by Lori Wilde
“I’m not interested in Leigh,” he told her, knowing if he said anything different Janet would go out of her way to sabotage his plans.
“I see,” Janet said, but he knew she didn’t believe him. Tough. He wasn’t about to tell Janet that he was interested in Leigh. But the truth was, he’d always been interested in her.
He glanced at Janet, Tammy and Caitlin. He sure didn’t have any allies in this group. They were looking at him like he was prime rib on sale.
No, if he wanted allies, he’d have to see if Leigh’s brothers might be willing to help him out. After all, his intentions toward their sister were honorable.
Unfortunately, that was the part that made Leigh so mad at him.
“So you want to go to dinner,” Janet asked again. “I’ll buy.” When Caitlin and Tammy protested, she added, “They can come along, too.”
“I don’t think so,” Jared said.
All three women crowded around him, and he felt as trapped as a trussed-up calf.
“You sure you won’t change your mind?” Janet ran one red-painted nail down his chest “We’ll have a great time.”
Jared shook his head and gently pushed his way out of the group. “No. Sorry, ladies.”
All three women tried to change his mind, but he didn’t waver. He had plans tonight. Plans he wasn’t about to change.
He intended on hanging out at the cafe, no matter how long it took. Sooner or later, Leigh and Billy Joe Tate would show up. Then he’d see what he could do about putting the kibosh on this whole nature-taking-its-course idea.
He hadn’t moved back to town and started this rodeo school just to watch the woman he wanted fool around with some other guy.
He hadn’t been thrown from that many horses.
Chapter 3
“So now I’m figuring there’s a problem with the fuel injection system on my car instead of the radiator,” Billy Joe Tate said, drawing yet another picture of who-knew-what on his napkin.
They were at Roy’s Cafe, waiting to order. This date with Billy was Leigh’s first crack at enjoying her newfound freedom. Of course, it might have been a little easier to enjoy if he stopped rattling on about his car, but still, freedom was freedom, even if it did come with a few boring stories. And with any luck, tonight would take her mind off Jared.
She glanced at Billy, who at the moment was tucking his napkin into his collar. Okay, maybe he wouldn’t completely take her mind off Jared, but being here beat the heck out of sitting at home.
Desperate to change the subject, Leigh asked, “So have you decided what you’d like to eat?”
Billy nodded. “Chicken fried steak, same as every time I come here. It’s good for the soul.”
Ick. But bad for the arteries. Fortunately, Billy’s coronary health was none of her business. “I think I’ll have a salad.”
“Chick food,” Billy said with a laugh.
“Intelligent food,” Leigh corrected. “Some of us want to live to see fifty.”
Billy frowned. “Fifty what?”
Grrr. “Forget it.”
“Wish I could forget about my car,” Billy said, circling right back into the same old conversation. “Like I said, this time, I think I’ve finally figured out what’s wrong. And once I take the system apart, maybe I’ll also see where that spare part I have should go.”
Oh, pulleese. Billy was a menace. Maybe she should talk to her brother Trent, the chief of police, and see if they could issue a restraining order keeping Billy at least 150 yards away from anything mechanical.
Loyalty to her fellow human beings forced her to say, “Give it up, Billy. You don’t know what you’re doing, so you may create even more problems than you’re trying to fix. You may even make your car unsafe, which could end up hurting some innocent person. You need to get a mechanic involved.”
Billy squinched up his face and looked like he planned on arguing the point, so Leigh added, “Do it for me. Please?”
That worked. He grinned. “Sure, Leigh. I’d hate for you to worry about me. I’ll take my car to a mechanic and get it done right.” Brightening, he added, “And this way, I’ll have plenty of time to work on my phone. There’s something wrong with it. A little tweak or two should fix it right up.”
Leigh made a mental note not to take any phone calls from Billy in the near future. Who knew what damage he could do when he tore apart his phone? On the bright side, at least he wouldn’t be driving it around town.
She opened her mouth to once again tell Billy to be careful, but before she could say anything, someone else jumped in.
“Be careful when you take apart that phone. You can hurt yourself.”
Leigh spun around. Sure enough, Jared Kendrick sat at the table directly behind them. He was pretty much hidden by the huge potted fern between the two tables, but still, why hadn’t she seen him sooner?
This couldn’t be happening yet again. “What are you doing here? Can’t I go anywhere without you showing up?”
“I’m having dinner, and for the record, I was here first.” He leaned a little to the right and waved. “Hey, Billy.”
“Hey, Jared,” Billy said. “You all by yourself?”
Oh, no. No, no, no. Billy couldn’t be planning on doing what he sounded like he was planning on doing.
“Billy, it doesn’t matter if Jared is by himself,” Leigh said sweetly. “We’re on a date. We should be alone.”
When Billy gave her a doofy smile, she thought he’d understood her not-at-all-subtle message that she didn’t want Jared to join them. They might have reached a truce, but that didn’t mean she wanted to spend any more time with Jared than the homecoming parade forced on her.
But apparently, Billy didn’t get her hint, because not two seconds later, he said to Jared, “Leigh and I don’t mind. You should join us. I can tell you about my car.”
Jared stood and walked over to their table. “Leigh, is this okay with you?”
He expected her to say no. She could see it on his face. Well, if he was going to be mature and adult and reasonable about their relationship, then darn it, she was, too.
Still, all she could manage was, “It’s fine. Sit.”
Of course, Jared decided to sit in the chair next to her. Now the two of them were sitting together, and Billy was across the table. To the casual observer—not that there were any casual ones in Honey—it looked like she and Jared were together, and that Billy had joined them.
Sheesh.
Billy, however, seemed as happy as a dog with a steak. He launched back into his fuel injector story and continued along that vein on and off throughout dinner. Once or twice either she or Jared tried to negotiate the conversation away from Billy’s car, but he stuck to that topic and refused to budge.
Finally, in what seemed to be desperation, Jared said, “So, Billy, enough about your car. Did you ask Leigh how her day was?”
Billy blinked. “Why? She taught school, like she always does during the week.”
“But I’m sure she’d like to talk about her day, too,” Jared said.
Wearing a stunned expression, Billy asked, “You did something interesting today, Leigh? But you were at school. School’s boring.”
Okay, there was only so much a woman could take. Here she needed Billy to rise to the occasion and be the perfect date in front of Jared, and instead he was doing a terrific impersonation of a dweeb.
Biting back a groan, she said, “School went very well today. The class I’m in is wonderful. In fact, quite a few of the kids are accelerated.”
Billy scratched his head. “I think you should tell Gavin about that. They don’t like the kids takin’ stuff.”
“No, no. I don’t mean accelerated in that sense,” Leigh said. “I just meant they’re ahead of the rest of the class.”
Billy bobbed his head. “Gotcha. So you should tell them to slow down and wait for everyone else. Man, I hate it when people run ahead and leave you in the dust. The kids on the track team used to do that to u
s all the time. It stunk.”
Leigh stared at Billy, wondering why on earth she’d asked him out in the first place. A snicker from Jared quickly reminded her. Oh, yeah, she’d been hoping Billy could distract her.
Billy chose that moment to burp.
Sheesh.
“Speaking of going fast, how do you like your new car, Leigh? It’s sweet. What kind of mileage do you get?”
She could tell Jared found all this oh-so amusing. Heck, she’d find it funny, too, if it wasn’t all playing out in front of Jared. Life was against her. There were no two ways about it.
“Billy, why don’t you ask Leigh about the work she’s doing on the homecoming parade?” Jared asked.
A wide grin grew on Billy’s face. “You’re helping with homecoming? Cool.” He turned to Jared. “Remember that time you snuck into the other team’s locker room and curled the fur on their costume? The mascot came out at halftime and looked like a kitty cat rather than a ferocious lion.”
Billy made a loud guffawing noise. “Man, that was sweet. None of the moms wanted us kids to go around you after that. You were trouble, they all said. Even my mom said I needed to stay away, and she let me eat cake for dinner.”
“I was young,” Jared said. “But people change, Billy.”
“Dang, I hope not. I thought since you’d come back to town, you’d liven things up. Like that time you put orange food coloring in the school fountain. That was a hoot.”
Leigh glanced at Jared. Although he was smiling, she knew he wasn’t happy that Billy was trotting out his escapades.
Of course, she’d done the same thing during the meeting with Gavin, but this was different. Billy was acting like Jared couldn’t have possibly outgrown his wild days, while she’d mentioned some of Jared’s past antics because she’d wanted to...ah, darn it, there was no difference. She was as bad as Billy.
He burped again. Okay, maybe she wasn’t quite as bad, but she was close.
Ignoring the headache she was rapidly getting, she decided to steer Billy in a new direction. “Why don’t we talk about the homecoming parade? Hey, I have an idea. You should enter a float. A lot of local businesses are.”
Billy frowned. “I own a dairy. What could I enter?”
Leigh thought for a minute, and then decided he could enter a decorative banner. “What about a—”
“Big, fat cow,” Billy said, as if he really believed that’s what Leigh had been about to say. “I could use my car, if it’s fixed by then. I could ride around inside it.” He snickered. “Kinda like I’d been eaten by a cow.”
“Um, okay, that sounds good,” Leigh said, shooting a perplexed look at Jared, who was obviously trying not to laugh.
Billy nodded. “Yep, it should be sweet. I can tie a few tarps to my car and paint them to make the cow body.” He tipped his head. “I wonder what I should use for the udders.”
Jared laughed. Really loud. Leigh tried not to, but it was impossible. Even Billy laughed.
“I have no suggestions,” Jared finally managed to say, wiping his eyes. “None at all.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Billy said. Apparently deciding to give that one some thought, he added, “Homecoming is such a blast. Remember that game our senior year when Jeff threw you that sweet pass, but that bozo from Greenville tried to snag it away from you? Man, I slammed into that kid so hard his grandparents felt it.”
“Billy, I don’t think Leigh wants to talk about football,” Jared said.
Oh, now he was wrong there. “Pulleese. This is Texas. I always want to talk about football. But for the record, Jared barely caught that pass because he was too busy checking out the other team’s cheerleaders.”
When Billy chortled, Leigh added, “And you didn’t slam into that kid from Greenville on purpose. Your helmet slipped so you couldn’t see, and you hit him by mistake.”
Both men stared at her. Jared recovered first. “You were at that game?”
“Of course. I have three brothers, all of whom played ball for Honey. I never miss a Honey Panthers home game.”
Jared arched one brow. “Why does your liking football not surprise me?”
“You’d make a great tackle,” Billy assured her. “You’d be the kind who hunted down the person with the ball and didn’t let them get away. You’d smush them into a big ol’ pile of...” He blinked, obviously thinking. Finally, he said, “A pile of smushed person.”
Now wasn’t that a wonderfully flattering compliment from a man she was dating.
“Nice to know I’m the type of woman who would hunt someone down and smush them,” she said dryly. “Gee, thanks.”
Her sarcasm was lost on Billy. He just smiled. “You’re welcome.”
Next to her, she heard Jared stifle another laugh. “Don’t you have someplace you need to be?” she asked him. Her exasperation meter was pretty much off the scale tonight. Much more of this and she’d go running out into the street screaming.
For his part, though, Jared looked perfectly content. “I’m in no hurry to leave. In fact, I can visit with you two all night. Thanks for your concern, though.”
Leigh shot him a frown, but he only winked in return. He knew good and well what he was doing, but she couldn’t figure out why he was doing it. Jared had made it clear he had no interest in her, so why the me-and-my-shadow routine? Here she’d finally gotten her freedom from her brothers, and now she had to put up with Jared tailing her?
As if.
Inspiration struck her. “Come on, Billy, let’s head on to my place. I’m renting Megan’s old house now that she and Chase are married. Want to see how I’ve decorated the inside?”
Billy shrugged. “Not really. I’m not much on decorating. So, Jared, why didn’t you ever go pro? You had magic hands.”
That was it? She offered to show Billy her “decorating,” and he’d rather discuss football with Jared? The man didn’t deserve his Y chromosome.
She could feel Jared looking at her, waiting for her response. No doubt he found this funny. After all, he’d also turned her down when she’d offered to show him her “decorating.”
What was it with the men in this town?
Okay, to be honest, Billy probably hadn’t understood what she’d meant by decorating. Subtle hints tended to zoom right over his head.
But Jared had completely understood her when she’d made her desires clear to him. He’d known he’d been invited to do a lot more than comment on the color of her drapes, but he’d said no.
Pfft!
Well, she didn’t care anymore. About any of it. She’d wasted enough time with these two men tonight. She could have stayed home and defrosted her non-frost refrigerator and had a better time.
“Billy, I’m going to walk home now,” she said, standing. “You can stay here and shoot the breeze with Jared.”
“Um, okay,” Billy said. “Can I have your dessert then? Apple pie is my favorite.”
He sure sounded crushed that she was leaving. That whole running-through-the-street screaming thing was starting to look like a real possibility.
“Sure,” she told him, beyond caring anymore. “Eat the rest of my dessert. Talk to Jared about football. Figure out how to turn your car into a giant cow. Whatever.”
Billy grinned. “Okay.”
That was the last time she wasted any time on Billy Joe Tate. He was officially off her list of men with whom she could enjoy her freedom.
With as much dignity as she could muster, she headed out the door and started toward her house. It was only a little after eight, so a lot of people were still wandering around downtown. Thankfully none of them stopped to talk to her. She wasn’t in the mood tonight.
She’d only made it half a block when she heard Jared holler from behind her, “Leigh, wait up.” He had to be kidding. Well, she wasn’t stopping. No way. Deliberately she picked up her pace.
Within a couple of seconds, though, he was even with her. “Are we power walking?” he asked when she made no move to slow down. �
�Because if we are, shouldn’t we swing our arms?”
He demonstrated and looked so downright silly when he did it that Leigh had to slam her mouth closed to keep from laughing. How could he be so annoying, and yet, so amusing at the same time?
It wasn’t fair.
“You’re not going to make me forgive you,” she told him once she had herself under control again. “You ruined my date on purpose.”
“You didn’t say goodnight to me.” He had a wide grin on his face. “Guess we’re even.”
That got her. She stopped and turned to face him. “You’re kidding, right?” When he shook his head, she asked, “Why should I say good night to you? You weren’t my date. I didn’t ask you to join us. Go have Billy say good night to you.”
Jared chuckled. “He’s too busy not only eating your dessert, but also mine. And when I left, he was polling people in the cafe for suggestions about the cow thing. Steve Myerson said he should use plastic trash bags, but Kenny Herbert said they’d drag on the ground.”
Leigh sighed. Why did these things keep happening to her? More importantly, why did they keep happening in front of Jared? Tonight was supposed to be fun. Instead it had become a fiasco. No, wait, a debacle. Yes, definitely a debacle.
She glanced at Jared, who was smiling at her. Leigh groaned. “Good night. There, I’ve told you goodnight, so you can go away.” She started walking again. Not surprisingly, Jared fell into step next to her.
“So did you enjoy your evening with Billy?” Jared asked after they’d walked a while. “I had a good time, but I thought he burped too much.”
“I would have had fun, but this incredibly rude guy butted into our date and spoiled the whole evening.”
“What nerve.” He lightly bumped his arm against hers. “You weren’t really going to take Billy back to your place and show him your decorating, were you? I mean, the guy singlehandedly disproves Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest theory.”
Leigh laughed, then abruptly sobered. “Stop it. Stop it right now. Don’t be nice now that you ruined my date.”
Once again, he bumped her arm. “Come on. I didn’t really ruin your date, did I? I thought I was helping. You didn’t seem to be having a very good time with Billy.”
