Cowboy Logic - B.A. Tortuga Page 0,18
to be with her hero.
Jericho began unpacking meat and sides. “I got chicken fingers for all the littles,” he told Bailey. “Ellie got corn dog nuggets, so I got extra of those in case someone plotzed.”
“You rock. God, it smells so good. You’re my hero.” Bailey put out paper plates, forks. “Iced tea?”
“That would be a blessing.” He was tickled that she was so pleased, and Travis was over the moon. Hell, even Dougie was in on the act of showing off his Uncle Logic.
He felt a tug on the crease of his jeans, so he looked down to find little Amanda holding up her arms.
“Hey, pretty little lady.” He hoisted her up. “How are you?”
“Good. Thank you for supper.”
“You’re welcome. Did you have a good day today?” Sometimes the smaller kids got lost in the noise. “Would you like to sit with me?”
“Uh-huh. Momma? I sit with Mr. Koko, yes?”
“Sure, baby. Let me move your booster.” Bailey winked. “I bet Travis and Dougie take Uncle Logic.”
“You think?” Jericho gave her a wide-eyed look. “It’s like he met a rock star.”
“Well, Logic is really famous.” She grinned. “I know you’re a cowboy, but dude, he has a show, a bunch of graphic novels based on his book, and video games based on his robots.”
“Wow. Seriously? That’s… honestly pretty darn cool.”
“Yeah.” She waggled her eyebrows. “He’s almost as big a deal as I am in rodeo.”
“Whoa.” He stumbled back, pretending to clutch his pearls.
“I know!” She laughed, then picked up baby Mason to put him in the high chair. “Come on, y’all. Let’s not let it get cold.”
Everyone sat, and it was—easy. It was absolutely easy to deal with the kids, laugh with Anderson and Bailey. The way Anderson acted with the kids, it was as if Jericho could see the man as a human, not an old high school not-friend.
Travis was in full-on hero worship, and Anderson was gentle, careful with Trav’s emotions—really a good guy all around. Admirable.
Hell, he reckoned Anderson always had been a decent sort. Jericho had never gotten to know him.
“Want to trade a corn doggie for a chicken finger, Dougie?” Ellie was asking.
“Uh-huh. I liked your flower in art class today. It was pretty.”
Ellie blushed and grinned. “Thank you. You were making a truck.”
“I was.” Doug shrugged. “I like to draw machines.”
“Not horses?” Anderson asked.
“No, Uncle Logic. Horses are hard.”
“Ah. But you ride them,” Anderson pointed out.
“Well, sure. My mom’s a cowgirl.” Dougie said it like that was that.
“That she is. She’s amazing.”
Dougie grinned, but Bailey ducked her head, looking tickled. He got it. It was nice to have family members love on you, especially your kids or siblings, who were way more likely to scream about how they hated you.
And obviously Anderson adored her, no matter what Jericho had accused him of.
He found himself watching Anderson, who was gravely discussing the merits of macaroni and cheese versus buttery potatoes with Ellie and Amanda.
How the fuck had the scared, panicky kid of their school days turned into this confident, interesting man?
The bigger question was, did Anderson wonder a similar thing about him? He hoped so. Which was ridiculous. Why should he care? He was who he was.
Travis cracked up as Ellie fed Anderson a piece of macaroni. The man opened up like a baby bird, so clearly eating after kids was not an issue for him like it was for a lot of single guys. Adorbs.
Who was this guy? What the hell was going on?
Did he seriously just think “adorbs”? Jericho was going to start batting his eyelashes and cooing soon.
“Thanks for this. I’ve been a little scared to leave the house, and I know he’s worried about Conor too.” Bailey was looking hunted, a little haggard.
“I bet. You know he’ll get bail.” The Morrows were… well, they had more money than God.
“Already happened. Worse thing, he’ll get community service and time served.”
“Yeah.” He loaded up his plate finally, since all the kids had food. It was a shit situation, because the senior Mr. Morrow owned this town, from the cops to the cartels that they ignored. Conor was a worthless fuck, but since Bailey only traveled in rodeo circuits, she wouldn’t have known him.
Conor was as close to asshole townie as a town of fewer than two thousand could have.
He grinned, which made Bailey smile back, so he guessed it didn’t matter. She needed a friend, and he was happy to help out since he needed his friends too.
They started laughing, both of them,