Texas Size Passion (A Cowboy's Heart Book 2) (5 page)

             
John wanted badly to call her out on what she had just said to him, bringing to light that she had in fact  told him a white lie. However, he chose against it, deciding instead to go with it and letting her say what she wanted if it made her feel like she was reassuring him of what was going on.

             
“Very well, Emily.”

             
“Are you planning on coming to the dance tonight, John?”

             
“As a matter of fact…I am coming to the party tonight.”

             
“Do you have a date?”

             
“No…but there is a certain little filly that I have had my eye on for a month now that I have been wanting to get close to.”

             
“Is this someone that I know?”

             
He turned his eyes in her direction and cast a playful smirk towards her from where he was shortly before his voice slipped out.

             
“It is someone you know very well.”
              A soft chuckle escaped from his mouth as he pulled them up in front of Belle’s home, but quickly stopped when he found his boss to be on the porch, waiting on them both. The way her expression looked on her face from having seen him pulling up with Emily beside him sent his emotions and thoughts into a whirlwind.

             
Well…Now it’s the time for a whole other ballgame to begin now. It has went from combating and winning against her ex-boyfriend to now combating against her grandmother, as well as my own boss.

             
John knew that this day would ultimately happen but assumed there would be more time for him to prepare for it.

             
Bringing the pick-up to a gentle stop, he shifted it into park, and turned it off in a set of fluid motions that culminated in removing his body from the inside of the vehicle, and taking a few steps towards the direction of the porch where Belle was waiting with her arms at her sides and her eyes fixated on him and only him.

Chapter Seven

              “You want to explain to me what is going on?”

             
Emily’s body froze on the spot when she got out of the truck after hearing the very tone from her grandmother that would always send her running for cover. She managed to look over to the front of the house, and discovered her to be directing the question in John’s direction, not hers.

             
“Ms. Withers,” John answered, removing his hat from the top of his head and holding it in front of himself out of respect for her, “there is a very good reason for why it took me a little while to bring the beverages back-“

             
“I am not worried about the booze, John.” Belle interrupted him but never took her eyes off of him, or lower the intensity in her eyes, as well as her voice. “I am referring to my grand-daughter riding in your truck when she left in her own vehicle.”

             
This whole confrontation was about her being in the same truck with John. She knew that her granny might have been confused about her coming home in his truck with him. However, she didn’t plan on her being on edge and near mad at finding her with him.

             
Fearing for John’s sake, Emily moved around the front of the truck with the bag containing the dress for the dance in her right hand. She reached where they both were, and spoke up before John could.

             
“Grandmother,” she said, “he was in town getting alcohol across from the shop I was in buying my dress when he noticed Johnathan Warrens to be spying on me through the front window of the store when he was fixing to leave with the alcohol in the bed of the pick-up.”

             
The very second that she mentioned her ex-boyfriend’s name to her, Emily watched her granny’s eyes narrow at her out of frustration and unbridled rage. Her body tightened up on the spot from the very way that she was looking at her, closely turning her to stone by the stare alone.

             
“You mean that the same little punk who treated you like shit, and left bruises on you is back in my town?!”

             
“Y-Yes, Granny Belle…”

             
Emily didn’t have to look over in John’s direction. She felt the intensity pouring out of his stare in her direction upon her grandmother revealing to him a small portion of what Johnathan had done to her.

             
“What happened in town, Emily?”

             
“Well, I was paying for the dress when I found John in a confrontation outside with him. I waited for the cashier to give me the dress before I hurried outside. Johnathan was berating him, and building up his anger by issuing empty threats to him about being better for me, and that he could give me things that he can’t afford to.”

             
“How did it end?”

             
“Well…It ended with…John slamming him down onto the hood of his own sports car with enough force that it left him unable to move, and give us enough time to get away from him and the store.”

             
She noticed her grandmother’s face to be relaxing the anger and frustration from it, and starting to let an expression of enjoyment dance across it instead while a chuckle escaped out into her contented and pleased voice for a brief moment.

             
“That’s my boy! I knew that he would take care of business, and keep you safe from the likes of that little city-slicker prick…but that still doesn’t explain why you rode in his truck here instead of driving yourself in your own car.”

*                            *                            *

              “I can explain that, Belle.”

             
John decided that he had been quiet long enough, and it was time for him to make his own statement to her.

             
“Belle,” he said, “I brought your grand-daughter home in my truck because I didn’t want her driving alone after what happened, and that the car was parked on the other side of where I left Johnathan sprawled out on his own vehicle.”

             
“If you threw him down on top of his vehicle, as my grandchild has stated,” Belle replied, “you wouldn’t have to worry about him coming after her.”

             
His boss was correct on that. He had left Johnathan unable to move at all, and he wouldn’t have been able to follow her with the amount of pain that he had been placed in.

             
However, the reason behind all of this was a very simple one: He needed to feel Emily close to him, and had gotten tired of the lack of the spent alone with her. John wanted those few moments of privacy between them, and knew driving separate wasn’t an option.

             
“Belle…I drove her here myself…because I wanted to spend more time with Emily, and talk with her since we haven’t been able to do so in the past month she has been here.”

             
“Would it be wrong of me to assume that you have feelings for my grand-daughter, and that you brought her here instead of just following her…because you have a strong fondness for her?”

             
Damn it…Belle is right once again. How does she do it? How can she look into someone’s mind like she does, and figure them out in just a few short moments?

             
“You would not be wrong with that assumption, Belle. That is the truth…I do have feelings and a fondness for your grand-child, and it was because of those two things that I decided to have a friend bring her car here at your party tonight so I could spend some much needed time with her.”

             
John decided to not beat around the bush with her on the subject. He wanted her to know that he cared for Emily, and that he wasn’t afraid to fully admit it to her.

             
He watched Belle’s eyes start to light up at what he had stated shortly before his ears picked up on a brief sound of happiness in her voice in the form of a giggle shortly before she spoke up.

             
“Finally…I was thinking you would never come out and tell me, John.”

             
“E-Excuse me?”

             
“John, I have been aware of your attraction for Emily for a long time now…and I was starting to think that you would never come out into the open about it.”

             
His body language revealed the intense amount of shock and confusion that was wreaking havoc in his bod. She had known this whole time that he cared for her grand-daughter, and she had been waiting for him to come out with it.

             
              While his mind was trying to process what was going on, John watched Belle making her way down the steps of the porch in her direction as she continued on with speaking to both Emily and him.

             
“Now…John, let’s take these crates on around to the back of the house where the party is being set up, and, Emily…You can head on up, and start to work on getting yourself ready for it since the party will be starting in just a little while.”

Chapter Eight

              Emily found herself unable to really move a muscle after her grandmother had just brought out into the light that she had known this whole time about John having a strong attraction to her, and that she had been waiting for him to finally come out with his true feelings for her.

             
She knew? My granny knew this whole time that he has been wanting me, and that she was holding out in silence to see how long it would take him to come clean with her about it?

             
The fact alone made her feel more confused than shocked like she was at that second. She tried to not show it as much, but found the attempt to be a complete and utter failure.

             
After regaining control of her muscles shortly after her hand at erasing the confusion and shock from her face didn’t happen, Emily made her way up the front steps of the porch with the bag containing her dress for the party remaining in the grip of her right hand.

             
“I will make sure not to keep him busy for a long stretch of time so he can get ready for the dance, and look as sharp as he can for you, Emily.”

             
Her body nearly stopped from the suggestion that she had made to her, and cause her to stumble once she reached the area of the porch where it was in front of the screen door. She didn’t dare turn around to face Belle and John out of fear of them seeing the faint red color that had washed across her face that was brought on out of embarrassment.

             
Emily struggled to keep on going at the pace she was moving at, but managed to make her way inside. With the walls of her grandmother’s home giving her much needed privacy, she moved over towards the stairs, and leaned her back against the wall that ran up alongside the stairs.

             
That was a close call…John nearly saw the red pigment dancing cross your fair complexion, Emily.

             
She silently cursed at her conscience teasing her about the current situation she was in at the moment. The last thing she needed right now was to deal with her inner voice poking fun at her for blushing and wanting to get inside as fast as she could.

             
Who knows…Maybe John would like to see you all bashful at what Belle said, and look at your light red skin with enjoyment and a growing state of arousal-

             
Why don’t you just be quiet, and leave me be for once instead of berating me about feeling embarrassed?

             
I’m impressed…You actually admitted it for once. Normally, you would have just dismissed what I say, and do whatever you want.

             
Emily let out a soft growl of frustration at how her conscience was continuously pestering her. She wanted a moment to calm the rapid beating of her heart, and have time to herself so that she could calm her hormones down and think more clearly.

             
“Let’s go ahead, and take the crates around back, John, and then you can get going.”

             
Emily moved her eyes towards the direction of a window that was to her side, facing the direction of the front of the house.

             
Through the glass pane, John’s muscular physique could be clearly seen to her gaze moving behind Belle’s frame carrying one of the crates while he held the other two. He turned his head at the last moment, and looked at the window while he moved out of her line of vision.