“Daniel still wants to marry her,” Lucky went on. So, no lecture after all. “He told Maude Kreppner that when he was checking out at the grocery store.”
If Daniel had told Maude, then he wanted it to get around town since Maude was the top spiller of gossip.
But why had Daniel done that?
Riley had to shake his head. “Claire turned down his proposal.”
“This time, yeah. But Daniel’s thinking that once you’re out of the picture—and you will be soon—that he’ll be there to help Claire finally get over you for good.”
Riley wanted to believe that wouldn’t happen, but he had to be realistic. Claire was an attractive young woman. Great in bed. She wouldn’t live like a nun just because he was back in uniform. And she did want a home, a family. Daniel just might end up wearing her down with the lure of giving her those things.
“Something to think about, huh?” Lucky said.
No, it wasn’t something Riley wanted to think about at all. He definitely didn’t want any images in his head of Daniel and Claire.
Too late.
They were there, and he might have found a new use for “Jingle Bells.”
Lucky took out a piece of folded paper from his pocket. “Before I go, Claire asked me to ask around about a guy named Rocky.”
“Her father,” Riley said.
Lucky nodded. “Anyway, I asked Maude since she seems to remember every dribble of gossip and news that’s ever spread through town. We don’t need archives with Maude around. She remembered his last name and the rest of the stuff I jotted down there.” He paused. “You can decide whether or not it’s a good idea to give to Claire.”
Shit.
If it was good, Lucky would have no doubt done the honors himself, and after the journal experience, Riley wasn’t sure she was ready for anything bad.
“It wouldn’t be right to keep it from her,” Lucky added, and this time he did get in the truck. That’s when Riley noticed he already had his bag inside. Packed. It was stuffed to the point of bulging.
Riley couldn’t argue with Lucky about it not being right, but it might not be right to put her through another emotional wringer, either.
“One more thing.” Lucky started the engine, shut the door and finished what he was saying through the open window. “If you break Claire’s heart, I’ll have to punch you, hard. Like, right in the nuts.”
Yes, he knew that. Lucky would consider it his duty to punch him.
And Riley would let him.
* * *
“YOU DO KNOW I will hunt you down if you hurt Claire,” Livvy said.
For Riley it was a déjà vu moment because Livvy’s threatening call had come less than an hour after Lucky’s nuts-punch-threatening goodbye. At first Riley hadn’t been certain why the woman was calling him, but Livvy hadn’t wasted even a greeting before she’d launched right into the reason.
“I don’t want her hurt,” Riley assured her.
“Wanting and making sure it doesn’t happen are two different things. Claire’s vulnerable right now.”
“I know. But unless she’s told you something different, she wants to be with me. No strings attached.”
“Bullocks. She’d take those strings in a second if you offered them to her. And, no, I know you can’t, but you can do this the right way.”
“Then tell me what the right way is.” Riley was serious, too. He’d never thought he’d ask for love advice from Livvy, but he was open to suggestions.
“Offer her an out. She won’t take it, but it’ll remind her that you’re worried about how deep this shit is you’re both stepping in and tracking all over her life.”
An out? Instead of asking Livvy to tell him the right way, maybe he should have said he was open to good suggestions. That didn’t sound like a good one since Claire had been the one to put this sex pact together. If he offered her an out now, she might interpret that as his thinking she sucked in bed.
And she didn’t.
Nor did she suck on the kitchen table.
“If you hurt her,” Livvy went on, “I’m coming after you with a set of rusty pliers, and I won’t be using them on your teeth.”
Riley couldn’t help it. He winced. But thankfully he didn’t have to listen to the details of what Livvy planned to do with those pliers because she hung up, leaving Riley to sit there and wonder if every single human being on the planet knew he’d slept with Claire.
And that latest threat wasn’t the end to the unpleasant parts of what had otherwise been a pleasant day. Riley had some manning up to do. He needed to talk to Daniel about Claire, but the question was—how should he do that?
He’d have to do this face-to-face, which was the reason Riley had stopped in town when he’d seen Daniel’s car in front of his real estate office. He’d parked up the block, though, to give himself a few minutes to figure how to work this out. It was getting late, well past eight, so it was possible Daniel was in there doing paperwork and not with a client. Riley hoped so anyway. This wasn’t something he wanted to discuss in front of an audience.
There wasn’t a man-rule about manning up, but Riley didn’t need a rule to let him know that he had to own up to having slept with Claire without actually saying he’d slept with her. Something like that was Claire’s to tell, but Riley also knew he’d have to let Daniel know the other man-rule had been broken.
Don’t take anything that wasn’t his.
Claire hadn’t been his, but then she hadn’t exactly been Daniel’s, either. Not after turning down his proposal.
“Need a drink before you go in there?” someone asked. Trisha.
Hell. With all his special ops training, Riley should have heard a woman in high heels walking up to his car. He needed to get back to par with his observation skills because if he had heard, he could have avoided this conversation with Trisha by going straight into the office.
Riley lowered the window and hoped this would be a short conversation. But Trisha leaned against his car. Thankfully, that wasn’t a come-and-get-me look in her eye. More like sympathy.
Great.
That meant she’d likely heard about Riley staying the night with Claire. Maybe she even knew about both times. Of course, he hadn’t expected something like that to stay quiet. Anyone driving by Claire’s house would have seen his car. Or Daniel’s for the first overnight stay.
“Daniel’s upset, you know,” Trisha said. “I probably should be, too. After all, I thought you were with Jodi. Jodi thought you were with her, too, but it turns out we were both wrong.”
And she waited for Riley to verify something he had no intention of verifying. Instead, he got out of the car.
“I’ll be seeing you, Trisha,” he said.
But she trailed along beside him. “You should probably wait a day or two before talking to Daniel. I heard from Maude that he wasn’t taking this well. He especially didn’t take it well when he found out Claire had bought that deluxe box of condoms on sale at the convenience store.”
Riley didn’t stop walking, but that slowed him down a bit. Claire hadn’t mentioned the box of condoms, probably because he’d brought one, but damn it, just the thought of her doing such a thing nearly gave him a hard-on.
Coupled with Lucky’s threat to punch him, his own threat to punch himself if he did indeed break her heart, Riley wasn’t sure what the hell he was going to do. Have sex with her again and then beat himself up? Sadly, that was the best solution he could think of because he wasn’t going to be the one to end the sex pact with Claire. She would have to do that.
“The clerk said he’d never seen Claire buy condoms before,” Trisha added. She paused, but Riley stayed mum.
“If you don’t mind, I think I should talk to Daniel alone,” Riley told her.
“You’re sure? I mean, if it comes
to blows, I could be there to stop it. I don’t want you to hurt your shoulder.”
Neither did he, but if Daniel started throwing his fists, Riley didn’t want an audience for that. Especially an audience who would blab it to Claire before Riley could even make it to her house.
“I’m sure,” Riley insisted, and he waited for Trisha to leave before he finished walking to Daniel’s door.
The building was an old midcentury glass front so it was easy to see inside through the wall of windows. There was a desk where it looked as if a receptionist would usually be. No receptionist now, though, but there was an office just behind the desk. Riley went inside and headed there. Since the door wasn’t fully closed, he pushed it open.
And got a big eyeful.
Earful, too.
Daniel shrieked, a very unmanly sound, probably because his bare ass was facing the door. Probably, too, because there was a naked woman beneath him on the desk. She didn’t shriek, but she did curse, and it was both a profanity and a voice that Riley recognized.
Jodi.
Daniel got up, scrambling to get dressed. Jodi didn’t scramble. Despite the fact that she was naked, too, she got up off the desk as if doing a leisurely stroll in the park.
“You should have knocked,” Daniel growled.
Riley gave him a flat look. “You should have locked the door. Or at least closed it all the way.”
However, Riley could see how this had all played out because something similar had played out between Claire and him the night before. He’d taken her on the kitchen table, which wasn’t that much different from a desk.
Huffing and puffing enough to blow a house down, Daniel got dressed and then took Riley by the arm to lead him back into the reception area. He shut the door between them and Jodi.
“What happened in there wasn’t planned,” Daniel said, removing his hand from Riley so he could fling it back toward the office where he’d left a naked Jodi. “Jodi came by to comfort me because I was upset.”
“About Claire and me. I heard. That’s why I came, too. To tell you in person that the man-rule had been broken. But now it appears it’s been doubly broken.”
“How can you say that? Jodi and you broke up.”
“So did Claire and you,” Riley reminded him.
“That’s temporary.”
“What if it’s temporary between Jodi and me?” It wasn’t, but Riley was making a point here.
Point taken judging from the way Daniel’s face got red and sweaty. Of course, that could have been from the sex on the desk.
“So, we’re at a stalemate,” Daniel concluded.
Were they? Riley had enough unresolved situations without continuing this one with Daniel. So, no, it wasn’t a stalemate.
“The man-pact is null and void because I’m seeing Claire again,” he told Daniel, and he spoke slowly enough so that neither Daniel nor Jodi would miss a word. Jodi was almost certainly listening at the door. “And I’ll continue seeing Claire as long as she wants. Or until I leave, whichever comes first. In fact, I’m headed to her place now.”
“To use all those condoms she bought at the convenience store.” Daniel’s face got redder. “I’ll bet she didn’t tell you they were on sale.”
Riley wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything and was afraid to ask. It was time for him to get out of there.
“You’ll just break her heart,” Daniel said as he was walking away.
“So I’ve heard,” Riley mumbled.
“And you know what I’ll do to you if that happens.”
Riley did know. He’d just punch him, but Daniel would apparently have to wait in line to do that—behind Lucky’s fist and Livvy’s pliers. God knew how many people were ready and willing to maim him for Claire’s sake.
Finally, Riley started back toward his car, and that meant he’d see Claire in just a matter of minutes. However, the thought alone must have tempted fate because his phone rang. He glanced at the screen and cursed.
Hell.
What now?
* * *
WELL, THIS WAS not what Claire had in mind when she’d offered Riley sex. She’d expected him to take her up on the offer, and he had. For one night anyway. Two if she counted the no-condom night before the offer. But she hadn’t heard a peep from him since he’d left that morning.
Of course she thought the worst.
But in her mind, there were several worsts, including but not limited to that he was dead in a ditch somewhere. She wasn’t certain why her mind always paired unexplained absences with ditches and death, but she did.
Ditches and worst-case scenarios aside, she had another problem. One that she hadn’t actually thought through when she’d started this affair with Riley—if one and a half times could be considered an affair, that is. And what she hadn’t thought through were the logistics of having hot sex with a toddler in the house. Certainly, parents had figured out a way to accomplish an orgasm or two, but they must have adjusted.
Definitely no sex on the kitchen table.
Probably minimal moaning, too. Claire hadn’t realized until she’d been with Riley that she was a moaner.
“Riley?” Ethan asked.
Had she said Riley’s name aloud again? If so, she needed to watch that. Because now that Riley was paired with sex in her mind, Claire didn’t want any naughty words tumbling out of her mouth when Ethan was around.
“I don’t think Riley’s coming tonight,” she answered, and Ethan seemed to understand that. He frowned, kept playing his newly created game of chase van Gogh—or just Gogh as he was now calling the kitty—with a toy van while he chanted, “Go, go, go.”
Claire was sure she frowned, too, and nearly broke her hand reaching for the phone when it rang. Not Riley. Livvy. Claire moaned again, but this time there was nothing orgasmic about it.
“Has he called yet?” Livvy asked.
Livvy didn’t have to clarify the he or the yet because this was Livvy’s third call of the evening to see if Riley had shown. Something was up, and while Claire had been too preoccupied with her ditch-and-death fears, she hadn’t noticed that Livvy was on edge. But she noticed it now.
“All right, what’s up?” Claire demanded.
Silence. Never a good thing with two-year-olds, kittens or best friends.
“I might have scared Riley off earlier,” Livvy finally answered.
Her stomach went to her kneecaps. “You did what?”
More silence. “I called him and told him he’d better not break your heart. I might have implied a threat.”
Claire groaned. “Not the rusty pliers again.” It was one of Livvy’s favorite threats when a guy dumped her. She’d never go through with it, of course, but it couldn’t have been fun for Riley to hear. But it was just a threat. “That alone wouldn’t have scared Riley off,” Claire insisted.
“No, but I’m pretty sure Lucky threatened him, too. And maybe Daniel.”
Sheez. Lucky she understood. It was a brotherly thing to do. But Daniel? “When did Daniel see Riley?”
More silence. “Uh, how much gossip do you want to hear?”
Claire wasn’t sure. “Is the gossip related to Riley?”
“Yes.”
She debated it. Gossip rarely left her feeling good, and her mood already sucked. “All right, spill it but only if it really relates to Riley. I don’t want to hear any sidelines like bad wax jobs or crabs.”
“Crabs?” Livvy latched right on to that. “Who has crabs?”
According to the gas station attendant, apparently one of the Nederlands did, but Livvy had already missed the point. “That’s not related to Riley or me. Or you.”
Another round of silence, but Claire figured that was because Livvy was only trying to pick through whatever it was she’d heard
. There was a lot of gossip floating around at the moment.
“According to Trisha,” Livvy finally continued, “Riley caught Daniel fudging Jodi in his office. On his desk.”
Her heart nearly tumbled out of her chest. That was definitely relevant gossip. “Did they get in a fight? Is Riley hurt?” And better yet, was Riley crushed that he’d caught Jodi with another man?
That was really the key point here. The next key point was that Claire was having trouble picturing Daniel and Jodi together that way... Nope. She pictured it, and she wished she hadn’t. Not because she cared if Daniel had sex with Jodi, but because she didn’t want the naked image in her head of them having sex on a desk.
And here Daniel usually kept his desk neat as a pin.
She’d never be able to look at that desk again, or his office, without that image popping up.
“There was no fight that Trisha could tell, but she was watching from a distance. Maybe even through binoculars since she said she couldn’t tell what they were saying because she doesn’t lip read.”
Claire nearly asked for more as to how Trisha knew all of this, but she already had too many details to sort through. “So, if there was no fight, then what happened?”
“Trisha said Daniel and Riley talked, or rather they argued. She said Daniel’s face got all red, and after they talked for a while longer, Riley stormed out.”
Stormed? That meant he was upset. Maybe upset about Jodi having sex with Daniel. Maybe upset about whatever Daniel had said to him. For the first time since she’d become aware of the gossip epidemic in Spring Hill, Claire wished Trisha had gotten more info.
“What was Jodi doing during all of this?” Claire asked.
“Getting dressed. Trisha said she didn’t come out and talk to Riley after he found Daniel and her bare-assed naked.”
Poor Riley. Even though he had broken off things with Jodi, that would have given him a jolt. Ditto for the argument he would have no doubt had with Daniel. No wonder he’d stormed off.
“Are you okay?” Livvy asked. “Want me to come over?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“You’re sure? Because I can cancel my date with the actor.”
Texas on My Mind Page 23
