by Talty, Jen
“Just the check. I don’t want to miss the previews,” her mother said.
“Put their drinks on my bill,” JW said, holding a fork in one hand and a spoon in the other, contemplating which utensil would serve him better considering the top layer of his dinner was mashed potatoes. He’d never seen such a concoction.
“Thank you,” Shannon said, giving him a little pat on the shoulder. “Maybe your next visit, you can come over for dinner.”
“I’d love to.” His smile quickly turned into a frown as Preston made his way across the bar.
“Dad, please don’t make a scene,” Kitty said.
“That all depends on what your ex-husband has to say,” her father said.
“Her ex has already spoiled my meal,” JW mumbled under his breath.
“Mr. and Mrs. O’Doole, what a pleasure it is to see you.” Preston stood in front of her parents with his arms stretched out to the side as if he were waiting for a hug.
Her father crossed his arms, and her mother smiled weakly before taking a sip of her wine.
“Preston,” her father said flatly. “What are you doing in a pub? It seems to be a little below your style.”
JW chuckled. He liked her parents.
“I was hoping we’d all be able to put the past behind us. I know Kitty and I have,” Preston said.
Patrick slammed his fist on the counter.
“Daddy, don’t,” Kitty said, reaching across the bar. She grabbed her father’s hand.
“Please tell me you haven’t forgiven this man for hitting you because he—”
“You hit her?” JW pushed the stool back so hard, he knocked it over. “He hit you?”
“This isn’t the time or place to get into it,” Kitty said behind a clenched jaw. “I’m a work, and I don’t need this kind of drama playing out.”
Preston raised his hands. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You hurt my little—”
JW interrupted her father. “You’ve done a lot wrong, and Kitty has been nothing but kind. However, if you don’t leave now, I won’t be so kind.” JW took two steps forward, standing only inches from Preston.
“Stop it,” Kitty said with a snarl. “You’re all acting like assholes.” She snapped her towel against the sink. “Preston, it’s best if you leave, and I highly recommend you stay clear of me, my family, and my friends.”
JW wanted to take Preston outside, but that would only serve to upset Kitty, and JW was sure it wouldn’t impress her parents. “I think that’s your cue to leave.”
Preston frowned. “I’ve apologized endlessly for what happened. I only want to make things right.”
“Then do as Kitty’s friend suggests and leave,” her father said.
“I’m sorry if I offended you.” Preston turned on his expensive loafers and waltzed off across the restaurant.
Her father lifted his drink and downed it in one gulp. “You need to tell that man to go screw himself.”
“He’s been showing up left and right, and while she’s been stern with him, she’s still too nice, which is why he won’t back down.” JW stared into the plate of food that Kitty had placed in front of him, avoiding the killer stare that if looks could kill, would have put him six feet under.
“I don’t need any of you telling me how to handle my ex.” Kitty tossed the dishtowel over her shoulder. “Don’t you two have a movie to catch?”
“Kitty, don’t be like that,” her mother said right before she finished off her wine. Shannon stood, brushing down the front of her slacks. “Your father and I only want to protect you from the likes of him.”
“I’m a grown woman and completely capable of taking care of myself, and you don’t have to worry, Preston will never be in my life again.”
“Good,” her father said, leaning over the bar and taking her into his arms. “We love you, and we’re so proud of you.”
“I love you too, Dad.”
“Will you be coming home tonight?” Shannon asked as she tossed her purse over her shoulder. “Or are you staying with JW?”
“Mom, really?”
JW bit back a smile.
“We just want to know so we don’t worry.”
“The jury is out on that front, but I’ll text you if I decide not to come home,” Kitty said.
“Fair enough.” Her father tossed a twenty on the counter. “Have a great night, you two.”
“It was nice meeting you both.” JW kissed Shannon on the cheek before shaking Patrick’s hand. He lifted the stool from the floor and adjusted himself at the bar. “Is this shepherd’s pie?” He dug the fork into the dish and stuffed his mouth. The assault of rich flavors from perfectly cooked beef, to the chives in the potatoes dancing over his taste buds, while delicious, did nothing to ease his growing concern he might not need the box of condoms he’d purchased a few hours ago.
“It is.”
“It’s really good,” he said. He took another mouthful, doing his best to keep his thoughts about finding out Preston had laid his hands on Kitty to himself. Now was not the time or place to have that discussion.
“Enjoy.” Kitty attended to the other patrons at the bar while he inhaled his food and contemplated his next move. While he wanted more information on how Preston had hurt her physically, he knew he couldn’t push too hard.
Not right this second, anyway.
But he did want to find the right words to express how much he wanted to continue spending time with her.
He’d finished half the dish when Kitty finally came back to his end of the bar and refilled his drink.
“Thank you.” He wiped his mouth and set the napkin on the plate. “Your parents are lovely.”
“Except for when you and my dad go pounding your chest and want to beat the crap out of my ex-husband.”
JW growled. “He hurt you, and your father only wants to protect you.”
“I get that, but then you go off half-cocked, and it doesn’t help matters much. And let's not forget that I asked you to entertain them, not make them think you’ll be coming back for dinner sometime because we’re in a long-distance relationship,” Kitty said, leaning her ass against the other side of the bar. “My mother is going to be up my ass about that for months now.”
“I wanted to talk to you about that,” he said. Nothing had felt right to him in the past couple of months, and then he had walked into McCurdy’s, and the jagged pieces of his life seemed to slide into place. Not that he wanted to move to Baltimore, he didn’t, and that was a problem. But he wanted to explore what it might be like to be with Kitty, and the only way to do that was to take a chance. “I’ve got a lot of frequent flyer miles that I need to use, and I thought I’d come back to Baltimore. I mean, it is a little slice of heaven.”
Yep. He’d gone crazy.
“My class schedule with work leaves no time for anything but studying.”
“I can help you with that.” He lowered his chin. “I do have a degree in business with a minor in communications.”
“That has nothing to do with small children. Do you know anything about how a toddler learns language and syntax rules?”
“I know I was a toddler at one time in my life.”
“You’re serious?” Her narrowed eyes grew wide. The crinkle in her forehead disappeared as her mouth fell open with a tiny gasp of surprise.
Or maybe it was shock.
“You want to come back and visit me?”
“I do,” he admitted. His pulse roared, reminding him of the misery the last woman in his life had caused.
But Kitty was no Bella.
“I want to see where this might go,” he said.
“It’s a recipe for disaster.” She inched forward, resting her elbows on the counter, her eyes now covered by the rim of his hat.
He tipped the brim. “You’re not saying no.”
“I haven’t said yes.”
The butterflies in his stomach fluttered with the excitement of a teenage boy about to see his f
irst boob. “Do you have any vacation time you can take before classes start?”
“I’m an hourly employee; it doesn’t work that way,” she said, sticking her index finger between her lips. “Why do you ask?”
“I was thinking maybe we take a trip for a couple of days, get to know each other better, and take things from there.”
“I can’t afford to take a trip.”
He knew she was a proud woman, and he valued and respected that. He wouldn’t be the kind of boyfriend… well, fuck, he thought it, might as well go with it. “Let me take care of this trip. We don’t have to go anywhere extravagant. Hell, we can go camping or stay in a cheap motel. I just want to spend time with you.”
She chewed on her index finger. “What if we find out we can’t stand each other?”
“Then I won’t come visit on the weekends or when you’ve got time off from school.” He really should stop pushing. He had just as many reservations as she had, and the entire idea was ludicrous. The flight alone was six hours, and he couldn’t take a ton of time away from the ranch, not with the new school starting soon.
“I have some time off, so I could make it work.”
He dropped his fork.
“Don’t look so shocked,” she said. “You haven’t heard where I want to go.”
“Should I be scared?” he winked.
“I don’t know, is Idaho a scary place?”
All the air in his lungs escaped in one big swoosh. “You’d come back with me to Buhl, Idaho?” His mother and grandmother always told him he should be careful about what he wished for, and right now, his heart swelled with anticipation while his mind scolded him for rushing into something that would most definitely break one of their hearts.
“Preston took me to Europe on our honeymoon, and I got to travel with him and his family to a few exotic places, but in the US, I’ve never been outside of Baltimore or Florida, so Idaho seems like a great place to start some good old homegrown sightseeing. Besides, you’ve met my family; now it’s my turn.”
“Oh, Lord. I don’t know what is going to be more amusing. How my family reacts to you or how you handle my family.”
Kitty’s grin turned upside down.
JW laughed. “You have no idea what you’ve just gotten yourself into.”
Chapter Eight
Kitty took JW’s hand as he helped her into the passenger seat of his oversized pickup truck.
“Watch your step,” JW said as he patted her backside.
“Remind me to use the running boards when I get out of this thing; otherwise, I’m going to fall flat on my face.” She leaned forward, pulling down the visor in search of a mirror. Quickly, she pursed her lips and dabbed them with lip gloss before securing her seat belt.
“I’ll catch you if you fall,” JW said with a slight laugh. “Are you hungry?”
“Starved,” she admitted.
“There’s a great barbeque place on the way to the ranch.” JW pressed the start button, and the roar of a diesel engine came to life.
“Sounds great.”
JW rested his cell in the cradle that stuck out from the dashboard. “We’re about forty-five minutes from the ranch, and the restaurant is twenty. We can order it to go or stay and eat there.”
“I wouldn’t mind seeing what a local watering hole looks like.”
“It’s a far cry from McCurdy’s, but there’s a mechanical bull, live music, and the best pulled pork known to man.”
She stared out the window at mountaintop after mountaintop. Lush green trees stretched up toward the massive blue sky. “I’ve been to the country before, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as spectacular as this.”
“Wait until you see the blanket of stars at night while listening to the crickets sing.”
“I’ve always lived in the city. Even when I was married to Preston, our house wasn’t too far from the city limits, and our neighbors were so close if you had dinner in your backyard, you might as well have invited them over.”
“You can’t see my neighbors from my front porch or my pool area. Even the houses my siblings live in on the ranch are far enough that you wouldn’t know they were on the same piece of property.”
“Don’t you get lonely?”
“Never. I see my brothers and sister almost every day. Most nights we have dinner together. And then there is the bull riding school staff, not to mention a slew of other workers that live at the ranch. It’s like its own little town.”
“Small-town America,” she mused. Keeping her focus on the tall mountains in the distance, she rested her head against the window. The plane ride had been long, and the few-hours’ time change had already settled into her brain, making her body demand some rest.
Kitty tucked her feet up under her butt and glanced at JW.
He turned his head and smiled. “I still can’t believe you came here.”
“Me neither. It’s got to be the craziest thing I’ve ever done. I even shocked Dorinda.”
“I bet that’s hard to do.”
“You have no idea,” she said, pulling her hair to the side. She twirled it between her fingers. “When I was a little girl, I used to sit out on my parents’ rooftop, staring at the stars and dreaming about moving out of the city.”
“Why didn’t you move?” He rested one hand casually over the back of her seat while the other gripped the steering wheel.
“I lived with my parents until I got married. When I divorced Preston, I hadn’t two pennies to rub together, so I moved home. But I don’t think I was in the right mind to start over somewhere new.”
“What about when you finish school? Would you consider leaving Baltimore?”
“I suppose that depends on where I find a teaching job, and I have to consider I’ll need to jump right into a master’s degree program somewhere.”
“But you could do that anywhere, right?” JW kept his focus on the road.
She cocked her head and bit back a smile. “Theoretically, yes. But different states have different rules about certification.”
“What about your brother and parents? How would they feel if you moved away?”
“They would support me as long as I was taking care of myself, but there is nothing taking me out of Baltimore, and I love being close to family.” While she was flattered by the direction of the conversation, she needed to make sure JW understood that she still viewed this as a short-lived romance. She expected they would part ways without conflict and remember each other fondly.
At least that was what she hoped she’d be able to do, because the longer she stayed with JW, the longer her mind tried to work out ways to make a long-distance relationship seem plausible. She shoved the thought into the back of her mind. JW was a temporary distraction. Once school started, she’d have him out of her system.
“I can relate to that.” JW rolled the pickup to a stop. “Welcome to Pigs Pit.”
“That’s a horrible name for a bar and restaurant.” She pushed open the door and slid on her butt until her feet hit the running boards.
“But the food is great.” JW stepped in front of her and took her by the hips, easing her feet onto the pavement.
She reached up and snagged his hat, planting it firmly on her head.
“You can’t expect me to go in there without my Stetson.”
She giggled. “You don’t want me to look out of place, now do you?” She raised up on her tiptoes and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. Entangling their fingers, she said, “Lead the way.”
“Tomorrow, we’re going shopping to buy you your own damned cowboy hat.”
“Or perhaps you a new one.” Inside the restaurant, her nostrils were assaulted with the sweet smell of barbeque sauce, beer, and peanuts. Her stomach growled.
“Hey, JW,” the woman behind the hostess desk said. “Who is this lovely filly?”
“My name’s Kitty.” Kitty stuck out her hand.
“Nice to meet you.” The woman looked her up and down before turning h
er gaze back to JW. “Does this mean you want a table?”
“That would be great.” He rested his hand on Kitty’s hip and gave it a little squeeze.
The hostess sat them in the back corner, far from the band, which was nice, but a little too close to the mechanical bull. She stared at a young woman wearing a tank top that barely covered her large breasts. Her butt cheeks peeked out of her way-too-skimpy shorts. “I think you like looking at that more than the food, and that’s why you come.”
“That’s why I usually order takeout.”
Kitty laughed. “Good answer.”
The girl climbed up on the bull. “JW,” she said, waving frantically. “I bet you a round of drinks I’ll last over two minutes.”
“Mindy, you’re on,” JW said.
“Mindy? What the hell are you doing talking to him?” one of the girls surrounding the mechanical bull whispered loud enough for half the bar to hear.
“Don’t be a bitch,” Mindy said.
Kitty wanted to ask what that exchange was all about, only by the way JW’s face contorted as if he’d stubbed his toe, she thought better of it. “How do you know her?”
“Her brother and father work for me on the ranch. I’ve known her since she was born. Hard to believe she’s legal to drink these days.”
Kitty watched as Mindy’s body rolled back and forth while the mechanical bull twisted and turned in what seemed to be slow motion. “I could do that.”
JW laughed.
She smacked him playfully on the shoulder. “I bet I could last pretty long.”
The bull rotated left and right and bobbled up and down faster and faster, tossing Mindy to the padded cushions.
“Okay, maybe I misspoke,” Kitty mumbled.
“Minute-forty-five,” a man’s voice called out.
“You’re getting closer.” JW stood, leaning over the pen. He reached in and snagged Mindy by the arm, and she jumped over the railing, rubbing her ass. “But you’re still clenching too much with your thighs. Loosen up a little and feel the next movement.”
“Easy for you to say,” Mindy said with a bright smile. “What are you and your date drinking?”
“You don’t have to buy us drinks.” JW patted Mindy’s shoulder.
