Snow in Texas

Eighteen: Jenny.

Eighteen

Jenny

"Your brother wants me to go somewhere with him," Colin had said, tugged on his t-shirt and cut, and left her again. Going back to bed hadn't been an option.

Jenny had slipped into the sanctuary, showered, readied herself for the day, and was in the kitchen cracking eggs when Darla showed up to make breakfast.

"Well this is a sight," Blue's sister remarked, setting her purse down by the door. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Hmm. Something like that." Jenny picked up the whisk and attacked the big measuring cup of eggs she'd opened.

Darla stood, one hand on the counter, watching her a moment. "It wouldn't have anything to do with that big hickey on your neck, would it?"

Jenny gasped and slapped a hand to the side of her neck.

Darla laughed. "You finally went for it, huh?"

"Um..."

"Can't say that I blame you." Darla pulled the bread from the pantry. "He's a mighty fine piece of man meat."

"Darla!"

"I'm old, but I've got eyes." She smiled and shivered pleasantly. "To be honest, I don't know how you waited so long."

Jenny yanked the elastic from her hair, the heavy blonde locks falling across her neck and covering Colin's mark. "Let's not make a big deal out of it."

Darla snorted. Then asked, "So how was it?"

"Darla, just don't."

"What? I'm only curious."

Jenny sighed and poured the eggs into the steaming skillet, the hiss loud enough to drown out any further comment.

She was starting to think she'd made a mistake. She refused to regret the sex – it had been too good and very much needed. But what had she invited by entangling herself with Colin? Candy was a different brother than he had been pre-Riley, pre-abuse, pre-clubhouse cleaning. She was worried, as she added crumbled bacon to the eggs, that she might soon find herself at the altar of a shotgun wedding. Or, at least, the recipient of more flattery and attention than she was emotionally equipped to handle right now.

Falling into a heavy silence and ignoring Darla's suggestive looks, she helped make a rib-sticking breakfast of eggs, pancakes, sausage links, toast, fried ham, and potato cakes. All the boys and their finicky appetites and tastes. The clubhouse kitchen had to serve as McDonald's drive through each morning. They were just laying everything out buffet style along the bar when Candy and Colin returned from their errand, weak dawn sunshine falling through the open door at their feet.

Jenny didn't just see Colin enter, but felt him, as real as fingers gliding down her back, sliding around and pressing briefly between her legs. A physical reaction, caused by nothing more than his presence...and that was before he caught her eye and smiled, quick and tight, as he followed Candy up to the bar.

She was struck by the insane urge to sidle up to him, duck beneath his arm and slide her own around his waist. Like she'd done with Riley, as a newlywed, oh so many years ago. Once upon a time she'd been doting and affectionate, and she didn't realize how much she'd missed that until she saw her new lover now and felt the pull deep in her chest.

She resisted, though, biting her lip and walking around behind the bar to take the orange juice from the cooler.

"Where you boys been so early?" Darla asked.

Candy climbed onto a stool, nodding his thanks as Jenny set a plate and bottle of juice in front of him. "Introducing him to our esteemed president."

"Really?" Darla sounded surprised.

Jenny was more than that; she was shocked. "What?"

Candy nodded again and spooned eggs onto his plate, deceptively casual. "I thought it was time." Casual or not, there was deep meaning in his eyes when he looked at her.

Jenny flicked a glance to Colin – not trusting her stomach to keep from fluttering – and saw that he was watching her, waiting for her reaction. Her stomach did flutter, a little, and she said, "That's a big step."

"Really?" Candy waggled her brows at her. "You wanna talk about big steps?"

She felt her face warm.

"Hey," Colin said in her defense, which was about all a prospect could say.

"Not judging," Candy assured, grinning.

Jenny snorted. "Uh-huh." She slapped a plate down in front of Colin and said, "I need to leave in about ten minutes." When both men stared at her, she said, "Work."

Colin looked at her, then at the steaming potato cakes. "Do I have time to eat real quick?"

"You don't have to come," she assured. "If Candy's still insisting on guard dogs" – she rolled her eyes – "I'm sure Fox could–"

Colin scowled and forked several cakes onto his plate. "I'm coming with you." And a man's tone didn't get much more final than that.

~*~

She was leaving the sanctuary, tugging the door shut behind her, purse hiked up on one shoulder, when she ran into something. A wall that hadn't been there before. A very solid wall, that grabbed her by the arms.

Okay, not a wall. She smelled him, recognized him with that post-sex sixth sense there was no denying, before she tipped her head back and saw that it was Colin she'd crashed into.

"Shit. Sorry." Why was she nervous? She smiled to prove that she wasn't, but knew it was a strained expression. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah. I was coming to get you." His gaze was trained not on her face, but a little lower, and to the side.

There was something she wanted to say, so she took a deep breath. "Colin, I don't know what all my brother said to you this morning, but if he was an ass, I'm sorry, I...what are you looking at?" It was distracting, his off-center stare.

"Trying to see something." His large, golden hand lifted and pushed back her hair. She knew what he had exposed, and imagined the skin beneath the bruise rippled in response to being examined. She shivered.

He grinned, though. "Damn. That's pretty dark."

"Yeah." Her voice grew faint as remembered sensation stirred in her bloodstream. "Darla saw it."

"Yeah?" He seemed pleased. "Never hurt anybody to see something like that."

"Colin–"

"Probably some people you know – a certain ATF agent and his brother, maybe – who ought to see it."

Jenny sucked in a breath. "Can we go?"

His eyes came to her face, finally, his dark and intense. "Yeah." He released her.

But as she walked forward, he hooked a strand of her hair with a finger, let it slide through his grip as she moved away from him.

It was going to be an interesting day.