Page 19 of Love’s Silver Bullet

Jake’s Adam’s apple ducked while he searched for the right response. The one that would keep a Bar SLR brand off his butt.

“So, help me, Sullivan—spit it out,” Blaze snapped with another wave of the firebrand. “Did you or didn’t you?”

Well, technically, she kissed me first … His nose twitched, as if getting ready to grow, warring with the truth in his mind because it had been her kiss that started it all, right? He cleared his throat. “Uh, I’d say it was the other way around, old buddy,” Jake said with as much confidence as he could muster given the branding iron in Blaze’s hand, completely sidestepping his involvement in the kiss—and the temptation to lie—altogether. He sucked in a fortifying breath, releasing it again in a slow, steady stream while he perched hands to his hips. “Which is why you need to find somebody else to teach her to shoot.”

“Hot hogs in Hades, how the devil did this happen?” Blaze stormed over to the fire pit and hurled the brand back in, flames licking the steel like fire licked the inside of Jake’s collar.

Jake casually scratched the back of his neck, nothing casual about the vice banding his chest. “Well, first she showed up in this … this”—he waved a hand in front of his shoulder and chest—“downright obscene get-up, some Mexican-looking blouse hanging clear off her shoulders and pretty darn low at the neckline to boot.”

A rare curse shot from Blaze’s mouth as he started to pace, gouging shaky fingers through his hair.

“I don’t mind sayin’ I was pretty hot under the collar when I saw that,” Jake said, “but she claimed it was for ‘ease of movement.’”

“Yeah, I’ll just bet.” Blaze kicked at a clump of dirt.

“That’s exactly what I said, and I wasn’t a bit nice about it either, I can tell you that. Sniped at her left and right until she turned on the tears, and then all I wanted to do was get through that dad-burned lesson as quick as possible, hoping and praying you’d show up soon.”

Blaze sent a rock flying with his boot, mumbling what sounded like an apology under his breath.

“I tried to show her stance and aim by demonstrating with my own gun, but I’ll tell you, Blaze, she was downright awful, and the last thing I wanted to do was get close enough to show her how. But I felt so bad after jerking the gun away, nicking her finger in the process, that I went ahead and positioned her, arms around her to show her how.”

Blaze halted mid-pace, thunderous brows digging low. “Is that when she kissed you?”

Jake shook his head, fighting back a warm shiver at the memory. “No, but when she turned to smile at me over that bare shoulder of hers, I swear our lips were so close, I panicked when I saw that lovesick look in her eyes. You know, the one she always gets when I come around?”

Blaze resumed pacing. “Yeah, I know,” he mumbled. “So, what happened next?”

“I fell real hard”—Jake dipped his head, leveling a smirk in a sad attempt at humor—“not over your sister, mind you—but over a small boulder I used as a marker, landing me flat on my backside.”

Blaze obviously didn’t see the humor given the nasty scowl on his face.

Jake cleared his throat. “The next thing I know, she’s flopped over my chest, wailing up a storm because she thought I was dead, and don’t think I didn’t wish I was for a moment or two.”

Blaze spun to face him, sparks popping from the fire that matched the ones in his eyes. “Was that when she kissed you?”

“Well, yeah, sort of, but—”

“Sort of?” A swear word sizzled the air along with an explosion of sparks when Blaze kicked a rock in the fire. “Tarnation, Sul, why the devil didn’t you just push her away?”

“I did!” Jake defended staunchly, the sunburn bleeding up his neck not helping one iota. It was his turn to kick a rock, sailing it into the side of a cow chewing its cud, its hide a whole lot tougher than Jake’s at the moment. The cow tossed a lazy glance his way before lumbering off. Kinda like Jake wanted to do. Actually jealous of the stupid cow, Jake cuffed the back of his neck. “Sort of.”

“Sort-of?” Blaze said it dangerously slow, kind of like his approach before he confronted Jake nose to nose. “Sort of?? What the devil does that mean?” His voice ratcheted up several octaves as the words spit in Jake’s face.

Literally.

“It means I played possum, dad-burn-it,” he spit right back, wondering why in tarnation he was getting raked over the coals when this was all Blaze’s fault in the first place. The very thought triggered his temper, prompting him to jab a hard finger into Blaze’s chest. “Because the last thing I wanted to do, you pea-brained brick-head, was give your sister another blasted chance to taunt me with goo-goo eyes and bare shoulders. I wanted the lesson over! Done! Finito! You got that, Donovan? And yelling sure didn’t work ’cause that just turned on the waterworks, making me feel like cow dirt, especially after I hurt her blasted finger.” He delivered a final stab for good measure. “So, forgive me if I erred in thinking being unconscious was the quickest way to end the dad-gum debacle that you foisted on me in the first place.”

Blaze hurled Jake’s finger away, his tone considerably calmer. “Go on …” he muttered, obviously chastened by his best friend’s acute frustration, giving rise to a temper he seldom saw.

“And it worked, dad-burn-it, drenching me with tears while she promised to go for help.” Jake mauled his face with his hands. “Until I sneezed.” Huffing out a weary breath, he dropped his hands to his sides before slowly burying them in his pockets. “She must have figured out I was pulling the wool over her eyes because the next thing I know”—he gulped, not really wanting to divulge the extent of Sheridan’s kiss, but figuring her brother had a right to know his little sister was in way over her head. And his!—“she kissed me like she pilfered a tip sheet from the Ponderosa.”

Ooomph! Blaze’s punch caught him off-guard, even using his weaker left hand. Jake stumbled back, rubbing the side of his jaw while his best friend brandished a finger in his face, grinding out his words. “Do not ever mention my sister in the same sentence with the Ponderosa—do-you-understand?”

Jake nodded, expelling a noisy sigh. “I didn’t want to, Blaze—God’s truth—but the kiss your little sister gave me about curled my toes, so somebody’s giving her tips because she said she’s never been kissed before, which frankly, I found pretty hard to believe.”

Blaze’s eyes narrowed to slits of blue glass, his tone deadly slow. “Are you saying … you liked it?”

The air in Jake’s lungs stilled along with his body, his brain straining to figure out which answer he should give. A ‘yes’ would convince Blaze he was the wrong man for the job of watching over his sister, which is exactly what Jake wanted. But a ‘no’ would shackle him forever as a guardian to a woman who curled his toes, not to mention being a bald-faced lie, which Jake didn’t cotton to.