Chigger winked broadly. "Oh, yes, I've very sure. You two run along and I'll take care of this little job while Jim Bob gets a shower."
Daisy came very close to blushing. "Okay, then, thanks so much for the day and the good supper."
"We'll do it again, I promise," Chigger said.
Not if I see you coming, Daisy thought. "See you later," she said.
Jarod had his hand out to place it on the small of her back but shoved it inside his pocket instead. Their bodies brushing against each other in the kitchen would have caused him embarrassment if his shirt tail hadn't been hanging down below his belt buckle. He couldn't take a chance like that again.
"So how'd you end up at the Honky Tonk?" Jarod asked when they were in the truck. Two feet of empty air separated them. He hated bucket seats right then. Had he bought a car with bench seats he could have made a sharp turn and she'd have slid right over next to him. Tomorrow he was trading his truck for Jim Bob's old fishing wagon. Hell, he might throw in a couple of thousand dollars to boot.
"Car got hot and started smoking on the highway and I pulled into the next exit. Closest place to stop was the parking lot at the Smokestack in Thurber, which is spitting distance from the Honky Tonk. Ruby had come there for lunch and she asked if she could help. Ended up buying my lunch and putting me to work. Been there seven years now. She died last year and I inherited the Honky Tonk. Tinker got her house in Mingus, which he rents out. Says he can't live in town," Daisy answered with the short version.
"Where'd you live before that?"
"Mena, Arkansas, until I graduated high school. Worked a year until I saved enough for a semester of college and went to a little school down in Tishomingo, Oklahoma. Murray State College. Then I came home to Mena. From there it was to the Honky Tonk. So where did you go to school?" She turned the conversation around to him.
"Cushing for thirteen years, kindergarten through high school. College in Stillwater," he said. I don't want to talk about school. I want to talk about how beautiful you are and how bad I want to touch you.
"You have to go to college to be a rancher?" she asked.
"These days with the big business eating up the small farmers and ranchers, it helps. I've got a degree in agribusiness. Thought in the beginning I wanted to get away from the ranch but figured out right quick how much I love it. I should stop by and see about Emmett again. That all right with you?"
"That's fine," she said.
"Want to come inside for a few minutes? Uncle Emmett would probably love to see you again," he asked when they reached the house.
"Sure. Why not?" At least the old toot could see that she'd changed clothes and maybe forget that she'd been dressed in short shorts and a halter top.
Emmett picked up the remote and muted the sound when he noticed them. "Why Miss Daisy, don't you look nice. Don't reckon I've ever seen you in a dress before. What's the special occasion?"
"Nothing special. Chigger loaned it to me."
"Don't be tryin' to josh an old man. I know you two been up to something and I bet I know what it was. You sure didn't look like that when you left here a few hours ago."
"What would you think we'd be up to? We cleaned fish and had supper at Jim Bob's. Chigger was there too."
"Just remember, you can't fool me. I know what y'all been out doin' and it wasn't eatin' fish," he said. Before either of them could answer he turned the sound back on the television and ignored them.
"I'm takin' Daisy home," Jarod said. But I'd rather be taking her upstairs. He reached up to slap his forehead to knock the silly notion out of his head but shoved his hand in his pocket instead.
Emmett waved a hand at them without taking his eyes from the television. "Get on out of here. You done lied to me. I told you to bring me some fish for my dinner tomorrow, so you didn't go over there at all. Go on and don't be thinkin' I'm so old I can't smell a lie."
"I'm sorry. He's getting more belligerent every day. Any idea that didn't come from him is wrong." Jarod whispered as they crossed the foyer on their way back outside.
"It's all right, but what on earth does he think we are hiding?"
"Who knows? He may think we brought a donkey on the place without asking him. Who knows how his mind works? We were talking about Tinker. So why can't he live in town? I wouldn't think of Mingus as a metropolitan area," Jarod asked as he drove toward Mingus. Maybe talking about Tinker would take his mind off her bare shoulders and long neck meant for nuzzling.
Damn it. There I go again, he thought.
"Tinker was in Vietnam. Ruby knew him before he went and said he was a different man back then. Something happened and he doesn't talk about it. When he came home he spent a long time in a hospital out in California. When they let him out he came back to see Ruby and she put him to work. He's a damn good bouncer and he does very well with the crowd at the Honky Tonk. But Ruby said he couldn't live in amongst lots of people anymore."
Jarod tapped the brakes and reset the cruise control to a lower speed. "Wonder what happened?"
"Ruby didn't even know. Tinker doesn't talk about it. He don't talk about anything much, but I'd trust him with my life."
What about your heart? Jarod thought as he passed the Smokestack in Thurber and drove the short distance to the Honky Tonk.
"Thanks for the ride."
He started to get out of the truck.
"This is not a date, Jarod. You don't have to walk me to the door."
He got out anyway. "I'll have to give up my gentleman badge from the Boy Scouts if I don't. You want me to be the shame of every McElroy male in the family? We've had our chivalry badge for more than a thousand years. I can't be the reason the grand hoorah came all the way from Ireland to take it back."
"I'm sure that would be an unforgivable sin." She smiled.
"You cause all that trouble, they'll burn you at the stake. Only a witch could make a McElroy give up his chivalry badge."
He slowed his long stride to keep up with her. When she reached the porch she dug her keys out from the bottom of her purse and opened the door. She turned to thank him again to find herself in a snug enclosure made by one arm braced on the door jamb. Instinctively she threw up her hands to his chest.
He brushed the tips of his fingers down her cheek and leaned in. She tiptoed and their lips met in a clash of passion. Every burning nerve in her body screamed for more than one kiss, yelled for her to drag him through the door and begged her to ignore that troublesome inner voice telling her to put a stop to his kisses.
He broke the kiss but kept her in his arms. His heart ached at the idea of stepping away from her. Desire was so thick in his veins he had no room for blood.
"It wasn't supposed to be a date." She rolled up on her tiptoes and he bent slightly. Their lips and tongues met in another fierce battle of blazing heat.
"Daisy?" he said hoarsely.
"Mmmm," she mumbled.
Before he could answer she reached up and pulled his mouth to hers again. He moaned, picked her up like a bride, and kicked the door the rest of the way open with his foot. Without breaking the kisses he carried her into the living room and she stiffened in his arms.
"Does that mean no?" he whispered.
"It means not here," she whispered back.
"Why?"
She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. "Long story. Grab that quilt and let's go out to the bed of your truck."
"You got it." Holding her with one strong arm, he grabbed the quilt with the other hand and threw it over his shoulder. He carried her to the truck, let the tailgate down, and eased her into the truck bed.
She pulled him down on top of her. Kisses continued until she was breathless. She ran her hand up under his shirt and he quivered, proving that he wanted her as much as she did him. It might be nothing more than a one night stand, but she couldn't have stopped at that point if it had meant facing a firing squad. She pulled the shirt over his head and he kissed the hollow of her neck.
She moaned.<
br />
"Like that, do you? God, you are so damn beautiful. Your skin is like fire-hot silk. When I touch you every sane thought leaves my head."
"And you, darlin', are a damn fine lookin' cowboy. Anyone ever tell you that your chest is so damn sexy that… oh, don't stop. Please, Jarod, don't stop."
"Honey, if there's any chance you want me to quit, say it now. If you slip your hands over my body again, wild mustangs couldn't stop me," he said.
"I'm not saying anything, darlin'," she whispered in his ear.
He slipped his hands under the top of her dress and pulled it down slowly, tasting every bit of her skin as he tugged it all the way to her ankles. Then he started back up from her toes to her breasts. By then she was lost. There was no tonight, no yesterday, no tomorrow: just a red-hot fire in the pit of her insides that begged to be eased.
He wanted to rush things and it was going to take a ton of willpower to restrain the excitement ripping at his heart. When she arched against him during a deep kiss, he peeled her bikinis from her hips.
She moaned and begged, "Oh, Jarod, please."
"I sure do love to hear my name on your lips, beautiful," he said.
"I'll say it over and over, Jarod, if you'll just… please." Her body melted against him again.
"Yes, sweetheart. Did you know that the moonlight on your body makes you even more beautiful?" He hurriedly shucked out of his jeans.
He managed to make it last long enough that the stars flew out of the heavens and landed all around them in the bed of his truck. She heard a loud hum in her ears that sounded like the whine of a country fiddle just before he whispered her name in a deep throaty southern drawl. She shivered and he hugged her closer to him in a crushing embrace. He rolled to one side without letting her out of his arms and buried his face in her hair.
Deep down, Daisy felt what she'd only heard about before—that sensual aura called an afterglow. She pulled the quilt over them even though the night breezes were scorching and snuggled down closer to his chest and shut her eyes. If only… but that didn't happen in real life. Happily ever after was for people like Chigger and Jim Bob and maybe occasionally in a big thick romance book.
Jarod stared at the twinkling stars in the sky and the big round full moon. His heart and pulse still raced even after she snuggled up to his side. Nothing had prepared him for the passion lying between them after the sex was over. Nothing would ever be the same and yet it couldn't change. She was a bartender who had no intentions of ever leaving the Honky Tonk. He was a rancher who wanted a wife beside him every night and morning. He wanted her to be there when he came home at noon or when a new baby calf was born. Daisy had made it very clear she would never leave the Honky Tonk. It didn't keep him from hugging her tightly that night.
So much for not having time or falling for a barmaid, he thought as he fell asleep.
An hour later she awoke. "Hey, cowboy, it's time to wake up and go home."
He opened one eye. "Why?"
"Because it's a wonder someone hasn't driven past, saw a strange truck, and stopped to see what was going on," she said.
"Who cares?"
"I'm going inside. You stay here as long as you like." She wrestled the quilt from around them and wrapped her body in it. She picked up her underwear and Chigger's dress, silently cussing both the whole time. If she hadn't been wearing something of Chigger's she wouldn't have just had sex with a man she'd only known a few days. Chigger had probably really had put some kind of "slut" curse on them before she loaned them out. In all her life, Daisy had never slept with a man she'd only known a couple of days. Chigger's morals were truly contagious. She'd guard her water jar with a shotgun from that day forward. She wondered if there was an anti-slut antidote?
She almost forgot her vet bag and grabbed it at the last minute.
"Tackle box?" he asked.
"Something like that," she said.
Jarod sat up in all his naked glory. "Why are we out here and not in your apartment?"
Daisy eased down off the tailgate and tucked the quilt firmly around her like a strapless prom gown. "Because the one rule Ruby had was that I didn't have men in the apartment."
"Ruby is dead. You own the Honky Tonk. You make the rules."
"Like I said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Good night, Jarod."
"Good night, Daisy. Hey, aren't you going to thank me for a good time?"
"Are you going to thank me?" She was inside the apartment before he could answer.
She heard his laughter as she slid down the wall to sit on the floor just inside the door. What in the hell was she going to do?
She touched her lips, amazed that they were cool and not still fiery hot. Ruby's rule played through her mind. "No men in the apartment to avoid hasty mistakes."
"Hasty or not, I'm not going to regret tonight."
Chapter 6
Daisy awoke the next morning at nine o'clock to the ringtone of her cell phone. She grabbed it and answered without opening her eyes, hoping to hear Jarod's deep voice on the other end.
"Miz Daisy, this is Rayford. Some fool cut my fence and my stud bull went through it. Done tore up his side somethin' horrible. Can you come out here and stitch him up?"
"I'll be there in twenty minutes." She was out of bed and finding her jeans before she broke the connection. She threw on a T-shirt and tucked jeans down into her work boots. She had her purse in one hand and her black bag in the other when she opened the back door. The phone rang in the Honky Tonk but she didn't have time to talk to the beer distributor right then. Rayford's bull needed stitches.
She made it from Mingus to Gordon in fifteen minutes and met Rayford in the pasture beside his house. The rangy old bull was bleeding and rolling his eyes, daring anyone to come near him.
"How'd you get him corralled?" she asked.
"Led him along with a feed bucket. I ain't sure how you're goin' to handle 'im. He's not friendly when he's well."
"You just stay on this side of the fence. I'll take care of him," she said.
She crawled over the split rail fence and started talking calmly. The bull lowered his head but he didn't charge. She told him what a handsome old boy he was in a sweet voice. Before long she was so close she could touch him and in a few deft movements, she had a needle loaded with deadening medicine and shot into the wound. She cleaned it thoroughly before she tied off thirteen stitches in his hide and then gave him a healthy dose of antibiotic to keep down any infection.
"You sure got a way with animals, Miz Daisy. Don't know why you don't stop workin' at the Honky Tonk and go into it full time," Rayford said.
"I'm in it full time," she laughed.
"What do I owe you?" He laughed with her.
"I'll send out a bill first of the month. Have to figure up the medicine," she said.
"Might as well come on in and have breakfast with us. Dora has it cooked up and ready. She'll be mad if you don't."
"Thank you," Daisy said.
Dora met them at the door. "You two wash up at the sink while I put this food on the table. It might not be as good as it was when it was fresh, but that old bull had to be took care of before anybody could think about eating. I heard Emmett's great nephew, Jarod, is over there takin' care of him. Somebody needs to. Since Mavis died, that man has really gone down. You met Jarod?"
Daisy started at the name. Couldn't she go anywhere without someone bringing it up?
"Yes, he came into the Honky Tonk." Daisy related the story of the clash.
Dora and Rayford laughed so hard they almost choked on their pancakes.
***
Jarod didn't think to get Daisy's cell phone number before he left early on Monday morning and it took an hour to locate a phone book among all the clutter in Emmett's house. When he called the Honky Tonk business number, a fine bead of nervous sweat bubbled up on his upper lip. While the phone rang he went through a dozen first liners, all of which sounded lame and stupid.
Five rings later he'd decided
on one. Ten rings later he'd forgotten every one. Surely she could hear the telephone ringing. Was she deliberately not answering it because she didn't want to talk to him? On the twelfth ring he slammed the phone back down on its stand and turned around to find Emmett right behind him.
"What?" he snapped.
"Ain't me with woman problems. You bring her home where she belongs and you won't have to be callin' her," he said.
***
The crowd at the Honky Tonk was slim that night. A few truckers stopped by and four older ladies who always came in for a gossip session claimed a corner table and asked for a pitcher of piña coladas. Daisy kept a watchful eye on the front door as she worked and listened to the Bellamy Brothers sing "Let Your Love Flow" and "He'll Have to Go," by Jim Reeves. The old 45 rpm records still spun around a turntable inside the rounded sixties-style jukebox and dropped down when
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