Loving You: A Cowboy Romance (Texas Hill Country Romance Book 1) (15 page)

Annie didn’t get to see Cord much the next few days. He and Jake were busy training horses, but they texted and talked about three or four times a day. She kept busy by going to Roxy’s with Calista, Rory and Jennie. Occasionally Dan would go, too.

No one saw Lisa those few days. Calista tried to call her but she would always get her voice mail and after leaving a few messages, she gave up.

One mid morning, Annie was in the kitchen with Joan sitting at the island drinking coffee after they finished the breakfast routine. Evelyn McCreedy walked in.

“Evelyn!” Joan said. “Nice to see you.”

“Hello, Joan,” Evelyn said and they gave each other a quick hug and a peck.

Annie smiled at the woman.

Joan looked to Annie. “Annie, this is Evelyn McCreedy, Cord’s mom.”

“Hello, Evelyn, nice to see you again,” Annie said as she warmly smiled. She also extended her hand. “I had the pleasure of meeting her at Cord’s last week,” she told Joan.

“Dear.” Came Evelyn’s cold reply, not taking Annie’s hand.

Joan noted her chilly greeting and Annie quickly dropped her hand to her side.

“How about a cup of coffee?” Joan asked Evelyn.

“No thank you, Joan. I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to stop by to say hi,” she said, without taking her eyes off Annie.

“How is Cal?” Joan asked.

“He’s fine,” she said. Then she turned to Joan and asked how the kids were.

While they made pleasant talk, Annie kept noticing Evelyn studying her. It, for some reason, made her very uncomfortable. Not what she would have expected from the mother of Cord.

“You know, I’m confident that Cord-”

Annie’s ears perked up at hearing Cord’s name.

“-Will be proposing to Lisa soon. She and Cord were at my house the other night helping out with Kimmie. Such a lovely girl that Lisa, and comes from a very nice family.

Joan looked to Annie and Annie silently begged Joan not to say anything.

Joan understood that Annie didn’t want her to say anything, but it ate away at her. She just smiled and let Evelyn talk.

When Evelyn finished, she said, “You know, Evelyn, I’m not seeing that. What I am seeing is Cord spending all of his free time with Annie and -”

“Well, Joan, dear, I know my son and I can tell you he is happy with Lisa and is going to marry her,” Evelyn said adamantly.

Annie just sat there, staring into her coffee mug as she silently fumed. Angry with this woman because she knew she was here only to make a point that Annie knew was futile because as Joan said, Cord spent all his free time with her. Still, the news that Cord was at his mom’s while Lisa was there didn’t sit well with her. He never told her and the more she thought about it, the angrier she became, and the less confident she felt about her relationship with him. Was he playing her? Was she too naïve to recognize it? How did that happen, she went from being so confident about Cord to so unsure. Suddenly she felt sick in her stomach.

“Well, it was nice to stop by and chat, Joan,” Evelyn said as she got up. “It was good to see you, Annie.” She added with an extra large smile as if to say my work here is done.

Annie nodded once to her then averted her eyes.

Joan walked Evelyn out and when she came back she caught Annie aggressively chopping peppers.

“Annie, darling, are you all right?”

“Yes… I’m… fine… Joan.” Every word was said with a chop of the knife.

“Annie, honey, I thought we were going to make the peppers tomorrow night.”

Annie stopped chopping, “Oh.”

Joan took the knife from her. “Go, sweetheart, get out of here. I can handle today. It’s beautiful out, go for a walk or one of your runs.”

“Thank you, Joan.” She hugged her and went to her room and changed into a sports bra and shorts. She donned her sneakers and ran out the front door and didn’t stop running until she was ready to pass out about three miles later. She found herself on the outskirts of town.

Sometime later, Calista found her in her room coming out of the shower. She was still breathing heavy from her run.

Annie was not going to say anything to Calista, mainly because Annie felt like such a fool thinking about all the times she would gush to her about Cord, but she did wind up telling Calista because, one, Joan would if she didn’t already, and two, Calista was her best friend and she needed her best friend to cry to.

“Oh, Annie, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. Boy, when I see Cord I’m going to let him have it.”

“Calista, that’s sweet of you, and boy, would I love to see you give him hell, but I would appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to him. I would just as soon forget about it and him. Please?”

Her phone chimed and the usual text came in from Cord.

Hey, babe, what’s doing?

Wed. 11:56 am

By: Cord

Annie looked at the screen then threw her phone on the bed.

“Cord?” Calista asked

“Yeah.”

“Not going to answer him?”

“No.”

Then on another note Calista said, “Rory and I are going to Roxy’s tonight, why don’t you come along?”

“Thanks, but I don’t want to be a third wheel.”

“Helloooo, third wheel? It’s Roxy’s, our usual hangout. Jennie’s coming, Dan will probably show up. We’re just hanging, but only there. Shoot some pool, dance, drink.”

“Drink? Yeah, yeah I can so do that. Ok. Roxy’s tonight.”

“Great, Rory and I will take you.”

“Okay, but C., please don’t mention this to Rory or anyone else for that matter. I won’t ask you to keep things from Rory, but can you maybe tell him tomorrow?”

“Sure, honey,” Calista said and she hugged Annie.

“Here you go, ladies.” Rory said as he handed Calista and Annie their third cosmopolitan.

Roxy’s was jumping that night but they managed to snag a pool table and the cocktail table nearby.

Annie stood out in the crowd because she dressed like a city girl as opposed to a cowgirl. She was over that.

She wore a short black skirt that hugged her ass with a black and white stripe midriff sweater and a diamond chain hanging from her belly button. She rounded out the look with a hot pair of thigh high, four inch heeled black boots. She turned heads.

Jennie and Dan had been playing a round of pool with another couple, and Rory and Calista were going to play the winners of that game.              

Another text came in on Annie’s phone. She pulled it out of her purse to look at it.

Hey, babe, why aren’t you calling me back? Call me.

Wed. 10:52 pm

By: Cord

Annie threw it back in her purse.

“Cord?” Calista asked.

Annie nodded and took a sip of her drink.

That was his third text. He called her phone and left messages three times already, too.

Calista showed Annie her phone, ringing. The caller ID said it was Cord.

Annie shook her head and Calista tossed it in her jeans pocket, unanswered.

Toby Keith’s, ‘Beers Ago’, had been playing on the juke and the girls moved to the dance floor and danced.

Annie turned and saw Rory talking on his phone and staring at her. She tapped Calista and pointed to Rory.

Calista mouthed, “Cord.” Annie nodded her head.

With his free hand, Rory called Annie over. Annie shook her head. Rory said something into the phone then hung up.

The pool game was over and Rory motioned for Calista to play, so she and Annie moved off the dance floor and went back to Rory.

The game began and Annie was watching when she saw her bag light up. Her phone was ringing or she was getting a text. She pulled it out. It was a text.

WTF? You can’t call me?

Wed. 11:04 pm

By: Cord

Then the phone rang and Annie did something she said she wasn’t going to do, only because she felt buzzed from the cosmos, she told herself, and answered it as she walked to the bathroom area because it was a little quieter.

“What?” she said, not even bothering to say hello.

There was a pause.

“What do you mean what? What the fuck, why didn’t you call me tonight? You didn’t call, you didn’t answer any of my texts. What the fuck, Annie?”

“We’re done, here.”

“What? What the fuck does that mean?”

“What the fuck do you think it means?” she answered him.

Cord detected that Annie was slurring her words a little. “Annie, stop with the games and tell me what’s going on?”                       

“Games, Cord. I don’t play games.”

“Are you drunk?”

“No.” she said curtly, just before she hiccupped into the phone.

“Annie, you’re drunk.”

“So.”

“Why don’t you tell me what’s going on, darlin’.”

“Don’t darlin’ me. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on with you and Lisa at your parent’s house the other night.”

There was a very long pause.

“Annie?” Cord said, well, more like, pleaded.

There was another long pause.

“Annie, you still there?”

A little more silence.

“Yeah.”

“Stay there, I’m on my way.”

“Don’t bother, Cord.”

“Annie, don’t fucking move. I’ll be right there.”

“Whatever,” she said and then hit the end key and tossed her phone in her bag.

“Annie? Annie, you still there?” Cord shouted into the phone, but there was no answer. He flung his phone so hard on his bureau and broke off a piece. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

Annie walked back to the pool table area as Dan was walking back from the bar with another Cosmo for her and a beer for him and Jennie.

“Thanks, Dan,” Annie said. She took the drink and downed it in one sip.

“Whoa, girl. That’s not a shot glass.” Dan chuckled.

Annie laughed and then put her hand to her head. “Ouch,” she said and scrunched her face. “Headache.”

“Yeah, you want another Cosmo?” Dan chuckled.

“No, thank you, I better not.”

She was feeling no pain and knew she had to do something but forgot what.

Calista came over to her between rounds and said that Cord called Rory and told him to keep her there, that he was on his way. He should be there in the next few minutes.

“Oh, yeah, that’s what I was supposed to do, C. I have to get out of here. I don’t want to see him.”

“Annie, he’s almost here, might as well wait to hear him out.”

Then Rory called Calista, “Your turn, babe,” he said and Calista went to the table to make a shot.

Annie picked up her purse and walked out the door. The air hit her and helped clear her head, but just a little.

She looked around then started walking in the direction of the B&B. Now the B&B was not really far away, but walking was not really a wise decision, especially at eleven forty-five at night in high heels.

A few minutes later, Cord walked through the door, and after scanning the bar for Annie without seeing her, he walked over to Rory.

“Where is she?” Cord asked Rory.

Rory shrugged.

“Where is she?” Cord asked Calista.

“I don’t know, she was here a minute ago.”

Cord became frantic searching the packed bar.

“Oh fuck, C. I fucked up,” he said to Calista, scrubbing his face with his hands while he had Jennie check the bathroom for Annie.

“What happened?” she asked him.

“I don’t know. I was going to tell her when I saw her that I stopped at my mom’s house the other night and Lisa was there. I don’t know how she found out.”

Before Calista could answer, Jennie walked out of the bathroom shaking her head.

He caught Billy behind the bar motioning him over. He walked to the bar without another word to Calista.

“Hey, man. Your woman just left the bar, bout five minutes before you got here.”

“Thanks, man.” And Cord turned to walk away.

Billy grabbed his arm. “Three guys who were watching her all night followed her out. I sent Bobby out to keep an eye on her.”

Cord grew anxious and took off out the door. He scanned the parking lot. He saw nothing and started walking over to his car to drive around to look for her. When he got closer to his car, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see a commotion. He ran in that direction and saw a guy with one hand on Annie’s arm. Two other guys were confronting Bobby and one of them had a knife in his hand.