Chapter One
“No. Absolutely not,” Laine told Mackenzie emphatically.
“Please?”
Laine Parker sighed in exasperation. Mack was her best friend, but sometimes she thought they shouldn’t be friends at all. Mackenzie was curvy and outgoing and somehow seemed to light up a room the second she walked in. Laine was almost the exact opposite. She was tall and slender and would rather spend the night at home in her sweats than go out...but it was hard to meet a guy that way. Still, they were thick as thieves, went together like peanut butter and jelly, and were like blood sisters.
“I only said I’d come because you were going. I have no desire to go out to some random guy’s ranch, watch as he takes his shirt off and poses for your charity calendar,” Laine told Mack in an irritated tone of voice.
“I know,” Mack whined, obviously stressed out. “But my new boss asked me to go with her today to check out the venue for our annual charity ball. I wouldn’t normally agree, because it’s not like she can’t go and look at a ballroom herself, but I’m trying to make sure I stay in her good graces. After Nancy left, we floundered a bit before Loretta got here. I don’t want to do anything to make her reconsider her employment choice. And, Laine, this isn’t a random guy. Wes works with Daxton. He’s a Texas Ranger. It’s not like I’m sending you to a Chippendale club or something. Besides, Jack will be there.”
Laine took a big gulp of her iced tea, wishing it was something stronger. Mackenzie had asked her to lunch today, and she’d thought it was so her friend could grill her on her lack of a love life. Ever since Mack had fallen in love with her hunky Texas Ranger, she’d been trying extra hard to find Laine a man as well.
“Jack being there isn’t a positive in my book. I don’t really know him either. I know I’ve met him a few times, but you were always with us. Look, you know I love you, but why do I need to go at all?”
“Seriously?” Mack asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Yeah, seriously.”
“Okay, here’s the thing. Jack is a great photographer. He’s one of the best. We were lucky to get him to take the pictures for the calendar. But you know the kind of men Daxton and his friends are...they’re manly-men. Alphas. Cops. They’re not comfortable stripping and having their picture taken...especially for another man.” She held up her hand to hold off Laine’s protestation. “I know, I know, Jack isn’t gay, but it doesn’t matter. It’s weird for them. Daxton told me straight out that if I wasn’t there, he wouldn’t have done it. So I need you to go so it’s not just Wes and Jack. Please? Wes is the last model I need to finish this calendar. I don’t have a backup guy, he’s it.”
Laine put her head on the table in front of her in defeat. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have the time. As a realtor, she had the luxury of setting her own schedule. She’d cleared her calendar so she could be there with Mack for the shoot. The Petersons had gladly moved the tour of the house they wanted to see until the next day, and the Whispersons had no issue moving their showing up. So she had the time blocked off to spend with her best friend.
Picking up her head, she acquiesced. “Okay, but you owe me, Mackenzie.”
“Yay!” Mack clapped her hands softly in glee. “It’ll be fun. I know how much you love seeing the old ranches. Wes’s ranch has been in his family for at least a hundred years. Daxton said every second he’s not working a case, he’s out there doing what he loves. He’s a true cowboy in every sense of the word. In high school and college, he was on the rodeo team. He did that roping thing.”
“What roping thing?”
“You know, where they let a cow go and they ride out behind it on a horse and lasso it with a rope...mm hmm...that’s next on our agenda,” Mack exclaimed. “We need to go and check out a rodeo.”
“We’ve been to a rodeo. We went to one last year,” Laine reminded her friend.
“Oh, but we weren’t really trying to understand anything, we were just there for the eye candy and so we had an excuse to wear our new boots. We need to go and check out what all the events are.”
Laine shook her head. Mack was a goof. She tended to ramble too much and was clumsy as all get-out, but they’d been best friends since middle school. Laine would move heaven and earth for her if she asked, especially after almost losing her to a psycho serial killer. Knowing Mack had found the love of her life made Laine happy, even if she was a bit sad at the same time that she herself hadn’t found someone yet.
For so long it’d been just the two of them. They’d make spur-of-the-moment plans, hang out all night at each other’s houses, and they were confidants. But Laine could see the writing on the wall. Now that Mack had Dax, he was the center of her life...as it should be. They’d tried to find the right man for themselves all of their lives, and now that Mack had, Laine felt as though she was being left behind. It was a difficult thing to get used to.
“What time do I need to be out at his place?” Laine asked Mack, trying to get her back on track.
“Ten. I’m not sure what Jack has planned for the shoot, but he said he’d like to use a barn in a shot, if it works out when he gets there. He’s been very good at being able to put the other guys at ease. He can figure out the best place to pose them for the shots that show off their assets. Seriously, Laine, you should see some of the pictures so far. Daxton, of course, is hot, but you’d never guess that under his lab coat, Calder is totally ripped. And Quint? Hot damn. Seriously, they could all quit tomorrow, start their own strip club and make millions.”
“What about Hayden?”
Mackenzie smiled an evil smile. “Oh, she didn’t want to do it, but I bribed her.”
“With what?”
“I promised I wouldn’t ask her to go shopping with me for at least six months.”
Laine giggled. “No wonder she agreed. The last time you dragged her out, she was traumatized for life.”
“That’s not true!” Mack protested. “Just because I thought she’d look good in that corset thing and the zipper broke and the manager of the store had to come in and cut her out of it, doesn’t mean she was traumatized.”
“Uh. Yeah. It does.”
“Whatever.” Mack waved off the incident.
Laine had heard all about the shopping trip from Hayden one night at the bar. The men had thought it was hysterical, but Hayden had glared daggers at everyone for the rest of the night. She wouldn’t admit it out loud, but Laine would’ve paid big bucks to be a fly on the wall during that incident.
“Anyway, I swear you’d think Hayden was a model by looking at the pictures Jack took of her. They went to the shooting range and he somehow convinced her to take off her deputy’s jacket, and the picture I think we’re using of her is a profile shot where she’s aiming downrange. She’s wearing a white tank top and her red hair against it is absolutely beautiful. She wanted to keep it up in the bun she always wears it in, but Jack convinced her to take it down. It’s a bit curly and the wind blew at exactly the right time for the shot. It’s as if she had a fan in front of her, wafting her hair back perfectly. Seriously, I was jealous as all get-out of her hair. Even though she’s the only woman in the calendar, I’m so glad we convinced her to do it. The rest of the guys are gonna crap their pants when they see her. She’s usually so...mannish. Even I had no idea she was so beautiful. She hides it well.”
Laine suddenly looked at her watch. “Crap, I gotta get going. I have an appointment in twenty minutes.”
“You going to look at another ranch?” Mackenzie asked, knowing how much her friend loved showing the properties on the outskirts of San Antonio.
Laine wrinkled her nose. “Nope, this one is a plain ol’ suburban three bedroom, two bath.”
“Poor thing.”
“I know, right?”
Mackenzie stood up with Laine and hugged her. “Thank you so much for doing this for me. I swear I wouldn’t ask you to go if I didn’t think it was important.”
“Have you met this Wes guy?” Laine asked Mack, putting her purse strap over her shoulder.
“No, but Daxton says he’s easy to work with and he respects him. I guess they’re pretty close work friends.”
Laine shrugged. “I guess that’s as good of a recommendation as the man’ll get.”
“Damn straight.”
They hugged again. “Be safe. I’ll call you tomorrow night and you can tell me all about it,” Mack said.
“I will. Love you.”
“Love you too. Bye.”
As Laine headed out to her car, she wondered just what in the world Mackenzie had gotten her into now.
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