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J.D. scoffed, then waved over a bartender. "Two more whiskeys for me, and a soda for him," he ordered.
"Coke," I clarified.
The woman nodded, then went to get those, but J.D. just looked back at me. "It's going that way," he promised. "We had a real long talk in the truck. She thinks you're cute."
"Long way from cute to fucking," I told him. "I'm also not in a rush, J.D. I honestly like her, and I'm willing to take this at her pace."
"She wants her pace to be a little faster but doesn't know how to make the move." Then he tossed a fifty up on the counter. "But I was serious about not being too kinky."
"So what did she say?" I asked, because we'd had part of this talk back in St. Louis, but I hadn't heard Cody's side yet.
J.D. had said he was pretty sure Cody was inexperienced in bed. I hadn't believed him, but when he reminded me of the guys from her hometown? Yeah, he had a point. So I'd asked him to find out, and he'd promised he would.
"Two," J.D. said just as the bartender dropped his drinks before him.
"Let me get your change," she said.
He just waved that off. "All yours." Then he pushed the bottle of coke at me, grabbed his shots, and jerked his head for me to follow. "Ok, her problem isn't being shy or saving herself. It's that her town was small. Like, fucking podunk, Tanner. The boys hated her for showing them up. The men were married. She doesn't even think she's pretty."
"Cody?" I asked, unable to believe that.
He nodded, then claimed an empty table to set down his drinks, making it clear I should join him. "She's a tomboy at best, according to her. Oh, I did my damnedest to make it clear she's wrong. She also thinks you're cute, and wants to try being a little wild, but her love life consists of missionary. She says oral sex is a waste of time." He looked at me and lifted a brow.
There was just one problem with all of this. "J.D., this is weird."
"This is me being her mentor. Now, all y'all idiots think that means just for riding bulls, but I promise that's not where it ends. I'm gonna teach that girl how to be the king of her own world, and that no one should ever try to put her in her place, because her place is at the top."
I heard him. I also heard how damned emphatic he was about it. "You in love with her?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Workin' on it." Then he met my eyes again, but this time the look was almost a dare, as if he expected me to call him out.
I knew his eyes were brown, but they were the darkest shade of it I could imagine. Like fresh-roasted coffee on a sunny morning, they made me want to curl up and get comfortable. Everything about J.D. was designed to push people away - from his tattoos to the sharp lines he trimmed at the edges of his beard. He was hard, he could cut, but I had a feeling there was a hell of a lot more than that to him.
And Cody was his mirror image. Everywhere J.D. was hard, she looked soft. I also knew she wasn't. She might give the impression she was fragile, but that girl was made of steel. Combined, they were an impressive pair. They fit in a way I couldn't quite figure out.
Granted, the same was true of her and Ty. He was sexy. She was beautiful. When I'd left them dancing, my last thought had been that they might be the most beautiful couple I could imagine. No one would be surprised if they ended up together. My only question was how I fit into all of this.
Because next to J.D. I was a nice little boy from Iowa. Compared to Ty, no woman would ever look at me. Never mind that Cody had just assumed I was gay! Now, I was stuck trying to figure out if this whole thing between us was just some pity date, or if I really had a chance with her. Then again, she'd kissed me earlier like she'd meant it.
"What?" J.D. asked, clearly seeing something on my face.
"What if I'm the pity fuck?" I asked.
He cackled at me like some kind of wicked witch. "No! Fuck no, Tanner. She's just a rookie. Cody knows what she wants and isn't afraid of chasing it, but she just hasn't experienced it all yet. Doesn't mean she's scared of it. Just means she's a rookie."
That was when I finally figured out why he'd latched on to that term, and damn, if it didn't fit a little too well. Cody was innocent in some ways. Not because she wanted to be, or insisted on it - or even because she assumed she had to be. She was just new to a few things, and she was doing her best to chase it all.
Calling her a "rookie" was a lot nicer than saying "virgin" or "prude" or any of the other words people used to describe women. Guys got a different set, which might be even more insulting. J.D. had circumvented all of that by labeling her a rookie, naming himself her mentor, and then deciding he'd teach her, well, everything.
"I just don't wanna push when she's not ready," I admitted. "And truth be told, J.D., I'm not sure she's feeling it. I mean, sometimes..."
He leaned in. "Oh, I want the juicy gossip."
I huffed, but it was mostly a laugh. "Earlier, she kissed me like she wanted to rip my clothes off. Other times, she gets nervous and shy. All I'm saying is I like her enough to not be chasing a fuck, ok?"
He reached over and dropped his hand on my arm. For a split second, my pulse picked up. I almost glanced around to make sure no one noticed, but this wasn't that kind of touch - and yet it was. It also made it clear J.D. was very good at playing this game in public.
"Look, I'm not even gonna try to pretend that I'm not head over heels for that little Missouri girl," he told me. "I also know she spent quite a few hours with me talking about your pretty eyes, how you have the best abs of the three of us, and that she didn't know what counted as a big dick." His fingers gripped just a little tighter, then he pulled his hand away. "She's into you. She's really into having a little attention."
