even waste money on soda. Except for the flat soda that Lori had left here, she hadn’t had that in her apartment in a year. That’s why she had ordered a shake. He hadn’t ordered a drink.

  “Water’s fine,” he said grumpily and walked outside. He shut the door with a snap, and Tina walked to the kitchen to make his drink, then pulled mismatched plates down from the cabinet. She had pieces and parts of her mother’s dish sets, but hadn’t bought a new set for herself after her mother died. They had dishes, that’s all that mattered. She had been too worried about taking care of her sister and herself, then Laney to worry about much else than survival.

  She brought the plates and drink into the living room and set them on the coffee table. Dean came back in and he didn’t look happy. “What are you frowning about?” she asked, as she pulled the burgers out of the bag.

  “This place isn’t fucking safe, Tina. That damned school isn’t safe for Laney either.”

  “What happened?” she asked as she stood back up.

  “Some dumbass was messing around your car, but I ran him off.” Dean slammed the door and stomped over to the sofa then sat down. He huffed out a breath, and took off his hat to balance it on the arm of the sofa. He ran a hand through his hair. “Marry me,” he said shortly.

  Tina thought she was hearing things. She actually smacked her ear with her palm thinking her hearing was going out. Surely Dean Dixon hadn’t just asked her to marry him?

  “Come back?”

  His eyes met hers and they were a filled with swirling emotions she couldn’t name. He cleared his throat. “I said, marry me.”

  Tina’s knees went weak, and she reached behind her as she fell back on the sofa. Since she was a little girl she had always envisioned the exact moment when the man she loved would ask her to marry him. In her mind, it happened in a variety of different ways. This surely wasn’t one of them. As much as his protectiveness of her niece touched her heart, as attentive and helpful as he’d been to her, Tina never imagined he was leading up to this.

  There had to be a reason, because he certainly didn’t appear to be in love with her.

  Funny, my lawyer said almost the same thing today.

  “Say something,” Dean said, dragging his eyes to his hamburger, which he proceeded to unwrap and put on the plate.

  “You’re out of your mind.”

  “Maybe I am, but I’m still asking,” Dean said as he took a bite of his hamburger. Tina didn’t touch hers. Her Oreos from earlier were now doing a tango with the chips in her stomach.

  “Why?” she asked the burning question that might give her a clue to what he was thinking.

  “My lawyer said it would look better to the court. You said it would help your situation. We could go to the courthouse in the morning, then go see the lawyer and start things rolling to adopt her.” His emotionless tone, the straightforward words, his damned reasons were definitely not what her romantic heart wanted.

  And his idea was way out in left field. She was as broke as he was. “Adoption costs a lot of money, Dean. I can’t afford an attorney right now, and you can’t either, unless you hit the lottery and didn’t mention it.”

  He set his hamburger down, and his eyes met hers. “If we’re married, you won’t need a house, you’ll live at the ranch with me. Use the money you have saved to buy a house.”

  Tina gnawed her lip. Why the hell was this idea making sense to her?

  “What happens when all this is settled? Once I have custody of Laney, and your problems with Cindy are resolved?”

  “We cross that bridge when we get there. Decide whether we stay married or not.”

  God, it sounded so cold. He sounded so cold. This was not at all what she wanted.

  “So we’d get a divorce?”

  Dean stopped chewing to suck in a sharp breath. He set his hamburger down on the plate slowly, then turned on the sofa to face her. “I hope not. Jeremy needs a mother. I need a wife. I think we’re a good fit. I know we are in one area,” he said and his eyes heated. “I’m hoping things will work out in other areas too.”

  “The kids would be devastated if we got them comfortable with us being their parents, then decided to get a divorce. It would be worse for them than it is now.” Tina did not ever want to be divorced. She knew firsthand that kids from broken homes had it much worse than kids from single-parent families most of the time.

  “It worked out for my brother and Hope. I think it will work out for us too,” Dean said.

  Her stomach did a rumba now, and she put a hand on it. Seeing the glob of mayo that leaked out the side of Dean’s hamburger added sound effects. Tina’s stomach lurched and she sprinted for the bathroom. Tina leaned over the toilet and breathed in and out slowly until her stomach decided whether it wanted to evict the Oreos. Dean lifted her hair off of her neck, then caressed her nape with his thumb. It was a weird combination, this nausea and the chills his touch sent racing down her spine.

  “You okay, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice full of concern.

  “Yeah, I’ll be okay. Must have a bug.” Or be totally stressed out, because you just dumped something else on my plate I didn’t need. Plate. Greasy Hamburger. Mayonnaise. Tina’s stomach lurched and she pinched her lips and sucked in a breath through her nose. “Maybe you should just go. I don’t want you to get sick,” she said. And I don’t want to have to tell you no, because I’m only going to marry a man who loves me.

  “I’m pretty resilient,” Dean said, as if she hadn’t told him to leave. “C’mon you need to lay down.” Tina wanted to say no, but she felt too damned bad to say anything. Maybe if she laid down a second she would feel better. Dean didn’t wait for her to decide though. Mr. Caveman bent and put his arm under her knees and lifted her. He walked with her into the living room and sat down on the couch with her on his lap.

  He turned off the lamp on the side table, then reached behind him and grabbed the blanket she had folded over the back. With a whoosh he shook it out then covered her, tucking the end of the blanket under her chin. He leaned down and kissed her forehead, then whispered fiercely, “Sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning. We’ll talk about it then.” He grabbed the remote off the coffee table and flicked on the television, then put it on mute.

  In the morning. That meant he wasn’t leaving. Dean Dixon was going to spend the night holding her while she slept. And he’d asked her to marry him. How the hell was she supposed to sleep? Tina shut her eyes, Dean rubbed her hair in slow monotonous strokes, and her body must’ve figured it out, because it wasn’t long before she drifted off dreaming about a white dress and Dean Dixon.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Tina could not believe she was actually doing this. Maybe she was still sleeping, and this was all a dream. She glanced at the stone-faced man beside her and flinched, then looked down at herself. No white dress. She wiggled the fingers of her left hand, looking particularly close at her ring finger. Nope, no ring either.

  The man in the suit behind the scuffed up wooden podium cleared his throat, and Dean Dixon squeezed her hand. Like he wasn’t already holding it tight enough. She couldn’t even feel the fingers of her right hand, and her palm felt like it was stuck to a hot plate, Dean’s palm was so hot. She shook her head, and just said, “I do,” because she figured that was the expected response.

  Considering this was a marriage ceremony that had to be it. A bead of sweat trickled from the base of her skull, slid slowly down her neck, then inched down her spine. The man started speaking again, so she must’ve gotten it right. Why the hell did his voice sound like it was coming from the end of a tunnel? He needed to speak louder. And Tina realized she needed to
unlock her knees before she passed out.

  She relaxed them as much as she could, and Dean tucked her arm under his and pulled her closer to his body, seeming to know she needed support. Or making sure she didn’t turn and bolt from this small, hot room where she was becoming his wife. That is what she was really considering doing, when Dean suddenly released her hand to grab her left hand. He roughly shoved a thin gold band over her knuckle, before putting his hand on her back and facing the judge again. The scrambled eggs in her stomach, the breakfast Dean had cooked and insisted she eat before they dropped Laney off at the neighbors to come here, did a jig in her stomach. Tina covered it with her newly-adorned left hand and held back a groan.

  Dean tensed beside her and looked down with concern in his eyes. She forced a smile and looked back at the man in the suit. He smiled, and closed the book on the podium.

  “Congratulations,” he said cheerfully, and Tina’s stomach lurched again.

  Dean turned her then lifted her against him to close his lips over hers in a hot kiss that went on a second too long. That was when she knew this had actually happened. She was now Mrs. Tina Dixon, Dean Dixon’s wife. A whimper worked its way up from her sternum to her throat, but she stopped it from escaping through her lips by pinching them together.

  What the hell had she just done? She had just saved her niece, helped Dean save his son, and maybe saved herself in the process. If she had lost Laney, Tina had no idea what she would do. This morning, she had weighed the odds of finding her sister, and realized they were next to zero. Texas was a big state. She could be anywhere. She could have even left the state. The cowboys she hung out with were on the rodeo circuit. Many different circuits that traveled all over the country, even to Canada.