“Rose?” Emily asked.
“I’m just trying to remember what all I said when I was Greg. I think I might have given the impression that I could show her such a good time that… oh, my! I was talking about taking her to a rodeo and I can’t even say the words.”
“Well, it ought to be a right lively auction for sure.” Emily laughed.
“You will dance all the dances with him, won’t you?” Clarice asked.
“No, ma’am. But I will do my best to dance the last one and everyone knows whoever gets the last dance is the one that takes him home. Now tell me more about that VW bus out there.” She quickly moved the attention to Madge.
“Oh, honey, things went on in that bus that will live on in memories. You’d never believe it if we did tell you.” Madge blushed.
“Oh, yes, I would. That’s why it’s still running and bringing stuff to the church bazaar—so it can hear tales about what went on when it was in its prime, right?” Emily raised a dark eyebrow.
Dotty answered, “That’s why we keep bringing things to the bazaar. We’re trying to buy ourselves a ticket into heaven. The VW is to remind us that we got a lot of work to do yet. Now, young lady, you sit right down here and put those cowboys’ names on these plaques. We’re going to make them hold them in their laps so the women folks can see them real good. You better make a bunch with Greg’s picture and name on them. Now tell us, how long have you known that you were fallin’ for Greg?”
“I’m not saying jack shit. I’ve got plaques to make,” Emily said.
Clarice pointed at Dotty. “You are a bad influence. You’ve got her cussin’.”
Dotty grabbed Clarice’s finger and held it tightly. “You might have made me stop smokin’ when I adopted Jeremiah and stop drinkin’ when Henry died. But I’ll be damned if you make me stop cussin’. It’s all I got left.”
“And I’m going to grow up and be just like her,” Emily teased.
Clarice pulled her finger free and said, “Well, shit!”
***
A lone candle burned on a weathered old wooden feedbox beside the bed. Long lashes rested on Emily’s cheekbones as she slept nestled in the crook of Greg’s body after a bout of scalding hot sex. He shouldn’t be sneaking out to the attic with her; they should be sleeping together in his bed in the house. But she would have none of it, saying that it was disrespectful to Clarice. She’d felt guilty about the two-minute quickie in the bathroom and said that they couldn’t even do that anymore.
Doubts plagued him as he stared at her as long as he wanted. Maybe she loved him but she wasn’t in love with him. There was a vast difference in the two, and he’d proven it a couple of times in the past. He had loved but he’d never been in love before Emily.
He’d never believed in that instant falling in love that his friends talked about. No woman would ever rein in his heart to the point that he couldn’t think of anything but her all day long. Lust did that and when it finally played out, then the relationship died. But it had happened and he understood being in love as opposed to simply loving.
***
The moon was gone from the attic window when Emily awoke. The candle was still burning, but the first sun rays of the day gave enough light that she could study Greg’s face as he slept. In the depths of sleep his face was softer, the angles less pronounced, but his lips still belonged to a masculine cowboy. Thick dark lashes rested on his cheekbones, and the effect was sexy as the devil, but she liked for his eyes to be open.
She liked the way he looked at her, that instant flash of heat that she got when his eyes went all soft and dreamy just before he kissed her. She stretched until her lips were even with his and woke him with a series of burning kisses.
“Good mornin’,” he mumbled.
“It is morning and we probably need to go in the house before Dotty gets to stirring around. I love waking up with you,” she said.
“Me too,” he said.
He framed her face with his hands. “Emily, I’m in love with you. I want you to understand that.”
“I do,” she said.
“There is a difference in saying that I love you and being in love with you.”
“I know, Greg,” she whispered. “My heart was in love with you before my mind was willing to say that I loved you.”
“Just so you know and never doubt it,” he said.
“Then why this serious mood?”
“I just have to say what is on my heart or it’ll blow up.” He slapped her playfully on the fanny. “Are we going to go to the house or move in together here in the attic? Your call.”
She wiggled out of his embrace. Her bare feet hit the cold linoleum, and she quickly stomped on her boots without pausing to put on socks. She grabbed an oversized T-shirt and pulled it over her head, picked up her flannel lounging pants, and slung them over her shoulder.
Greg crawled out of bed, stretched, and dug his glasses out of his boots. “Oh, my, you are even more beautiful when I can see you as well as touch you,” he said.
Emily pointed to the bed. “You are a charmer. At first I thought you were going to be a cold businessman. But I was wrong.”
“I think I was before you came into my life,” he admitted.
“And now you are a hot cowboy charmer.” She smiled.
A hell of a lot of women were showing up that night expecting more than a charming cowboy. She wondered if they’d have a suitcase packed plumb full of leather goods to tease him with.
He picked up the corner of the quilt. “This thing must have magical powers.”
“It’s like me, darlin’. Just a plain old quilt that promises red-hot sex. No magic. No leather. No whips. Nothing kinky.”
“Thank God.” He chuckled. “Plain old red-hot sex is what this cowboy likes. That kinky shit ain’t for me.”
“Tell me, darlin’, how many times have you had to wash this quilt before I came along?”
He jerked a gauze undershirt over his head. “I’ve only slept on it with one woman and that’s you. Never was in the attic with another person except Jeremiah, and we weren’t up here for sex.”
“Well, thank God for that news. What were you up here for?”
“Well, for starters we smoked our first cigarette up here and decided after we turned green that smoking was not for us. We chewed our first Copenhagen tobacco up here, and believe me, it only took one time. And when I snuck my dad’s Playboy magazines out of the house the summer we were fifteen, we wore out the pages up here until one day they were gone. Dotty or Nana, neither one ever mentioned them, and believe me, we didn’t either.” He pulled on his jeans and boots.
She dressed hurriedly in the denim skirt she’d worn to supper that night. “That sounds like me and Taylor and the barn. Only he never shared his magazines, just his cigarettes, which he never quit, and his daddy’s tobacco, which neither of us ever used again.”
He opened the door. “The joys of childhood.”
“I could live in the attic. It’s got all we need. A bed and a candle.” She sighed.
“What about the kittens?” he asked.
“The boys would be cramped. The big house has so many corners and things to hide in. Simba practices his lion maneuvers every morning. Poor old Bocephus doesn’t even know what hits him.”
“Then I guess maybe we’d better not move in together if there’s not room for the children.” Their hands were laced together as they crossed the yard and went into the house through the kitchen door. “You forgot something, darlin’.”
She stopped and turned, but his hand kept traveling.
His grin was pure mischief. “I don’t feel underbritches.”
“Oh, no! They’re probably tangled up in the quilt.”
“Which I plan to sneak into the house and toss into the washer and dryer this afternoon. I really don’t mind commando.”
She wiggled free of his hand before it got an inch higher, because if it did, they wouldn’t make it back to the attic room or to breakfast that morning.
Emily took a quick shower, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt for the morning’s work, and laid out a nice sweater and fancy jeans to wear to supper that evening.
“Hey, you decent?” Dotty rapped on the door.
“Yes, ma’am. Come right in,” she yelled.
Dotty carried a cat in each arm. “They were whining for you. What’s that?” She pointed at the outfit on the bed.
“I’m trying to decide what to wear this evening. Jeremiah will be here in time for supper, right?”
“Oh, he wouldn’t miss a chance to sit up at the table with family and good food. We’ll be busy out in the barn getting last-minute things ready, but I’ve got his favorite enchiladas made and ready to heat and a Crock-Pot of beans brewing. It won’t take but a minute to put some jalapeno corn bread in the oven.” Dotty sat down in the rocking chair with both cats still in her arms.
“I want to look nice. He’s Greg’s best friend,” Emily said.
“Stop worryin’ about what to wear. Men folks is all business for the most part. And honey, I got a feelin’ that he’s bringin’ home a woman to meet me, so he’s not going to know if you’ve got on jeans or that fancy dress that you wore to the party with Clarice.”
“A woman.” Emily frowned.
“He said he had a surprise, and one time when I called him a woman answered. I’m old but I’m not stupid, and it’s time for him to settle down. Oh, and her name is Stacy,” Dotty said.
“How did you figure all that out? Maybe a woman answered because he was on a date. That doesn’t mean he’s bringing one home to meet you,” Emily said.
“At three in the morning?”
“Dotty! What were you doing calling him at that time?”
Dotty giggled. “To see who would answer.”
“What excuse did you use?”
Another giggle. “The electricity had gone off in the night and I didn’t have my glasses on when I reset the clock. Good one, ain’t it?”
“Dotty, you are a bad girl.” Emily smiled.
“Yeah, but I found out what I wanted to and now I won’t die with a heart attack when he brings her home to meet me,” Dotty said.
“So does Stacy work in the business with him?”
“Stacy has been his secretary for six months.” Dotty set the kittens on the recliner. “Breakfast is ready. But let me tell you right now, when they get here, he’s sleeping in the room next to Greg and Stacy will be next door to you. I won’t have them sleeping together in my house.”
Emily couldn’t fight back the blush, so she hung up the shirt and moved hangers around in her closet so that Dotty couldn’t see it.
“They aren’t about to get away with something that we won’t let you and Greg get away with. And one other thing, there’s extra quilts in the linen closet if it gets cold in the attic.” She winked and hurried out of the room.
Bright scarlet filled her cheeks. They knew about the attic and they weren’t making a noose to hang her from the nearest oak tree. Did that mean Clarice wouldn’t throw a fit if the relationship took another step?
Chapter 20
Emily’s cheekbone had a streak of gold glitter glue smeared across it like war paint. A dot of purple glitter the size of a quarter was right between her eyes. It was all over her hands and her ratty old work shirt. Her jeans were faded and her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She checked the clock and figured she still had an hour before Jeremiah and his girlfriend, if Dotty was right, would show up. That would give her plenty of time to finish the last cowboy’s name and grab a quick shower, wash her hair, and dress to be presentable.
She’d just finished putting a heart instead of a dot on top of the i on the last cowboy’s name when she heard Greg yell from across the room, “Jeremiah, you are early!”
If only Emily had asked to see a picture of Jeremiah, her jaw might not have dropped. She’d pictured him as tall, dark, handsome, like Greg, only maybe wearing a three-piece suit and dark sunglasses. But the man that Greg grabbed in a man-hug was short, slightly round, and almost bald. The woman standing beside him wore high heels, skintight jeans, and a denim jacket with enough bling to blind a person. Her hair was black with blond steaks and cut short in a spiky ’do. Her eyes were almost as black as her hair, and her skin had that slightly toasted tone that comes from one Latino parent.
Jeremiah’s deep booming voice carried all the way across the barn and shocked Emily as much as his looks. It went with that image of the tall, dark, handsome private investigator.
“Meet Stacy, my girlfriend,” he said.
“Jeremiah!” Dotty hollered from the back of the barn.
When she reached his side, Jeremiah wrapped his arms around her and picked her up off the ground.
“Put me down, you crazy kid.” Dotty laughed.
He might be short, but he was strong as a horse if he could pick Dotty up like that. By the time he released his mama, Clarice was by her side to get her hugs. “It’s so good to have you home. What do you think of our idea for the bazaar this year?”
“Greg told me all about it. Y’all might raise enough with this auction idea to put two girls through school. I want to introduce you both to my girlfriend, Stacy. She is my secretary and keeps me organized.” Jeremiah looked at her like he could eat her up right there in front of everyone.
Emily didn’t even realize that Greg was beside her until he grabbed her hand. “Come on, darlin’. I want to introduce you to my best friend.”
She wanted to crawl under the table and hide, but there was nothing to do but stand up straight, ignore her messy appearance, and put on her brightest smile.
“Jeremiah and Stacy, I want to introduce you to Emily,” Greg said.
Jeremiah stuck out a hand. Everything about him might be generic, but when he smiled the whole room lit up. Lord, with that grin he could probably ferret more information out of someone than a tall, dark, and handsome cowboy ever could.
“Pleasure to meet you, Emily. I’ve heard so much about you. Greg has emailed dozens of pictures, but I pictured you taller. But there’s room in this world for us short people too, right?”
Stacy smiled at Emily with a friendly, down-to-earth smile that made Emily like her on the spot. “I hope so. If not then we’d best go on and forget about the party.”
“You are both so right. We make up for height in power and determination for sure,” Emily answered.
She would deal with Greg later. Just when had he taken pictures of her? Oh, Lord, hopefully not in the attic while she was sleeping.
Emily shook Jeremiah’s outstretched hand. “I’m glad to finally meet you. I’ve heard lots of stories.”
Jeremiah cocked his head to one side. “About the cigarettes?”
“My lips are sealed,” Emily said.
Then she held out her hand to Stacy. “We’ll have to find time for a visit before the day is done.”
“Looks like y’all got this under control, so I’m going to take Stacy up to the house so we can get unpacked before supper. I’ll tell you stories to curl your hair later, Emily,” Jeremiah said.
Greg threw an arm around Emily’s shoulders. “Dotty won’t let him out of her sight the whole time he’s here.”
“You got that damn straight,” Dotty said. “I’ll ride up to the house with them and get the enchiladas going for supper. That way I can get to know Stacy better and tell her some stories that might curl her hair.”
“All done with your chores?” Greg asked Emily.
Emily nodded. One more hour and she’d have looked presentable. And she’d agonized all day over what she would wear to supper, whether she’d make an entrance or just slip into her chair unnoticed.
“Then let’s go to the house too. By the way, darlin’, you are cuter than Bocephus or Simba with that glitter on your face.” He leaned down and kissed her on the tip of her nose.
“I look like crap. And his girlfriend is gorgeous. I felt like a country bumpkin beside her,” she said.
“Then crap is beautiful. Nana, we’re going on home. See you at supper. Are Madge and Rose stayin’ with us?”
“Yes.” Madge nodded. “Dotty made enchiladas. Ain’t nobody in the county can make them as good as she can.”
Greg waved over his shoulder and led Emily out to the truck. He opened the door for her, buckled her in, and then kissed her hard, his tongue teasing hers until she forgot all about how she looked. When the kiss ended he strung softer butterfly kisses over her face, spending extra time on the streak of bright red glitter.
“Now it’s on your lips.” She giggled.
“Yes, it is. We match, so we’re a couple. Jeremiah liked you even if you aren’t all dolled up in your best boots. I like you, so it doesn’t really matter anyway, but now you’ve met the whole bunch of us… almost.”
She gasped. “Almost?”
“Well, Momma and Daddy will be here for supper too. They’re flying in from Houston in Dad’s little plane to surprise Nana. Nana has a place out in the pasture fixed up for them to land.”
She threw her head back on the back of the seat and shut her eyes. Her breath caught in her chest and panic set in. Meeting Jeremiah was one thing. Meeting Greg’s parents… well, shit! And if that sounded like it came straight from Dotty… well, so be it.
“They won’t bite and you do have time to polish your best boots,” he said as he shut the door and went around the front of the truck to his side.
“My boots are polished,” she said when he started the engine.
“Then you don’t have a thing to worry about.”
“Put yourself in my shoes. Would you worry if you were about to meet my parents even if your boots were shined?”
“Yes, ma’am! I’d be shakin’ in them boots. But I love you, Emily. And they will too. They’ll see that you make me happy and love you for it.” He laid a hand on her knee as he drove.
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