Grumpy Cowboy: A Hot Single Dad, Enemies-to-Lovers Romance Read online

  But before we can get in, Rhett’s voice fills my ears. “Wait!” he calls from the porch, making his way down the steps.

  He tosses me a pair of keys. His keys. To his truck.

  “What’s this?”

  “Take my truck. Tank is full and tires are new,” he answers. “My dad’s truck is about due for an oil change, and the back tires are lookin’ a little worn.”

  “Are you sure? I mean, I recall one time you referring to your truck as your baby.”

  He smiles. “Positive. I want you girls to be safe, and Joey’s booster’s already in the back seat.”

  The gentleness in his voice rattles my equilibrium. Honestly, it hits me square in the fucking chest. And to my surprise, when both Joey and I get inside his truck, Rhett walks around to the driver’s side and leans against the doorjamb, his head peeking in through the rolled-down window.

  “Be safe, okay?”

  I nod. “We will.”

  “Call me on the radio if you have any trouble,” he instructs and then meets Joey’s eyes. “And you be on your best behavior and listen to Leah, got it?”

  “Got it, Daddy.”

  Rhett reaches out and tenderly pats his hand over the top of mine. “See ya when you get back.”

  The gesture is so simple, yet it makes my heart flutter inside my chest.

  And the way he smiles at me, his entrancing blue eyes filled with something I can’t fully discern, I have the odd urge to take a mental picture of him so I can keep this memory locked tight in my mind.

  Once I start the engine and Rhett is making his way back inside his parents’ house, I can’t help but think how different he seems from when I first met him.

  I thought he was an asshole grumpy cowboy with a perpetual chip on his shoulder.

  But now? I don’t see him like that anymore. Sure, he can be really obstinate sometimes, but he’s also incredibly sweet and kind. He’s a father and a son and a man who loves and cares and provides for his family.

  It’s almost as if I’m really starting to like this cowboy. Like, a lot.

  Probably too much.

  “You think we got everything?” I ask Joey as I push our cart away from the checkout line and toward the exit doors.

  We’ve spent a good ninety minutes inside Target, and it shows inside our cart.

  The damn thing is filled with all sorts of goodies—items on Jenny’s list, items on my list, as well as a few items that Joey convinced me to get her in the name of adding some cowgirl pizzazz to her bedroom.

  Honestly, I don’t know how the two of us ended up in the decor section, but Target is a black hole vortex of shopping. You truly never know where you’ll end up or what you’ll end up leaving with. It’s an affliction I like to call the Target Trance.

  Though, I can’t deny, I’m excited to help Joey put up the pink lace curtains she picked out as well as the new polka-dot comforter and sheet set she wanted for her bed.

  Once we’d decided on a theme—pink cowgirl rustic—we went a little wild with buying bedding and cutesy pictures to hang on the walls.

  “Leah! Look!” Joey exclaims once we reach the outside air. “Puppies!”

  I look to my left, and sure enough, there is a tent with a sign that reads Adopt-A-Pet right in front. Two women dressed in matching green polos greet customers as they stop to look at the puppies running around inside a caged-off play area.

  “Can we go see them?” Joey cups her hands together in the same manner I saw her do with Rhett earlier today. Her big blue eyes stare up at me, and I don’t know what kind of human being could actually say no to this little girl, but I sure as hell know it’s not me.

  “Sure. Why not.”

  Plus, I can’t deny I’m a lover of all things tiny, adorable animals.

  Joey squeals in excitement, hops off the back of the cart, and runs down the sidewalk as fast as her boots will take her.

  I follow behind her much slower, pushing our cart filled with Target loot and avoiding running over anyone’s feet.

  Once I get there, she’s already talking to one of the ladies in the green polo shirts.

  “What’s this puppy’s name?” Joey asks and points to the smallest, strangest-looking tiny dog who is sitting all by himself in the corner of the play area.

  “That’s Ernie,” the woman answers with a smile. “He’s a Chihuahua mix.”

  “Why’s he all by his self?”

  “He just gets a little nervous around other puppies, I think. Well, and people, too.”

  A little nervous? The dog is shaking like a leaf, and his already big eyes look like they might pop out of his skull.

  “And why is he here?”

  “Well, because his mama left him with us so we could find a good home and a good family to take care of him.”

  Oh no. Oh no-no-no.

  I look down at Joey, and her bottom lip is already puckering out.

  “His mama left him?”

  Shit.

  “Uh-huh,” the lady answers, and the saddened look that takes shape on Joey’s face could make a grown adult cry.

  I know this because I feel like crying. I swallow back the emotion and start to tell Joey it’s time to go, but thanks to the lady in the green polo’s commentary about dogs without mamas, she’s too fixated on the shaking small dog.

  “You poor little fella.” Joey leans down and carefully reaches out to touch the top of Ernie’s head, and he looks up at her with big, rounded eyes. “It’s okay,” she whispers, and the dog moves as close to her as the fenced-in area will allow.

  “Aw, I think he likes you,” the lady says.

  “It’s probably ’cause I know what it’s like to have your mama not want to stay with you.”

  Oh, hell’s bells. My heart wants to break in half at her words. Obviously, Anna’s absentee parenting has had more of an effect on her than Rhett even thought.

  “I wish I could take him home and be his mama,” Joey says and locks her big blue eyes with mine. “I think Ernie would be so happy with me, Leah, don’t you?”

  I have no idea what to say.

  For one, I’ll be honest, Ernie is about the ugliest dog I’ve ever seen.

  And two, the fact that this little girl has to voice that her mama doesn’t want to stay with her is one of the worst things my ears have ever heard.

  “Can I get him, Leah?” Joey asks. “Can I adopt Ernie so he doesn’t have to be alone and scared without a mama?”

  I open my mouth like a fish trying to gulp water, and no words come out.

  Holy hell, how can I tell her that we can’t take this dog home?

  “The adoption fee is only fifty-five dollars,” the lady updates, more than motivated to get this dog adopted. “And for another fifty dollars on top of that, we can make sure you have a cage and a dog bed and toys and food for Ernie.”

  I should say no. Obviously. I’m definitely not the one who should be making this decision.

  But doing what I should do and doing what my heart is begging me to do are two very different things.

  And when I hand my credit card off to the lady, it’s pretty apparent which path I choose.

  Uh oh.

  We’re about fifteen minutes from the ranch, and I look over to see Ernie—who is now sporting a sparkly blue collar and a T-shirt that says Yeehaw!—all curled up in Joey’s lap. Her face is covered in a constant smile, and her fingers keep caressing the fur of the dog I definitely should not have adopted.

  I didn’t even call Rhett.

  I just got so lost in the moment, so lost in Joey’s sadness, that I adopted the damn dog without her daddy’s permission and…shit.

  “So, uh, you think your daddy is going to be mad about Ernie?”

  Joey looks over at me and nods. “Probably.”

  “Uh…have you ever asked him if you could get a dog before?”

  She nods again. “Yep.”

  “And I take it he said no?”

  “Yep.”

  Fuck.


  This is all information I probably should’ve asked before I, you know, adopted this fucking dog.

  “So, how exactly do you suggest we break the news to him?”

  “I’m not too sure.” Joey shrugs. “Maybe Ernie should stay at your cabin for a little while until we can find a way to sneak him into my house so my daddy doesn’t find out.”

  I’m not sure why I thought a five-year-old would be able to help me figure out how to handle this situation, but yeah, it’s apparent Rhett is not going to be happy about this.

  “You know, Friday is my birthday,” Joey comments. “Maybe you can just act like you got me Ernie for my birthday?”

  “Your birthday is Friday?”

  “Uh-huh.” She smiles proudly. “I’m gonna be six years old.”

  “So, almost a full-fledged woman then, huh?”

  She smiles proudly. “Pretty much.”

  Goddamn. She’s cute. No wonder she talked me into adopting Ernie.

  “You know what’s kind of crazy, Joe?”

  “What?”

  “My birthday is Friday too.”

  “It is?” Her blue eyes light up.

  “It really is.”

  “How old are you gonna be?”

  “Definitely not six.”

  Joey giggles. “Well, I know that. Duh!”

  “I’ll be thirty-three.”

  “That’s three years younger than my daddy.”

  I nod and take a right onto the road that leads into the ranch.

  “You know what I think?”

  “What do you think, Joey?”

  “I think you should stay on the ranch forever and fall in love with my daddy and then get married and then you can tell him about Ernie and then he won’t be so mad about it.”

  A laugh jumps from my lungs. “That’s quite the plan.”

  “It’s a good plan,” she states with conviction. “Because you’d stay on the ranch with us forever and my daddy wouldn’t be able to be mad about Ernie because you’d be his wife and I know that wives get to make all sorts of rules because my granny Jenny does it all the time with my granddaddy Tex.”

  Man, to be young and naïve again.

  There’s so much to unpack in everything she just said, I don’t even know where to start.

  But I don’t have time to ponder if I should be telling a five-year-old about the reasons people get married because the dashboard screeches and Rhett’s voice echoes inside the cabin.

  “Where you girls at?”

  Joey wastes no time grabbing the receiver and answering. “We’s almost home!”

  “How many minutes?”

  Joey looks at me, and I tell her ten.

  “Ten more minutes, Daddy!”

  “Now, Joey, did you mind your manners and not con Leah into buying you all sorts of stuff?”

  Joey glances down at Ernie and then at me, and I glance in the rearview mirror where all of Ernie’s belongings and the Target bags filled with Joey’s bedroom decor are located.

  Whoops.

  When Joey doesn’t respond, Rhett’s voice fills the cab again.

  “Josephine Jameson, you better not have talked Leah into buying you things that we both know you don’t need.”

  “I didn’t ask Leah to buy me things I didn’t need,” she eventually responds. “Promise.”

  Then she looks at me. “Don’t worry, Leah. It’s not lyin’. I needed all those things.”

  “The stuff for your bedroom, sure,” I agree. “But Ernie?” I question with a half smile and half grimace. “You really think your daddy is going to be okay with him?”

  Joey’s eyes go wide, and she shakes her head. “He’s gonna be mad ’bout Ernie. That’s for sure.”

  “I’ll meet you girls at Leah’s cabin, all right?” Rhett adds. “See ya in a few.”

  Joey looks at me with big, wide eyes. “How we gonna hide Ernie if Daddy’s at your cabin?”

  “Honestly?” I sigh. “I have no idea.”

  Oh boy.

  July 10th, Saturday

  Rhett

  Leah pulls my truck to a stop a few feet away from her cabin, and I start to walk down the steps of her porch and toward the girls.

  “Stay there, Daddy!” Joey shouts through the open window of the passenger door. “We don’t need no help! We got it!”

  I tilt my head to the side in confusion, narrowing my eyes as I peer through the windshield toward Leah and Joey, who appear frozen in their seats.

  What the hell is goin’ on?

  More than a little suspicious now, I walk toward the two of them.

  And once I’m about ten feet away, Joey’s eyes go wide, and Leah leans her head back against the headrest.

  The instant I step up to the driver’s side door, the window already down, I look inside and spot a shaking furball sitting in my Joey’s lap.

  What the fuck is that?

  “Is that a damn rat?” I question, my eyes going wide. “In a T-shirt?”

  “It’s a dog, Daddy,” Joey answers.

  “A dog? I thought you two went to Target.”

  “We did,” Leah responds, and I don’t miss the slight grimace that mars her face.

  “Last I checked, they don’t sell dogs at Target.”

  “They don’t,” Leah agrees, and her smile drips with apology. “But sometimes, they set up adoption tents outside of Target.”

  I glance back and forth between the two culprits. Joey clutches the T-shirt-wearing rat-dog in her arms, and Leah looks like she can’t decide if she should sprint from the truck or wiggle into the floorboards.

  “So, whose dog is this supposed to be?” I ask, already knowing by the damn collar and T-shirt that my daughter probably thinks this dog is hers.

  “It’s Leah’s!” Joey chimes in, her voice far too amped up and excitable to be believed. “Leah fell in love with Ernie and the lady said he has no mama, so Leah wanted to be his mama. Ain’t that right, Leah?”

  I move my gaze to Leah, and all she offers is a shrug. “I guess it was something like that.”

  “Something like that?” I question. “You sure my daughter didn’t con you into adopting her a dog?”

  “No way!” Joey answers before Leah can even open her mouth. “I didn’t do that, Daddy!”

  I narrow my eyes at my adorable but certainly lying-ass kid.

  “I mean, I might’ve told Leah it was a good idea. And that Ernie should have a mama…”

  “Joey.”

  “I’m no con, Daddy!” she shouts so loud that the damn rat-dog in her lap yelps and burrows himself into her T-shirt.

  “Josephine Jameson, you know how I feel about lyin’.”

  She huffs out a sigh. “Yeah.”

  “Did you get Leah to adopt you that dog?”

  “Maybe.”

  I furrow my brow at her. “Maybe?”

  “Okay, fine,” she says on a heavy sigh, and her bottom lip starts to tremble. “But I couldn’t help it, Daddy. Ernie looked so sad, and his mama just left him, Daddy! She left him and I know how that feels, so I thought I would be able to take good care of him because my mama leaves me all the time, ya know? I know that doesn’t feel good sometimes.”

  By the time she’s done, a few tears drip down her cheeks, and I feel like the meanest bastard on the planet.

  Fuck.

  I let out a sigh and look down at the ground, and Leah leans closer to me to meet my eyes. Her face still looks guilty as hell but apologetic, too.

  “Yeah, so,” she whispers toward me, low enough for my ears only. “That’s pretty much how I ended up adopting your daughter a dog without asking you. I’m sorry. Like, so, so sorry. I know I shouldn’t have done it, but the whole thing just broke my heart, and before I knew it, I was driving back with a dog in a Yeehaw T-shirt.”

  I meet Leah’s eyes, and she offers another small, please-forgive-me smile.

  “Please let me keep Ernie, Daddy. Please-please-please. Bless his little heart, he needs a mama. He needs
a family. He don’t have nobody but me and you and Leah.” Joey sniffles and tucks her chin into her chest and grips Ernie so tight, the dog’s already bugged-out eyes look like they’re about to pop out of his head.

  “That’s one ugly fucking dog,” I whisper back to Leah, and she snorts.

  “Trust me, I’m aware.”

  I stare over at the dog—a ball of fur and nervous tremors wearing a T-shirt in ninety-degree Utah heat.

  “Why ya got a T-shirt on him, Joe?” I question. “It’s hot enough to melt cement out here.”

  “Because he gets cold a lot. See? He’s shaking ’cause he’s cold.”

  “I don’t think he’s shaking because he’s cold.”

  “He also gets a bit nervous sometimes.”

  That dog isn’t a little nervous. He’s scared shitless. I think a feather falling from the sky would have him running for the fucking hills.

  And he’s now been brought to a ranch with roaming animals that are a million times his size.

  “Well, I think it’s safe to say you’re gonna have to make sure that dog doesn’t get anywhere near the horses or the bulls,” I comment. “Or the chickens. Or, well, pretty much everything on this ranch. The fear he’d feel is liable to kill him. Not to mention the coyotes at night. There’s no way we can let ’em out alone.”

  “He’ll be fine, Daddy. If you let me keep him, I’ll take good care of him.”

  I shake my head and smirk down at Leah. “You owe me.”

  “I’m very aware of that. Name the price and I’ll pay. Promise.”

  Name the price. Goddamn. All sorts of dirty fucking things fill my head, and every single one of them includes a naked Leah Levee on my cock.

  Quickly, I shake off the rogue thoughts and look toward my master-manipulating kid.

  “Fine, Joe,” I agree. “Ernie can stay with us, but you’ll be the one responsible for him. You’re gonna have to feed him and bathe him and clean up his poop, you hear me?”

  She nods, eyes serious. “I promise, Daddy! I’ll do everything!”

  “Okay. Sounds like we have an understanding.”

  Joey cheers and hugs her tiny, ugly-ass dog, and before I know it, she’s hopping out of the truck and heading up to Leah’s cabin. With Ernie in tow.

  “Where ya goin’?” I call toward her.