Cowboys Last All Night

by Jennifer Ashley

  “No, you shouldn’t. And you should remember you’re in someone’s place of business.”

  “Humph.” She made a face. “I’d hardly call this a place of business. More like a disaster area.” She walked over to the till that stood at one end of the counter. “This dinosaur has to go.”

  “That’s my cash register.” He came to stand in front of it.

  “Where’s mine supposed to go?”

  “I don’t know. Over there?” He pointed to the other end of the long, wooden span.

  She shook her head. “That’s not going to work. We need a clear demarcation of our two spaces.” She paced into the waiting area and pointed to the door. “Your customers can enter here and walk down this corridor.” She dragged her foot along the floor as if drawing a line with it, indicating a three-foot-wide strip of flooring that led to the door into the range. “The rest of this front room, including the counter and everything behind it is for my café.”

  “How the hell do you figure that?”

  “Half this entire building is mine. We can either divide it up with the front being mine and the back yours, or if you want to share my space up front, then I’ll take half your shooting range. I could fit a lot of tables in there.”

  Cole spluttered. “You can’t do that.” Time for a tactical retreat. He scanned the front room. “I suppose I could build myself a check-in counter right in front of the door to the range.”

  She shrugged. “That would work. Thank you.”

  Cole gathered his papers together, deposited them on the floor on his side and found a tape measure. Soon he had the dimensions for the counter he needed to build. It was a damned nuisance, but the thought of Sunshine intruding into the inner sanctum of his rifle range was even worse.

  By midmorning he’d hacked together a makeshift stand, complete with shelves on the back side for all his files and supplies. It wasn’t fancy, and it wasn’t big, but it would do. Sunshine was still cleaning up a storm. It had taken her more than an hour to scrub down the long counter until she was satisfied with it. Then she’d done the same for the shelves beneath it. Now she was working on the old stove. Cole figured if she had any money to spend she’d replace the beast, so she must be as pinched for cash as he was.

  “You’ll need to buy your own register, you know,” he said, unscrewing the old one from the main counter.

  “I know.” She didn’t sound happy about it.

  “Maybe you can find a used one.” He clamped his mouth shut before he could offer her any more good advice. The last thing he needed was to help her win.

  “Hey Cole, hey Sunshine.” Jamie walked in and surveyed the place. “Some big changes in the works, huh?”

  “Guess so,” Cole said. Sunshine nodded at Jamie but said nothing. Cole wondered if she was afraid of the men who came into the range. Maybe they were a rougher crowd than she was used to. If that was the case, she must hang out with some refined company. Jamie and the rest of them were simply ranchers—men who worked with their hands for a living. Nothing too rough about that.

  “Anything I can do to help?”

  Cole realized Jamie was making the offer to Sunshine, not him. The traitor.

  Sunshine looked up. Realized Jamie was speaking to her. “Not right now, thanks.”

  “You just say the word if you think of anything. That’s what neighbors do here; we pitch in.”

  Sunshine looked around the room and Cole could see her considering this. Before she could put Jamie to work, he quickly said, “Ready to sign up for the Six-shooters and Six Packs contest, Jamie?”

  “You bet I am.” He kept his gaze on Sunshine, though. “Just holler if you need me, Sunshine. Here. I’ll write down my number.” He did so on a scrap of paper and pushed it across the counter to her. She looked up at him through her lashes and Cole’s ire rose. She was flirting with Jamie. Right in front of him.

  Cole managed to steer the man toward the range and shoved a target into his hand. “Better go get started.”

  He’d no sooner escorted Jamie into the range area than Ethan showed up. He was already passing Sunshine a business card when Cole came back into the front room. “Call me any time, day or night,” he was saying to her. “I know Lacey would like to meet you sometime.”

  Like hell she would, Cole thought. He marched over and snatched the card off the counter. “Do you not understand that if Sunshine succeeds there won’t be any more rifle range?”

  “Sunshine wouldn’t shut down the range,” Ethan protested. “She’s too nice to do something like that, right?”

  Sunshine shrugged. “I could use some help cleaning that refrigerator.”

  “Sure thing. Where’s the—ouch!”

  Cole raised his arm to swipe Ethan again. “Get in back and start shooting. That’s an order.”

  “Hell, Cole, what kind of business are you running? You can’t hit your customers.”

  “Watch me.” He raised his arm again and Ethan moved past him, chuckling.

  “Someone’s mighty touchy this morning. Had trouble sleeping last night, Cole? Did a certain pretty lady keep you up?” He disappeared into the back. Sunshine glared at Cole.

  “You’d better not say a word to anyone about what happened last night. I was sad, that’s all there was to it.”

  “Calm down, sweetheart. I wouldn’t spoil my reputation by admitting I’d kissed you. People would talk.” He leered at her.

  She threw the dirty rag at him.

  “Am I interrupting something?”

  Cole turned to find Rob in the doorway.

  “Is Cole bothering you, honey?” Rob continued as he came across the room. “He has a bad habit of not knowing where he isn’t wanted.” He shoved Cole aside and leaned against the counter. He fished a slip of paper out of his pocket and put it into Sunshine’s hand, curving her fingers over it. “That’s my number. You want anything… and I mean anything… you give me a call.”

  She flicked a glance at Cole and a devilish smile curved her mouth. She folded the paper twice and slid it into her bra. “I’ll do that.” Leaning forward across the counter, she gave Rob—and Cole—an eyeful of cleavage. “I don’t suppose you’d run out to the local supermarket and buy me some organic coffee?”

  “Hell, yeah.” Rob was halfway to the door before she finished speaking. Cole had to run to catch up with him.

  “You do that and you’re banned from the range for life.”

  “That ain’t—”

  “For life.” Cole waited for that to sink in. “Jamie and Ethan are already in back winning the Six Shooter and Six Pack contest. Are you gonna get back there or not?”

  “Aw, I guess so.” Rob winked at Sunshine as he walked on by. “Don’t worry, honey. I’ll hook you up later.”

  “Don’t think you can set my friends against me,” Cole said to Sunshine as soon as Rob disappeared into the back.

  “I’m not doing anything.”

  “Like hell. Flashing those… breasts.”

  She laughed out loud. “These ol’ things? My momma gave them to me and I’ll flash them whenever I want.” She returned to her cleaning, which was a good thing because it meant she missed the smile which stretched across his face at that preposterous declaration. For a second she’d sounded as sassy as a country girl. Maybe there was hope for her yet.

  “Looks good in here,” Cab proclaimed as he walked in. “Cole, you should have cleaned the place years ago.”

  “I clean.”

  “Huh.” Cab didn’t sound convinced. “Morning, Sunshine. How’s your day going?”

  “Just fine.”

  He ambled closer and handed her a card. Sunshine took it with a sweet smile.

  “I’m the local sheriff, just so you know.” Cab tipped his hat to her, then took it off. “Anyone bothers you, you tell me about it and I’ll take care of it.”

  Sunshine raised an eyebrow. “Well, there is one man being a real nuisance.”

  “Oh yeah? Who?”

  Cole had a
feeling he knew exactly where this was going. “All right. Enough chit chat. Cab, you here for the contest?”

  “Give me a minute. Who’s bothering you?” When Cab was in sheriff mode he was mighty imposing. Normally Cole didn’t figure the man to be much competition with the ladies, but he could see how someone like Sunshine—with her belligerent ex—might be drawn to the big man.

  “Well, he’s tall,” she said. “He’s got brown hair. But his most distinguishing characteristic is the enormous ego he’s always lugging around.”

  Cab’s mouth twitched. “Oh, yeah? Is he kind of a gun nut? Messy, too?”

  “That’s him!” She pretended to be surprised. “Does he bother everyone?”

  “Pretty much.” Cab slapped Cole on the shoulder. Hard. “But he’ll keep himself in line, won’t he, Cole?”

  “He’ll do whatever he damned well pleases.”

  “Cole.”

  Cole rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Are you here to shoot or to gab, Sheriff?”

  “A little of both.” He smiled at Sunshine. “Remember—call me if you need help.”

  “Thank you, Sheriff.” She added his card to her collection in her bra and Cole had to shake himself to keep his gaze from lingering on the swell of her breasts. He would love to touch them, to smooth his hands over them…

  “Eyes forward,” Sunshine snapped.

  He jolted out of his reverie, then allowed a slow smile to curve his lips. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Cole was absolutely insufferable, Sunshine thought as she got back to scrubbing. It would serve him right if she picked one of his friends to date and flaunted the relationship in front of him on a daily basis. Still, every time she failed to guard her thoughts, it was Cole, not one of the other cowboys, her mind returned to. The way he’d held her last night had her body buzzing with desire. She’d wanted him to do far more than kiss her.

  She pushed away the thought. She needed to focus on the restaurant—on whipping it into some kind of shape as soon as possible. Once again she wondered how she’d ended up here—a far cry from the high-end establishment she always thought she’d run.

  Of course, she’d always thought she’d take all that money she’d saved during high school and college and spend it on a year traveling around the world, learning from the best of the best—and maybe being hired by one of them. She’d blown all that money on Greg, though, and she’d have to work hard if she ever wanted to save it up again.

  It took the remainder of the morning to clean the oven and scrub every inch of the stovetop. By the time noon rolled around she was hungrier than she’d been in months. She figured it was unlikely she’d find any vegan dishes at the local restaurants. Time to visit a grocery store, then whip back to the apartment to cook for herself.

  She didn’t bother to tell Cole she was leaving. He was still in back with a bunch of regulars who’d trickled in as the morning passed. She ignored them for the most part, flirted with them when she thought it would get Cole’s goat, but her mind was firmly on the costs she faced to get her restaurant up and running.

  Twenty minutes later she was standing in the vegetable aisle of the local grocery store, surveying her choices. She picked up a zucchini, some garlic and onions, a head of lettuce and other salad vegetables. As she walked through the store, however, there were many things she couldn’t find.

  “Excuse me,” she said to a young woman manning one of the tills some minutes later, “can you tell me where you stock your almond milk?”

  “Almond milk?” The woman shot her a funny look. “I don’t think we carry it.”

  “What about tofu?”

  “We had some of that for a while, but no one bought it. You’ll have to place a special order.”

  “Nutritional yeast?”

  “Nutritional what?”

  Sunshine sighed. “Is your manager here?”

  After a rather dispiriting conversation with the manager, Sunshine placed a special order of all the things she needed to cook her normal staples. Today she’d have a simple zucchini burrito with the Thai peanut sauce she was overjoyed to find next to the ketchup.

  What this place needed, she decided as she made her way home, was a buying co-op so that people like her could order specialty foods for reasonable prices. She couldn’t be the only one in town who wanted more variety in their diet. She’d have to look into starting one, if no one else had already. She might as well, since she’d be ordering food for her restaurant.

  When she reached the apartment, she found Cole lunching on a large hamburger and French fries from a fast food chain. The smell permeated the place and turned Sunshine’s stomach. She knew asking him to leave wouldn’t turn out well, so she opened all the windows and doors instead.

  “You’re letting in the flies.”

  “I’m letting out the smell.”

  “Why would you do that? I love the smell of a hamburger.” He took another bite. Sunshine ignored him and headed into the kitchen. She prepped a salad and fried up the zucchini with some of the garlic and onion in a pan she’d found when she hunted around.

  “I don’t remember giving you permission to use my things,” Cole said, bringing his trash to the receptacle under the sink. In the small kitchen he loomed over her.

  “If you want I’ll buy a second set.”

  After a long pause he said, “Don’t bother. You won’t be here long enough to make that necessary.”

  Sunshine vowed right then and there that she would.

  “I’m heading back to the shop.” He turned away.

  “Fine.”

  “You coming when you’re done?”

  She frowned at the question. He almost sounded like he hoped she would. “I need to shop for a few things first.”

  “Okay.” He hesitated behind her. “You know, if circumstances were different…”

  She gripped the counter, his words eliciting a slow roil of desire within her. She refused to go there, even though she knew instinctively the kind of magic they could make together. “If circumstances were different you and I would never have met.”

  Chapter Six

  Cole strode back to the rifle range as fast as his legs could carry him and didn’t notice Holt inside until the old man spoke.

  “She’s getting to you, isn’t she? Don’t fall for that.”

  “She’s not getting to me.”

  “Then what’s got you in a tizzy?”

  “Having to share my range with that…that…woman!”

  Holt chuckled. “I don’t suppose she’s too pleased either.”

  “Probably not, but I was here first.”

  “But Cecily was her aunt. I imagine according to her way of seeing things, you’re the interloper.”

  “You’re not helping.”

  “Tell you what. You shouldn’t be worried. It’s not like she’s going to serve anything any of us want to eat.”

  Holt had that right. Fried zucchini in a tortilla for lunch? He shuddered at the thought. She’d been horrified by his burger, too. If she planned to only serve vegetarian food at her café, he didn’t have to worry that all his customers would defect to eat her food. He glanced at the calendar on his wall. Four short months and he’d own this building outright, which meant every penny could go to paying down the mortgage on the apartments. Who knew? Maybe he wouldn’t have to renovate anything for a while and they’d start to make more money.

  Cole nodded. “You know what? You’re right. I’m going to put her out of my mind.”

  Holt laughed louder. “Oh, I doubt that.” He strolled on past, patting Cole’s shoulder as he went. “I doubt that very much.”

  Cole had to admit Holt was right an hour later. An hour in which Sunshine rarely left his mind, even as he served his clients. Some of his tenants were regulars here, including Scott Preston, who was one of the best marksmen he’d ever met. He arrived around two-thirty, paid his fee and wandered into the range. Cole glanced over toward Sunshine’s side of the room. What was she doing all this t
ime? Why hadn’t she come back?

  He had his answer when the door opened and she staggered in under the weight of a metal cash register. Despite his intentions not to help her one bit, Cole rushed to take it from her arms and set it on the counter. “Where’d you get this?”

  “Turned out a business closed on Main Street. The man at the furniture store told me about it. I was able to buy it really cheap. They even gave me the manual.” She went back out the door and came in a moment later with a bag. “Plus some register paper and some other odds and ends. They also had a spare table and a couple of chairs. They’re delivering them later.”

  Cole shook his head as he watched her unpack all her finds. A file stand, a receipt book, and other bits that might be handy for a business. If people kept helping Sunshine, he was going to end up a creek without a paddle.

  An idea popped into his mind. Maybe he needed to do some shopping himself.

  “Watch the place, would you? I’ll be back soon.”

  Without waiting for an answer, he left the building. An hour later, he was nailing his newest purchase up on the wall when Sunshine stalked over to stand behind him. “What on earth is that for?”

  He stepped back and surveyed the four foot by six foot white board. “Looks level. I’ll be right back.” He went out to his truck and retrieved the second white board which he proceeded to hold up next to the first.

  “You’re taking up an entire wall.”

  “There are four walls. I’m only taking up part of one. You’ve got plenty of wall left over for your girlie stuff.” He marked where he needed to drill for the screws and got to work.

  “What are they for?” she hollered over the sound of his drill.

  “Scorekeeping. People like to know who’s winning the Six-shooters and Six Pack contest. I figured I’d make the scores public this year.”

  “I should have guessed.” She turned to go, but stopped when Jamie walked out of the range.

  “Hi, Sunshine. How’s it going?”

  “Fine.”

  “Hey, what are these?” Jamie came to survey the white boards. Cole fished a brand-new marker out of a shopping bag, and wrote Jamie’s name at the top of the left board. He wrote the name of each target across the top of the board and wrote in Jamie’s scores as he reported them. “I like this much better than the old way. They look good, too. Kind of liven up the place.”