Trouble in Dixie

by Becky McGraw

  “I want to talk to you…” she said and folded her arms under her breasts, which pushed them over the white tank top she had on, and his eyes traveled there of their own volition, before he dragged them back up.

  “I think I get exactly what you’re trying to say to me, Katie…I won’t bother you again,” he told her gratingly, then shoved the key in his door lock and twisted.

  “But I’ll bother you,” she said softly, then added, “You’ll think of me every minute of every day, just like I’ve been thinking about you.”

  He snorted then tipped his hat back and said sarcastically, “Yeah, looked like you were thinking about me in the hallway, while you let that cowboy stick his tongue down your throat.”

  “That was Jason, and he apologized earlier today, so I agreed to have a drink with him. He evidently thought that came with other benefits. He kissed me…I didn’t invite him to,” she said flatly.

  Sickness pushed up into Tommy’s throat, as he realized the man she’d been letting maul her in the arena was none other than the infamous car sex god she used to date. “Sure looked like you were enjoying it to me,” he told her in a low pained voice, then opened the door and said over his shoulder, “I’ve got to get Dixie to the hotel, she’s tired.”

  “Don’t leave like this, Tommy…I’m still angry and hurt by what happened, but I’m willing to listen, if you want to talk.”

  He got up into the truck, then looked down at her sadly, “I’m not willing to talk, Katie…this isn’t going to work out. I thought it might, but this isn’t what I need in my life…in Dixie’s life.”

  “Aaah, so it circles back there…I see,” she told him in a trembling voice, and her bright blue eyes filled with tears.

  “It will always circle back there, Katie. She’s my life, and my first consideration always,” he said firmly, then added, “I am truly sorry about the other night, and I hope one day you’ll believe that, but I can’t do this. Goodbye, Katie.” He shut the door in her face and cranked it up, feeling like his heart was tearing apart in his chest.

  ***

  Katie looked up from the bag of Oreos by her pillow when her sister opened the door of the guest bedroom, then put her hands on her hips and looked around the darkened bedroom with disapproval. “When are you gonna pull yourself together, Katie…this is ridiculous,” she said with disgust evident on her face.

  Stomping across the room, Karlie threw back the curtains and yanked open the window. Bright light blinded Katie, and she groaned, then she was assaulted by clean-smelling fall air that wafted into the room, and burned her lungs. Her chest, her throat and her body were raw and hyper-sensitive from the major pity party she’d been indulging in for a week and a half.

  “Leave me alone,” she told her sister, her voice sounding just as raw as the rest of her. Katie grabbed a cookie from the bag and shoved it in her mouth and chewed, then felt sick at her stomach when she swallowed the overly rich treat. Swallowing hard, she reached for the glass of now warm milk on the night stand and took a big swallow, which made it even worse. She got up and ran for the bathroom, knocking over the heaping trashcan filled with three boxes of Kleenex that had absorbed her numerous crying jags.

  She got through the bathroom door, and somehow made it to the toilet, before she sacrificed her Oreos to the porcelain goddess. When she was done, she dry heaved a few times then went to the sink and splashed water on her face, and then brushed her teeth. Looking in the mirror, she saw someone she didn’t even recognize. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her complexion was pasty white. With the blond hair that she now regretted, her eyes stood out profoundly in her face. Pathetic, that’s what she was, and she didn’t know how to fix it…but she had to figure out something soon.

  Karlie came into the bathroom behind her and squeezed her shoulders. “You’re going to make yourself sick, sis…what can I do t help?” she asked kindly, her worried eyes meeting Katie’s in the mirror.

  “Nothing can help it…I’ve totally screwed up my life,” Katie told her and her lower lip trembled.

  “Is this about Tommy?” Karlie asked her with pinched lips.

  “Partly, yeah…but it’s more. I have no idea what to do with myself now, I’ve always had the rodeo, and know that life…I don’t have anything now. You’re married, and I’m h-h-happy for you, but I miss us,” she stuttered and the tears started again.

  “I miss us too, Katie…we need to figure this out together. What did Tommy do to you, sugar?” Karlie asked her with protectiveness in her tone.

  There was no way she was going to tell her sister the whole story, because knowing Karlie, she probably would go kick his ass, so she told her half of it. “Jason apologized to me for what he did, and asked me out for a drink after the rodeo, and I agreed. He came up and kissed me, when I was putting my stuff in a locker. Tommy and Dixie walked up on us, and he got pissed,” she related and fresh tears slipped out of the corner of her eyes. “He doesn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore.”

  “Did he tell you that?” Karlie asked incredulously with anger lacing her tone.

  “Yeah, pretty much…he thinks I’m loose, I guess, and doesn’t want me around Dixie,” she said and sniffed then reached over and pulled some toilet paper off the roll and wiped her face, then blew her sore nose.

  “Well, you don’t need him then…because you are a strong, beautiful and talented woman and you are worthy of a man who thinks that too. Don’t sell yourself short, or put up with that crap,” Karlie told her vehemently and squeezed her shoulder again.

  Katie thought she heard her sister whisper ‘I’m gonna kick his ass’ under her breath and cringed. If she knew the whole of it, she probably would, Katie thought.

  Karlie smiled at her in the mirror and lifted her chin, “Here’s what we’re gonna do…” She’d heard those same words with that look from her sister so many times before, Katie fought back the urge to run. The last time she’d heard them, Wade Roberts had wound up with a smiley face on a certain body part.

  Thank god, her sister’s idea didn’t wind up being so bad this time. Katie was sitting in Betty Lou’s chair at the Cut Up Corral in Bowie, getting her hair returned to its original color. The woman tsked and scolded her yet again for screwing up her ‘beautiful red hair’, as she slapped on the third coat of ‘sealer’ to her hair, so when she put the red color on, it wouldn’t turn pink, or some other godawful color, she told her. Her sister was sitting in another stylist’s chair getting her hair cut and straightened like Katie’s.

  Three and a half hours later, she looked up at Karlie and smiled. “Thanks, sis…we’re twins again.”

  “Yeah, except for that damned tattoo,” Karlie huffed looking down at the tail poking over the waistband of her shorts.

  “We can fix that, you know…you can get one just like it,” Katie suggested with a laugh.

  “Now, that’s an idea,” Karlie said with a chuckle, then added, “Gabe would probably kill me.”

  “He can only kill you once,” she said lightly.

  Karlie groaned and told her, “You’re a bad influence on me, I think we swapped personalities or something.”

  The blood drained from Katie’s face and she dropped her chin to her chest. Yet another person who thought she was a bad influence…and her sister to boot. “I was just kidding,” she said sadly.

  Karlie punched her in the shoulder and said, “Hey, I was just kidding too, lighten up sis,” then added with a big mischievous grin, “C’mon let’s go to the tattoo parlor in Henrietta.”

  Shock surged through Katie and she looked up at her sister and said frantically, “No! I’m not going to have Gabe hating me too!”

  “He’s not gonna hate you, Katie…he’ll think it’s hot, trust me,” she assured her and grabbed her arm, pulling her from the chair. “Let’s go before I change my mind.”

  Karlie paid Betty Lou and thanked her, then led Katie outside to the truck. An hour later, they were both laying on a table in the tattoo parlor, san
s their shorts and underwear, draped so the artist could see Katie’s tattoo and replicate it on paper, then ink it on Karlie’s hip.

  Katie thought her sister looked nervous, and gave her a reassuring smile. “It doesn’t hurt too bad, sis…just be grateful I didn’t get the lips on my ass like I thought about,” she told her with a chuckle, and Karlie groaned.

  “I’d have to draw the line there, darlin’…” she said watching the artist drawing the she-devil that would soon be a permanent part of her body. “I have to say though, she’s kinda cute, and pretty appropriate for me.”

  “I thought about you when I was getting it…I was in the ‘channel my inner Karlie’ phase of my make over,” Katie told her then closed her eyes.

  That phase hadn’t worked out so well for her…Karlie was one of a kind…and she was just a poor imitation. How the hell could she think she would be able to be like that? Katie really was the mild child in their twin set. She had finally admitted that after the third box of Kleenex she’d cried into at the cabin.

  From now on, Katie was going to be herself, she didn’t need motorcycles, or tattoos, or blond hair, or car sex, to prove that she wasn’t boring. She was who she was, and if someone didn’t like it, screw ‘em…including Tommy Tucker.

  Karlie flinched as the tattoo artist started outlining the tattoo on her skin, then told her, “I had another idea. You’ve saved all that damned money you won rodeoing, and added a heap to it this weekend. Why don’t we look for some property, and train and sell cutters together? We could get a good stud, and a couple of mares, and build from there.”

  “I was saving that money to live on when I quit the rodeo, when I retired,” Katie told her, but the idea percolated in her brain, and then took root. With a smile, she told her sister impulsively, “Let’s do it.”

  Karlie let out a whoop, and the tattoo artist jumped and almost dropped his gun, and they both apologized and then giggled.

  The tattoo took longer than expected, but it was perfect, when they walked out of the shop, arm and arm, happy and identical again. When they got back to Bowie, they went to the Blue Bird to get some lunch. It was past lunch time, so they didn’t have any trouble finding a table. Katie ordered a BLT with fries and Karlie got a chicken salad. Katie felt better than she had in a week, and managed to eat the whole sandwich, and half the fries.

  “Glad you’re eating, Kate,” someone said behind her, then Gabe walked past her and slid into the booth beside his wife. “You feeling better?” he asked with his blue eyes filled with concern.

  “Yeah, Karlie dragged me out of my funk,” she said with a chuckle.

  “Bout damned time too,” he said and huffed out a breath.

  “I’m sorry if I’ve been trouble, Gabe,” she said mildly, and stabbed a fry into the glob of ketchup on her plate.

  “You haven’t been any trouble, Katie, we were just worried about you,” he said sincerely.

  “Thanks for saying that, but I know I’ve been a royal pain in the ass,” she told him and pinned him with her eyes, “Admit it.”

  He snorted, and said, “Well, not a roya—” then his breath whooshed out of him when Karlie elbowed him in the ribs. He chuckled and shoved her back playfully, then leaned in to give her a tender kiss.

  Katie looked down at her plate, as her heart tweaked and sadness filled her again, but she fought it back, along with the hopelessness that would never know that kind of love and connection in her life.

  “What the hell is that!” Gabe shouted then stood up to look down at Karlie, pointing toward her hip. Katie’s heart surged up into her throat and she swallowed it back down along with the french fry that had lodged in her throat.

  “It’s a tattoo…look,” she said then pulled down the waistband of her shorts, so he could see it.

  “Holy, shit, sugar…” he said, then shook his head and huffed out a breath, before he sat back down beside her.

  “If you be good, I might let you lick it,” she said then leaned over to lick his earlobe.

  “Mmm…” he murmured and turned his face to find her lips again for a scorching kiss. “I’m always good, sugar,” he said in a low sexy drawl.

  Katie threw down her napkin and got up, “I’ll be back,” she said and headed toward the bathroom. Her stomach didn’t feel so good, and she thought she might have overdone it with the greasy fries. When she got inside the bathroom, she quickly ran for a stall and lost her lunch.

  She hovered over the toilet for a minute trying to get her stomach to settle, then she went and rinsed her mouth and splashed her face. Katie had never had a weak stomach before, she hoped she hadn’t caught the flu or something. She felt her forehead and it was clammy, but cool. She wiped under eyes, and washed her hands, then walked back to the table, and sat down.

  “You okay, sis? You look pale,” Karlie told her.

  “I’m fine…just a little indigestion…I probably shouldn’t have eaten so many fries,” she said with a forced smile.

  “Karlie tells me you two are going to start a cutter operation…I think that’s a fantastic idea. I told her about some property I saw for sale over on the road by Cassie and Luke’s place the other day. There’s an old line shack on it that could probably be remodeled pretty easily for living quarters, and a big barn with a bunkhouse. The barn and bunkhouse looked newer.”

  Excitement poured through Katie and she sat up and raised a brow to ask, “Is it listed with a Realtor? Or is it by owner? Any idea what they want for it?”

  “All I know is it’s about a hundred acres or so, and it’s already cross-fenced, and what I told you already. I’ll get the phone number on the sign when I got out that way again,” he said with a grin. “Have to pay you back for that tattoo.”

  “Pay me back?” she asked and fear overshadowed her excitement for a minute. She really didn’t want Gabe mad at her.

  “Yeah, it’s hot…thanks for talking her into it,” he said and gave Karlie a heated stare, and she blushed. Her wild ass sister blushing was a novelty, and Katie grinned thinking about how much her sister had settled down.

  Katie took a sip of her tea, then suggested, “Why don’t you call us when you go out there and we’ll meet you and walk around?” She had to get out of their house and soon. Karlie and Gabe were newlyweds, and as much as they protested, she knew she was cramping their style.

  “Okay, I’ll do that…I need to get back to the station, I saw your truck parked over here and had to come get a kiss from my beautiful bride,” he said then leaned over and kissed Karlie again, then put his forehead to hers and said softly, “Love you, babe.”

  “Love you too,” Karlie said staring dreamily into his eyes. He grabbed his ugly putty colored Stetson, which Katie thought looked ridiculous on the handsome hunky Sheriff, and slapped it down on his head, the stood up and tipped it at them, and drawled in his deep voice, “Have a good afternoon, ladies.”

  Karlie sighed and her eyes followed him all the way to the door, then she looked back at Katie and fanned herself. “That man sets me on fire.”

  Katie snorted, then said sarcastically, “Nah, really?” and Karlie laughed.

  When they got back to the cabin, Katie went directly to her room and started sanitizing to remove the traces of her pity party. She was using the broom to fish under the bed for dust bunnies, when the home phone rang, and she got up and ran into the living room, hoping it was Gabe calling with good news.

  Karlie gave her a thumbs up from where she sat on the sofa with the phone to her ear. “Okay, we’re on our way…meet you there,” she said then kissed into the phone and hung it up. “Let’s go sis, Gabe’s headed out to the property, and wants us to meet him.”

  Katie went to her room and changed into jeans, and put her old boots on, then walked back out and said with excitement, “Ready when you are,” then she asked seriously, “You sure you want to do this, Karlie?”