Mountain Rescue, page 18
He trotted Thunder beside her and Honey. “Ouch, that’s hot,” he said when her entire butt landed on the saddle.
Laughing, she jerked up.
“Stop trying to squeeze her to death with your legs.”
That habit was even harder to break, which she didn’t understand since she didn’t do it in a gallop. It took a few minutes, but she finally caught the rhythm of the horse, and couldn’t believe how much easier it was when she didn’t try to keep her bottom glued to the saddle and hold on with her legs. When she finally caught on, she was exhilarated.
“Oh, man, that’s awesome.” She grinned at him. “I had a riding instructor when I was learning, but she was never able to get through to me how to ride a trotting horse. Yet you did in only a few minutes.”
“I think I deserve a kiss then.” He halted Thunder, and Honey stopped when his horse did.
“Do you now?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He edged his horse next to hers, put his hand behind her neck, leaned over, and covered her mouth with his.
“Wow,” she said when he pulled away. “Kissing on horseback is sexy.”
“Stick with me, sugar, and I’ll give you all the sexy times you want.”
Yes, please.
* * *
As Dallas rang the doorbell of Noah and Peyton’s downtown loft Saturday morning, Rachel wished she could have come as herself and not in her college girl disguise. “It will be okay if I take this wig off while we’re inside, right? The thing is itchy.”
“And ruin my college girl fantasy?”
She rolled her eyes. “Men!”
He laughed. “Sorry, we can’t help ourselves. Give me a kiss before you do away with my college girl.”
“Lay one on me, dude.” She puckered her lips. He was grinning as he lowered his mouth to hers. He put his hand on the side of her neck, spread his fingers, and caressed her throat with his thumb. The man sure knew how to kiss. Another thing she was going to miss when it was time to go home.
“Should I check back in five minutes to see if you two are done?” Jack stood in the open doorway with a scowl on his face.
Rachel jumped back as heat warmed her neck and cheeks. “Ah, that’s okay. We’re done.”
“Says you.” Dallas winked at her, then put his hand on her lower back as they stepped inside.
She should have thought to ask him how she was supposed to act around his friends. Was it a secret that things had changed between them, or did he want them to know that? Since she didn’t know, she’d let him take the lead on what he wanted them to know.
“Oh, what have we here?” An elderly woman wearing leopard print leggings, a gauzy black top, and sparkly silver sandals aimed her thin body at Dallas.
Rachel almost laughed when Dallas grunted, then stepped behind her. She guessed that this must be the man-butt-pinching woman Jack and Noah had warned him about. This pancake breakfast was going to be fun.
Jack’s grandmother, who Rachel had met at the wedding, stepped in front of the first woman. “You’re scaring the poor man, Mary. At least wait until you know his name before you attack him.”
“Well, introduce us then,” Mary said as she tried to peek around Rachel.
Jack strode over and put his hand on Mary’s shoulder. “Mary, this is Rachel Denning, Nichole’s best friend.” With amusement in his eyes, he looked over her shoulder. “The man hiding behind her is Dallas Manning, one of my former teammates.”
“Nice to meet you, Rachel, but step aside and let me check out this handsome man.”
Dallas put his hands on her shoulders, keeping her in place, and Rachel was fighting hard to keep her laughter contained. Not that she blamed him for hiding considering that wicked gleam in Mary’s eyes.
“My friends call me Dirty Mary.” She grinned as if entirely proud of her nickname. “You can call me Dirty Mary, handsome.”
Nichole walked into the room with Peyton at her side, and forgetting that she was the barrier between Dallas and Mary, Rachel ran to greet them. She was in the process of hugging them when she remembered she’d abandoned him. She glanced back, and seeing that Mary was squeezing Dallas’s upper arm, apparently checking out his muscles, she hurried back to him. He didn’t like to be touched, and he was probably about to climb out of his skin.
When she reached his side, ready to do something to divert Mary’s attention, she met Dallas’s gaze and stilled. There was wonder in his eyes, and she felt astonishment coming from him. Well, how about that? He could bear Mary touching him. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that. She kind of liked that she was the only one who could touch him and wasn’t sure she wanted to share, even with a little old lady.
Unaware of the miracle taking place, Mary reached behind Dallas and pinched his butt. Rachel expected him to move away from her grabby hands, but he only laughed.
“While your new friend’s manhandling you,” Jack said, “I’ll introduce you to my grandmother. Grammie, this is my good friend, Dallas. Dallas, my grandmother, Lizzy.”
“It’s always good to meet a friend of Jack’s.” She leaned toward Dallas. “Do you have a higher rank than he did?”
“Actually, I did, ma’am.”
“Good, then I’d like you to order him to get his wife pregnant so I can have a grandbaby before I die.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Ah....” Dallas was at a loss for words. He was also trying to process why he wasn’t having a problem with the woman getting handsy with his ass. Was he okay with her touching him because she was elderly? To test that theory, he held out his hand to Jack’s grandmother.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Lizzy. I can’t tell you how much we enjoyed your care packages to Jack.” She put her hand in his, and he immediately wanted to snatch it away. With a smirk at Jack, he added, “When he’d share them. The chocolate chip cookies were our favorites.” He let go of her hand, swallowing a sigh of relief.
“I told him he better share with his teammates.” She gave him a brilliant smile. “You can return the favor by ordering my grandson to give me a grandbaby, preferably two or three.”
Jack sighed. “Grammie, we’re working on it.”
“Well, obviously not hard enough.”
“If she had her way, she’d lock Nichole and me in the bedroom until we showed her an ultrasound proving there’s a baby in my wife’s belly.”
“Now there’s an idea,” Lizzy said.
Carrying a large bag, Noah walked in at the end of the conversation. “You should totally do that, Lizzy.” He kissed the woman’s cheek. “Sorry I wasn’t here when you arrived, but I got your favorite breakfast dessert in here.” He tapped the bag.
Mary let go of Dallas and cozied up to Noah. “And what did you get for me, McHottie?”
“Snickerdoodle doughnuts for Miss Lizzy and cherry turnovers for my best girl, Dirty Mary.”
Dallas stepped back and watched the banter between Noah, Jack, Lizzy, and Mary. The people in this room were fond of each other and were comfortable in their own skins. He got that Jack fit in with his grandmother and her friend, but he was disturbed that he was jealous of Noah for his ease and comfort with these people. As teammates, they had been as close, closer even, than blood brothers, and when stateside, they’d hung out together. But outside of that, they hadn’t socialized with each other’s families. Looked like things had changed for Jack and Noah.
Rachel moved next to him and he put his arm around her, pulling her against his side. Jack narrowed his eyes at him, and Dallas frowned. He figured he was going to get another talking-to at some point this morning. What was Jack’s problem? He was acting like a big brother. Rachel was an adult, fully capable of making her own decisions.
“Mary, let’s go help the girls get breakfast ready and give these men a break from you molesting them.” Lizzy grabbed Mary’s hand and pulled her away.
“You’re no fun,” Mary grumbled. She glanced over her shoulder and blew them a kiss. “I’ll be back, boys.”
Dallas laughed. “She’s a trip.”
“One of a kind,” Jack said. “Mostly harmless.”
Noah snorted. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“I think she’s hilarious,” Rachel scratched under the wig. “I need to get this thing off for a while. Where’s your bathroom?” she asked Noah.
“Down the hall, second door on the left.”
After she headed to the bathroom, Dallas raised his brows at Jack’s intense stare. “Got something you want to say, brother?” As if he didn’t already know.
“What’s going on with you and Rachel?”
“Nothing.” The lie was bitter on his tongue. Honestly, he really wasn’t sure what was going on with them other than they liked each other and were sleeping together. “She’s a great girl, and we’re friends.” That much was true.
“She’ll be going home soon, and it better not be in tears.”
“Rachel’s perfectly capable of taking care of herself.” He didn’t need this shit from Jack.
“So, did you find us any horses?” Noah said.
Dallas appreciated that Noah was defusing the tension. “Six possible. Four at that place in Asheville, and two over in Weaverville. I’m planning to hit up the other places on the list over the next couple of days. When will you have the barn ready, and the pasture fenced?”
“Now that you’ve selected where the barn will go, we’ll get started on it right away. The fencing will be done this month. If you’re sure about the ones you like, see if the owners will board them if we buy them now.”
“You have someone lined up to head the equine therapy part?”
Jack and Noah shared a glance, then Jack said, “We’ll talk about that later.”
The two of them were up to something, and Dallas hoped they weren’t counting on him to stick around. His home was in Montana. Doing what was the big question, but he’d figure it out when he returned to the ranch. Where she won’t be, he thought when Rachel walked back in the room without her wig. She smiled at him as she headed for the kitchen to join the other women. That sweet smile was playing havoc with his heart.
He glanced around Noah and Peyton’s downtown loft. “Helluva place you got here, Double D.”
“Never thought I’d like loft living, but it’s great. Got a lot of restaurants and shops right outside the door.”
The loft was cool, but there was no way Dallas could live here. He needed wide-open spaces. Laughter came from the kitchen, and he, Jack, and Noah all looked that way.
“Honey, if you ain’t hittin’ that up, you need to have your head checked,” Mary said. “If you don’t want him, give him to me. This old broad will show that boy some new tricks.”
Rachel met his gaze across the room, and there was pure mischief in her eyes. “Oh, I don’t know, let me think about it. But I should probably warn you that he’s a grouchy one.”
He was not! Not with her anyway.
“Thank God Dirty Mary has new meat in her orbit.” Noah rubbed his rear end. “My ass needs a break from pinchy fingers.”
“And before that, it was me,” Jack said. “Welcome to the Dirty Mary Grabby Hands Club.”
Dallas snorted. “Not a club I aspired to.” Although it was both weird and interesting that Mary’s grabby hands didn’t bother him. “She must have been a pistol when she was young.”
“Seven husbands,” Jack said. “Some she buried, and some she left wanting more...at least, that’s how she tells it.”
Noah shook his head. “Not sure any one of us would have survived her.”
“True story,” Jack said.
“You boys get your sexy butts to the table. Breakfast is ready,” Mary called.
Dallas wasn’t sure how she managed it, but he ended up seated on one side of Mary with Noah on her other. The table was loaded with platters stacked high with pancakes, plates of bacon, bowls of fruit, and assorted syrups, along with pots of coffee and pitchers of mimosas. The various pastries Noah had bought were the centerpiece of the table.
Mary wrapped the fingers of one hand around his biceps and did the same to Noah with her other hand. “Eat up, boys. Gotta keep these muscles strong for the ladies.”
He flexed his muscles, getting a giggle from her, and eyed the food. “There’s enough here to feed our team several times over.”
Noah started singing something about banana pancakes, and Dallas sat back in his chair and stared at his friend. “There’s really a song about banana pancakes?”
Peyton laughed. “There really is. Jack Johnson’s ‘Banana Pancakes.’”
“You really do have a great voice,” Rachel said.
Jack shook his finger at her. “Don’t encourage him. He’ll come up with a song for anything you say.”
“You got a song about Dirty Mary rocking a McHottie’s world?” Mary asked.
Noah grinned. “I sure do, but I can’t sing it in front of you ladies. You can listen to it on YouTube. The title actually is ‘Dirty Mary’ by Lady Bouncer. She sings about a horny secretary.”
Mary clapped her hands. “I can do horny secretary.”
“I just bet you can,” Jack muttered.
Rachel sat on the other side of him, and when she laugh-snorted, Dallas glanced at her and smiled. He loved seeing her enjoy herself. She looked at him, and he got caught in those eyes staring back at him. He wanted to grab her hand and drag her back to the cabin with him, back to their cozy little world where he could spend the day making love to her. Instead, he settled for putting his hand on her leg and squeezing.
“How soon can we leave?” she said quietly, letting him know her mind was in the same place as his.
“Real soon,” he said, getting one of those smiles that he’d decided was just for him.
“You have a song about a grandson giving his grandmother a grandbaby?” Lizzy said, bringing his attention back to the group.
Jack groaned. “No, he does not, Grammie.” He pointed his fork at her plate. “Eat your pancakes.”
“The last time I had sex, there was syrup involved,” Mary said as she poured syrup over her pancakes. “It was sticky.”
Rachel choked on her mimosa. The sound of silverware clanging as the pieces hit the table filled the air, and she glanced around. Everyone except for Lizzy was staring at Mary in stunned silence. Lizzy was happily digging into her pancakes.
“What?” Mary blinked owl eyes at them.
“Kids these days apparently have sensitive ears,” Lizzy said, then went back to eating her breakfast.
Jack picked up the fork he’d dropped and studied it as if it held the meaning of life. “Grammie, there are some things us kids don’t want to hear, and you or Mary having sex is one of them.”
“How do you think you got here, Jackie? I had to have sex with your grandfather to have your father, and your parents had sex to have you.” She and Mary exchanged eye rolls.
Jack buried his face in his hands, and Rachel didn’t think she’d ever been so entertained.
“I was at Woodstock, you know,” Mary said. “Somewhere there’s a picture of me flashing my titties at the Grateful Dead. Let me tell you, those boys’ tongues were hanging out at seeing my awesome boobs.”
The silverware they’d all picked up fell to the table again. Beside her, Dallas’s shoulders shook, and he had his fist pressed against his mouth. She glanced around the table. Jack still had his hands covering his face, but she could tell that, like Dallas, everyone was trying not to laugh.
There was pure devilment in Noah’s eyes. Oh boy, what was up to? When he started singing about ta-tas driving him bonkers, Rachel lost it. The man was ridiculously funny.
Dallas made a strangled sound as he pushed away from the table and disappeared down the hallway. Jack apparently had something important to do in the kitchen, but he sounded like he was choking.
Nichole and Peyton cracked up, and through her laughter, Nichole said, “You made that one up.”
Grinning ear to ear, Noah shook his head. “Nope. That one’s a Scuzz Twittly song.”
Rachel picked up her fork and speared a chunk of pineapple. “There’s really a song about ta-tas? Who knew?”
“Pretty much a song about everything.” Noah glanced toward the kitchen. “You gonna be okay, Whiskey?”
“No.” Jack walked back to the table. “I’m scarred for life.” He leveled a stern look at his grandmother and Mary. “You two try to behave for the rest of our breakfast.”
Mary wrinkled her nose. “Where’s the fun in that?”
Ignoring her question, he pointed at Noah. “And you, no more songs today.”
He had such a severe expression that Rachel would have thought he was mad if she hadn’t seen his lips twitch.
Gosh, she was going to miss these people when she had to go home. The one she was going to miss the most returned to the table. “Having fun?”
He leaned his mouth near her ear. “Yep, but I have some other kind of fun in mind.”
“You just have ta-tas on the mind now.”
“Yours specifically.”
Oh, my. That heat in his eyes sent a shiver through her.
Lizzy and Mary settled down, and the rest of the morning was considerably calmer than the first part. After they finished eating, Noah and Jack started picking up plates. “The girls cook, the guys clean,” Noah said.
“Sounds fair.” Dallas gathered a handful of dishes.
Rachel refilled her mimosa glass, then Peyton’s when she nodded. “Some?” she asked Nichole.
“No, thanks.”
Rachel narrowed her eyes, studying her friend. She’d been picking up happy vibes from Nichole all morning. Not that Nichole wasn’t always happy, but the emotions coming from her today were different.
