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At last, Jimmy broke out into a good-natured, animated smile. “Oh, now this I gotta see.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Now where has that hellion run off to?” Garret muttered to himself. He scanned the tables but found neither hide nor hair of Eliza.
“Look, these humans need us,” Burke pointed out. “Did you see Wade Foster up there on the roof? He’s half-drunk, and isn’t even sure-footed when he’s sober.”
“I’m hungry.”
“For Eliza?”
Garret growled at him, and Burke lurched back by a few feet. He threw his hands up in surrender. “Look, I’m not sticking up for her anymore. You go insane.”
“That’s not what last night was about.”
“Whatever you say, Boss.”
Garret tossed him a glare. “Go back and work on the roof then. I’m sure Lenny is with Eliza. She’s probably fine.”
Oh, he knew he was goading him. Burke had been paying more attention to Lenny over the past few months. Garret noticed everything.
“Lenny can take care of herself.” But Burke quickened his pace and kept up with Garret. He was limping still. “I sure wish someone hadn’t nearly ripped my leg off last night.”
“I sure wish someone would stop whining about stuff I can’t change.”
“It’s not whining. It really hurts.”
Garret’s entire stomach was still on fire from the healing gunshot wound. Sure, werewolves healed ridiculously fast, but an injury like this was rough the day after. No way around it.
Garret just wanted to lay eyes on Eliza. Just reassure himself that she was okay. For all her irritating qualities—and she had many—she was also a beautiful woman, and out here, men outnumbered women five to one. She would be the talk of the night. He would bet his horse on it. This town didn’t see a lot of well-bred city women. That green dress she’d altered to fit herself made her look like an hourglass, and even though the neckline was modest, he could still make out the top of her perfect cleavage.
God, she was pretty. Just thinking about her made his cock harder, and he quickly adjusted himself. Curvy little spitfire who could give every one of his moody moments right back to him. That woman was proving little by little that she wasn’t a runner like her ma. She was learning and trying, and joining him during nights out on the range. Yeah, last night had gone all wrong, but she’d wanted to help, and to be with him. She’d been hurt, and he’d been mean to her, and she was still here, bringing him food so he didn’t have to take a break on the barn-raising. And now he was tromping around here scanning every group of people hoping to find her. Why? Because he actually was sorry. His reactions around her baffled him. Someday he was going to learn how to communicate that to her, and figure himself out, but he wasn’t there yet.
He liked the freckles that smattered her nose and cheeks, and he liked how bright green her eyes were. He liked the way her tits pushed upward in her dresses, and the way she’d looked dripping wet in the washtub. And her creamy-smooth skin in that translucent nightdress.
She would sure make a pretty werewolf.
A snarl ripped through him, and he shook his head hard. Stop it.
He had a job to do—keep her from falling in love with him so she was never disappointed with the life he could provide her. He growled in frustration as he scanned the tables one last time.
Where the hell was she?
A pair of gunshots sounded. He froze, listening, and beside him, Burke murmured, “Well, that’s probably not good.”
Garret surged toward the noise, heart hammering in his chest. He headed toward the side of the house.
Worry curled in the pit of his stomach, and he lengthened his strides. What if something had happened when he wasn’t there? He’d thought the girls were safe enough in such a public setting, but what if they weren’t? Garret shouldn’t have left them unprotected, especially with the amount of danger Eliza was in from the Jenningses, who seemed to be targeting her to get to Garret.
He and Burke rounded the corner of the house and stopped short.
There she was.
Leave it to Eliza to initiate a shooting competition a few hours into a barn-raising. Lenny was competing against a growing line of young men waiting to take a crack at out-shooting her.
Garret laughed. He couldn’t help it. Of course she was right in the middle of everything. On Lenny’s side, there was growing group of women cheering her on, and Eliza was jumping excitedly up and down, pride written all over her face.
Burke chuckled beside him. “You have to hand it to her, she’s a clever woman.”
