Cowboys and Cupcakes

Chapter 1 

Jax Martinez sat on the counter in his tiny kitchen and glared at Casper. They were supposed to be making profiteroles for Sunday, but the dough hadn’t really gotten doughy, and the eggs had made the mixture soppy instead of something he could squeeze through his pastry bag. What had happened? He didn’t get it. They’d made them a million times. 

Like, a million-million times. 

Maybe he put in too much butter? Maybe he didn’t cook it on the stove long enough. Maybe it was bad luck. 

He had a lot of bad luck. 

It was Saturday, and on Saturdays, he had pizza and watched a movie on TV. That had been his plan anyway, until the profiteroles didn’t work out. 

“What the hell, Casper?” He glared harder, wishing his food processor could actually understand how annoyed he was. It wouldn’t, of course, because it was an object and objects didn’t think at all, but they should know when they weren’t behaving the way he wanted them to. 

“You don’t love me anymore,” he said and hopped down off the counter. He didn’t expect a response. Food processors were kind of the strong silent types. “You can just sit there by yourself for a while and think about what you’ve done.” 

So there. 

He left the kitchen—which took him about three steps—and picked up his cell phone to order delivery. He’d have his pizza and then he’d clean up and try again later. He’d made lots of sweets at midnight, or at four in the morning. He liked baking in the middle of the night. 

Just as he was dialing, a doorbell sound rang, making him grin. That was his buddy Jan’s ringtone. January Bell. Dumb as hell but the pun made him giggle every time. He tapped on Jan’s text. 

Hawk is at the airport picking someone up. Want to come for dinner about six? 

Dinner? Surely Jan knew he was a very busy man and couldn’t just drop everything and go out for dinner. 

I could eat, he texted back and went to find his shoes. He just needed to clean up the kitchen. 

Wait. 

He stopped short outside his bedroom door. Hawk was at the airport? He looked at the text again, and then dialed Jan. 

Jan was laughing as he answered. “Did you forget how to get here?” 

“How is Hawk picking somebody up at the airport?” Hawk Destry was a former bull riding champion and the bravest guy Jax had ever met. Hot too. Jan was a lucky bastard. But Hawk didn’t see so well. As in the guy was legally blind. 

“Ever heard of a taxi? It’s this yellow thing that—” 

“Ha. Ha, ha.” Jax snorted. “By himself?” 

“Sure. He has Buck with him.” 

“You let him go alone.” Hawk’s service dog was smart as hell, but January wasn’t fooling him. 

“He’s a grown man, Jax. I didn’t let him do anything. He insisted.” Jan sounded a little defensive now. 

“Ah.” Uh-huh. Now he got it. 

“What?” 

“How worried are you?” 

Jan laughed. “Well, it’s his first time going to the airport alone. But I’m not really worried, I’m… I’m kind of—okay, I’m fucking worried.” 

“I’ll be right over.”