Twin Cowboys for Tamara

by Gigi Moore

Tamara remembered how close she had been to searching for his wallet before she talked herself out of it while he’d been in the bathroom earlier that morning. She’d learned her lessons but good about snooping that way when she had found a strange phone number written on a crumpled scrap of paper in her then college boyfriend’s wallet. She’d called the number out of curiosity only to discover her said boyfriend cheated on a wife and kid with her.

  She’d broken one of the first rules she’d learned in law school—never ask a question to which you either didn’t know the answer or one in which you weren’t ready to know the answer—and gotten stung badly.

  “Come. I have a nice devil’s food cake and a half-gallon of chocolate-strawberry-and-vanilla ice cream with your name on them.” The pretty woman pulled away and took her by the hand to lead her to the kitchen. She turned to Tamara on the threshold and placed a hand on her own chest. “I am Maria Consuelos. I work as the housekeeper here. And you must be Senorita Tamara?”

  Tamara understood why Maria knew her name when she glanced up and finally noticed the pink and blue streamers criss-crossing the room from the ceiling but especially the big matching banner proclaiming Welcome Home, Tamara! suspended from the middle of the large living room. “Yes, I’m Tamara, and that’s what you can call me. Just Tamara. But right about now I feel more like an idiot,” she confessed.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. It is the one who hurt you who is the real idiot.”

  “I like your thinking, Maria.” It suited her a thousand times better than feeling like a doormat for the second time in as many weeks.

  Chapter 8

  “Well, I guess I don’t need to ask what happened between you and the gal.” Jeremiah frowned.

  “Dad, not now.” Jess tried to make his way past, but Bailey raised a crutch to Jess’s chest, blocking his forward motion.

  “I don’t have to ask, but I’m going to.”

  Jess winced at the reprimand he heard in Bailey’s voice. He guessed he should consider himself lucky the man hadn’t hit him with his crutch. He had every right to. Jess loved and respected the older man like a father, didn’t like causing him any undue stress or pain, and he knew that the idea of someone, especially a man, hurting his only daughter would do just that. He hated like hell that Bailey might throw him into the same category as he had thrown Noah all those years ago, didn’t like looking anything less than honorable in his eyes. “We just had a little misunderstanding.”

  “Seems like more than a little misunderstanding to me.”

  “I just need to talk to her is all.”

  “From the looks of it, she don’t want to talk to you, son.”

  “Yeah, Jess. I’d give her some time to cool off if I were you,” Jax put in.

  Jess looked at him, hated to admit Jax and Bailey were right, but the fact glared at him. He cursed under his breath and stomped off toward the barn and stable.

  A hard ride on Clipper would do him some good.

  But when he neared the stall that housed his horse, he spent several minutes trying to calm himself down and get into a frame of mind where he wouldn’t just take the horse out and ride him into the ground. Clipper deserved better than that.

  When Jess turned the corner to the horse’s stall, the animal whinnied in greeting, looking about as happy to see him as anyone ever had.

  Jess rubbed Clipper’s neck, reassuringly talking to him, calming himself down some more, as well as calming the horse. He could kick himself for not bringing the animal a treat, wondering more and more if a ride would help. He’d just be running away from his problems, and Jess didn’t do that.

  But then he’d done a lot of things in the last twenty-four hours that he didn’t usually do, lying to someone he cared about number one on the list.

  When he’d first seen Tamara in the airport terminal looking so vulnerable and lost, and as far away from the intimidating, city-slicker, attorney-at-law picture he had nurtured of her over the years, Jess’s heart had immediately thawed. The thoughts of anger and half-assed vindication because the girl had gone off and made a life for herself without him and Jax, disappeared. In their place stood reconciliation and the idea that if he could just get her to see him the man and not the boy she remembered, he could get her to care about him.

  He’d made a grave error in judgment to say the least and now Tamara hated him if he went by that slap. More than the slap, however, had been her words that hurt, especially that sleazy part. He spent his life trying to be as far away from sleazy as he could get. Wouldn’t it just figure that the one time he decided to act out of character it would rear up to bite him in butt? And the one person honesty counted with the most he had made the mistake of lying to.

  Jess rubbed his jaw now, remembering the blow and the fire that had lit Tamara’s dark eyes when she’d given him a piece of her mind. He’d actually been a little turned on by her anger. What kind of foolishness did he entertain?

  “Hey, pardner.”

  Jess almost leaped out of his skin before he turned to see Jax leaning against the door of the stall, long legs crossed at the ankles and hands behind his back. He looked back at Clipper and said, “You could have warned me.”

  “Don’t get mad at Clipper. He knows what side his bread is buttered. Don’t you, boy?” Jax pushed off the door and made his way over, bringing his hands from behind his back where he held a fresh shiny apple in one hand. “Besides, he did snort, you were just too wrapped up in your moping to notice.”

  Clipper neighed and nodded his head as if to agree.

  Jax rubbed the animal’s nose and fed him the apple. Clipper greedily bit into the piece of fruit, finishing it in a couple of bites.

  “Thanks, Jax.”

  “I figured he’d need a little sustenance before you ran him ragged.”

  “Not for the apple, although I’m sure Clipper appreciates it, but…just thanks.”

  “Still need to go out for a ride?”

  “I changed my mind about riding before you got here. At least until I calm down a little more. I’ll have to find some other way to work out my frustrations than running a poor animal ragged.” Jess turned to his brother. “How’d you know I came out here?”

  “As kids and whenever I got us into a pickle or you got upset about something, you always came out to the stalls to talk to the horses. Didn’t have to ride them, just liked being around them when trouble struck, like talking to them could make everything all right.”

  In a pickle—that explained his situation with Tamara perfectly.

  As always, Jax had a way of putting things—accurately.

  As a kid Jess had often sought the company of animals over people, preferred it. Animals acted uncomplicated, had simple needs—food, shelter, exercise and TLC—not like people with low self-esteem issues, jealousies or other axes to grind. If an animal acted out of sorts, nine times out of ten he suffered physically illness and not an emotional or mental one. An animal either liked person or he didn’t, and once he did, he would more than likely be loyal to the person forever.

  “So, you want to talk about it?”

  Jess shrugged. “What’s there to talk about? I screwed the pooch but good.”

  “I kind of got that much but what I want to know is how. Jesse Reynolds, Mr. Responsible, Mr. Conscientious, Mr. Frank and Upfront—you lied?”

  Jess grinned despite his misery. Like on Seinfeld, he felt like he lived in bizarro world, an alternate universe where he and Jax had traded places and personalities. Here in bizarro world, he played the impulsive, irresponsible twin and Jax played the cautious and sensible one. Here in bizarro world, Jax got to tell him about himself and what he had done wrong and what he needed to do to make it right. Here in bizarro world, Jess was miserable and without the woman he needed and had been craving for most of his life.

  Wait a minute. That was the way things were for him in the real world too.

  “So, what exactly did you tell her? Or not tell her, I’m guessing?”

&nb
sp; “When I picked her up at the airport, she didn’t recognize me.”

  “Who’d she think you w—”

  “I don’t know what she thought, I just know she asked who I was, and right then and there, I made a split-second decision to play along and be someone else, be the someone she wanted me to be—a sexy stranger she wanted to get with.”

  “You didn’t think she’d be pissed once she found out?”

  “I wasn’t thinking, all right. Haven’t we established that that’s the problem? I just acted on impulse. I just followed my—”

  “Cock.”

  Jess frowned. “I was going to say gut, but I guess cock works just as well.”

  “You dug yourself into a right deep hole, pardner.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “But that’s what your brother is here for.” Jax slapped him on the back and grinned.

  Jess just looked at him, confused.

  “I’m going to help dig you out.”

  “And how do you propose to do that?”

  “By making her fall in love with me.”

  * * * *

  Jax could imagine his look mirroring his brother’s current gape, felt his own jaws unhinge at what he’d said.

  He had no idea why he’d said it, but the words just flew out of his mouth like most things did from him—impulsively and without thought to consequences. But, after a moment of consideration, he had to admit it wasn’t a bad idea. How could getting a beautiful fiery woman to fall in love with him be anything but a good idea? Jax had a problem getting Jess to see the sense in his half-assed plan.

  “And how is getting her to fall in love with you supposed to make her forgive me?”

  “Now you’ve got to hear me out.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “If I can get close to Tamara—”

  “No great hardship for you, I’m sure.”

  “True. But the point is, I get close to her, get in her confidence, and while she’s falling for me the way woman invariably do—“

  “Because you’re such a lady killer.”

  Jax picked up as if his brother hadn’t spoken. “I’ll use the time I spend with her to sing your praises.”

  “You don’t think she’s going to see right through that?”

  Jax’s eyebrows shot up as he wrapped an arm around his brother’s shoulders. “Trust me, Jess. I’ve got a little more experience at this than you do.”

  “At what?”

  “Wooing women. Making them trust me.”

  “Yeah. Right before you dump them and leave a trail of broken hearts in your wake.” Jess shook off Jax’s arm and stepped back to glower at him. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

  “Jess, come on. Do you really think I would do that here, that I would hurt Tamara?”

  “Not intentionally, no. But trouble and broken hearts just seem to follow you around, Jax. I know you. You’ll start off with the best of intentions, but somewhere along the line things will go a little awry.”

  “When’s the last time you’ve seen me in hot water with a woman, really? I’ve been a good boy for months now.”

  “I’ll remember and tell that to the blonde I saw at Joe’s last night.”

  Jax frowned. “Did you get her name?”

  “No. But she was gorgeous, rude, and she thought I was you.”

  “Rude?”

  Jess shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  If the woman had caused his brother grief, Jax wanted to know about it. They stuck together, watched each other’s back. Jax offered to smooth things over with Tamara because of the close relationship he shared with his brother. That and he wanted to get reacquainted with her, to be honest.

  But back to this rude blonde, what could she have possibly said to Jess that fell in the rude category? Sure, his brother could take himself entirely too seriously sometimes, but Jess was nothing if not perceptive. And the look on Jess’s face when he spoke of the blonde told Jax that she had insulted Jess in some way and maybe Tamara too. That would explain the Papa Bear vibe flowing off of Jess, like someone had threatened or hurt his cub.

  “Jess, talk to me. What did she say to you?”

  “Nothing much, just showed her true colors is all.”

  “True colors?” Jax grimaced. He honestly didn’t know what his brother meant. “What did she say to you?”

  “It wasn’t just what she said. She behaved pretty nastily toward Tamara.”

  “Probably just jealous. Tamara’s an attractive, sexy and self-confident woman comfortable in her own skin. That’s enough to threaten any woman.”

  Jess just stared at him.

  “Well, she is.”

  “I’m not arguing with you. I’m just wondering how you got the ‘comfortable in her own skin’ part from less than a minute in her company.”

  Jax shrugged, wasn’t sure how he got all that either. He could just see it, feel it. Tamara had always been brimming with self-confidence as a teen, a young woman who knew what she wanted in life. She had to be made of tough stuff and self-assured to leave her family behind at barely eighteen, and without a backwards glance, to go half-way across the country, live on her own and become a successful attorney. She’d had to be comfortable in her own skin just being Bailey’s daughter and living among so many people who weren’t like her.

  Jax shot up his eyebrows as a light bulb suddenly went on in his head.

  Jess acted too uncomfortable discussing his encounter in the bar, going all around the belt to get to the buckle and that could mean only one thing—the exchange between him and the blonde threw him for a loop, something that made Jax’s normally assertive brother self-conscious. “Did she say something racial to you?”

  “When she found out Tamara and I were together she said jungle fever.”

  “Oh man.”

  “Yeah, my reaction exactly. That and speechlessness.”

  “Did Tamara hear her?”

  “No. Tamara waited on one of the sofas while I went to get us drinks at the bar. That’s where I met your friend.”

  Jax mentally disavowed the blonde as a friend of his. Women he slept with weren’t always his friends, though a couple laid claim to friends-with-benefits. Most turned out to be one-week-stands, which amounted to the length of most of his relationships. And it wasn’t like he went around vetting potential bed partners regarding their political views or religious beliefs. Jax let his physical desire lead him, plain and simple. He wasn’t looking for a wife or life mate, after all.

  However, one look at his brother told him Jess wouldn’t go for Jax’s reasoning. The blonde was just one in a long line of women that demonstrated how cavalier and irresponsible Jax had been in his past choice of women, proof positive to Jess that his brother couldn’t be trusted to treat a woman like Tamara with the proper respect.

  He could see the thoughts written all over Jess’s face. His brother had tried and convicted him on the basis of his past choices, and Jax really couldn’t blame Jess. He would probably feel the same way in his brother’s shoes.

  “Jess, I’m not that blonde. You know I don’t feel that way about Tamara.”

  Jess sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I know that. It’s just that her attitude, her words caught me totally off-guard. They made me think. They made me doubt.”

  “You? Doubt?” Jax teased.

  “I tried to put myself in Tamara’s place, feel how she feels being surrounded all day by people who aren’t like her. And you know what? I couldn’t do it.”

  “Not many people would be able to.”

  “If I can’t empathize with who she is, with what she goes through every day, how can I ever hope to make her see that I care about her?”

  “It doesn’t matter that you can’t empathize. What matters is that you’re willing to, that you want to know how she feels. That’s half the battle.”

  “Why does it have to be a battle?”

  Jax shrugged. “Hey, love is a battlefield, to
quote Pat Benatar.”

  Jess chuckled and punched him in the arm. “Asshole.”

  “But I got you to laugh.”

  “You always do.”

  They stood in comfortable silence for several moments, then Jax put an arm around his brother’s shoulders. “So, you’re in love with her then?”

  “I never said I’m in love with her.”

  “You never said you weren’t.”

  “I care about her, Jax. I always have, maybe more than I should.”

  “How much is that?”

  “You know what I mean. I cared about her when it wasn’t always right to care about her the way I do—like an adult.”

  “You know what I think. I think you’re substituting care for love. Admitting how you feel is the other half of the battle.”

  “Since when did you become such a wise philosopher?”

  “I told you. I’ve been a good boy. Part of that is maturing and not playing with childish things anymore.”

  “Okay, Mr. Mature Good Boy, let’s hear in more detail this plan you have to get Tamara not to hate me anymore.”

  “Before we do this, you’ve got to know, you’re not just going to be battling Tamara to get back in her good graces. You’re going to be battling society too. The blonde probably won’t be the last with an attitude and something to say.”

  “We’re not getting married. I just want to be with Tamara and see where things go.”

  “Seems to me, you’ve already been with her. That’s the problem.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Yeah, I do.” He didn’t envy his brother. The man clearly loved Tamara and had a difficult time admitting it, especially in the current environment. Not to mention, Jess didn’t like to just see where things went. He liked to plan, organize. He liked to map things out, strategize how to get from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible. He liked to know exactly where he headed and exactly what he would do once he got there.

  He’d never been in love, but Jax knew enough to understand his brother couldn’t organize or plan it. He couldn’t compartmentalize love into neat little boxes marked The Way I feel About Tamara Carpenter, The Way Tamara Carpenter Feels About Me, and The Way The World Feels About Tamara Carpenter and Jess Reynolds Being Together. Love fell on the outside of efficient and tidy. It got dirty and messy in the worst of times and confusing and unmanageable in the best of times—all the things that got Jess’s back up big time.