Free Love Under Two Cowboys by Cara Covington Page A

*
     
    Carrie eyed the burly blond man who’d just opened the back of the moving truck. “Should you be lifting that furniture?”
    She’d just pulled in herself, and hadn’t even had time to go inside to see if those two cowboys were here or out doing whatever it was they did when they mounted up and rode off. She hadn’t known that Grant and Andrew Jessop were going to be delivering the furniture she’d picked out at the warehouse. It seemed a strange, temporary occupation for a couple of professional firefighters.
    Andrew, who’d driven the rig, snickered as Grant Jessop raised one eyebrow. “Not you, too? Is there anyone in this entire town who isn’t going to act as if I’m some sort of wounded dove?”
    Carrie laughed. “Dove isn’t the noun I would choose for you, pal. Bear is more like it, the way you’ve been growling at anyone who’s tried to treat you with compassion. And since you’re one of the first people I met when I came to Lusty, I’ve taken a personal interest in your well-being. You were a sorry sight, let me tell you, left arm in a sling, walking with a cane in your right hand because your leg was healing from a nasty break. That was only a couple of months ago, I’ll remind you.”
    “I’ve tried to tell him that he could be making headway with hot women if he’d only groan just a little bit,” Andrew Jessop said. “But no , he has to be all surly and macho and scare all the women off.”
    Carrie scoffed. “Well, you didn’t scare me off.”
    Grant grunted then nodded toward the house. “Yeah, but no offense, you don’t count. We don’t move on other men’s claims, and I reckon those two cowboys there claimed you about two seconds after they set eyes on you.”
    Andrew grinned. “They must be afraid of us, though, because today they have backup.”
    Carrie didn’t hear anyone come out onto the porch. She turned and grinned at Chase and Brian. Her gaze landed on the man with them. She’d never met him before, but there was something about that smirk, and the way he leaned against one of the porch columns that seemed familiar, somehow.
    “Hey there,” she greeted the brothers Benedict. “I just got here. I didn’t know if you’d be here, or out riding.”
    “I’d say that was good planning on our part.” Chase looked at his brother and then back at their cousins. “Did someone put in a call for firemen? I don’t see smoke anywhere, do you, Brian?”
    Grant snickered. “If you ain’t seeing smoke, maybe we ought to reconsider our no-poaching philosophy.”
    “You’re welcome to try, cousin.” Brian’s hands were in his pockets and he rocked back on his heels.
    “Well now,” Andrew said.
    “Indeed,” Chase agreed.
    Carrie wondered why she wasn’t choking on all the testosterone floating through the air.
    The stranger on the porch said, “Seems to me if there’s going to be bloodshed, I ought to see the lady to safety.” Then he looked directly at her, tipped his hat, and said, “Ma’am.”
    Chase clearly was fighting his grin. “Carrie, this is Julián. Julián, this is our woman, Carrie.”
    Carrie just shook her head. She couldn’t say that she’d ever noticed before how men could be like kids fighting over a toy at times.
    Or dogs fighting over a bone but eeew, I don’t like that analogy, because apparently, I’m the bone .
    “It’s nice to meet you, Julián.” Then, since she preferred the “boy and toy” analogy, she looked from the cowboys to the firefighters and said, “If you can’t play nice, you’re all going to get a time-out.”
    “Well, hell.” Andrew kicked at the dirt. “I hate time-out.”
    Clearly that had been a dire threat. The other three would-be combatants sighed heavily and looked totally dejected.
    Carrie chuckled and shook her head as she headed into the house. What the hell, I can tease with the best of them. “Please don’t make your poor, injured first-responder cousin lift the heavy stuff.”
    “I’m not