Rope My Heart A cowboy second chance romance

Chapter 22

Jax

I go out the back having watched Lily Mae blush to the top of her damn cute ears and her mother standing there with her hand on her heart. I know for a fact that Lily Mae's mom would be so made up for us to get back together. Yeah, yeah I know. Lily Mae goes back to the badass city in just one month's time but hell, we have now, right? And I want now more than anything but my princess is as stubborn as they come. Why not enjoy each other again? And long distance ain't so bad, it's not like she is all the way over the other side of the country, we're talking only four hours so we could make it work.

There is such a thing as flights, maybe I will remind her. But right now the girl is flustered with her high powered boss coming to visit and check us all out and what the situation is with the charity rodeo. I've never seen Lily Mae so worked up, nor stressed. Man, is this what it's like for her working for that tyrant? Surely that can't be good for her blood pressure or her heart.

Out back I find her father lugging heavy pieces of wood into his truck to drive round to the front of the house. "Hey, I'm here to give you a hand. Stop right now, when I can be doing that," I tell him as I increase my pace. Damn this is exactly who Lily Mae takes after, I'm telling you they're both as bad as one another.

Jake stops and stands up straight, knocks his cowboy hat back a bit and places his hands on his hips. "I'll have you know, Son that I'm not that old I can't move some wood."

"Didn't say you were, Jake only you know why do it all yourself when us lads can give you a hand? And talking of which were is Wes, isn't he supposed to be helping you out today?"

"He had to go into town for Eliza she forgot some stuff from the shops that she needs for her baking." He wipes the sweat off his forehead, it's not the warmest of days but moving wood can make you hot pretty damn quickly.

"Listen, you have other stuff to be getting on with. How about you leave me to load the truck and take it round the front and load the wood up on the porch and take some in for the fire. I'll meet you in the barn in half an hour and we can make sure the lights are all working properly for this woman coming over."

"I thought everything was ready to go?" He quirks an eyebrow at me.

"All is ready to go, Sir. You know we wouldn't let Lily Mae down. But I want to make sure is all. I know how much this event means to my Sunset." I stop talking there, realizing I'm referring to Jake's daughter by her nickname. He chuckles as I feel myself going beet red.

"I see you're still calling her that and how is that working out for you, Son?" I love that her daddy still calls me son even though we broke up six years ago. It means a lot to me and to be honest, the Thompsons don't treat me any differently to how they treat their own boys. I'm truly part of the family. When my folks passed on in the accident, the Thompsons pulled together for me, Ralph and my sister Rose. We're like family and that sure does mean a helluva lot to me.

"Sorry, Sir I didn't mean to use her nickname, but you know," I rub my hand over the back of my neck feeling a touch embarrassed. "Lily Mae will always be my Sunset."

"Kind of figured that out, Son it's not like you've actually dated anyone since she left all those years ago. Any chance you two are getting back together."

I shift from one foot to the next. "You know I'd love for Lily Mae to come falling back into these here arms of mine, but she is adamant she is going back to the city. She won't relent."

"You're not trying hard enough, Jax McCoy. You want my girl, then you're going to have to try an awful lot harder. Those there dimples of yours and those shining eyes aren't going to be enough to win her over. Sure it works on the girls you take out for a night but Lily Mae," he lets out a low, long whistle, "she wants the sun, the moon and the earth."

"Not much I can do about that, Sir if she is going back to the city and won't even consider dating me whilst she is here."

He chuckles and places his hat back on firmly on his head, "trust me McCoy, that girl likes you. I see the way she steals glances at you when we're at dinner, and the way she blushes bright red like a fire engine when you so much as look at her. I'm reckoning that Lily Mae still has feelings for you. You just gotta work harder at it."

Whatever that means, I mean it's not as if I haven't been trying. I start to move some of the large logs and throw them effortlessly into the pick up truck. "I'll be seein' ya around, McCoy." He uses to fingers on the brim of his hat and walks off in the direction of the big barn.

I continue to move the wood, there are some larger pieces of trunk that need chain sawing but you know what, I feel like a workout this morning and decide I'm going to use my axe on them.

After about twenty minutes I'm building up a sweat and then some, and strip my top right off. The air hits my skin, it's cool as I continue but much needed as I work at chopping the wood. From the corner of my eye I spot something and glance up.

Lily Mae stands there with her jaw almost hitting the ground, she blushes furiously and if that isn't the darndest, sexiest thing I've ever seen. So, I play along and use every muscle in my body as I swing the axe and split the wood, knowing full well that every muscle in my back is being showcased and the rippling of my abs and the peaking of my biceps. She can't take her eyes off me.

"Nice to see you can still appreciate a fine body, Sunset," I drawl.

"What? Don't be ridiculous I was just coming out to say, erm," she falters as I drop the axe in the wood and stand up showing off my mighty fine abs. She licks her bottom lip, her long, dark eyelashes flutter and my dick twinges. "Erm, to say that Momma made fresh coffee if you're down out here." Lily Mae crosses one leg in front of the other and I'm wondering if she's doing that clenching of her thighs thing I've read about in Rose's romance books.

Hey don't knock a guy who loves a good romance book, you can learn a lot from those books, I'm telling you.

"And for your information Jax, I was not checking out your body." She huffs and folds her arms in front of her chest, damn I want to go and smack my lips right on hers and enter her warm mouth with my tongue.

"Is that so, Lily Mae? Only from where I was standing it sure felt like you were objectifying me." I cock my head to the side and give her a wink.

"God, you infuriate me, Jax. Why would I want to ogle your body? I've seen it all before." She gets flustered and blows some hair off her face. I chuckle then use my arms in a sweeping motion to slide over my body.

"Not like this you haven't Sunset, not since I became all man."