Faking it with the Cowboy

Finally… with the kitchen cleaned up after dinner and most of the other guys heading to town to blow off some steam, I laid down on my bunk and dialed Jericho’s number. Maybe she’d be able to help me think of a way to get out of taking part in Cody’s dumbass idea. The other guys couldn’t stop talking about it at dinner. Half of them were just as pissed off as me, and the other half were just hoping to get laid.

She answered on the second ring. “Hey.”

Hearing her voice immediately took the edge off my nerves. “Hey. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“No. I actually just got into the tub with a glass of wine. You don’t mind talking while I take a bubble bath, do you?”

Visions of Jericho lowering her curvy frame into an antique clawfoot tub forced their way into my head. I tried to push them out again. We were friends. That was all. “Um, fine by me if it’s okay with you.”

“What a day.” She let out a breathy exhale over the sound of trickling water.

“Everything alright?” I could hear the weariness in her tone. My own problems faded into the background. If she needed to bare her heart to a friend, I wanted to be that guy.

“It will be. I got some weird news at work. What did you do today?”

“Wrestled with barbed wire. You know, the usual. What kind of weird news?” Jericho worked at some high-rise office building in downtown Dallas. I couldn’t pretend to understand what she did. Something with spreadsheets and numbers. Just about as opposite as a job could get from mine.

“Our CEO is getting married next weekend. Remember? I told you he rented out the entire DFW Yacht Club for his reception?”

Yeah, I remembered. He’d spend more on one night than I’d probably spend on an entire ranch. “Go on.”

“Today I found out that Scott’s bringing a date.”

My gut tightened at the mention of her ex’s name. They met in college, so I’d never gotten to know him, but he sounded like a top of the line douchebag to me. Jericho had given me the highlights of their relationship: the back and forth, the cheating, and the way he took her for granted. I thought she’d finally gotten over him, but maybe I’d been mistaken.

“How do you feel about that?” I asked, being careful to keep my tone neutral.

“It’s not a big deal, or at least it wasn’t until I found out he’s been seeing Tessa from HR.” She sighed. “Now I’ve got to make up some excuse about why I can’t go. Do you think anyone would believe I came down with scarlet fever?”

“You still have feelings for him?” Damn. I didn’t mean to ask, but there it was. My heart thumped like a bass drum while I waited for her to admit it.

“No. That’s just it. I know I’m better off without him.”

Good girl. The tightness in my chest eased. Shouldn’t make any difference to me whether Jericho was seeing someone or not, but I’d gotten attached to her since we reconnected. If she started dating someone, it might mean the end to our conversations, and I didn’t want to give those up. Not when they were the only thing I had to look forward to on a regular basis.

“Why not go to the wedding and show him you can have fun without him?” I suggested. “It’s not like you won’t know anyone there. Didn’t you say the whole office is going?”

“Yeah, but I can’t go now.”

“Why not?”

“Because I didn’t want him to think I was a loser, so I told him I had a date.” Her voice trailed off at the end.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “Now I get it. Either way, you’re screwed, Honeybee.”

She groaned into the phone. “I don’t know why you keep calling me that.”

“You don’t like it?” I’d come up with the nickname back in high school. We’d gone on a field trip to a nature center and Jericho was fascinated by the bee hives. She’d even set a few up on her grandparents’ farm.

“I don’t know. Just makes me wish I still lived in the country. I don’t think my apartment manager would like it if I tried to set up some hives on the rooftop.”

“Probably not. If it makes you feel any better, I had a weird day at work, too.” I laid back on my bunk and stared at the raw wooden beams that stretched across the ceiling of the bunkhouse.

“What happened? Did one of your co-workers go behind your back and start dating your ex?” she teased.

“The odds of that happening might be higher if I actually had an ex,” I teased back. Jericho knew my dating history, or lack of history. Beyond a few one-night stands, there hadn’t ever been a woman in my life. Love made people stupid. I’d seen it myself and vowed I’d never be weak enough to let another person take control of my heart.

“One of these days, you’re going to meet someone who’ll sweep you off your feet.”

She’d always been more of a romantic. “Isn’t the guy supposed to be the one who does the sweeping?” I asked.

Jericho laughed. “Hey now. That might have been how it worked back in the Dark Ages, but nowadays anyone can do the sweeping.”

“Can we stop talking about something that’s never going to happen and get back to my story?”

“I suppose.”

“Thank you. As I was saying, I had a weird day at work too. I found out the owner of the Iron H is going to pimp out the ranch hands to make a few bucks.” I clenched my jaw, anticipating her outrage.

Something splashed into the water on Jericho’s end. “Oh, crap. I just dropped my glass into the tub.”

“Did it break?”

“No. But now my bubbles are pink, and I’ll probably smell like I dove into a vat of merlot.”

She was killing me with the visuals tonight. I cleared my throat as I chased images out of my head. “You want to call me back?”

“No. Just hold on while I get out of the tub.”

I could hear her pull herself up out of the water. Could picture the bubbles clinging to her skin. My cock twitched, and I adjusted the bulge behind my zipper. Maybe I needed to go into town with the guys one of these nights and try to get laid. It had been a while, which was probably why listening to Jericho get out of the tub gave me a hard-on.

“There. I’ll jump into the shower later and rinse off the wine smell. I don’t want Scott and Tessa to smell it on me tomorrow and think I stayed up all night trying to drown my sorrows in a box of wine.”

“Too bad I’m not there. We could go out and shoot tequila. That would be a hell of a lot more effective if you need to drown your sorrows.”

“I’m not wasting any calories on either one of them. They’re not worth it. Besides, if you were here, there wouldn’t be any sorrows to drown because you’d cheer me up, right?”

“That’s right.” When she said shit like that, I wanted to hop in my truck and haul ass down to Dallas. It had been too long since I’d seen her. I had a feeling I’d built her up in my head during the time we’d spent apart. Setting eyes on her would be the only way to prove to myself that we were never destined to be more than friends.

“Enough about me. Finish what you were saying. Something about getting pimped out?”

“It sucks. The owner of the Iron Hart is going to start selling days with the ranch hands. Know anyone who’s willing to buy me for a day?” Saying it out loud made my gut clench.

“Poor Birch. It might be good to get outside your comfort zone. Maybe you’ll meet someone.”

“Yeah, right.” She couldn’t see me, but it didn’t stop me from shaking my head. “With my luck, I’ll get stuck with someone who doesn’t know a thing about horses.”

“Well, I don’t know much about horses, but I’ll do it.”

She tossed it out there like it would be no big deal, but she had to be joking. “You’re four and a half hours away.”

“It would be fun to see you again after all these years. Plus,”—she paused to take in a deep breath—“maybe you can do me a favor in return.”

“What’s the catch?” Her offer was too good to be true.

“I’ll save you from a day with a desperate cowgirl if you’ll pretend to be my boyfriend at my boss’s wedding. What do you say, Birch?”