The Mobster And The Cowboy (A Cowboy Romance) (11 page)

Tuesday couldn’t come fast enough for Logan.
On Monday, he saw his kid at school in the play. The little guy was so cute. He had one line about planting seeds and couldn’t get it right. After the play he saw Heath, and the kid was so happy his daddy was there. He wouldn’t let go of Logan’s hand when his mother said it was time to leave. Linda got angry and started ranting in front of the other kids and their parents. Logan was mortified not so much for himself, but for his son.

On the drive back to his home, he thought about Melanie.
He wanted to call her, just to vent. He found it so easy to talk to her, but again, he forgot to ask her for her cell number. When he got home he thought about calling her at the house, he did have Charlie’s number, but he fought not to call her. He downed two shots of whiskey and went to bed instead.

He was in the small corral and noticed when she pulled up. Hank met her and walked her to that corral where she found him grooming Shils Aash, and Zeus was next to him.

“Hi,” she
said, smiling brightly as she walked up to him.”

“Hey, darlin’
,” he said with a smile of his own, taking in her red button down shirt, showing a little bit of her curvaceous mounds, blue, ripped at the knees, jeans, red cowboy boots and black cowboy hat. She was rewarded with seeing his dimples.

He couldn’t resist, he kissed her.

“How was your son’s play, last night?” she asked as she picked up a brush and started grooming Zeus, who playfully nudged her. She knew he was looking for a sugar cube. She took one out of her pocket and placed it in the middle of her palm then offered it to him.

He took it and turned his head forward.

“It was good,” he said with a smile only a proud papa would have. “How’d you know?”

“You’re not the only one who is proud.
Your grandfather boasted to me, this morning, about how great he delivered his one line.”

Logan chuckled
at the one line he blew.
Too cute
, he thought again.

Melanie just smiled at a glowing daddy.

They mounted
up and Melanie lightly tapped Zeus’ belly and took off.

Logan didn’t know what hit him.
Grinning, he clicked his tongue and lightly tapped Shils Aash’s belly and galloped after her.

Melanie slowed when she realized she really didn’t know which way to go.

Log
an came up to her side and pointed in a direction. They traveled side by side in a canter.

“You seem a little tense
, today. Everything all right?” she asked, when they slowed to a walk.

Logan looked at her, then looked ahead and to the other side of him
, contemplating. He thought he didn’t do or say anything to give any indication that something was wrong. He thought about how intuitive she was.

“I
don’t know, maybe I’m wrong,” she said as she looked from him, with a small smile, to the path in front of them.

He blew out a sigh.
“Heath’s mother embarrassed him last night.”

Melanie looked to him to elaborate.
He didn’t. She just slowly nodded her head.

“Come on
,” he said as he began a gallop.

Melanie followed his lead.

He sped to a narro
w river. He told her it was an arm of the Blanco River.

They continued along the river
and Melanie’s eyes grew wide as the scenery unfolded before her.

A waterfall came into view.
Logan told her it was cascading over limestone and running into the tributary.

The sky was sunny and cloudless, the weather was warm
, and the sound of the water was peaceful.

Logan came to a stop
, and she, right alongside him, followed his lead and dismounted. They walked their mounts, by the reins, to the river.

Before getting to the bank, Logan reached out his hand
, and Melanie placed hers in it without hesitation. They continued to walk, each not saying a word, just content at being there.

He
dropped his reins and so did she. Then he pulled her to his chest, in between the two horses. Their eyes locked before he bent down to claim her lips with his.

She greedily opened her mouth and with her tongue
, searched for his.

He sighed at her touch and tilted his head for a deeper
, moving kiss.

He broke the kiss and gazed into her eyes.
He noticed her blue eyes were deeper in color and he now knew from experience she was turned on.

He was amazed at how her eye
s grew darker when they were together in his bed the other morning, just before she closed them when she came. At that point he made it his goal to see them as she was coming.

Logan smiled at her and let her go to pull out a rolled up blanket from a saddle bag on
Shils Aash. He grabbed her hand again and walked her away from the horses, and laid down the blanket. He sat down and pulled her down with him.

She flopped down
, but he caught her head before it hit the ground and laid it gently down. He laid down and turned to the side, putting his head on his hand, which he held up by his elbow, and watched her.

She turned to him and smiled.

“Tell me something about you.” h
e said.

She looked away.

With his other hand, he brought her face back to him.
“Please?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Where’d you come from?”

“New York.”

“I know. Maybe I meant to ask why.”

He wanted to talk to her, to tell her
things, but he needed to know who she was first. He knew she was hiding something.

“Do you have a boyfriend, a husband?”

“What? No. I wouldn’t have been with you if I did, Logan.”

“I know.
Are you running from an ex boyfriend or husband?”

She sighed and looked into his eyes.
“Yes,” she said softly.

“Which is it?”

“Boyfriend.”

“Good, better
than a husband coming after me.” He joked.

She
smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Why are you running?”

She looked around and sighed. Then she sat up and crisscrossed her legs.

“I caught him in the act o
f going down on some girl, in our bed.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It wasn’t the first time he cheated on me. I just, um, had enough. I don’t for the life of me, know why I put up with it after the first time.”

Neither said anything.
He just knew she would continue at her own pace. He waited patiently.

She looked around debating how much to tell him.
She liked him and she felt he was interested in her. She needed to come clean if they were to start anything. Well, okay, they already started something, but if there was anything there to continue. So she spilled.

“I was dating this guy, Michael
Fiore, Pretty Boy as he’s known by, for three years. The name alone should have warned me. I moved in with him two and a half years ago. Everything was going great, but then after a year or so, I noticed a change in him. My sister said she noticed a change in me too.” She paused. “He’s a gangster, a rising star in the Mazza family.”

“How’d you get mixed up in that?”

Melanie blew out a breath. “I don’t know. It’s not like he introduced himself as Michael from the Mafia.” She paused. “I’m so fucking naïve as my sister keeps pointing out,” she said, shaking her head, focused on his chest, but not really seeing it.

Neither said anything.
He just watched her watch his chest. Her hair was soft and silky looking and he raised a hand and grabbed a strand and wrapped it around his fingers.

“When I walked out, he said
‘yeah, go ahead, take some time to cool off’. Like he thought I was going to go back to him. That’s not happening,” she said, shaking her head and he dropped his hand to his side. Then she picked up her head to look into his eyes.

“The reason I fled is because after he sai
d the cool off thing, he yelled ‘It ain’t over till I say it’s over.’ I knew he would hound me. He’s looking for me.”

“Does he know where you are?”

“No.”

“Do you think he would hurt you if he found you?
”

“I don’t know.”
She paused and looked around, then focused back on him. “I think he could hurt anyone around me.” She looked to see his reaction.

He didn’t show any, but he’d made a mental note.

“Do you love him?”

“No.”

“Sure?”

“Yes.”

Logan put a hand on her arm and gently tugged her to him. He lay down and wrapped his arms around her and she laid her head on his chest. They stayed that way for a while. She, enjoying the warm sun and his protective arms. He, enjoying her scent, the soft feel of her, and the need to protect her for whatever reason.

“Oh, shit,” Logan said as he jerked to the side taking her with him. Then he let out a laugh.

Melanie looked at the amusement in his eyes and gave him a slanted grin.

“My phone was in my back pocket, vibrating. I thought it was a bug,” he explained, grinning.

“Afraid of a little bug
, huh?” Melanie laughed.

“No,” he said
, reading a text, smirking, and shaking his head. “It just startled me.” He felt like such an ass for reacting that way.

“It’s Geli, she and Dalton are going over to Hunan Wok for dinner and drinks later.
Said, why don’t I ask you and meet them over there.” He looked at her. “You want to go?”

“Sure, if you have no plans.”

“No.”

“Think
I’ll have time to go home, shower, and change?”

“Yeah, we’ll make time.
Come on. I want to shower and change too. Too bad we don’t have time to do that together,” he said smirking. She laughed while rolling her eyes at him.

As they rode back to the stables, Melanie told him that Michael keeps calling her sister asking her whereabouts and that sometimes she would get texts and voice mails from him.

She liked Logan and she needed to be up front with him on this whole Michael matter.
She hoped it would blow over soon.

Opting to sit at the
bar, the two girls sat together and Dalton and Logan sat on the other side of their girl.

Melanie
wore a black tank and tan shorts with sandals.

Logan
liked the way she looked. She was always neat and conservative, yet there was always a sexy air to her, he noticed.

“Rum and coke?” Logan asked her
, when the bartender asked what they wanted to drink.

“Kamikaze,” s
he said, shaking her head.

“Ooohh, that sounds good, I’ll have one too
,” Geli said.

Two Kamikaze’s later and Melanie was feeling the buzz as they ate with chopsticks and talked about anything and everything.

She was having a har
d time trying to eat a dumpling and Logan watched as she signaled the bartender. She rose up to lean over the bar and whispered in his ear. The bartender took off in a panic and came back with a fork for her, in fact, he brought enough for each of them if they wanted.

Me
lanie smiled and said thank you. She turned to Logan and gave him a little laugh.

He smiled at her then
moved in to whisper in her ear. “What’d you tell him?”

“I said if he didn’t find me a fork fast I was going to pick u
p the plate and lick it.”

Logan
not only laughed, but he felt his cock stir. “I probably wouldn’t have gotten the fork so fast. I would have liked to see that tongue in action again.”

Melanie
swiped her tongue along her lips provocatively and laughed when Logan let out a growl as his eyes went wide and his dimples came out.

“How’s your Kooch feel?” Geli asked her. Apparently she was feeling buzzed from the Kamikazes too.

“What?”
Melanie asked as she giggled.

Logan stopped eating to laugh and
Dalton’s beer almost came out of his nose.

“Mine was killing me yesterday.”
Geli said.

“Yeah, no, mine’s good now, thanks for asking
.” Melanie snickered. “Did you hear that girl in there screaming every curse word in the book?” she asked Geli.

“No, I was too busy screaming every curse wor
d in the book.” Geli replied.

“Oh, that was you?”

“Guilty.
But it looks so pretty now,” she said and she made a silly grin and they all roared with laughter.

Melanie laughed so hard she leaned on Logan for support.
He was hysterical at seeing her so playful.

She
wasn’t sure if Logan knew what they were talking about so she told him they went for a Brazilian wax on Sunday.

“Ugh! I don’t want to hear about
my sister’s whatchmacallit.”

Dalton looked over to see an almost painful look on Logan’s face and nudged Geli to look
. They cracked up as Geli pointed to her brother.

The bartender
, who had been leaning against the back of the bar, by the liquor bottles, heard the whole exchange and was hysterical with laughter too. He had already bought them a buy back drink, but he bought them their next round also.

For the remainder of their dinner, Logan kept an arm on the back of Melanie’s chair, his fingers playing with her hair.

After dinner, Dalton suggested they go over to the Salty Dog.
They walked in and for it being a Tuesday night, it was pretty crowded. No live music so no cover charge for men. The music on the Juke was ‘Lovin’ You Is Fun’ by Easton Corbin.

“What are you drinking?”
Logan asked Melanie at the bar.

“
A Bottle of water.”

H
e did a double take. “Yeah?”  He couldn’t remember ever taking a girl out for a drink and all she ordered was water. He ordered a beer for him, Dalton and Geli and one water, and they walked to the back where the pool table was. Richie was playing a round of pool with some guy Melanie didn’t know.

When Richie caught sight of her, he paused and licked his lips
, then made the shot he had lined up.

Did she just imagine that?
She looked up to Logan, who had his eyes on the dance floor and she followed his line of sight. He was watching Linda dirty dancing with some guy. Melanie looked back to Logan and noticed his tight lips.

“Hey
, man,” Richie said, coming up to Logan after missing the shot.

“What’s up?”
Logan said.

“Hi
, Sugar,” Richie said to Melanie.

She gave him a small smile.
There was something about him she wasn’t too crazy about.

Richie acknowledged Dalton and gave Geli a kiss on her cheek as Logan walked Me
lanie to a small and tall table.

Dalton and Geli
hit the dance floor.

“Excuse me a minute,
” Logan said to Melanie and he left to confront Linda.

Melanie watched as Logan’s face went from tight lipped to downright angry. She saw the frustration in his face, especially when Linda was laughing, and wanted to go to him and console him. Of course, she did no such thing. She just watched.

“She’s some piece of work, that one.”

Melanie turned to see Richie standing next to her with a bottle of beer in his hand.
She just looked at him, then back to Logan. She noticed Linda looking her way and scowling. She couldn’t read lips, but she knew Linda was talking about her.

Out of frustration, Logan made the mistake of grabbing Linda’s arm to drag her off the dance floor
, but the guy she was dancing with saw it and took a swing at Logan. Logan dropped her arm, and punched the guy in the face. The guy fell backwards, and an all out brawl broke out.

Logan yelled to Richie, “Get Melanie out of here!”

Richie grabbed a non
-willing Melanie by the arm and left. Once in the parking lot, Melanie turned on him.

“Let go of me!” she screamed.
She wanted to go back to Logan. To do what, she didn’t know.

B
y his car, Richie eased up on her arm, but wouldn’t let her go. She saw Dalton and Geli run out.

“Logan will be right out.
We’re heading out. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Geli told her. They got in Dalton’s pickup and left.

True to her word, Logan came right out, with blood on his face, and a wild look in his eyes, but he was dragging Linda, and she wasn’t going to approach him.

“Bring her home,” h
e told Richie, without looking at her. He just put Linda in his pickup and peeled out.

The
guy that was with Linda, was carried out by a couple of guys and his face was swollen and bloody.

She watched as they put him in a car
, not far from her, and drove off.

Melanie didn’t want to get into Richie’s car, but she had no choice. He opened the car door for her, ogled her legs as she got in, which creeped her out, and closed the door, and went around to the driver’s side.

She kept to herself. She didn’t talk to him, nor look at him.

He kept shooting sideway glances at her.

“
Logan ask you yet?” Richie asked her, after a while.

“Ask me what?”
She sighed, looking out the window on her side.

“I
f you’re into multiple partners,” he said.

She whipped her head around.
“Excuse me?”

“Oh, never mind.”

And they sat in silence the rest of the ride. Thank God it wasn’t a long ride.

When he pulled up, she jumped out of the car s
o fast, and didn’t even say goodnight, or thank you.

She ran up the steps and opened and closed her front door so fast
, she was breathing heavy. She walked to the coffee table and threw down the key to the door, then plopped down on the sofa. She sat there, alone in the dark, for a good half hour before she picked herself up and went into the bedroom.  She changed and went to bed with the thought of Richie asking, if Logan asked her if she was into multiple partners.

****

When Linda told Logan that Heath was home alone, he went wild. Linda was becoming more and more irresponsible. He needed to get things under control.  He needed to rethink not suing for sole custody. Did he really want to put the kid through that? No, but it was becoming more apparent that is what he’d have to do.

“What happened to us Linda?” He asked her while driving her home.

“You stopped loving me,” s
he said.

Logan sighed.
He did stop loving her. He wanted to and would have been content with settling down and growing a family with her once Heath came along. Yep, having a baby grows you up quick. Linda didn’t want to grow up.

They lived together after
Heath was born. Logan wanted to help and be a hands on dad with his son. He found himself not only working all day, but coming home at night and making dinner, feeding his son, bathing him, and putting him to bed, and Linda was nowhere to be found. First it was one night a week, then another and another. She always had some excuse to go out.

Toward
the end of their relationship, she was coming home drunk most of the time. Eventually, he heard things about her from people he knew.

His friend, Richie had to break it to him that he saw her coming out of a motel room on highway 35
with some guy.

At
first, she denied it and he began to doubt Richie, but then she confessed in an all out shouting match that Heath, not yet one year old, began to cry. That did it for him. He didn’t want his kid to grow up with shouting and hatred in the house, so he packed his bags and left.

He worked out what he thought was a great deal for her
, and it worked for a while, but she was becoming more and more uncontrollable and negligent where his son was concerned. He didn’t want to admit it, but he had to come to terms with the fact that she needed help. She was a drunk and he was afraid she would hurt herself, or worse, his son.

He walked her to her room, and she plopped down on the bed.

“Come and join me. I miss you,
” she said huskily, then hiccupped.

He just shook his head and walked out.
He went into his son’s room and found him sleeping. It broke his heart that his son had no one to tuck him in that night, and wondered how many nights he tucked himself in. He picked him up and brought him out to his truck and drove home.

After putting Heath in his bed—Logan made sure Heath had his own room, so he felt like this was his home too—he went to the game room and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. He poured himself a drink and as he was ready to down the shot, he turned to face the pool table. The memory of him and Melanie on top of the table filtered through his mind. He turned back around and threw the shot glass against the wall. He stood there a moment longer, then cleaned up the mess and went to bed.

****

Michael found he liked Benny the
Moocher. He had more power with him around, and Benny actually had some good leads.

Vito wanted more money, Michael gave him more money
, but the shit load that he was bringing in was way more than Vito’s cut.

Still the old man needed to die.

“Over a month now.
Where the fuck is she?” He asked no one in particular as he, Benny, and his driver, Vinnie, hung outside their club on the avenue and watched the girls in short shorts and little tops walk by.

He was going mad with anger.
And in his next breath, he said. “Oh yeah, bounce those tits this way, bitch,” as a pretty young girl walked by.

He and his buddies laughe
d as he gyrated his hips toward her. She gave him a disgusted look and walked faster.

“What’d her sister say?”
Vinnie asked.

“The same shit she always says.
She doesn’t know where Melanie is. The lying bitch. Send Frankie Fose down to Naples. Maybe she’s at her parent’s place. Tell him to stake out a few days, but not to approach them.” He knew Melanie would freak out on him. She was fiercely protective of her parents. He, also, didn’t want her to run if she found out she was being watched.

“I’ll get right on it
, boss,” Vinnie said as he whipped his cell phone out and walked into the club.