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“Hey, Juliet. Big crowd tonight, huh?” Vic asked.
“Sure is. They’re having the first of five bull-riding contests tonight. The winner with the highest score takes home a nice sum of money,” Juliet stated.
“Really? How much is it at now?” Tommy asked.
“Four thousand.”
“Wow.” Tommy replied.
“Well, Susanna thinks it will easily reach ten before we get to the final round in December. It’s right before Christmas,” Juliet told them.
“Hey, you guys are coming over for Thanksgiving tomorrow right?” Juliet asked Vic and Tommy. They looked at one another and shrugged their shoulders as they took slugs of beer. Often, they did a lot of things at exactly the same time. It was part of being twins.
“Is that a yes? It better be. I expect some of that homemade Native American cuisine you’ve dropped off to Carl and Richie.”
“Hey, is this some sort of insulting comment because we’re Comanche and the pilgrims ate with Indians for Thanksgiving? I’m not dressing in my tribal wear, Juliet. Thanks a lot,” Tommy stated and Juliet’s mouth dropped.
She grabbed Tommy’s arm. “Oh my God, no. Please don’t think that. I just meant I loved the vegetable pie and that other corn meal dish you and Vic made for the guys. I swear,” Juliet said, and Vic laughed as he saw Juliet turn a bright red.
“I’m just messing with you. Of course we’re coming over. The guys are like our only family,” Tommy added. Juliet shook her head then walked away.
“That was good,” Mason told Tommy. Tommy smiled then turned around to take in the large crowd of people. He could hear Gus, the DJ, getting some music going and he was talking on the mic.
Vic was looking toward the left of the room, not too far from where they stood. He gave Tommy a tap.
Tommy looked over in the direction Vic was nodding toward and he felt his stomach clench. Elise was standing in front of the bar talking to some tall cowboy he didn’t recognize.
“Do you know him?” Vic asked Tommy.
“Nope.” Vic watched at the cowboy touched Elise’s shirt that barely covered her belly. He knew she wore a belly ring, and he also knew she had a tattoo on her hip bone of an iris that led with vines below her jeans. He imagined that it went from her side, down her hip, to nearly her ass. It wasn’t huge and from the quick glimpse of it, it seemed colorful. Vic swallowed hard. He felt his blood pressure rise. He would lose it if Elise were dating someone.
“He lays another fucking hand on her and I’m going over there,” Tommy stated, sounding like he was spitting venom.
“Slow down, brother. She doesn’t belong to us.”
“Fuck that, Vic. I want her, you want her, so what the fuck are we waiting for?”
“We don’t have time to court a woman when we’re spending all our time working as deputies and training our cousins in bull riding over at Dudley Farms. We talked about this. A plan needs to be made.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. I won’t stand by and let another man sweep her off her feet and away from us. We’re thirty years old. We aren’t getting any younger and neither of us has been with another woman in over a year. Not since we set eyes on Elise,” Tommy admitted firmly, never taking his eyes off of Elise.
Vic knew his brother was right. He was getting tired of ignoring his feelings for Elise and they discussed this on the farm. But now he was getting nervous. What did he have to offer her? But then he wanted more. He wanted a woman he could hold and share things with. Especially while seeing all their friends around them pursuing their women with success. Any time there was a situation, he and his brother immediately took over protecting Elise.
He stared at her while she laughed with the new guy. The cowboy was dressed in designer jeans, designer cowboy boots, and he looked at Elise like she were his next meal.
As they watched the cowboy walk away, Vic saw Elise turn and fan herself as Carla smiled wide then gave Elise a high five. Fuck if that guy was going to get into his woman’s pants. Not if Vic and his brother had a say in it.
* * * *
Susanna met Elise in the back room at Dixie Chix as Sally walked out of the bathroom.
“Geeze, honey, you don’t look so good,” Susanna stated.
“I just threw up. I think the food I ate at lunch didn’t agree with me.”
“Do you want me to call Juliet at the bar? Mason and Steven are there,” Susanna told her.
“No. I’m fine now. Thanks anyway. So what’s going on over by the bull-riding booth? I heard there’s some special challenge ride?” Sally asked and Elise shook her head.
