So Tough to Tame (Jackson Hole 3)

Grace winked as she pulled out her cell phone. “My boyfriend and I live in a little ranch house next to Easy. I’m going to text Easy and rat Rayleen out. He was planning to come to the saloon tonight and force an answer out of her.”

“But she’s so nervous.”

“Good.” Grinning, Grace typed away on her phone. “It’s because he means something to her. Not very many people mean anything to her. Not very many people put up with her. So I’ll be damned—” she typed a few more letters and hit Send with a triumphant gesture “—if I’ll let her fear keep her alone any longer.”

“Won’t she be mad?”

“She’s always mad. At least this mad could turn into something much, much happier.”

Poor Rayleen. Charlie felt anxious about the whole thing and it had nothing to do with her love life. Grace’s phone dinged.

“What did he say?” Charlie asked when Grace grinned.

“He’s at the saloon, so he’ll be here in just a few seconds. She won’t have time to escape.”

Charlie drank the rest of her margarita to calm her nerves. She wasn’t cut out for springing dates on the elderly, it seemed.

Poor Rayleen was just over there minding her own business and in a few minutes... Or actually, she wasn’t minding her own business, she was scowling into Charlie’s fridge as she pushed things around on the shelves. “Ever think of buying some real food?” she yelled. “Maybe if you cooked once in a while, you could lure some men in here instead of all these women!”

“I have other ways to lure!” Charlie yelled back.

She thought Rayleen muttered something about skinny jeans and whore shoes, but she couldn’t be sure over the music.

“See?” Grace said. “She needs a better way to spend her time than nosing through your fridge and shouting insults.”

“She’s fine. I think she’s cute.”

“Cute,” Grace snorted, but there was no missing the indulgent smile on her face.

A hard knock on the door cut through the music.

Jenny hooted. “Did someone order a stripper?” She danced over to the door and flung it open. A white-haired man stood there with his cowboy hat clasped to his chest and a bouquet of flowers in the other hand. “Easy!” she said.

“Evening, Jenny. I’m looking for Rayleen.”

All eyes turned toward the kitchen. Rayleen was frozen in the open door of the fridge, a bottle of olives clutched in her hand, her jaw dropped in shock.

The old cowboy stepped i

nside with a tip of his head toward the whole room. “Ladies,” he said politely, but his eyes went straight to Rayleen. “Miss Rayleen, I believe we have a movie to see tonight.”

Her grip tightened on the olives, and for a moment, Charlie expected the jar to fly straight at Easy’s head.

“It starts in thirty minutes,” he added. “And it’s the last showing of the night.”

All the pink had left Rayleen’s face. Just as Charlie started to worry she was going to pass out, the color returned to her cheeks with a vengeance. “Damn it, Easy. I never said I’d go to the movies with you.”

“No, but you will.”

She didn’t move or respond. Charlie considered her poor perishables for a brief second, then decided this whole situation was much more delicious than yogurt.

Easy nodded as if something had been decided. He put his hat on his head and walked across the room to the kitchen. “Woman, you’ve been daring me to try something for over a year. If you didn’t want to draw my attention, you shouldn’t have waved your red cape every damn time I saw you. We’re going to the movies. Here are your flowers. Say good-night to your friends. I might not have you back before morning.”

Charlie actually gasped, but everyone else just snickered. And then Jenny started to clap.

“You tell her, Easy!” Grace called out over the friendly applause.

Rayleen looked at the room as if an elephant had just dropped from the sky. Her expression made clear that no one had ever spoken to her like that.