Page 30 of Waiting in Wyoming
“Gunnar and McKellen will pay to replace the rocking chair they broke,” Charlotte said, snickering. “And it was really fun to watch. I’m just not so sure Heather was all that thrilled that it happened. Powell certainly wasn’t.”
“I liked Heather. She was really nice,” Meyra said. “And I got to hold her baby again.”
“So what are you going to do about Brandt? I was waiting for him tofinallyactually do something about you,” Charlotte said.
“Why?” Meyra thought her cousin was really weird sometimes. Charlotte always had been a bit different from the rest of them.
Well, so was Dylan, for that matter. And maybe Miranda. And Marin. And Darcey…and all the rest. Maybe they all were unique in their own ways? They were Talleys, after all.
“The guy has been hot for you for as long as I have known him, Mey. I was just waiting foryouto catch on before I said anything.” Charlotte looked at Fletcher and handed him the pool stick. “Go home, you butthead. Think about how rude you just were to my little baby cousin. When she really didn’t deserve it…this time. I’ll talk to you later. Ladies, I think this calls for a Talley girl meeting. My suite. Grab whoever you can. Uh, it won’t be Dusty. Ben carried her away an hour ago. Like, literally. Scooped her up and carried her right out the front doors in front of everyone. I’m not going to think about what they are doing now. Probably the same thing Brandt wants to do with Meyra, actually. Ben had alookin his eyes that gives a woman the shivers.”
“He is just so pretty. So hero-y,” Dylan said, sighing. “And his brother Gil is really hot and very sexy, too. Where did their parents go wrong with this one, you think?”
Daisy and Meyra both looked at Fletcher. She studied him for a moment. Meyra thought Dylan was crazy—Fletcher was very hot and beautiful and sexy. Not as hot and beautiful and sexy asBrandt,but still. Then again, he always was a little too rude with Dylan. Maybe Dylan did think he was a troll or something?
“Will you four all quit looking at me like that?” Fletcher asked after they stared at him for a moment.
“I think we’ll have to ask Dusty that very question. Later,” Daisy said. “Much later. Right now—we need to figure out what you are going to wear when you seduce Quade and get him out of his clothes.Thatis a seriously hot man, too. Seriously hot. Hot guys are everywhere in Masterson lately. I’m ready for one to come knocking on my door, too. Could someone please send that message on to the Fates or something?”
“But what am I going to do about Brandt Barratt and his plan?” Meyra asked.
“It’s simple, really,” Dylan told her, turning her back to Fletcher. Fletcher was still just glaring down at her. “You come up with a Seducing Brandt Barratt Plan of your own. And then…go get him. Life is short. Go for the man you want. Get him naked and have lots of fun. I wouldn’t wait around.”
“We’ll be here watching, taking notes. For when the time comes for the rest of us to seduceourmen,” Daisy said. “We’ll be watching Dylan and Quade tomorrow night, too.”
“You are all really weird sometimes, did you know that? Really weird.” But Meyra wouldn’t have them any other way.
“Let’s go. Char’s closet is waiting,” Daisy said, leading the way. “This is going to be fun. I know she has one dress cut clear to the navel, Dylan.”
“I don’t have enough boobies for a dress like that. That might be a problem.” Dylan said, looking straight down.
Well, Dylan was really flat-chested. But so was Charlotte, and she wasn’t that much bigger than Dylan. They could probably make the dress fit. Somehow.
“We’ll just use a push-up bra,” Charlotte said. “And tape. I’ll show you how—we can probably double those little puppies if we’re strategic about it.”
Of course, Charlotte would know how to make it work.
“Wicked. This is going to be fun. Dress-up-Dylan time! With almost real boobies.”
“Jailers. Definitely jailers. It’s the only answer.”
“Love you, too, Truckie, love you, too.”
People around here were so weird sometimes.
22
He had figuredout the next step in the plan. Dale was good with it—it would just take some creative work on his part. He would need help to make it happen, but he wasn’t a fool. Certain kinds ofhelpcould be bought with the right kind of incentive.
That Barratt was making everything just too easy. Tying him to what had happened in Texas was the simplest solution. Dale could just imagine the scandal once it was revealed that aBarrattwas behind all the current crime in that part of Texas—crime stretching all the way up into little Masterson County, Wyoming.
The trick was going to just be making it believable.
Wayne was perfect for what he needed now. And Dale had always known exactly what price Wayne would have, what the man would do for that wife and four daughters Wayne adored so much. Dale understood Wayne—they had a lot in common, after all.
They would doanythingfor their families.
Dale wasn’t averse to using a man he had once considered his close friend, either. Not if it cleaned this shit up and preserved everything he had worked for, too.