Cowboy Town by Kasey Millstead Read Free Book Online Page B

skipping out,” he explains.
    “I can see that,” I smile at him.  I love how almost everyone in the country has nicknames for each other.  It gives a very fond and friendly feel to the place.  In the city, it’s not so much like that.  Jules’ name is Julia but everyone calls her Jules.  My name is Eden and my friends call me Edie, but in the country, it’s not like that.  Nicknames are bestowed upon you because of character traits or loveable qualities.  It’s not just a shortening of your name, it’s … more.
    “Won’t be long and we’ll have to come up with a nickname for you,” Skip grins, “Won’t that be fun?”  He turns his grin to Jackson.
    “Oh, Jackson already has a nickname for me – he calls me Ace,” I tell Skip.
    “Only I call you Ace, Ace,” Jackson growls.
    Skip grins again.  Bigger this time.
    I’m sure the look on my face is confused, because that’s sure as hell what I’m feeling.
    “That doesn’t make sense, Jackson.  If Ace is my nickname, then everyone can call me that.  I don’t remember seeing a memo that said only you could call me Ace,” I snapped.
    “Only I call you Ace.  You wanna see heads rollin’ then go ahead and tell others to call you Ace, but I’m warning you now, by the end of it, I’ll be the only one calling you Ace,” he growled again.
    Wow.
    That was incredibly sweet but I wasn’t going to focus on that.  I didn’t want sweet from Jackson.  I didn’t want him to have a special name for me.  I didn’t want anything from him.
    I cocked my eyebrow at him, aiming for a nonchalant, unimpressed look.  “You’re weird.”  I turned my attention to Skip, gave him a smile and said, “I’m off, catch you later, Skip.”
    “See ya, Edie.”
    “Catch ya, Ace.”
    I didn’t reply or even look at that man.  God he was so infuriating.  And annoying.  And goddamn irritating. 
     

    “Edie, Edie ,” Jules screeched at me as she spotted me in the airport.  She was waving frantically and had a huge grin on her face.  My grin matched hers and I ran towards her, wrapping my arms around her for a tight hug. 
    “I missed you so much,” I said trying not to cry.  It had been the longest time in our friendship that we had been apart.
    “I missed you, too,” I could hear the emotion in her voice.
    “How are you? How was the flight?” I asked, pulling back to take a good look at my best friend.  Her black hair is now about five centimeters long all over now (she had it shaved almost bald to raise money for cancer just before she went to Bali), her vibrant green eyes are sparkling with their flecks of gold like usual and she’s dressed to kill, working her model-like figure like only she knows how.
    “I’m good and the flight was good but I’ll tell you now I am pissed right the fuck off and we need to talk.  I’ll fill you in later but you should know now that I am damn near about to rip some heads off people we know.” 
    “Oh, okay.  Well that sounds … ominous.”
    “Ominous is not the word, my friend.  Now let’s get out of this place so you can show me the town that’s stealing you away from me.” 

    “So this is the place, hey?  I can see why you like it here.  It just has that feel about it, doesn’t it.”  Jules and I were sitting on the small verandah outside my cottage, beers in hand, catching up.
    “I don’t like it here, I love it.  I don’t know what it is, but it’s just captured me.”
    “Have you told Dawn you’re not coming back?”
    My boss Dawn had been completely accommodating when I told her I was taking leave for an undetermined amount of time on short notice.  I felt bad when I rang her to let her know I wouldn’t be returning but she had been understanding once again, although she said she was sad to see me go.
    “Yeah, I rang her on Monday.  Her daughter can fill my position so it hasn’t put her out much at all – she was already filling in, in my absence so it made sense just