Mission Happy (A Texas Desires Novel Book 3) (17 page)

He tossed his bag on his desk and took another bite of his sandwich as he looked around. Completely outdated. He didn’t see Julie here either, but this was by far much better than the one-bedroom cabin he’d built on the back of the property. At least Bruno would have a bedroom inside the house instead of the sofa at his place. Maybe he should get them a hotel in Sweetwater for the week. He’d have to see.

Connor bounced, twisting and turning with each deep rut and edge he hit on the well-used dirt track, carved out from years of use. He knew the way like the back of his hand. He’d traveled these rough paths since before he could even drive. There wasn’t an easier way across the two hundred or so acres to get to the barn Mrs. Willis thought Cole was working at today. There were a total of four barns on the thousands of acres the Willis family owned. If by chance, Cole wasn’t there, it would be a crap shoot to find him at any of the other three. Cell phone signals proved useless the farther he went and Cole hadn’t answered on the walkie-talkies.

When he got closer to one of the horse barns, he saw several trucks parked out front with men standing just outside the corral fence, watching one of their own trying to tame a spectacular-looking animal.

Connor slowed to a crawl to limit his dust as he scanned the bodies of the men he saw; Cole’s unmistakable stance wasn’t hard to locate even when they all looked about the same from behind—Wranglers, plaid shirts, and hats, either cowboy or baseball. Of course, Cole had never worn a cowboy hat a day in his life. His baseball cap was years old, and choosing to wear a Red Sox emblem over the mighty Texas Rangers—the one his dad owned a large share of—might be the only rebellious thing he’d ever done. Cole had worn that thing at some point every single day since high school.

As Connor crept forward, his arrival must have grabbed Cole’s attention, because he swiveled his head and gave an irritated look back at the truck. It took less than half a second for recognition to set in and a giant grin to spread across his face. Cole left his perch on the fence and headed straight toward Connor’s truck. Out of all the guys, Cole had always been his very best buddy. The great thing about Cole was also one of the things he really liked about Julie: Cole filled in Connor’s holes in conversation, never letting silences get awkward or uncomfortable between them.

He’d barely parked and gotten out of the cab, the truck door still wide open, when big arms engulfed him in a giant hug. Though Cole was a few inches shorter, he still encased him solidly with a good, strong whack to his back.

“What are you doing here?” Cole asked when he pulled away.

“I thought I’d come home for Reed’s shindig.”

Cole pushed his ball cap back off his forehead and lowered his sunglasses to take a closer look at Connor. After a few seconds of staring at him, Cole reached out and lifted Connor’s sunglasses off his face.

“What’s happened?” he asked.

So not a conversation he wanted to have right then. Connor reached out and slapped him on the arm, before slamming his truck door closed and then pointing toward the corral. “Nothing I wanna talk about right now. What’s this?”

Thankfully, Cole didn’t press him for more information. “Somethin’ overpriced my old man thinks we need. I’m not so convinced.”

Connor started toward the fence. He didn’t know much about horses, not like Cole, but the animal looked good to him. Cole came up, walking side by side with him. He caught the telltale sign that something was off with Cole when he lifted his ball cap off his head, scrubbed his hair, then ran his hand down over his face.

“What’s going on with you?” Connor asked, slowing his gait so those at the corral couldn’t overhear. Connor’s Spidey senses weren’t as keen as Cole’s; he’d missed how tired and haggard Cole looked when he’d first seen him.

Cole abruptly stopped in his tracks and threw an arm out toward the corral. “My dad’s gonna buy him no matter what I say.” He shook his head and blew out a breath. “Are you here for a while? We can go back to my place.”

“Yeah, sure.” When Cole started for his truck by the barn, Connor executed a U-turn back to his.

Clearly, he wasn’t the only one having problems right now. Cole never shrugged off work. He was a machine that way. He worked twenty-four seven. When he heard Cole’s dually muffler rumble to life, Connor started his truck and fell in behind to follow Cole the miles to his place. There was no easy way to get there, and they had to stop to open and shut gate after gate.

With a barely discernable track, the drive was a little more treacherous than making his way to the horse barn. The Willises had a massive spread. When Cole built on the property, he’d purposefully chosen a spot right in the middle, wanting distance between him and his family. He built his own house, using designs he’d created in college, miles away from his family’s homestead.

The place was spectacular and extremely ecofriendly. A solid sheet of sun panels covered every inch of roof. Cole had been involved in every part of the build, and by virtual extension, so had Connor. While overseas, he had read by email and listened through video call to all of Cole’s thoughts and accomplishments during the construction. He’d even had to coddle his buddy through the failures, but it wasn’t a hardship, Cole never stayed down for long.

The result: Cole’s electricity usage was minimal, something about gathering water and using it some way… Yeah, Connor had never retained much of the technical details. His role required that he nod and tell Cole how well he was doing and for him to keep up the good work. The money spent boggled Connor’s mind, but Cole’s family had always been the wealthy one in the area, making their friendship that much more unbalanced. Connor’s dad worked for the railroad, while Cole’s dad was a rancher and the state’s senator. When they were kids, he and Cole had been inseparable. He’d never realized the vast difference in their lives until he had left the area and come back, looking at life through a different set of eyes.

Connor pulled the truck in the circle driveway and cut the engine. Cole had even added landscaping to the outside since he’d seen the place. Connor grinned. His buddy was proud of his home. Cole was already on the front porch, letting himself inside, as Connor took his keys from the ignition and hopped out. He shut his door and trailed behind, then closed the door when he entered. The ultra-modern chrome and black furnishing were in complete contrast to the rustic cowboy living inside these walls. That always made Connor smile. As much at home in this house as his own, he went for the kitchen to grab a water bottle from the refrigerator while waiting for Cole to come back from wherever he’d gone.

The giant window along the back wall of the kitchen caught his attention. He saw the new swimming pool. Damn, he’d forgotten that. He’d been involved in planning that too. He had seen all the pictures from groundbreaking through final not more than about a week ago. The thing looked even more impressive in person. He went out the kitchen door, stepped outside on slate Kool Deck and walked the length surrounding the water.

“What do you think?” Cole said as he came out the bedroom door that opened onto the deck.

“It’s incredible. Does it work like you hoped?” he asked, walking along the backside railing. Cole had built the pool and deck on an incline, giving it a nice view of the best part of their property.

“Pretty much. It’s chemical free. Can’t tell, can you?”

Connor bent at the edge and lowered a hand inside. It was the perfect temperature.

“It’s that ion deal you talked about?” he asked, scooping up some in his hand. He smelled the water, then put it to his mouth. It tasted spring fresh.

“Yep. You staying here tonight?”

“Nah, I stopped by my parents’ place. They’re gone on a cruise, so I said I’d feed the animals and watch the place for my uncle until they get back,” Connor said, rising to his feet, wiping his wet hand on his jeans. Cole gave him a slightly stunned look as he stopped in his tracks.

“Your parents are on a vacation?” he asked incredulously.

“I know, right? I was shocked. I’ll be here a couple of weeks. Maybe next week I could crash here when they get home,” Connor said, stepping around the diving board, coming to a stop right in front of Cole.

“That’s cool. I have standing dinner reservations tonight. Wanna go? Or I can cancel if you’d rather hang out here,” he asked.

“You have dinner reservations?” He talked to Cole almost every single day. In what world did he have standing reservations? Where? “The Sizzler in Sweetwater can’t be that busy.”

Cole barked out a laugh and turned to go back inside his bedroom. “Yeah, I’ll cancel.”

“No, I can go. Am I dressed all right?” he asked, following behind while glancing down at his casual clothes.

“I can cancel,” Cole said cheekily this time after looking him over, then he disappeared inside his closet.

“Quit throwing shade. I brought clothes. We can stop by the house. What do I need to wear?” he asked, shutting the outside door behind him.

“I have a shirt you left last time you were here.” Cole came out of the closet, holding a hanger. He walked toward his bed and that was when Connor spotted the full suit spread out across the mattress. Cole tossed the shirt to the side and grabbed the tie he’d laid out. “You need a collar.”

“You have a standing reservation at a place where you need to wear a suit? I’m so confused. Where’s my buddy Cole, and why haven’t I heard this before?” Connor asked, trailing to the open door of Cole’s massive closet. Nice clothing filled the organized space. Connor took it all in, stunned. “What the hell, man?”

Cole opened a drawer filled with silk ties and placed the one he held inside. “It’s complicated. You’ll see.”

~~~

“Tina, pay attention!” Julia stopped mid-motion and stomped her foot, annoyed by her ungrateful sister.

“Julie, seriously, it’s not this complicated.” Tina’s concentration remained focused on her phone.

Argh
. That was the absolute worst thing her sister could have said. Julia forced herself to count to ten before she responded. When her sister still hadn’t looked up from her phone where she typed feverishly, Julia came to stand right over her. Frustratingly, it still took a good full minute for Tina to realize Julia was facing off with her.

“If you don’t pay attention, I’m going to find Bruno and make him watch.” She flung out a hand dramatically toward the pole in the middle of her bedroom. “Does he really need to see this?”

“You need a life,” Tina replied.

“I’m trying to get a life. Will you help?” she yelled.

Right when Julia was ready to spout out everything she’d done for her sister since birth, Tina finally placed her phone on her lap and crossed one leg over the other, raising an eyebrow.

“You need to take my advice.”

“I will, but let me get through it all,” she said, going back to the pole. “So I’ll get him to either FaceTime me or Google Hangouts or Skype. Then I’ll start my playlist…”

“Does he have a computer with him? He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who carries a laptop wherever he goes.”

Dang, that was a good point. She hadn’t thought of that. She couldn’t remember seeing one at his place, and Tina was right, Connor didn’t seem the type to carry a computer around. Julia walked over to grab her phone off the speaker set on her nightstand. She sent Connor a quick text asking if he had a computer or access to one. She placed the phone back and prayed a lack of computer access wouldn’t ruin her plan before it started. He did have a smartphone… Whatever, she’d work on that later. She needed to get through this with her sister first.

“Okay, so where was I?” She was back at the pole and looked over at Tina who had resumed typing on her phone. “Oh my God, Tina!

“What? You got on the phone!” she said defensively.

“To take care of the issue you brought up.” How could her sister be so lackadaisical about all this? Tina made a show of putting her phone back in her lap and crossing her arms over her chest while giving Julia the stink eye, but at least she had her attention and that was all she really cared about.

“Now, listen. I’ll get him on the computer and wear the lingerie right there.” She pointed to the left at the set she’d decided on over all the others spread across the room. When she waited for an answer, Tina finally nodded. “I got one of the girls on set today to teach me about thirty seconds worth of erotic stripping using the pole, but that honestly makes me nervous, I’m not very good at it.”

“No, you wouldn’t be good at stripping,” Tina said very matter-of-factly.

Julia humphed. Out of all the times her sister should agree, that wasn’t one of them.

“Positive reinforcement!” she declared.

“You’ll do fine, but, Julie, you’re missing the best part of phone sex. It’s spontaneous, unplanned. All you have to do is talk dirty to him, and I promise, you won’t even need to do much of that. He’s into you,” Tina said. Julia lifted her index finger when she remembered her papers.

“Dirty talk, right. I have talking points they wrote down. Let me get them.” She was moving packages around in search of her purse.

“No!” Tina yelled, startling her. “No. Julie, no.” Tina rose and walked straight to her. “Honey, what are you doing?”

She didn’t even need an explanation to answer that question. Her shoulders slumped a little in defeat. Her complete exhaustion didn’t help. With a grueling shooting schedule on top of everything else, she seemed to be messing up everywhere. She couldn’t remember her lines; she was absentminded, and had even completely missed a conference call with her team. A call she required weekly, so she could make sure everyone was on the same page with her career choices. Julia dropped her head in her hand and gave a deep frustrated sigh.