“Instead of horny-dillweed bait?”
“Yes,” he said. “I can help you.”
“I’m twenty-three,” she said.
“I know. And you’re fast and strong and smart. You’re the best damn barrel racer around, whatever you think about yourself. You’re ready to go pro and take the circuit by storm. You’re a hard worker and a good sister.”
“So what exactly are you...offering?”
“If you’re going to flirt, you should flirt with me.”
JACK WASN’T QUITE SURE what devil was possessing him at the moment. The same devil that had possessed him when he crossed the room and intervened in Kate’s interaction with Chad. Something hot and reckless, which he was used to but not in connection with his best friends’ little sister.
You’re just looking out for her.
True. It might not be God’s work, but it was Eli and Connor’s work. He was helping.
Leading her not into temptation, and away from idiots who only wanted to get into her pants.
“Chad didn’t hit you, did he, Jack?” Kate asked, her tone suddenly filled with concern.
“No. Why?”
“Because you’re talking like someone who has a head injury.”
“Lesson one,” he said, his tone firm. “Don’t insult the guy you want to hook up with.”
Kate took a step back, her expression hidden from him by the dim evening light. “I don’t want to hook up with you.”
“Obviously.” He felt like a moron for phrasing it that way. Things had gotten weird in the past hour and this wasn’t helping. “I didn’t mean that. I only meant that I can teach you how to talk to men.”
“I was raised by men,” Kate said, holding her hands wide. “I know how to talk to men. I know about horses, sports and even some of the finer points of tractor mechanics. I even like to compare scars.”
Jack’s throat clamped down hard on itself at the image of Kate shuffling clothing around to show off the various scars she no doubt had on her body.
Want to compare scars, baby?
Yeah, that might actually work as a pickup line. The other stuff, not so much.
“You know how to talk like a man, Kate. That’s different than knowing how to talk to men. And it’s also different than talking to them the same way you would your brothers but adding the...back arching you were doing.”
“How?” she asked, sounding totally mystified.
“It just is. I mean, I don’t talk to women the way I talk to Connor and Eli.”
“You pretty much talk to me the way you talk to Connor and Eli. Except condescending.”
Jack let out a heavy sigh. “Get in the truck.”
“See? You’re all ordery.”
“Kate,” he said, through clenched teeth, “get in the truck.”
This time something in his tone spurred her to obey and she got in the passenger side of his black F-150. He breathed into his nose and then let a slow breath out through his mouth. He was insane.
He shook his head as he got into the truck, slammed the door behind him and started the engine before Kate could say anything.
He put the vehicle in Reverse and drove out of the parking lot, gripping the steering wheel tight, tension creeping up his shoulders.
“So,” Kate said. He had known his reprieve wouldn’t last. “What exactly would this flirting boot camp entail?”
Okay, so she hadn’t forgotten. Which meant he was committed. No turning back now. Anyway, there was no reason not to go through with it. Kate was just Kate. End of story. “I figure since we’re working together on the rodeo, we might as well work on this, too.”
“Why?”
The question of the year. “I don’t want to babysit you the whole time we’re organizing this. And when you go pro, Kate Garrett, there are going to be cowboys all over you.”
“And what? You think I’m so stupid I’m gonna get tricked into bed? Like I don’t know my own mind? Or are you trying to help me get some?”
The tension crept higher, climbing up into his neck. “That isn’t what I said.”
With any luck, him taking control of the situation would keep her from getting taken advantage of. Not that it would be wrong for Kate to get laid.
Even thinking about it threw up a big fat stop sign in his brain, warning his thoughts not to go any further.
Okay, so it wasn’t as if he expected she never would. Or even that she hadn’t. Because, as she had pointed out a few times, she was twenty-three. And you didn’t exactly have to be smooth to get a guy into bed.
But she deserved better than an ass clown like Chad.
“Okay, what you do with my teaching is up to you,” he said. “But forewarned is forearmed. If you want to get better at talking to guys, I’ll help you. And what will help me is if I know that you’ll be more prepared to deal with jerks should any approach you. And that you understand you don’t have to do anything with them just because they asked.”
“Good grief, Jack. I know that,” she muttered.
“Just don’t ever sell yourself short.”
“Why not? Men do it all the time. I don’t understand what all this protecting me from shallow creeps who are only after one thing is about. You are that creep. I mean, obviously, with other women, not with me.”
He nearly choked on his tongue. “That’s different.”
“How is it different?”
There was no way for him to say how it was different without sounding like a total jackass. So he kept quiet.
But Kate wasn’t content with that. Of course she wasn’t. “Come on, Jack. I’m waiting for an explanation.”
He let out an exasperated breath. “It’s just that there are different kinds of women. There are the kind that you marry. And there are the kind that you...”
A hard crack of laughter filled the cab of the truck. “Are you kidding me? Are you trying to tell me that you marry good girls and sleep with bad girls? And that if I keep pushing my breasts out, the boys will think I’m a bad girl and corrupt me?”
“It’s
