Free In Love With A Cowboy (BWWM Romance) by Tasha Jones, BWWM Crew Page B

nothing close to what I felt for Jada. I could just sit on opposite ends of the dining table and talk to her all night. We didn’t even have to have sex. She was beautiful inside and out, and she talked about things that were important to her in such a way that they became important to me too.
     
    A truck drove past and it looked a lot like Dean’s truck. It was swerving slightly, like the driver was drunk. Definitely Dean, then.
     
    He was in her life. He was Keisha’s father. How could he be so stupid? How could he let a girl get pregnant and then drink himself into a stupor instead of being the man they both needed him to be?
     
    Why didn’t Jada want me to be that man?
     
    I kicked a rock and it shot up, hitting the wall of a house, only inches away from the window. A light went on and I ran and hid in the shadows. The curtains moved, and then the light went off again.
     
    Great. I was hiding in the dark like a teenager. I was kicking rocks, having a little temper tantrum, because I didn’t get what I wanted.
     
    What did I want?
     
    I wanted her. It wasn’t a hard question to answer. I could take them away to Houston with me, get Keisha into a good school. Jada could open her café there, and she wouldn’t have to worry about money or finding time to finish her degree.
     
    I nodded, confirming it to myself. Dean didn’t have to be a problem. I could take them away, and he could come and see Keisha if he really wanted.
     
    I didn’t even know if that was something he would want. From what I’d heard Jada say, and the way he spoke about Keisha, I got the feeling that he didn’t really want this kind of responsibility in his life. He didn’t want a reason to have to be sober. I could fix that for him.
     
    I turned around and walked back to the house. The front room was dark. I knocked on the door once and let myself into the house. The kitchen light bled down the passage, giving it a bit of light. I walked to the kitchen and took a deep breath, ready to tell the woman of my dreams what I felt for her.
     
    Only the woman of my dreams wasn’t alone. She was up against the wall, and Dean had her arms pinned to either side of her, kissing her.
     
    “You son of a bitch!” I cried out and lunged for him, tackling him waist high. We tumbled to the floor. I had the upper hand because I’d caught him off guard. I could smell the brandy on him. I climbed on top of him and hit him in the face again and again.
     
    “Tanner, don’t,” Jada was sobbing, trying to pull me off him. Her hands were small on my shoulder, nails digging in, but I shrugged her off and grabbed Dean’s collar, lifting his face to mine. His nose was bleeding and it spread across his chin.
     
    “Mommy?” Keisha’s voice sounded somewhere deeper into the house. Jada gasped and ran out of the room. I yanked Dean to his feet and slammed him into the same wall he’d been kissing Jada against.
     
    “You rotten son of a bitch,” I sneered in his face. His eyes were half-shut but he grinned at me.
     
    “What’s wrong, little brother? Jealous?”
     
    “You touch her again and I’ll kill you,” I said, and at that moment I meant it. But Dean didn’t look scared. In fact, he looked very drunk. I let go of him and he sank to the floor. I walked away, hands on my hips, trying to calm myself.
     
    “What are you doing here?” I asked.
     
    “What do you care?” Dean said and his words ran into each other. “You don’t care what I do with my life. You haven’t cared in years. All you know how to do is run away.”
     
    “And look what I ran away from, Dean. You’re starting to act just like dad.”
     
    That made him angry. He pushed himself off the floor and dived for me. I stepped aside and he tumbled to the ground. I knocked him with my knee so he would stay down.
     
    “You have no right to her, Tan,” he said. He hadn’t used the childhood nickname in decades. It made me go cold.
     
    “And what makes you think you