Free ShotgunRelations by Ann Jacobs

a
show for her, flexing muscles that didn’t need to be flexed as he put on his
socks first, then straightened his jeans, tugged on his boots and finally put
on his shirt.
    Smiling as he ogled her taut nipples, which
poked against her thin cotton shirt, he decided there was a lot to be said for
both of them going commando.
    * * * * *
    “I can’t figure out why you don’t just
shave your head all over. That way you could do it yourself and you’d save a
lot of money.” Chester Ryan, Caden’s only barber, took one final swipe with his
straight razor at the foam over Jack’s right sideburn. “Want the top cleaned
up?”
    “Just shave the stubble off the landing
strip. I have to be in court in a half hour.” Jack wondered if his
military-style cut really made him seem more respectable to clients and judges
than he’d appear if he shaved his entire head. Bill was right. He spent a lot
of time maintaining his high-and-tight at the barber shop, time that he could
put to more profitable use.
    It took him less time to shave his crotch
and face every morning than Bill took to clean up his sidewalls and the landing
strip he was taking extra pains to shape with hands that weren’t quite as
steady as Jack would like them to be. Maybe he ought to grow out the landing
strip to match the horseshoe-shaped edge at his crown. It would cut down on
maintenance.
    Getting hard when he thought about Liz
running her fingers through the crisp stubble around his landing strip, he
wondered if she’d like a larger expanse of eighth-of-an-inch hair on top of his
head. Without saying a word, she’d let him know how much she liked the sides
and back of his head shaved smooth. He could practically feel her fingers
massaging his scalp while he’d been nibbling her clit.
    “You hear about the rustlers hittin’ the
Bar C? Must’ve happened during Bye’s wedding.”
    “I heard.” If Chester hadn’t heard yet that
he and Liz had been the ones who’d discovered the cut fences, Jack wasn’t about
to tell him. “Who told you?”
    “Sheriff Atkins. He got here bright and
early for a haircut and shave. Told me Four was fit to be tied that somebody
sneaked in through the Laughing Wolf and made off with twenty of his prime
yearlings.”
    Liz had told him when they’d spoken earlier
that the task force had arrived and was looking over her place as well as the
Bar C. She sounded stressed out and he hoped to hell he’d finish up with the
civil trial that had been dragging out for weeks now. If he did he’d change and
go out there. She needed a foreman she could trust, one who would take the load
off her. Jack was certain Frank Williams wasn’t that man, not to mention his
suspicions that he might be involved with the rustlers.
    As he always did, Chester took a soft rag
and buffed oil into the shaved parts of Jack’s head before unfastening the
cape. “You’re done unless you want me to finish the job.” Jack didn’t know
whether the barber was laughing at him or himself.
    “Thanks.” He glanced at his fresh haircut,
then dug in his pocket and handed Bill the ten he’d placed there before leaving
home. “See you Wednesday, same time.”
    “Sure thing.”
    When Bill unfastened the cape from around
his neck, Jack got up and headed for the door. As he opened it, Four
practically ran into him.
    “There you are. I tried your office and the
courthouse. I might have known you’d be in here.” Four scowled when he looked
at Jack’s fresh haircut. “You look like a goddamn new Marine recruit.”
    Jack scowled right back. “What do you want,
F—Four?” He’d started to call the old man “father” just to piss him off, but he
didn’t care to have the whole community know what neither he nor Four wanted to
acknowledge.
    “Can we go to your office? I’ll pay for
your time.”
    “That goes without saying, old man, but I
can’t accommodate you right now. I have to be in court. If you want to stick
around I should be free in an hour