Jake grinned wider. In fact, they were all smiling, looking quite pleased with themselves. “Oh, calm down,” Jake told him. “We’re just messing around.”
Judd shook his head and squinted in confusion. “Why are you getting so mad, Cowboy? You got a real hankering for this girl or what?”
“No!” Cowboy’s mouth tightened into a grim line before he released it on a heavy sigh. “Maybe.”
I rolled my eyes. Obviously, he said that to shut his friends up. I didn’t know why they continued to pester him about me, but I hated that I was stuck there listening to them talk about me like…like…well, like I wasn’t there. Sheesh.
“Come on, Cowboy. You have no shortage of women wanting to jump into your bed. What the hell do you want with Anna?” Jake asked.
“That’s none of your damn business.”
“It is if you’re going to hurt her.”
“Yeah, and I’m genetically coded to do that because I’m not you, right?” Cowboy’s tone was anything but friendly.
“Why her?” Jake asked gruffly. “Why not someone like Mandy? She’d be a better fit for someone like you.”
“Someone like me, huh?” Cowboy shook his head, allowing irritation to show plainly on his pinched lips and narrowing eyes as he glared at Jake.
“Well, you said she propositioned you before.”
“I think that was only to make some boyfriend of hers jealous. But you know damn well I don’t fish in another man’s pond. Never have. It isn’t sportsmanlike and you tend to catch things you don’t want.” Cowboy shook his head at Jake. “I thought you of all people knew that about me. Guess I was wrong.”
I felt bad being a voyeur to Cowboy’s persecution. He hadn’t done anything to deserve Jake being so hostile.
“Look, I don’t know what you’re getting pissy about. I just don’t understand what you want with Anna.”
“Because you think I’m only looking for a piece of ass, is that it?”
Jake raised one eyebrow. “Well, aren’t you?”
“Ya know, I almost hate to deflate your already low opinion of me, but I’m not nearly the jackass you automatically assume I am when it comes to women.”
Jake scratched his head and grinned. “Prove it.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“By leaving Anna alone so you don’t end up humiliating her.”
Cowboy marched over to Jake and shoved him. “Fuck you, Jake! Why don’t you mind your own goddamn business and stay out of my relationship with Anna?”
“So you admit there’s a relationship between you two?”
“Of course there is, you fucking prick! What the hell do you think we’ve been talking about all this time?”
Jake grinned, then chuckled.
Cowboy looked as puzzled as I felt. “What the hell’s so funny?”
“You are,” Jake said, still laughing his ass off. “You want this girl so bad, you can’t even see straight.”
What? What the heck was he talking about? Cowboy and I were just friends. Nothing more. There could never be anything more.
“Ya know, sometimes I fucking hate you.”
That only made Jake hysterical. “See what I mean?” As his laughter came to an end, there was a brief silence. Then he said, “Funny how one woman can make everything around you look so different, isn’t it?”
Cowboy rubbed at the back of his neck and grinned. “Like getting lost in my own backyard.”
I cringed at that, knowing the feeling well myself. After all, it was exactly how I felt every time I was around him. But no matter what Cowboy said, he wasn’t interested in me for anything more than a roll in the proverbial hay.
“Who would’ve thought Cowboy would get an itchin’ for a girl with a brain,” Judd said, grinning.
“Well, if Anna had half a brain, she’d run like hell from the likes of him,” Ox said, thumbing over to Cowboy. Ox chuckled and shrugged his eyebrows suggestively. “So, Cowboy, you get her in bed, yet?”
I mentally gasped. Hey!