The Mobster And The Cowboy (A Cowboy Romance) (21 page)

Logan pulled up in front of Melanie’s house with his motorcycle at exactly 6:30. His grandfather was sitting on the stairs watching him and he called Logan over.

Logan
strode over to him. They exchanged a few words and then Logan rang Melanie’s door bell.

She gave him a huge smile and a hug.

Normally it lifted his heart that she always looked
so happy to see him. On more than one occasion, he thought about how it would be, coming home to her after a long days work and seeing her sunny smile. Sunny smile in referenced to her. Boy, he’s got it bad. But after speaking with his grandfather a moment ago, he had a serious look on his face.

“Logan,
what’s wrong?” Melanie asked as her smile faded at seeing his stoic expression.

He didn’t want to alarm he
r so he plastered on a smile, grabbed her and crushed her to him, and kissed her.

“Ready to go?”
he asked.

“Yes.”

They
sat at a table at Satan’s Skull. It was early, Jay wasn’t even at his usual bar stool yet, but there were a lot of bikers there. The Eagles ‘Take it Easy’ had been playing on the juke and Selma brought over a glass of beer and a glass of water to their table.

After looking around and spotting a few apparitions, Melanie turned to Logan and whispered, “Is the bathroom safe?”

Logan chuckled. “Should be.”

She rolled her eyes. “Point me in the direction
and if I see an apparition there, I’m holding it in.” She snickered.

When she came out, she saw Jay and went over to say hello.

“Hello
, darlin’, I see Logan brought his better half here. How you doing?” he warmly asked as she kissed his cheek.

“Good
, thanks. You?”

“Better, after seeing your beautiful face.”

Melanie became shy and all she could do was smile and bite her lower lip.

Jay smiled and cupped her face gently.
He quickly removed his hand. He didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable. He liked her and thought she and Logan were good together. Plus he saw Logan watching and he didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.

When Melanie turned around to see
Logan, she saw Richie standing by the table, talking to him. She caught his eye and he started to walk away from the table toward the door.

“Excuse me, Jay,” she said and she left to catch up with Richie.

Logan was about to get up and go to her but something told him to sit back and let them work it out.

Richie was already out the door and she caught it before it closed. He turned around.

“Oh, excuse me,” he said, not realizing it was her but
thinking it was someone who wanted to leave. His eyes widened when he realized it was her.

“Oh.”

“Where are you going?”

“I, uh
, was just leaving.”

“Richie,
don’t leave on my account. I’m not angry with you. It was Logan I was angry with for not telling me.”

“I told that assho, um
, moron to discuss it with you first.”

“No, you were right the first time, asshole,” she said giggling.
“Come back inside. Sit with us and, yummm, I was told you love these burgers,” she said with a silly grin on her face.

Richie laughed.
“They are my favorite burgers.” He paused, “You sure?”

“Yes.
Come on. I’m starving and I think Jay has a glass of some good wine waiting for me at the table as we speak,” she said as she placed a hand on his bicep and pulled him back toward the door.

“Jay likes you, he doesn’t share his wine with
just anyone,” he said as he grabbed the door with his other hand and ushered her in.

Logan never removed his ey
es from the door and smiled when he saw them walking over to the table. He rose as Melanie removed her hand from Richie’s arm.

“See, I told you there’d be
a glass of wine waiting for me,” she said, pointing to the full wine glass on the table. She picked it up, tipped it toward Jay, who nodded with a smile, and took a sip.

Logan
waited for her to put the wine down, then put his arm around her waist and brought her in for a kiss. When he broke the kiss, he whispered in her ear, “thank you, darlin’,” as he pulled out her chair for her.

Richie chuckled as he took the seat across the
round table from her but closer to Logan.

They ate their meal and spoke with some people who came over to their table. Jay stopped by with more wine for Melanie and stood a while.

The talk was mostly of motorcycles
and the Republic of Texas Motorcycle rally in Austin they all attended back in June. It was right before Logan asked Melanie out or he would have definitely taken her there.

They talked of their upcoming trip
to Sturgis that year. Logan hoped to have Melanie ride behind him there.

The guys even told Melanie some wild stories about their past trips up there.
Thousands and thousands of motorcycles and thousands and thousands of naked girls.

Melanie noticed that Logan didn’t say much when the talk of naked girls came up.
He just shrugged and grinned crookedly at her.

She shook her head and smiled.

The three of them sat
at the table, with their burgers already eaten, and they talked about going to meet up with Geli at the Salty Dog. ‘Devil went down to Georgia’ had been blaring from the juke.

“Don’t look now, man, but B
etty’s making her way here, Rich,” Logan said.

“Aw, shit,” he replied as he rolled his eyes.

“Move your chair out and you owe me big time,” Melanie said to Richie as she got up.

The
boys looked at each other and shrugged, but Richie did as she asked.

She walked over to him,
straddled his lap, threw her arms around him, and brought her lips close to his. “No tongue,” she warned. Then she kissed him.

Logan watched as Rich
ie’s arms came around her waist. One hand snaked its way up and his fingers threaded her long hair.

Logan
was taken aback at how he felt watching her kissing another guy. He wanted to rip her off of Richie and beat the shit out of him.

He caught Betty as she stopped in her tracks
.

B
etty made eye contact with him and she frowned. She turned and walked back to where she came from.

Ok
ay, okay. Get the fuck off him, woman,
Logan thought.

They were still going at it.

“Ahem, okay guys, she left,” he said, sticking his head by their faces.

W
hen Melanie rose off of Richie and walked back to her seat, he let out a breath.

Richie had a crooked smile on his face
as he watched Melanie take her seat. “Damn, that was hot, Melanie,” Richie said to her.

“Yeah, well, just don’t get used to it
, pal,” Logan said, before Melanie could say anything.

He placed his hand on her thigh in a show of possessiveness.

Melanie placed her hand on his hand and he quickly turned his around and squeezed hers gently as he looked into her eyes.

She slowly smiled at him and the corners of his lips moved up.

“Oh, geez. You two need to get a room. Logan, you look like a wolf ready to pounce.”

Melanie and Logan turned their gaze on Richie and they both laughed as he shook his head grinning.

“Let’s get out of here before Betty wants in on our action, Mel,” Richie said, chuckling as he rose and threw down some bills on the table.

Logan and Melanie rose and the three of them walked over to Jay, said a quick goodbye and left.

Outside, Melanie noticed the Indian chief looking around and when he saw her watching, he faded out.

Logan and Richie stopped talking and watched her.

“She sees dead people,” Logan joked.

“I heard,” Richie said, laughing.

Melanie
laughed as she turned toward Richie’s bike. “Ducati Diavel?” she asked.

“Yeah. Dark, AMG. You know motorcycles?” he asked
.

“
No, just this type. My brother–in-law wants one. It’s beautiful,” she said, admiring the all black bike.

“Thanks. I’d offer to give you a ride to the Salty Dog, but Logan will beat the shit out of me.” He chuckled.

“Fuck you,” Logan said, grinning but he put a possessive arm around Melanie. “See you at the Dog,” he said as he walked Melanie over to his bike.

He drew
her into him and kissed her deeply. He wanted to do that all night. God, he loved the taste of her. He moved his hips into her to let her feel how hard she got him.

She moaned as she seductively rubbed up against him.
A promise of what was to come when they got home later.

It was never a dull moment when Logan and Melanie stepped into the Salty Dog. Linda was there and she was drunk.

Heath was
in camp, but it still bothered Logan that his kid’s mother was a falling down drunk. This was a small town and people knew each other.

Linda came over to them and shoved Melanie out of the way so she could be face to face with Logan.

Slurring her words she said, “If I see that bitch with you again, I will sue for sole custody.
Do you understand me?” she yelled the last part.

Melanie’s face fell. S
he didn’t want to be the cause of a battle over their son.

Rich
ie felt her pain. He put a protective arm around her shoulders.

Melanie was grateful for the support.
What a complete turnaround, she thought.

Logan wanted to smack Linda, but held back. He never hit a woman before and didn’t want to start.

He moved in real close to her and
in a lethal tone, whispered in her ear, “Never, ever lay a hand on Melanie again. You want a fight? I’ll give you a fight. I guarantee you will never be able to go anywhere near Heath when I’m done.”

Linda stormed away.

Logan began telling Richie to keep an eye on Melanie so he could go after Linda. There was more he wanted to tell her.

“Oh, no.
No, not again Logan,” Melanie said, grabbing his arm.

He looked at her
, all frustrated. He yanked his arm back and walked away toward Linda.

Richie grabbed Mel
anie’s arm as she turned toward the door.

She whipped around. “
DON’T!”  She screamed.

He dropped her arm and she walked out the door.

Now what was she to do?
She knew which way to go to get home but didn’t know how to get there. It was more than walking distance.

“Hey
, beautiful.”

Melanie turned around and saw Kurt
. She almost didn’t recognize him. It was the first time she saw him wearing a cowboy hat. He was always in a baseball cap. She smiled.

“Hi
, Kurt.” She reached up and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

“What are you doing out here?” he asked her.

“Figuring out how I’m going to get home.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what, how bout you come in with me, have a quick drink then I’ll take you home.”

Melanie knew she should have said no. That it would just irritate Logan, but she was feeling ornery. How many times was he going to leave her and run to Linda? She knew he had his hands full with Linda, but still, it didn’t mean that he could treat her like a door mat or something.

“You know
, that sounds great, Kurt.”

He opened the door and placed his hand at the small of her back and ushered her inside.
He steered her to the bar and he was beaming from ear to ear that she was with him.

Richie was sitting
on a stool in the middle of the bar when he saw them. “Oh shit,” he muttered to himself. He hoped Logan wouldn’t see them. He sought Logan out.

He found him just as he picked his head up after an exchange of words with Linda.

Logan already had a dark expression on his face from that exchange, but when he saw Melanie with
Kurt, he did a double take. His jaw dropped. He was stunned. The last thing he thought he’d ever see was Melanie with Kurt or any other man for that matter.

He grew angry.
He stormed out of the bar, got on his bike and drove away muttering, “Women,” and shaking his head.