Just Shoot Me (Cowboy Way, #1) by Becky McGraw Page A

didn’t say why they didn’t
work, but she did say Tina wants me to do it now. Those guys did
seem pretty damned prissy for pretend cowboys. Let ‘em actually
work out here for a day or two, and that’ll toughen them up.” Dean
knew all the hard work and problems at the ranch had toughened him
up over the last few years, that was for damned sure. Hell,
according to his family, he was practically tough as an old boot
now. He felt that way too. Worn out and used up.
    What the hell was Tina Montgomery thinking
asking him to model for her? Why him?
    Dean slid the saddle off of Blaze’s back to
drop it on the ground. But he had other things to worry about than
what that woman thought of him. He bent and hefted the saddle over
his shoulder. “How did the auction go?”
    “ Not good. Daddy was pretty upset.
Four of the horses didn’t even sell. They’re in the trailer
outside.”
    “ Well, he’s going to be even more
upset when he finds out that Hope demanded her money back,” Dean
said as he walked past Cord toward the tack room.
    “ Just do the damned photo shoot,
Dean,” Cord said following behind him.
    “ I’d rather be shot. I’ll even load
the shotgun for you,” Dean offered tossing the saddle onto the
saddle rack. “I’m not going to shave all the damned hair off my
body, and coat myself in oil so I can prance around in my
underwear. I’ll leave that to you, baby brother.”
    “ I did not prance around in
my underwear,” Cord corrected indignantly.
    “ But you did shave your ass, so you
looked like a ten-year-old boy. I saw the proof in those
magazines.”
    “ You saw my pictures?” Cord asked
with surprise.
    To Dean’s own surprise his brother’s face
heated, and he looked a little embarrassed. Embarrassed wouldn’t
begin to describe how Dean would feel if he were in his brother’s
shoes. And that is exactly where Tina Montgomery wanted to put him.
So she could get a promotion. What the fuck did he get out of it,
other than getting the money to pay back a loan he hadn’t even
taken out? Cord and Hope had decided on that plan of action
themselves, without his permission or knowledge even. But that loan
had saved the ranch, and saved his Daddy’s life. It also resulted
in his brother settling down. Dean did owe her a lot.
    “ Yeah, I saw ‘em,” Dean said,
remembering his brother in those jeans ads. Shaved and shirtless
looking like a greased pig, showing off his gym generated
muscles.
    How could he have not seen them? Those ads
were in every fucking magazine and newspaper he picked up, and on
television too. His brother had been famous, and Dean was sure Cord
got laid every time he blinked at a women who saw him in those ads.
They didn’t impress him, though. Why women would want to see a man
like that, Dean didn’t know. It might sell jeans, but it just
wasn’t reality. It sure as hell wasn’t how he wanted the world, his
family or his son to see him. Regardless of whether it got him
laid.
    “ Is shaving the only thing you have
against doing it?” Cord asked, following him out of the tack room,
then back down the aisle toward Blaze.
    “ Hell no, it’s not the only thing,”
Dean grated.
    “ What else then?” Cord asked
impatiently, but Dean could almost hear the wheels in his brother’s
head spinning.
    Well, he could just shut them down, because
Dean wasn’t doing that damned shoot no matter what he came up with.
He had too much work to do. His brother seemed to have forgotten in
the last three years how much work this ranch took to keep
going.
    “ Who is going to manage this ranch
while I’m off prissing in front of a camera? And I have a son to
raise. Did you forget that small, but important, fact?” Dean
replied shortly, as he grabbed the towel off of his shoulder and
rubbed at the sweat on Blaze’s black coat.
    “ I’ll do the work, just tell me
what you want done. I’ll make sure it gets done. Mama and I will
help with Jeremy, while you’re shooting. Besides,