Dedication
A huge debt of gratitude to Mandy Harbin, Parker Kincade and Carol Burnside for the Fairfield Bay week of writing. Without your support and push to write, this novella would still be an idea and not a finished product. To Angela Campbell and Sandra Jones, two awesome critique partners who read fast and gave me valuable suggestions. They improved this story 1000%. A big hug for Pamela Hearon for all her title suggestions, even if I didn’t use any of them. Mega thanks to my awesome editor Heidi Moore for her continued support and guidance. And to my husband, the Fisherman. Not a Texas cowboy, but love him nonetheless.
Chapter One
For the fourth time, KC Montgomery reread the paragraph in the trust she was preparing for her client. And for the fourth time, her mind—followed by her gaze—rolled to the late afternoon sun outside her window. The clock in the corner of her computer monitor read three p.m. As far as she was concerned, it had to be five o’clock somewhere. Friday was done, which meant the work week was finally over. She flipped off her computer, slid it into a red leather laptop case, grabbed her purse and headed for the door.
“I’m out of here,” she said to her receptionist.
“Okay. Have a nice weekend.” Margaret looked at her watch and smiled. “Starting a little early, aren’t you?”
“Advantage of being my own boss.” KC hitched a thumb toward her law partner’s office door. “Jason already gone?”
“Got a client with him.”
“Ah. Our little rainmaker at work.”
“You did your share this week with that case you settled.”
KC smiled. “True, therefore, this rainmaker is calling it a week.”
KC exited through the rear door of the Montgomery and Montgomery, Attorneys at Law building. August in Texas was usually a scorcher, and today was no exception. A bead of sweat rolled behind her ear and down her neck before she reached her 1965 Pontiac GTO.
The engine roared when she turned the key. As usual, her heart raced with the sound. Man, she loved this car. Every time she climbed in, she thought of her parents. If this car could talk, she was sure she could collect valuable blackmail stories from her parents’ dating days when her dad was the coolest guy in town and this was his chick-magnet car.
She wheeled out of the lot and pointed the hood toward Leo’s Bar and Grill. She wanted a Thank-God-It’s-Friday beer in the worst way.
The minute her gaze fell on the forest-green Range Rover parked in Leo’s lot, her gut churned. She rubbed her stomach, trying to ease the whirling. She pulled next to the SUV and sat there for a minute trying to decide if she wanted to go in or not. She’d recognize that Range Rover anywhere. Sad to admit, she knew the license plate number on the back too. She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Drake Gentry was here.
She’d been close to eleven-years-old when she’d first laid eyes on Drake Gentry, an older man of seventeen. He’d been tall and lean with surfer-boy blond hair and emerald-green eyes that sparkled when he laughed. She’d fallen in love on the spot.
As the years passed, he’d crossed KC’s mind with more regularity than she would have liked and certainly more than she would admit. KC doubted anyone, particularly her cousin Olivia Montgomery—Drake’s ex-wife—was aware of her fascination with Drake. KC had perfected the art of emotional concealment, an almost impossible feat for someone who felt the way she did toward another person.
On the day Olivia and Drake had married—the day KC had to stand with Olivia as her maid of honor—KC had been sure she would die from the pain inside her chest. The seventh circle of hell didn’t begin to describe that day for her.
But Drake and Olivia’s marriage had ended quickly, only lasting a couple of years. Even back then, Olivia had been in love with Mitch Landry. Now that Olivia had reunited with the love of her life, she wanted the whole world to be as happy as she was. Actually, KC doubted there was a man alive who could compete with Mitch for Olivia’s affections.
So, go in or not? KC had wanted a shot with Drake forever. Even if she got a chance with him, there was no guarantee it’d go anywhere, but what’d she have to lose? Did she really have it in her to act on age-old feelings?
The timing was great. He wasn’t dating anyone else right now, as far as she knew. Whispering Springs, Texas was a small community, so gossip traveled like a brush fire in high winds. If he had a new love in his life, she’d have heard. That meant only one thing…he was single and available.
Rapping her nails on her steering wheel, she regretted not having a large stable of girlfriends at the ready. She needed a trusted woman to call, someone who could talk her through the pros and cons of trying to make something happen with Drake, or maybe just talk her out of it. But Dr. Caroline Graham was in Arkansas for her grandmother’s funeral and her other closest friend was her cousin Olivia. Somehow, it seemed tacky to call her cousin to discuss her ex-husband, even if Olivia had suggested to KC that Drake would be perfect for her. The memory of that conversation still made KC’s cheeks flush.
KC had gone to Olivia’s gym to talk with her about taking Adam to the movies. It’d been an animated film that KC had wanted to see but hadn’t wanted to go without a child as cover. Olivia had been more than willing to lend her son as a movie date, but then she’d suggested KC should really consider a more mature date, like Drake Gentry. When KC had fumbled for a response, concerned that Olivia was aware of her infatuation with Olivia’s ex-husband, Olivia had added that in her opinion, KC and Drake were a perfect match. Olivia had confessed she didn’t know if KC was interested in Drake or not—KC had almost melted in relief at that comment—but if KC was, Olivia offered to help any way she could.
KC had never come clean with Olivia about Drake, and her cousin had let the topic drop. However, there was never any doubt in KC’s mind that Olivia was sincere. She loved Drake like a friend and wanted him to be as happy as she was with Mitch.
The problem as KC saw it wasn’t Olivia. It was Drake. She wasn’t sure her interest was reciprocated. Oh, he’d given her hugs and kisses when they met, but try as she might to find something special in the way he treated her, she never could. Damn man was sweet and loving to everybody.
KC’s quandary of pursuing Drake stemmed from her own emotional insecurity.
Drake was the one man she would love to drag to a bed and keep there for a month or so and the only man she felt like she couldn’t.
After analyzing the situation for too many years, KC had come to the decision that the biggest obstacle to grabbing a chance at a torrid affair, outside her own insecurity, was Drake’s lack of physical availability. He’d been living in Wyoming for the past four years, making the physical distance an impossible hurdle. Now, however, he worked and lived in Dallas, closer than Wyoming but still over an hour away.
His parents and siblings lived in Whispering Springs County, so she knew he came to town occasionally. She’d looked for him during the Fourth of July celebration that the Whispering Springs Chamber of Commerce had sponsored, but if he’d been there, their paths had never crossed. Whispering Springs was a small, tight community. If Drake had been in town any time over the past six weeks, she’d have heard about it…and she hadn’t.
Well, he was here now. Unattached and available for the taking. No time like the present. Gripping her steering wheel tightly, she summoned up all the confidence she could. After freshening her lipstick, she snatched up her purse and headed for the bar entrance.
This early in the afternoon, the bar was fairly empty, which fit KC’s femme fatale plans nicely. It took a couple of moments for her eyes to adjust to the dimness of t
he bar after being outside in the bright Texas sun. As soon as her vision cleared, her gaze fell on a tall, handsome blond at the bar nursing a beer. Dressed in a yellow polo shirt and blue shorts, he still looked like a surfer dude who’d just come in from the beach. His tanned legs were propped on the brass foot rail and she could imagine sand beneath his sandal-encased feet. She smiled and made her way over.
“Hey, sailor. New in town?” She slid onto the stool next to him.
Drake Gentry grinned at her and leaned over to give her a quick brush of his lips across hers. “Kathryn Colleen Montgomery. Good to see you.”
She gave him a dramatic wince in response to her name while simultaneously stifling a shiver that rattled her from the brief contact of his lips. Nobody ever called her Kathryn Colleen but him. “Now, that was just mean.” She signaled Leo, the owner, to bring her a beer. “Haven’t seen you in a while. What’s up?”
“Been studying.”
Leo set down an icy mug of beer. KC took a long draw before replying.
“Studying? You’re the professor. What are you studying?”
“Since your law partner knows, guess you should too.”
“You told Jason a secret and he didn’t tell me?” She feigned an exaggerated gasp. “You do realize he’s the biggest gossip in the Montgomery family?”
He chuckled, his eyes twinkling with humor. “I don’t know. He’s held on to this one for a while now. You heard I was in Wyoming for the past four years, right?”
She nodded. “Sure. Some type of dig.”
“Well, that’s not exactly the truth. That’s what I told everyone, but I was really living in Little Rock, Arkansas. The rest of the story is that I attended law school while I was there.”
KC lifted an eyebrow, a talent that’d taken her years to perfect. “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not. Arkansas was close enough I could get home if I needed to. Plus, I was looking for another career and I figured a law degree could open up a number of different doors even if I didn’t want to practice. Then, to my surprise, I discovered I really enjoyed the law.” He shrugged. “I talked to Jason about my plan before I started school. He was pretty sure I’d lost my mind, but once I was knee-deep in classes, I didn’t want to stop.”
The mention of law school made KC’s heart skip. Another thing they’d have in common.
“What now?”
Drake tossed her a mega-watt grin and she almost tumbled backward off her stool.
“You know Olivia and I gave our relationship another shot back in May, right?”
The mention of her cousin had KC wanting to twitch. Her shoulders dropped at the thought Drake was still pining away for his ex-wife. She nodded. She also knew that within a week of their reconciliation, Olivia had put the brakes on resuming a romantic relationship with him.
“After Olivia and I split again in May, I locked myself away to study for the bar. I wish I could tell you I was heartbroken over the split, but I really wasn’t. My total focus this summer was passing the bar. I put everything into that, and when my head came up for air six weeks later, I realized how right Olivia had been.” He took a draw on his beer, maintaining an unreadable expression.
“I was sorry to hear about that,” she lied, not one bit sorry that Olivia had come to her senses and broken it off with him.
“It would never have worked. It didn’t six years ago and it wouldn’t have this time either. I realized that I loved Olivia, but more like a sister than a wife. You know what they say about hindsight.”
“Yep. Hindsight is twenty-twenty.”
She was thrilled to hear him admit he wasn’t pining away for Olivia or thinking of her as the one who got away. Six years ago, her cousin, deeply in love with Mitch Landry, had become pregnant with his baby. Mitch, unaware of the pregnancy and dealing with the unexpected death of his brother, had found himself planning a marriage to someone else. It’d been a nightmare time for both of them.
“Exactly,” Drake said. “She needed someone to lean on and I knew I had to be that someone. “ He shrugged. “It sounds so trite, but I was trying to be supportive by marrying her, giving her and her baby a name and a home. But let’s be honest. There’ll never be another man for her but Mitch Landry. What I should have done was driven to his ranch and kicked his ass, as well as the woman who’d tricked him into marriage. Then dragged him back to Dallas to Olivia.”
KC chuckled at the mental picture he drew. “True. Have you talked to Olivia lately?”
“Today, in fact. Ran by her gym to say hi, see how she’s doing.”
“Good that you can remain friends.”
They sat there for a minute and finished their beers. Leo replaced their empties with fresh draws.
“So what about teaching at SMU?” KC asked.
“Haven’t loved it.”
“You mean you hate all the fawning, young coeds cooing over you? Using their flirtations to try to improve their grades?”
He shook his head. “No. That part was pretty great.” He smiled and lust weaved through KC. “I hated the class prep, the tests, all the academic crap I had to deal with.” He wiped at a spill on the bar with his cocktail napkin. “I’d forgotten how much I hated all that tedious work back in my doctoral teaching days. And those female students you were talking about? Flattered, but not interested.”
She took a drink from her beer then licked the foam from her upper lip. “Too young for you?”
He shrugged and took a drink of his beer. “Just not interested.”
“So if you’re unhappy teaching, why are you still at SMU?”
“To kill time while I was waiting on my new position to open.”
“What new position?” KC’s heart dropped to her knees. Crap. He was leaving again before she had the chance to ravish him…or something like that.
“The job is still located at SMU. Are you familiar with TAAP?”
“Not really, so let’s say no.”
“It stands for Texas Association for Archaeological Preservation. I’ve taken the position as president and director. It’ll be a good way to use all my degrees. The board of directors was looking for someone with a law degree given the number of legal entanglements that TAAP finds itself in.”
“Sounds great, except you’re not a lawyer yet. When do you take the bar?”
“Took it two weeks ago. Waiting on the results, which I think we’ll know sometime in September.”
She held up her half-full glass in a salute. “Excellent.”
He clinked her glass and they drank.
“So, why are you in Leo’s? In town to see your family?”
“No. I…” His gaze left her face and moved toward the door. A smile bright enough to light the dim bar bloomed on his face. “Hey!” he called with a wave toward the door.
KC turned to follow Drake’s gaze. A young, tattooed woman hurried toward them. Randomly placed feathers decorated her chopped, inky-black, spiked hair. A short, black leather skirt rode low on her thin hips while a white tank top stretched across a pair of double D’s. Large gold hoops swung from her ears as she glided across the room in three-inch heels. A small gold hoop sparkled from her left eyebrow and a diamond jewel—KC wasn’t sure if it was real or a crystal—winked from her right nostril.
“Magda. So good to see you,” he said with a broad smile and open arms.
The woman slid between his wide-spread arms, hugged him and then stepped back a couple of inches. “Thank you for meeting me.”
“Any time, darlin’.” He pointed his chin toward KC. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”
The petite woman turned and extended a hand. “Hi. I’m Magda Hobbs.”
“KC Montgomery.”
Drake draped an arm around Magda’s shoulders and pulled her closer. “Magda and I have been seeing each other for a couple of weeks.”
KC’s heart turned to a lump of clay and dropped to her knees. She hoped her disappointment wasn’t written all over her face. So college-aged f
emales did interest him. “Wow. That’s…um…great. How did you meet? Were you one of Drake’s students?”
Magda shifted a couple inches away from Drake’s knees. Her posture was straight and a little rigid but the smile she gave KC was friendly. “My dad works for Mitch Landry. Mitch hired me to keep house.”
KC reined in her shock. “Mitch Landry? You work for Olivia’s Mitch?”
“Yep. Mitch flew up today. Said he has some business here so I hopped on and flew up to see Drake.”
“How…nice.” KC had never been much of a liar, but apparently she was honing her skills today.
Drake’s grin was broad enough to be obnoxious. “I know. Isn’t she the best?”
“Well, I’ll just let you two be alone.” KC moved to slide off the stool.
“Stay,” Drake said as he stood. “We’ll grab a booth.” He snagged his beer off the counter. “Good to see you, KC.”
“You too, Drake. Nice to meet you, Magda,” she lied.
She drained her beer as the man she’d been fantasizing about walked off with another woman.
“Leo,” she called. She held up her empty beer stein. “Diet Coke in a frozen mug, please.”
In a minute, Leo set a frosty mug of ice cold Diet Coke in front of her. “Looks like Doc’s date isn’t going too well.”
“Really?” Her eyebrows rose with the question. “I can’t turn around. It’d be too obvious. What’s happening?”
“Hold on.” Leo walked back to the shelves of liquor built over a wall-sized mirror. He moved three bottles to an upper shelf, leaving a gap on the lower two shelves and giving her a perfect view of Drake and Magda.
Magda sat across from him, her arms stretched across the table holding Drake’s hands. His face was drawn, a deep frown knitted his eyebrows. Magda was doing all the talking, not that KC could hear a word being said.
“That better?” Leo asked as he wiped as a nonexistent spot on the bar.
“Oh yeah. What do you think is going on?”
“I don’t think, I know. I’ve watched enough break-ups in here to know he’s getting the boot. You know the lady?”
Texas Fandango: Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 3 Page 1
