Cowgirls Don't Cry by Lorelei James

entire day.

    www.samhainpublishing.com
    59

    Lorelei James
    Brandt and Jessie had fallen into an easy evening routine—too easy. The three of them fed the animals together. They ate supper together. Brandt bathed Landon and tucked him in bed. Then he and Jessie watched TV together until one of them or both of them fell asleep. If she conked out first, he’d watch her like a fucking perv, but he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. Something about seeing her so unguarded in sleep reinforced the idea she was vulnerable and strengthened his resolve to protect her at all costs.
    Even if he was the one most dangerous to her.
    So when they were offered a break in the routine, Brandt grabbed it, telling Jessie his mother wanted to have Landon for an hour or so after supper. But first on their to-do list was outfitting Landon for winter weather.
    As far as shopping went, Brandt didn’t mind the farm supply store. Tisdale’s carried everything essential to ranching and he usually ran into someone he knew. It hadn’t occurred to him that might not be a good thing until it happened.
    He and Jessie were in the boot section of Tisdale’s, trying to figure out if rubber boots worn over shoes were a better choice than simple snow boots. Since neither he nor Jessie had shoe shopped for a toddler, getting Landon to sit still proved a major obstacle.
    “No. Put those back. We don’t want anything with laces.”
    Brandt held up the camouflage boots. “But they have drawstrings on the top. They’ll stay tied.”
    Landon reached for them with a possessive grunt.
    “See? He loves them. They’re hip. And manly.”
    Jessie grumbled and let go of Landon for two seconds. The kid was off like an antelope.
    “Dammit, Landon, get back here.” Shit. He wasn’t supposed to swear. He snagged the boy by the waist and hung him upside down on the trip back to the boot department. Landon shrieked, the good kind of shrieks, but still, he was awful damn loud.
    “Now sit on Jessie’s lap and be a good boy so we can get this over with, okay?”
    Landon nodded and Brandt grinned. The kid was already getting better at communicating and it’d only been a few days.
    “Brandt?”
    He whirled around and looked into the beady eyes of Margene Hieb. Margene and her husband Larry lived up the road from his folks. They’d been friendly neighbors for years until their oldest daughter, Pandora, became the walking wounded due to Luke’s heartbreaking ways. Consequently, Margene took every opportunity to run her mouth off about anything less than flattering about the McKay family—and there always seemed to be plenty to talk about.
    “Margene.” Brandt peered over Margene’s shoulder. “Where’s Larry?”
    “At home.” She sidestepped Brandt and stood in front of Jessie. “Oh my. It is true. I wasn’t sure, you know how rumors are, never know how they get started.”
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    Cowgirls Don’t Cry
    Usually by people like you.
    “He really looks like his father, doesn’t he?”
    Jessie said not a word.
    Margene sighed. “Such a shame that Luke won’t be around to watch him grow up. It’s an even bigger shame…” She shook her head at Jessie. “I don’t know how on earth you’re just sitting there, holding him, like he was your own. Granted, he is a cute little boy, and you were married to his father, but I don’t see
    how you can overlook the fact he was born on the wrong side of the sheets.”
    “She can overlook that fact, Mom, because Jessie was used to Luke cheating on her, like he cheated on everyone before her.” Pandora, mean, nasty Pandora, tossed her fat head and Brandt thought he might’ve seen a snake or two trying to slither out of her hair. “Honestly, the only thing that surprises me?
    That more of his secret spawn haven’t shown up. The man couldn’t keep his pants zipped to save his life.”
    Brandt looked back and forth between mother and daughter, mentally trying to slap a lid on his temper