Lost in Tennessee

by DeVito, Anita

  Kate slid off the bed slowly, as though she didn’t want to go. She fished her bra off the chair and picked up her panties by a frayed end. “You tore these!”

  Butch grinned at her proudly. “You drive me crazy. I was in a hurry.”

  “Wait until you see what I do to you tonight.” She took a new pair of panties from her dresser drawer and put them on slowly as Butch watched. Then she shimmied back into her jeans.

  Her teasing words and the quick shake of her hips had Butch stirring again. “I think I discovered something today.” He found her shirt and pulled it over her head, pausing to stroke the soft skin of her breasts.

  Kate dropped her head back as he touched. “A bed is softer than the floor?”

  “Yes, but no. I have a soft spot for you. I didn’t like being here without you today. I know I told you to go,” he said when she lifted her head and started to interrupt. “I won’t pretend it makes sense. This has never happened to me before, so you’re just going to have to be a good little woman and not press me on this.”

  Kate laughed like he had hoped she would and flashed him a wicked little grin. “Right, because I am the model for a good little woman. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you’re in for a world of trouble if a good little woman is what you need.”

  Butch tugged her hair back and kissed her hard. “A good little woman and a lot of really hot sex.” Butch relished the ability to touch her and, if he read her reaction right, she enjoyed touching him just as much. “Did you eat lunch?”

  Kate shook her head. “You promised me a picnic. Rain or not, I’m holding you to it.” She found his shirt, turned it right side out, and held it out for him. Butch let her dress him, encouraging her to put her hands on him.

  Butch had planned the picnic while he moved the bales. He’d planned to charm her, maybe sweet talk her into a little kissing. It was a good plan then. It was a good plan now. “Let’s go to the kitchen and see what we can find.”

  “Maybe we can order pizza.”

  He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, holding her there. “Who has pizza on a picnic?”

  “Who says you can’t have pizza on a picnic?” With a satisfied smile, Kate fell into him.

  Butch took her hips and lifted until her legs wrapped around him. With her hair falling around them, Kate pressed her lips to his.

  “Clyde, I’ve told you about that kind of behavior.” The screen door squeaked in protest when Jeb pulled it open.

  Butch held Kate’s hips against his when she would have jumped back. His gaze roamed over her face with warm eyes, and a cocky smile curved his lips. “I’m in the privacy of my own house, Sheriff.” The smile was only for her. “What I do with a pretty girl here is between her and me.”

  Jeb grinned at his brother. “Nice to see you kids are getting along. What do we have to eat? I missed lunch.”

  Getting all six of them to Nashville had been a feat. Tom and Hyde climbed in with Jeb while Butch took Trudy and Kate. Kate was ready in five minutes with one small, half-empty duffle bag. Trudy hauled two roller bags and spent ten minutes picking out driving shoes before racing ahead of Kate for the front passenger seat. Trudy manned the radio and the climate controls with authority, complaining that Butch’s songs weren’t played enough and the wind was ruining her hair.

  Butch had wanted Kate with him, but she just smiled and slid into the back seat. Sunglasses on, she sat right in the middle, where Butch saw her with a glance in the rearview mirror. The entire drive, she had a smile on her face and her head on a swivel taking in everything. That was Kate.

  Trudy walked into the Hermitage in downtown Nashville like she owned the place. This was one of Butch’s favorite hotels, and he had treated her to the classic decadence before. She barely glanced at the suited valets and bellmen as she dove into the eclectic little shop inside, leaving others to deal with her bags and debris.

  Kate followed Butch in and goggled as if she’d walked into a cathedral. The marble floor and vaulted ceiling captured the little architect’s attention so much so that Butch had to take her arm to save her from tripping up the stairs and walking into furniture. While Butch checked in, Kate begged paper from the front desk and sat on one of the plush couches to sketch. Butch watched her while the others checked in. Something in her eyes—a light, a twinkle that came with a pure joy of life—showed the way she appreciated the beauty around her. An older couple with that same twinkle in their eyes looked over Kate’s shoulder, and she talked to them for several minutes about the features of the architecture.

  Butch left the bags to the bellman and swept Kate off of her feet to get her out of the lobby. Kate kicked and squirmed but couldn’t break his hold.

  “Put me down.” She pushed at his arm. “We’re in public.”

  “In this beautiful place, with a sexy woman, it’s a man’s prerogative to be romantic. Stop fussing.”

  She kicked her legs for freedom. “Someone might see us.”

  “I just don’t care.” Wasn’t that something? He didn’t care who saw him with this woman in his arms. In fact, he wanted everyone to see him, see them together. His Katie.

  When her frown subsided into a shy smile, he leaned in and rewarded her with a kiss.

  Her head rested on his shoulder as they rode the elevator up, butterfly kisses tickling his neck. The bellman opened the door, and Butch carried Katie inside, putting her on her feet so he could tip the bellman on his way out. As soon as the door had closed, he tackled her onto the oversized bed. They tumbled and laughed and tickled until neither of them could breathe, then he kissed her and loved her with all his heart. Completely relaxed and thoroughly satisfied, she turned her head into the pile of pillows with a happy little sigh.

  As Butch came out of the shower with a decadently thick towel tucked around his waist and another drying his hair, Katie lay sprawled, naked as a jaybird on the bed, exactly as he had left her. With her arms above her head, her ripe breasts, draped in a mess of her red hair, called invitingly to him. He couldn’t resist stroking the little phoenix winking up at him.

  In her light sleep, the fingers drawing over her sensitive skin raised goose bumps on her skin and tightened her nipples. She shifted her hips to stroke, to soothe. She opened her eyes to find him staring down at her.

  She smiled up sexily. “You look good wet.”

  Butch smiled. He didn’t say anything. He just ran his calloused fingertips over the peek-a-boo tattoo.

  She licked her lips, rolling her head in the pillow. “What are you doing?”

  “Taking a picture.”

  Her eyes flashed, and she snatched the sheet over her in a move that was sheer speed. “No, you aren’t, you pervert.”

  Butch roared out and fell on to her, hugging her sheet-wrapped body. “Not with a camera, you prude. With my mind. I want to remember forever what you looked like here, sexually tamed by yours truly.”

  Kate laughed and narrowed her eyes. “Sexually tamed? Ha! You didn’t tame me.”

  Butch readied to pounce on her again when his phone rang. “Trudy,” he said to Kate before he answered the phone. “I know we said thirty minutes. No, I didn’t know that was forty-five minutes ago. Yes, we’re on our way.” With a sigh, Butch cast aside the towel and pulled on underwear and jeans. “We’re late for an afternoon of good food and better music.”

  Kate slid out of the bed and purposely brushed Butch as she went for her jeans. “Hmm. Food sounds good. Something has my appetite up.” In under five minutes, Kate wore jeans and a pale green blouse, had her hair in a twisted, sexy flip, and stood waiting at the door.

  “Well, little woman, you’d better eat up, because you are going to need all that energy for what I have planned for you tonight.”

  Kate and Tom walked along Broadway like the tourists they were. It was the middle of the afternoon, but music spilled into the street like prime-time Friday night. People milled around everywhere, shopping with street vendors, taking pictures of famous bars. Tom and
Kate elbowed each other and pointed and giggled at the sights while their four friends walked around like they were back in their old neighborhood.

  Butch held the door open at Jack’s Barbecue and treated them all to one of the finest meals in town. Trudy delicately nibbled. Kate devoured some of the best ribs she had ever tasted. Butch wore a ball cap low on his head, but that didn’t stop people from staring or coming up to him. Butch was polite, too polite, Kate thought as his lunch got cold while everyone else ate.

  “I would weigh two hundred pounds if I lived here.” Kate pushed the rest of her ribs away and licked the sauce off her fingers.

  Tom snagged Kate’s plate of leftovers as though they were at home. “I would want this every day. Do they deliver?”

  Trudy pushed her food aside and wiped her fingers with the lemon-scented wet wipe. “I feel like dancing tonight and need a new pair of boots to do it in.”

  Jeb winked at Hyde. “You need to get yourself a pair of cowboy boots, Tom. The women around here, well, they know a colt from a stallion by what’s on a man’s feet. You want a warm bed tonight? You got to trade in those boats on your feet for some real boots.”

  Kate chuckled softly, as a large portion of the female population they had passed on the street had already noticed Tom. With his dark features and the black shirt stretched across his sculpted chest, women tripped over their feet to get a good look. Kate didn’t think he’d have too hard of a time finding a dancing partner, but when in Rome.

  Tom smiled. “Boots, huh? I could wear boots.”

  With lunch finished, Trudy led the way, trotting a half step in front of everyone the short distance to Second Street and into Nashville Cowboy. The big, open store was all hardwood and new leather. Shelves of cowboy boots from the simple to the ornate lined the walls, while a sign over a doorway at the back advertised “buy one, get two free.” Trudy sprinted to the back room, looking for the deal of the century, while Kate perused the size seven selections in the front room. Jeb and Hyde steered Tom toward the men’s side of the store. Kate watched them with an eagle eye. Those two were up to something. She just wasn’t sure what it was.

  Butch, recognized again, stood in a conversation with a mother and her two teenaged daughters, who petted him like he was a golden retriever. Kate split her attention, watching him sign autographs and keeping an eye on her cousin. She picked up a boot to look like she was interested in being there.

  “Five hundred dollars?” she gagged.

  “And worth every penny,” a striking salesman said. A few years younger than her, he had a pretty-boy face that would always look younger than his years. “These are all leather and handmade to last a lifetime.”

  “For that kind of money, they’d better do more than last.”

  “Try a pair on, and you’ll see the difference. Cowboy boots fit different than other boots, and it’s a difference that matters.”

  Kate rolled her eyes and let him have his way. They weren’t leaving anytime soon, so she might as well do something to pass the time. While the salesman went to get the pair of boots, Kate looked through a rack of dresses. She didn’t own any. She had a few skirts, black ones she wore for formal meetings and presentations. Mostly, she wore pants. Denim, khaki, linen, pleated, flat front, and fitted waist filled her closet. Though pretty, these dresses would be out of place. They were light and fresh as a spring field blooming with wild flowers.

  She pulled out one in her size and held it up to the mirror. In the reflection, she saw Butch had said his good-byes to his fans and tried on a pair of boots. Kate caught his eye, and he flashed an appreciative grin.

  “The changing room is right there,” the salesman said. “Try it on, and we’ll see how it looks with the boots.”

  Kate rolled her eyes at him again, letting him know she knew he was working her. Then, she swallowed hard. The girl in her wanted to be indulged. Impulse took over, and she practically dove into the changing room, where she tore off her jeans and slid into the pretty dress before she could talk herself out of it.

  “That is an amazing dress on you.” The salesman waited at a bench with a pair of brown leather boots with intricate stitching. “Try these on.”

  Kate slid her feet into boots that hugged her feet without binding. She stood, her hands compulsively smoothed the soft cotton over her flat stomach. “I don’t think this is me. There’s more of me out of it than in. For this kind of money, you would think it would cover something.”

  Kate stared at herself in the mirror and frowned, disappointed. She wanted to look like a country princess. She wanted to look like a swan, elegant and beautiful. Instead, all she saw was an ugly duckling with too much shape and muscle to be pretty.

  Butch came up behind her, wrapped his arm around her waist, and drew his lips across her nearly bare shoulder. “I told you, you were beautiful.”

  Kate shook her head in denial. “I’m all…yuck.”

  “There isn’t one spot of you that’s yuck. I’ve been over every inch of you. I know what I’m talking about. I like the dress…and the boots.” Jeb called Butch away and left Kate looking at herself in the mirror.

  She touched the spot where his lips had been. “I’ll take them,” she told the salesman. “And I’ll pay for his boots, too.”

  Butch spoke with two young women who bounced with every word. Kate butted in long enough to get Butch to take off the boots he wore. The girls were ecstatic to have their photo taken with a shoeless Butch McCormick and swore their undying allegiance to him, like, forever.

  The salesman cut the tags off the boots, and Kate handed them to Butch. He put them on while he listened to them list their favorite songs. Kate watched him, gentle and generous with his time with strangers, while she folded her old clothes into the store bag.

  Tom walked up to the cash register to pay for his boots, looking at Kate as though she’d grown two heads.

  “Those look good on you.” Kate used her arms to cover bare skin.

  Tom swung a leg back and forth. “They’re lighter than my work boots.”

  “No steel in the toes would make them lighter. The sole isn’t as thick. And they look better.”

  “Let’s wait outside. I want to look around.”

  Kate leaned against the building while Tom stood under a tree, blatantly grinning at every single female that walked by, age, race, shape, and size be damned. Nearly all of them grinned back. When he chose to use it, Tom had an animal magnetism that rivaled an African lion.

  Hyde came out of the store empty-handed.

  “Not buying today?” Kate asked.

  “Nope. The ones I have are just fine. What’s he doing?” Hyde pointed to Tom with his chin.

  “Flirting.”

  His beefy arms crossed and an easy going smile on his face, Tom said something to every man-less woman that walked by. And it worked. They smiled at him, giggled, stopped, and talked.

  When there was a lull, Hyde crossed the sidewalk. “How do you do that?”

  Tom grinned. “The secret is to make every woman feel like she’s special.”

  “Every woman is special,” Kate scoffed.

  “Exactly my point,” Tom said. “Blondes, brunettes, hell, even redheads are beautiful. Tall, short, trim, curvy. How many are actually made to feel special? Appreciated? That’s what I do, I appreciate. Try it.”

  “What if she ain’t my type?”

  “You aren’t going to marry her. Just appreciate her.”

  A thirty-something woman with business on her mind walked toward them with long strides. Hyde leaned against the tree and appreciated the way her heels clicked in a quick rapport. “Afternoon, ma’am. I hope you have a beautiful day.”

  The woman snapped startled, green eyes to Hyde, and her face warmed into a friendly smile. “Thank you. I hope you do, too.” That smile stayed on her face while she walked past him and was still there when she glanced back over her shoulder.

  Hyde scratched the back of his neck. “Well I’ll be damned.
”

  Trudy fell out of the store carrying a stuffed bag that nearly dragged on the ground. You would have thought she had netted the big game on a safari by the smile on her face. Jeb followed her out, glaring between Trudy and Butch. Butch came out last, shoving his wallet back into his pocket. He wrapped his arm around Kate’s waist and held her back from the others.

  “Why did you do that?” He glowered down at her. “I was going to buy you the boots. And the dress.”

  Kate withdrew subtly under the unexpected reprimand. “I buy my own clothes. I don’t need you to buy me stuff.”

  Butch blinked at her. “I’m with a woman, I pay. That was the way I was raised. A man takes care of his woman. Not the other way around. You shouldn’t have bought me the boots.”

  “What’s the big deal? You bought lunch.”

  “A barbecue lunch is not the same as a new pair of boots.”

  Kate pulled away, uncomfortable with his reaction, self-conscious about her gift. “You won’t take any money for the room, and you’ve been feeding Tom and me for a week.”

  Butch’s voice stayed quiet but dropped an octave. “So this is some kind of payback?”

  Kate walked faster, trying to escape his disapproval. “No. No, not like that at all. I like the way they look on you. You like them. You were busy, I have money. I wanted to do something nice for you. It’s not a big deal.”

  “What are you two doing back there?” Trudy called. “I need to change before we leave for the Opry. Get a move on.”

  Butch grew silent. Kate put some space between them as they worked their way up the hill to the Hermitage. She felt foolish, clomping up the hill in boots and a dress. She couldn’t wait to get to the room and put her jeans on. And a bra. She felt naked without a bra.

  The others crossed the street, disappearing through the doors held open by the gloved doormen. She stopped at the curb, waited for a car to pass, and shuffled across the road.