Cowgirl Fever (Novak Springs Book 1) (9 page)

She stopped and looked back at him with a sneer on her face. “Don’t hold your breath.”

All she could hear as she walked away was his laugh thundering across the wind. Bastard knew how much she desired him. It was almost futile to resist him. She was determined to hold off as long as possible, though. Ginnifer had a lot on her plate. The first thing was a nap and then an article to write before dinner. Dallas Novak would have to wait until she wanted him so much she couldn’t resist him any longer. What he didn’t know was that Ginnifer didn’t really believe in denying herself once she made up her mind about something. She had already decided she was going to give Dallas Novak the ride of his life. But she would choose the time and place and wouldn’t be goaded into doing something until she was good and ready.

Ginnifer stormed into the cabin and slammed the door shut. Pissed wasn’t quite the word to describe the level of anger flowing over every inch of her body as she made her way across the room. In all her life she had never been as furious as she was in that moment. When she told Dallas she had to deal with Tori, she had meant it. There was about to be a reckoning, and she wouldn’t be held responsible for the damage inflicted. Tori was lounging on her bed browsing through a fashion magazine and chewing on her bottom lip. Her legs were crossed at the ankles, and she was leaning against the headboard as she flipped the pages. She didn’t even bother to look up when Ginnifer stalked toward her with a purposeful stride. As she neared the bed, Ginnifer noticed the wires of headphones peeking out from behind Tori’s long caramel hair and her phone sitting next to her on the bed. Music blaring through the headphones completely blocked out all the noise of her surroundings. Tori must seriously need some de-stressing if she was listening to music. It was her way of drowning out the world around her and recalibrating her senses. Well, too damn bad. They had some things to discuss, and Ginnifer didn’t give a rat’s ass if Tori needed to relax. Stomping the remaining distance to the bed, Ginnifer yanked the headphones out of Tori’s ears and angrily said, “You created a mess, damn it, and now it’s time to help fix it. Get off your ass and help me figure this shit out.”

Tori looked stunned at Ginnifer’s angry gesture. It didn’t take her long to gain her composure. She raised one eyebrow, looked up at her, and said, “What the hell crawled up your ass and died? Since when are you the psycho bitch in this relationship? Who the hell are you and what did you do with my best friend?”

Ginnifer started pacing back and forth across the cabin with her arms flying up and down. Each motion jerked out as her anger heightened. Her face was flushed red, and her breaths came out in heavy pants. She began to talk nonstop with each step of her foot across the wooden floor. “I’ve had the worst twenty-four hours of my life. First, I had jet lag from hell. I get here to be damn near groped by this hot cowboy who turns out to be Emma’s older brother, Dallas. The things that man has said to me—I, wow, there are no words to explain it all. He is so sexy and he always leaves me feeling flustered. Never in my life has a man made me feel so twisted up inside. And damn it, you—you, it’s your fault I haven’t had any coffee today. If you hadn’t woke me up this morning, I wouldn’t be the raving bitch I am right now. Why the fuck didn’t you answer your phone when I called back?” Ginnifer had stopped ranting to look at Tori with daggers shooting from her eyes and her lips pursed up in displeasure. Her hands rested on her hips, and she started to tap her foot, waiting for a response from Tori.

Tori’s lips curled up into a half smirk as she watched her best friend rant and rave about the hell the past day had been for her. She looked her over, amusement glowing through her periwinkle-blue eyes. “Well, aren’t you a hot mess? I must meet this Dallas if he has you all hot and bothered. Clearly he’s of better stock than Wes is, that bastard. You won’t believe the crap he said to me when I went back to get my bags.”

If Ginnifer was capable of getting any angrier, steam would start pouring out of her ears to relieve the pressure building inside of her. Damn Tori and her selfish nature. It had never bothered her before. She began to feel her face crawling toward the color of a ripe tomato. She stopped, and with barely controlled fury compressed inside, demanded. “Why would I care what Wes said to you? Maybe you should’ve gotten the whole story out of Colt before dragging him here. Did it ever occur to you to check everything out before deciding it was a good idea? All of them went through some unnecessary anxiety because you took a shortcut to get what you want. Did you even hear a word I said?”

It looked like Tori had been ignoring everything that Ginnifer had said. She continued to flip through the magazine and stopped occasionally to admire something on the pages. She set the magazine aside and grabbed her purse off a nearby table. Tori pulled a file out of her purse and started to run it across her well-manicured nails in nonchalance. “Of course I did. You met a hot man that gets your motor running. The rest is incidental. Damn straight I did my homework. I knew that Emma was his ex. It didn’t mean anything to me in the grand scheme of things. It’s why I didn’t tell him exactly where we were going until we were almost here. He never would have come otherwise. The article needed to be written, Ginny. I’m sorry it stressed you out, but I have to look out for the best interests of my client. You do understand that, right?”

Earlier she had said that she hadn’t known what Novak Springs meant for Colt. It shouldn’t surprise her that Tori lied, but in that moment it did. Ginnifer was ready to pull every strand of Tori’s blonde hair out of her head. She was willing to bet everything she owned that Tori would look hideous bald. Let’s see how well her flirting attracted a man when she looks like a plucked chicken. She paused a minute in her thoughts to admire the creation her imagination had pulled inside her mind. It didn’t take long for her to find the humor of it all. The image was so amusing she started to laugh hysterically and had trouble breathing. Gasping for breath with each eruption of laughter made Tori sit up and take notice of the hilarity causing Ginnifer to grasp her chest and fall over on her bed.

“What the hell is so funny?” Tori asked.

All Ginnifer could manage to get out were the words, “hairless chicken.”

“I have no idea what your problem is, Ginny, but this is ridiculous. Seriously, what is going through that brain of yours? What the hell does a hairless chicken have to do with what we were talking about? You do realize chickens don’t have hair, right? They have feathers, damn it stop laughing.”

Ginnifer had finally managed to get her breathing under control and sat up on the bed. The smile never left her face as she pictured what Tori would look like without any hair on her head. Comical didn’t even come close to describing what that image looked like floating through her brain. She really didn’t want to explain that Tori being bald was her amusement of choice, so she shrugged it off. “No need to worry about it. I am seriously slap happy right now and desperately in need of a nap. I want you to know one thing before I crash until dinner, though.”

Tori raised her eyebrow questioningly at Ginnifer. “What’s that?”

“If you ever pull any of that bullshit on me again, I will quit speaking to you. Listen to me when I say this. I’m not a tool in your repertoire to use to further your agenda. What I’m supposed to be is your best friend, and if you want my help, you owe me all of the details. I don’t give a fuck what your reasons are, we’ll be done forever if you pull another stunt like this. Do you understand me?”

Tori pursed her lips in displeasure. “Loud and clear, Ginny. I honestly didn’t comprehend what the big deal was, though. If it means that much to you, I won’t do it again.”

“Good. Now I need to get some shuteye. Do. Not. Wake. Me,” she said, stressing the last four words to make sure her point got across. She knew she was being a raging bitch, but she honestly couldn’t stop herself. The best course of action was to get her much needed rest. Reaching down, she untied her shoes and kicked them off onto the floor. Once that was completed, she pulled the covers down and slid under them. As her eyes closed, she only had one thought before she let herself fall into oblivion. Nothing had better disturb her in the next several hours.

***

After Ginnifer left to go to her cabin, Dallas went in search of his brother and sister. He found them in the kitchen drinking a glass of lemonade and snacking on some of Mrs. Henly’s oatmeal raisin cookies. Emma’s face was devoid of color except dark shadows forming under her eyes. Wes’s was close to resuming its natural color, but his cheeks were still tinged with red. They both hadn’t had enough time to adjust to their recent visitor’s arrival and departure from Novak Springs to completely regain their composure. Dallas strolled into the kitchen, grabbed a glass out of the cupboard, and filled it with lemonade. Setting his glass down on the table, he pulled a chair out and sat down. A plate of oatmeal cookies was in the center of the table, and he grabbed one off of the plate and broke it in half. Before he shoved half into his mouth, he said to the room in general, “So who wants to explain to me why Colt Lewis was driving away from the ranch?”

If it was possible for her face to get any whiter at his words, Emma’s would have. She looked up at him and explained, “I told Ginnifer it would be okay to do a brief interview today. It didn’t occur to me to ask who she’d be interviewing or why. If I’d known, I’d have told her no. Seeing him here was a shock.”

Wes slammed his fist on the table and practically screamed, “That bastard knew. He didn’t have to come here and prance around in front of you.”

Emma leaned over and rested her hand on Wes’s arm and said, “I would hardly call what he was doing prancing. He actually looked very uncomfortable.”

Wes snorted at Emma’s description. “It had a lot to do with that harpy that he came with. Vitoria Miene.”

Dallas raised his eyebrow and asked, “Who is she?”

Emma sighed and told him, “She is Ginnifer’s best friend and apparently Colt’s new agent. I hadn’t met her before today. From the little I understand, she brought him here for Ginnifer to interview. Of course she would want his side of the story published somewhere. It helps when you have a best friend with the right connections.”

“Ah well, that makes a bit of sense. He wasn’t here too long was he? I saw him leaving, but I had no idea he was here until I saw him practically run to get into the driver’s seat of his car and race down the driveway. The way he peeled out of here, you would think a bunch of hellhounds were chasing him,” Dallas said.

With those words, a bark of laugher escaped Wes’s mouth. A smile formed on his face for the first time since Dallas had walked into the room. Emma’s own lips turned up into a half smile as Wes said, “Well, that would be my doing. I saw him pull up almost immediately. I told him he only had an hour to get it all done, or I was going to break every bone in his body. It wouldn’t do for the new star quarterback to be incapacitated just as the season begins. Emma grudgingly gave them permission to finish the interview, and I kept watch to make sure they kept their word. Ms. Zeiss didn’t even use forty-five minutes before she walked him back to his car.”

Dallas nodded his head at his two siblings. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help you guys out. I got wrapped up in the back pasture. One of the horses threw a shoe, and I had to fix it before the mare hurt herself. While I was out there, I noticed some of the fencing needed to be fixed. Before I knew it, I’d been out there for hours. I have some paperwork to do in the office, so I made myself come back in. That’s when I saw him drive off.”

Emma smiled and tried to reassure him, “Dallas, there isn’t anything you could have done. We handled it. No harm, no foul, right? Well, I’ve work to do before lunch in an hour. I’ll leave you guys here to finish talking. I know you’ll want to discuss how to prevent this from happening again.” With that she got up and slowly walked out of the kitchen.

After she had left the room, Dallas turned to Wes and asked, “Is she really okay?”

“Yeah it was more of a surprise than anything. She really didn’t expect to see him here,” Wes said.

Dallas sighed in frustration. He ran his hands over his mouth, trying to find the right words to express what he was thinking. It really pissed him off that Colt had come to Novak Springs, and he needed to get to the bottom as to why the guy thought it was okay to show up on the ranch, even if it was a brief interview. The prick should’ve known that he wasn’t welcome on the ranch. It had to be something with that other woman. He looked over at Wes and asked, “What do you make of this agent of his?”

“A real piece of work. You know the type—chews men up and spits them out when she’s done with them. What do they call them? A man-eater. Real charming while she’s trying to get what she wants out of you, see ya later when she’s done,” Wes summed up Vitoria for Dallas.

Dallas raised an eyebrow at his description of Vitoria Miene. From the little Dallas knew of her, Vitoria seemed to be the opposite of her best friend, Ginnifer. How had the two polar opposites become friends? It would be interesting to find out more about the woman. He needed to make sure she didn’t feel free to invite Colt back to the ranch. What surprised him the most in Wes’s description was how bitter he sounded when he described Vitoria. He sounded almost pissed off that she was on the ranch. It made Dallas wonder if perhaps he knew her from somewhere else. He shrugged the idea as nonsense and said to Wes, “Well, I will take care of it and make sure he never comes back here again. Don’t worry about dealing with the matter, I’m aware it pissed you off. Go find something to relieve the stress.”

“I’m fine, bro. I needed to cool off a bit. If you need help with anything, I’m willing to pitch in.”

Dallas shook his head at him attempting to dissuade him. “No I’m serious. Go find something or someone else to do. You need to let this go before you see Emma again. You were stressing her out when she was already too pale to begin with. Go to town and take the night off. Come back here and be the carefree Wes we know and love. There can only be one asshole on this ranch at a time. Otherwise we might scare away the help or, God forbid, Emma’s guests.”

“I don’t really want to go out. I’m not really in the mood. I’d rather find something around the ranch to occupy my time.”

“You need to go out and do something. The ranch is the last place you need to be right now,” Dallas explained. “Something is seriously bothering you. I don’t know how much of it has to do with this Tori person. If you don’t want to talk about it, I understand. I’ve closed myself off before. But I can’t have you ruining Emma’s program with your bad mood.”