Jack took his place across from Sam. He looked down at his burger.
It didn"t look as good as it had before. "She was responding to us. She practically purred when I held her hand. I would have sworn she was aroused."
26.
"Maybe you just come on too strong, Jack." Sam sounded bitter.
"Oh, I come on too strong?" Jack rolled his eyes. "Seriously, Sam.
You think I wasn"t watching you last Sat.u.r.day? Talk about coming on strong. You nearly sucked her toes into your mouth when we were sitting on the couch. Don"t think I didn"t see that. You are the most orally fixated person I have ever met. You just have to put everything in your mouth."
"Well, blame my mama," Sam shot back. "I wasn"t breastfed. It had an effect. We just need to try harder."
Abby was talking to Christa behind the counter. Jack would have given a lot to be in on that conversation. The two women whispered, and Christa laughed lightly. Something had happened to make Abby suddenly wary. She had enjoyed their attentions for the past week.
His plan had been working. From the moment he realized she might be amenable to a menage, Jack had been carefully preparing her for it.
She was a serious woman, and he intended to treat her right. They were taking it slow, allowing her to get used to being between the two of them. She had been ready to move on to kissing, and Jack intended to do that tonight. He and Sam were going to talk her into coming out to the ranch to watch a movie and then they would kiss her. Sam had argued for doing a h.e.l.l of a lot more than that, but Jack was sticking to his courting plan. He wanted everything out on the table before they took her to bed. They would talk about what a relationship could be like between the three of them. He might have to rethink that plan.
Now, she was afraid.
"You don"t think Christa warned her off of us, do you?" Jack really hoped that wasn"t true. Jack had a good business relationship with the cafe owner. Beyond that, Sam considered her husband a friend. Mike Wade was Sam"s drinking buddy. He"d hate to see that go away.
Sam snorted. "d.a.m.n, Jack, who do you think told me to open that box of books?"
27.
Jack was relieved, but it didn"t solve the core problem. "I think we should pull back and give her some s.p.a.ce." If they rushed her, she could run.
"Screw that." Sam looked a little desperate. "It"s been a month. I can"t take another night. This whole dating thing is crazy. Can"t we f.u.c.k her now and date her later?"
"No, Sam. You asked me to give this a chance, and I"m giving it the best chance I can. She"s not a one night stand," Jack said firmly.
"She"s nervous now. We need to set this on the right footing. We need to let her know we"re going to treat her like a lady. Let"s ask her out to the ranch. We"ll have a nice meal and show her around. She"ll see how serious we can be."
Sam looked disappointed, but he rarely argued. "All right. I"ll follow your lead, but d.a.m.n, Jack, don"t take too long. I"m likely to die of s.e.xual frustration."
Abby walked back up, two drinks in her hand. She placed them on the table. "Is everything all right with the order?"
Jack hated the flat, professional voice she was using. He needed to get her back to the vivacious woman she was. "This burger better be good, darlin". I won"t have my product being mistreated."
Curiosity flashed in her hazel eyes.
Sam took the ball and ran with it. "This burger here is 100% organic beef. It"s the best you can buy."
"Really?" She looked down at the burgers. "Christa buys your beef?"
"Straight off the Barnes Fleetwood Ranch," Sam said with a smile. "We"re becoming quite big. When we started, we barely had a hundred head of cattle. Now we run several thousand and have a bunch of ranch hands helping us out. We have a packaging plant, too."
"We"re still smalltime, and I like it that way." Jack could talk about business. "If we get much bigger, we"ll have to hire more hands 28 and deal with more people. The quality will go down, too. There"s a reason organic ranching is hard."
Abby"s eyes sparkled with interest. She was a curious little thing.
"So you don"t give the cattle antibiotics?"
"No, unless they"re actually sick, of course." Sam slathered his bun with ketchup. "We won"t let an animal go without if she needs it, but we don"t proactively dose our herd. We take care of them.
They"re grain fed."
"Yes, I"ve read about that." Abby was clearly getting into the discussion. "Those big ranches feed them protein and sometimes they feed them other cows. It sounds horrible."
"It"s a way for them to cut corners," Jack explained. "It"s cheap.
The public wants cheap beef, so they use the parts they can"t sell to feed their herd. It"s easier to keep the cattle in pens than to let them roam and feed naturally. It"s why we"ll have to stay small and local."
"So you don"t pen up your cattle?" Abby pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
Sam popped a French fry in his mouth. "We"re old-school cowboys, darlin". We let the herd wander our spread. When we bring them in, we do it on horseback."
Jack shook his head slightly. Sam did like being a cowboy. "One day I"d like to try to add a dairy farm. I think we could sell to the local stores and even feed into DallasFort Worth."
Abby smiled shyly. "That"s sounds like a good plan, Jack. I like the fact that you take care of your cattle."
"Jack and I personally give each heifer a kiss good night," Sam interjected, causing Abby to laugh. "You should come out to the ranch sometime, Abigail. You would find it very interesting. I"ll take you riding. We"ve got some very gentle mares."
"It has been a long time since I was in the saddle."
Jack groaned at the thought of riding Abby. He quickly recovered.
"You"ll like our horses. They"re gentle but strong. We take care of them, too. We take d.a.m.n fine care of everything that belongs to us."
29.
Sam looked up at Abby. "How about you come out to the ranch tonight? We could show you around and take you riding, and then we can have dinner, maybe watch a movie."
Abby laughed. "Well, Sam, you make that almost sound like a date."
"Then I wasn"t trying hard enough, darlin"," Sam said with a serious expression on his face.
Abby"s mouth came open slightly. Her face flushed as she looked between Jack and Sam. Her confusion was plain to Jack.
"You"re asking me on a date?"
Sam looked a little perturbed. "I apparently wasn"t doing a good job. Yes, Abigail Moore, we would like to ask you on a date. Will you go out with us?" Sam looked at Jack. He seemed just as confused as Abby. "What does she think we"ve been doing for the last week, Jack?"
"I don"t know." Abby was confused about a few things. Maybe he"d been too subtle. "Abigail, what do you call it when a man takes a woman out, picks her up, pays for everything, and then politely takes her home?"
She gnawed on her bottom lip. Her gaze shifted between the two men. "I thought we were just being friends. I thought maybe I was your hag." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Is this some new thing in the gay community?"
"What?" Jack"s shout rang out, and suddenly everybody in the cafe was watching their table. In all the scenarios that ran through his brain, Abby thinking she was auditioning to be their hag hadn"t come up.
Sam seemed unperturbed. His blue eyes were lit with laughter.
"Jack, I believe she thinks we"re gay."
Jack stood up suddenly. It was obvious Abby was under a misconception that he intended to remedy. "Darlin", I have never been accused of not enjoying a woman. I haven"t been spending time with 30 you hoping you"ll give me the name of your hairdresser. I"ve been spending time with you to try to get you into bed."
Sam could barely talk for his laughter. "Well, if we"re gay, Jack, at least I"m the pretty one."
Abby"s hands were twisting around her notepad. "It"s a perfectly reasonable a.s.sumption. You two are unmarried, successful men who spend almost every moment together with no visible female in either of your lives. I"m sorry if I offended you. If it helps, I thought you made a very attractive couple."
"d.a.m.n it, that does not help, Abby," Jack said.
"Abby, we"re not gay." Sam slid out of the bench to face her.
"I"m getting that now." Abby"s eyes were wide.
"But we do like to share." Sam patted Abby on the back almost sympathetically.
Abby"s mouth formed a perfect O before she turned and fled. She was running by the time she entered the ladies room.
Sam stared after her. "Guess that whole dating thing is over."
Jack felt his eyes narrow. Everyone was watching, but he had no intention of backing down. He"d tried to take things slow. He"d tried to be a gentleman. That was over. If Abby thought he was backing down, she better think again. "Time for a new plan, Sam." He strode toward the women"s bathroom.
"Hallelujah!" Sam"s shout rang throughout the small room like a battle cry.
31.
Chapter Three.
Abby stared at herself in the mirror. What the h.e.l.l had just happened? She"d been dating two men and hadn"t even known it?
And Jack Barnes was wrong about dating. A date ended in kissing.
She hadn"t even been kissed.
The door to the women"s room slammed open. Abby practically jumped, ready to beg whoever was walking through to give her a little privacy. Jack Barnes filled the doorway with his presence.
"You can"t come in here, Jack." Abby smoothed down her uniform and swept back her hair, trying to retain as much dignity as she could.
"Why not, darlin"? According to you, we should be in here giggling and exchanging hair tips." Jack walked right up to her. The man really wasn"t big on personal s.p.a.ce.
Sam walked in and closed the door. He leaned with his back against it. One boot rested negligently against the door.
"Sam, tell him he can"t come into the little girl"s room."
"You"re the one who chose the venue for this particular conversation, Abigail." There was nothing vaguely resembling a joke in Jack"s voice now. Abby looked to Sam for help.
Sam shook his head. He was grinning like an idiot. "h.e.l.l no, honey. You"re gonna have to learn that when Jack gets that hard edge to his voice he means business. Besides, I"m happy with the way things went. Thank you, baby. You made this so much easier. Jack was talking about dating you and treating you like a lady. That was gonna take forever. It"s much simpler this way."
32.
"What"s simpler?" Abby was unable to keep the trepidation out of her voice.
"Taking you home, taking you to bed, and showing you where you belong," Sam replied with a wink.
"Where do I belong?" Abby couldn"t take her eyes off Jack.
There was a simple smile on his face that held a wealth of arrogance.