Front Range Cowboys (5 Book Box Set) Read online

  Darren, Maggie, and Bella took their places in the corner booth. Bella sat between Darren and Maggie. He was glad. He could not trust himself right now. There was something too intimate about sitting in a booth beside a beautiful woman where he would feel the heat of her thigh pressing up against his. It would have been too simple to wrap his arm around her body on the pretext of slinging it over the back of the booth. All of that was too easy. But Maggie Brown was not easy. She was better than that. She deserved better than that. She deserved better than Darren Hernandez too. Unfortunately, he just could not stop himself from wanting to get to know her better.

  “Can I get you all some drinks?” A waitress bounced over. She was in her mid-twenties. Darren could tell as soon as she took one look at him that he was about to be inundated by shallow flirtation and cheap pickup lines. Dammit. This was not the time. “Sir, would you like a beer? We have some amazing local brews on tap.”

  “Actually, I just want a soda,” Darren told the waitress without looking at her. “What would you like, Bella?”

  “Soda!” Bella burst out excitedly.

  “Clear soda,” Darren amended. “It’s way too close to bedtime for anything else.”

  “Ugh!” Bella rolled her eyes. “Sometimes you’re way worse than Dad. He doesn’t care about soda.”

  “I want you to sleep good so you have a good day at school,” Darren shot back. He was rather surprised to find that he was giving her an honest statement. He did want her to sleep well. He wanted her to be healthy and happy and everything that he did not know about his own child.

  Darren shook his head. No. He was not going to think about Jaeger right now. It wouldn’t do anyone any good. He needed to focus on the moment at hand. That was what mattered. That was what would get him where he needed to be in life.

  Wherever the hell that was.

  Chapter Eight

  Maggie Brown was relieved, excited, and maybe even a little terrified to be sitting in a booth with Bella and Darren Hernandez. Maggie loved to eat at Maxine’s. The restaurant had great burgers, and the atmosphere was always fun and upbeat. After a hard day of running herd on nearly four hundred students and trying to unravel all sorts of problems that really shouldn’t have had anything to do with the guidance department, it was always a relief to come to Maxine’s and just chill.

  Normally she ate alone. It was kind of embarrassing like that, but Maggie hadn’t been in a serious relationship for years. Most of her fellow teachers or administrative staff were married with families of their own. It was rare that she could find one of them to go out and grab a bite to eat with her. Now she was dreading the moment when Darren finally commented on the fact that Maggie had intended to have dinner alone. How embarrassing was this explanation going to be?

  Of course, Maggie was also struggling to decide if she was going to be amused or insulted that the waitress was flirting so shamelessly with Darren. Did the woman not even consider the possibility that they were a couple? Or did she just not care?

  The twenty-something waitress with the big boobs and fake blond hair beamed at Darren and set his soda down on the table. Then she carelessly put Maggie’s and Bella’s drinks down as well. “Can I take your order?” The woman’s nametag read AVA. She was so busy batting her eyes at Darren that Bella had rattled off her entire order before Ava realized it.

  “I’m sorry, hon.” Ava sounded miffed. “Say that again?”

  “Kids burger plus Swiss cheese, plain with ketchup, and fries, please.” Bella rattled it off as though she had it tattooed on her heart.

  Maggie went next. “I’ll have the Maxi Burger with Jack cheese and no onions, please.”

  “No onions, huh?” Ava was smirking. Nice. She was probably thinking that Maggie didn’t want onion breath.

  “And what about you, handsome?” Ava leaned over the booth on Darren’s side and gave him a face full of her boobs. “What can I get for you? We’ve got anything you like.”

  “Just double the lady’s order for me, please.”

  To his credit, Darren did not react—at least not outwardly—to the waitress’s overt flirting. And Ava was not being subtle either. She had all the subtlety of a train wreck. Of course, this probably happened to him all the time. Darren Hernandez was one good-looking man. He had the perfect balance of muscle and bulk combined with that dark curly hair and those blue eyes. The contrast with the olive-toned skin was truly exotic.

  Ava had exited the scene, and Bella was busy coloring her kids menu with the crayons provided on the tabletop. It gave Maggie an opportunity to ask the question on her lips. “Does that happen a lot? I mean, it has to get old. Right?”

  “Very old.” He actually chuckled, but he looked honestly embarrassed and not fake embarrassed as though he was secretly proud of being a slab of meat on the hot guy parade. “I used to get flattered. What guy wouldn’t get a bit of an ego boost? Some hot chick is throwing herself at you, slipping phone numbers into your pocket, and giving you free drinks. But then you realize that they aren’t really interested in you. They’re working for a tip. Or they want you to buy them something. When I was playing football, they always wanted tickets or they wanted free stuff or a free trip to the players’ lounge at a game. It was always the same story.”

  Maggie wondered what he wasn’t saying. There was so much hurt and confusion behind those blue eyes that she felt a compelling urge to reach out to him. It was inescapable. She watched her own hand moving from her side of the table to his. She placed her fingers gently on top of his arm and gave him an almost awkward sort of pat.

  It didn’t feel awkward. It felt like an electric brand. She’d never experienced anything like it before in her life. She looked up and he caught her with his gaze. She could not stop staring. His eyes were so incredibly blue. Nobody had eyes like that. There were tiny flecks of gold in them. But maybe that was the low lighting in the restaurant. It was hard to say. Or maybe she wasn’t really thinking about it because she was so completely ensnared by this man.

  She could just barely catch his scent. It was hovering beneath her radar until she felt herself lean imperceptibly closer to him there at the table. Then she caught it. The spicy scent of aftershave mingled with male sweat and the outdoors. It was the smell of a guy that did not need to drown in cologne. He probably didn’t need to wear any at all. He could be clean or dirty and he would just smell like a man.

  Oh God.

  “Oh my God! Darren! I can’t believe I just randomly ran into you here!”

  Maggie ripped herself from the trap of Darren’s gaze and turned to see a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties. She was beautifully blond. No. She was just beautiful. She looked fit and extremely chic in her tooled cowboy boots and her snug-fitting jeans. Her hair was pulled up into a haphazard ponytail, and her eyes were so big and grey that she probably didn’t need any cosmetics to give her that smoky look.

  Darren jumped up out of the booth and grabbed the young woman in a bear hug that made Maggie feel extremely uncomfortable. What was this? He had just told her that women flirted with him all the time. Was this one of his previous girlfriends? If so, Maggie needed to look elsewhere. She was a total chunky monkey with pale redheaded skin and ratty hair compared to this woman.

  “Jesse, it is so good to see you!” Darren murmured.

  It was odd. Maggie noticed that Bella waved but did not get out of the booth to hug whomever this was. Obviously, the kid knew the person. There just wasn’t a whole lot of warmth there or something. Bella was a super friendly kid. That seemed off to Maggie, and it set off her counseling instincts in a big way.

  “I’m so sorry.” Darren took a step back and turned around to face Maggie. “Maggie, I believe I mentioned my adopted sister to you briefly.” He beamed at the young woman. “This is Jesse. Jesse, this is the guidance counselor from Bella’s school, Ms. Maggie Brown.”

  Now Maggie just felt stupid. She held her hand out, and the woman—girl—it was hard to tell, reached o
ut and gingerly shook it. “Glad to meet you, Ms. Brown. I’m sure Bella here keeps you on your toes. She’s a real pistol, or so her daddy tells me.”

  Bella finally looked up from her coloring and gave Jesse a gimlet stare. “My daddy says lots of things, Aunt Jesse. You shouldn’t believe him.”

  Jesse took a long look at the nine-year-old and pressed her full lips together. “You know what, kiddo, I don’t believe him. I almost never do. But someday if you want to ride in the rodeo, you look me up, kid. We’ll show your daddy what real cowgirls can do.”

  Well, that had Bella’s attention. Maggie bit her lower lip in consternation as she tried to understand what had just happened. Darren gave Jesse one last hug and murmured that they really needed to talk. Then Jesse murmured her goodbyes and Darren sat back down.

  Darren looked at Maggie over the top of Bella’s head. “Later,” he told her quietly.

  Maggie nodded. Before she could even answer, Ava had brought their food and was piling plates on the table with gusto. Of course, everyone’s order but Darren’s was wrong, but Maggie was too hungry to care. She waved off the offer of sending her plate back to the kitchen and started pouring ketchup onto her fries.

  “Hey!” Bella protested. “Leave some for me!”

  “Little girls don’t get ketchup,” Maggie teased. “It stunts their growth.”

  “It does not.” Bella was indignant. “You’re pretty tall, and I bet you ate ketchup when you were little.”

  “Oh, yeah? What makes you say that?” Maggie licked the pad of her thumb to get the excess ketchup off.

  “Because you don’t start putting ketchup on your fries when you’re old.” Bella sounded so serious that it was all Maggie could do to hold back a chuckle. “That would be weird. You start eating ketchup on fries when you’re young. Then it gets to be a habit. Then you get old and still eat lots.”

  “It is apparent that I can’t slide anything past you,” Maggie told the little girl. Then she passed her the ketchup. “You’ve certainly earned your ketchup.”

  “Thank you!”

  The three of them laughed and talked about mundane everyday topics until Bella finished eating. It didn’t take long. The girl ate fast but only picked at her burger. She ate all the cheese off, crumbled the patty into pieces, and tore at the bread. Finally, her uncle excused her to go spend some quarters at a group of video games within sight of the table.

  “You’re really good with her,” Maggie commented quietly. “Most men your age—any age, actually—who weren’t actually a father wouldn’t even bother. They’d give the kid a whole handful of quarters and never think about them again until it was time to leave.”

  “My brother would tear my nuts off if I lost her,” Darren said teasingly. “Even though he can’t be bothered to pick her up, feed her, or pretty much anything else.”

  “I’m sorry about that.” Maggie bit her lip. “It doesn’t sound like your sister, Jesse, gets along with Laredo either.”

  “Laredo doesn’t get along with anyone.” Darren gave an inelegant snort and shoved another fry into his mouth. “The man is crabby and driven. And Jesse never liked him because he tattled on every one of us trying to get on Dad’s good side.”

  “Wow.” Maggie could not even imagine such a thing. “I was an only child. That’s totally foreign to me.”

  “It’s really not unusual when you have a parent who is completely incapable of giving any sort of real validation to his offspring.” Darren shook his head and sighed. “Right now, Jesse is angry at my brother because she just turned twenty-one and he’s trying to keep her inheritance for a few more years. Again, Laredo is just trying to make our father happy. But they have no right to keep Jesse’s family ranch from her. Not now.”

  “It sounds like there’s a story behind that,” Maggie murmured. “Your family is like a soap opera.”

  “Pretty much.” He shrugged. “It’s all very dramatic. But that doesn’t matter. As of tomorrow at noon, I’ll be gym teacher man.”

  “You never thought of teaching PE?” She found that a little difficult to believe. “Usually sports scholarships are peppered with people who are trying to become gym teachers or coaches.”

  “I never wanted to do either one.” He looked uncomfortable. “When you absolutely don’t think you’ll ever have a career outside of football, you don’t make things like a contingency plan. Then when you get old”—he slapped his right leg under the table—“you have no choice but to come home with your tail between your legs begging your family to take you in because you need a job.”

  “Is that what you feel has happened?” She could not imagine what kind of a blow that was to someone with Darren’s personality. The guy oozed masculinity and confidence like sweat.

  “I don’t feel it,” he told her quietly. “I know it.”

  Maggie wondered why she felt such a strong urge to get involved in this mess. It was probably going to come back and bite her in the ass. “Maybe it’s time to remember other things that you know too,” she suggested. “There are other jobs and other options out there. You just have to know where to look.”

  “Then, I sure as hell wish someone would give me a map,” he told her wryly.

  Oh, why, oh why, did this man have to have such a quick wit? He was quickly becoming irresistible, and Maggie could not afford that right now. Not by a long shot.

  Chapter Nine

  Laredo did not walk in the front door until nearly midnight. He was stone cold sober, so Darren knew that his brother hadn’t been out drinking. Honestly, Darren would have been glad to have to go pick up his older brother at a bar somewhere. It would have proved that the man was still capable of having more than a pulse.

  “What is wrong with you?” Darren muttered when Laredo stepped into the living room. “Did you even think to call and tell your daughter goodnight?”

  “Did you?” Laredo asked snidely. “Or rather your son, right? I forget, since you’ve never actually seen the kid.”

  Darren jumped to his feet. The quick movement pissed off just about every joint in his body, but it was worth it. He hauled back and let fly a fist that connected square with Laredo’s jaw. His brother staggered back and grabbed his face. The briefcase he’d been carrying clattered to the tile floor along with his smartphone. Darren didn’t care. He didn’t waste a second before landing another punch to the back of Laredo’s neck and shoulders that sent his brother flying toward the ground.

  Laredo crashed to the floor, but he was up again in a flash. “You asshole. Why would you do that?”

  “Why would you say that?” Darren snarled. “You have a daughter living right here with you who absolutely believes you have no time for her and that you’re okay with that.” Darren took a deep breath and went for broke. “Yes. I have a son. He’s five. I’ve never seen him before in my life. I pay out the nose for child support to a hell bitch who doesn’t want anything but my money and who told me earlier tonight that she’s planning on finding a judge who will make me pay for his private school without ever getting to introduce myself to him. I’m nothing but a paycheck to them. I’m a damn ATM machine, and you’re going to sit here like some snide asshole and poke fun at that? Screw. You.”

  Laredo’s expression was impossible to read in the near darkness, but he left his briefcase on the floor and headed into his study. “I need a drink. Want one?”

  “Sure.” Darren knew he shouldn’t, but right now, he couldn’t think of why not. Alcohol sounded good. It sounded like relief. At least for a little while.

  Laredo went to the sideboard and poured two snifters of whiskey from his good stash. He picked one up and swirled it around before handing the other to Darren. Then Laredo walked to the window of his study and braced his forearm against the sill. He took a sip of his whiskey and seemed to deflate right there before Darren’s eyes. It was more than a little disturbing. Laredo was the strong one. He was the one who didn’t give a shit. Darren didn’t realize how much he had come to count on
that fact even when it annoyed the crap out of him.

  “You have no idea what it’s like to work for Dad,” Laredo finally said in a slow drawl. “He’s like a meat grinder, and the older he gets, the pushier and greedier he gets.”

  Darren shrugged. “He’s still the president of the company, right? Maybe it’s time for him to retire. Has he ever talked about it?”

  “Are you kidding me?” Laredo snorted and threw back the rest of the whiskey. He walked to the sideboard to pour himself another drink, and Darren wondered if his brother was about to get drunk. It wasn’t a usual state of events. “Dad would never retire. At the moment, he’s obsessed with the Collins ranch.”

  “Why?” Darren flopped down onto a leather sofa and ran his fingers restlessly through his hair. He threw back his own drink and felt the familiar and welcome burn of alcohol on his throat. “The Collins ranch isn’t ours. It never was. It belonged to Rawling and Amelia Collins. They passed it via trust to their daughter, Jesse. At least that was how I understood things.”

  “I don’t think we understand things correctly,” Laredo muttered. “Dad keeps talking about Rawling double-crossing him. It’s hard to tell what’s really happened though because Dad isn’t really remembering things the way he used to. Maybe he’s forgotten what really happened. Or maybe he’s making things up in his head because he wants them to be true very badly.”

  That was a disturbing state of events. Darren thought about the very few conversations he’d had with his father since coming back to Denver. Joe Hernandez sounded normal, but it was hard to tell if sounding normal was being normal. Joe was getting up into his seventies. Maybe he’d taken one too many falls off a horse and hit his head.