In Love With A Cowboy (BWWM Romance) by Tasha Jones, BWWM Crew Page B

I fiddled with the plug a couple of times before I realized I had to hold the switch down all the time for the kettle to actually boil.
     
    “Don’t you earn enough to get a new one?” I asked with my finger on the switch until the water boiled.
     
    “I usually just go out and buy the coffee,” he said. “Casa Bonita is just down the road and usually open when I get up.”
     
    That got me back onto the thought of Jada.
     
    “That’s a good woman,” I said softly. “What happened between you two?”
     
    Dean grunted. “You know, what always happens with women. They’re just out to take everything away from you and tell you how to live. Before you know it she’s telling you what you’re allowed to drink and what you can’t drink.”
     
    The kettle boiled and I could take my finger off the switch. I found two mismatching mugs that were still clean and scraped solidified instant coffee from the bottom of the tin. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t really a bad thing to ask him to stop drinking. Maybe if I’d been around I would have asked him the same. But nine years after becoming adults was too late for that.
     
    “Were you still dating by the time you found out about Keisha?”
     
    When I mentioned her name he looked up at me, glaring from underneath a frown.
     
    “The waitress mentioned her when you left the café,” I added in case he was wondering why I was talking about his daughter like I knew her. After today, if I managed to say what I wanted to say, maybe he would understand that I did know her.
     
    “She got pregnant after we were together for two years,” Dean said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes again. “She was the one that broke it off with me.” He sounded emotional for two seconds before he grunted. “Well, she did me a favor,” he added.
     
    I took a deep breath.
     
    “She’s a good woman,” I said again. I put the cup in front of Dean and he took a sip, making a face.
     
    “You still make really crap coffee, you know that?”
     
    “I also go out to buy mine,” I said, shrugging.
     
    “Why are you here?” Dean asked like he only realized I was there now. “You haven’t really made an effort to have anything to do with this place in a decade. And now suddenly I’m seeing you every day?”
     
    I sat down opposite him, and stirred my coffee. I didn’t want to make eye contact with him. I wasn’t sure how to start.
     
    “Well, to be honest, I’m starting to like it here.”
     
    “Place growing on you, huh? You didn’t say that when you ran away.”
     
    “I didn’t run away,” I said. “You know that.”
     
    “No, you just got sick of the people,” Dean said bitterly. I knew he meant himself, but I used the opportunity.
     
    “Well, there are different people here now. It’s one of the reasons I want to stay.”
     
    Dean looked at me, narrowing his eyes.
     
    “Yeah? Which people?”
     
    I took a deep breath. Now or never, right? That was how my life worked.
     
    “I’ve been spending some time with Jada,” I said. Dean looked at me and grinned like I was joking. Odd sense of humor if I was. When I didn’t smile too, laugh, slap my knee, tell him I was joking, his smile drained out of his face and his watery blue eyes turned a shade brighter.
     
    Rage was one way to kill a hangover.
     
    “And when did you spend this much time with her?” Dean asked with a low voice.
     
    “Now and then. We ran into each other a couple of times.”
     
    “And you’re telling me this because you want to ask if you can date her?” His voice had turned dangerous, but to be honest I didn’t really fear him the way most people did. I’d seen worse, dad had been a heck of a lot scarier than he was. And I wasn’t intimidated by his badge, either. To me he would always be the idiot of a bigger brother that had been stupid enough to stay behind in the wake of destruction my parents had left behind.
     
    “I’m not actually here to ask you for