Blame It on the Cowboy

by Delores Fossen

  She didn’t know if Lucky was just trying to make her feel better. Reese couldn’t imagine anyone disapproving of Helene. Well, not until after the clown incident, anyway.

  “Did her mother happen to mention why Helene cheated on Logan?” Reese asked.

  He shook his head. “I’ve got my own theory, though. High-end upbringing and she wanted to sample something down and dirty. Something a little perverse.”

  “Perverse? I’m not sure you can call it that—”

  “You don’t know what the clown was doing with his big red nose,” Lucky interrupted.

  Oh. So, maybe perverse, after all. Perhaps this was something akin to an heiress sleeping with the pool cleaner.

  Or Logan sleeping with her.

  Reese hadn’t actually wanted to ask him if he’d been playing out a dirty fantasy that night with her at the hotel, but it was possible he had. Maybe Logan had wanted a pool cleaner experience, too.

  Mercy. Had that been it?

  “Fight for him,” Lucky insisted.

  Reese wasn’t sure she heard him correctly at first, but then Lucky repeated it.

  “Fight?” she questioned.

  “Not with your fists.” He shrugged again. “Though, if I thought it would work, I’d say go for it. I just don’t want to see Logan hurt again.”

  “Neither do I. But he’s a grown man, and if he wants to get back with his ex, then it’s his decision. I gotta go,” she said.

  And Reese hurried away so she could get inside her room before the first tear rolled down her cheek. There was only one word she had for herself.

  Idiot.

  * * *

  “HELLO, LOGAN,” HELENE SAID. She was smiling as if this were a normal visit. It wasn’t. Far from it.

  Logan felt as if a heavyweight boxer had just slugged him in the gut. Twice. Not just at the sight of Helene but because Reese wasn’t there.

  “What did you say to Reese to make her leave?” he asked. And he didn’t bother to sound even a little friendly.

  “Reese?” she repeated.

  “Quit the innocent act. You know her name. You know who she is.”

  No way would Helene not have heard the gossip, especially considering her mother still lived in Spring Hill. Logan didn’t want to know the picture her mother had painted of the fry cook at the Fork and Spoon.

  Helene’s smile faded, and she flexed her eyebrows. “Yes. Reese is an interesting woman. People seem to love those lemon things she bakes. Have you been seeing her long?”

  “You know the answer to that, too.” Logan would let Helene sort out fact from fiction all on her own.

  “You’re angry,” Helene said, sitting down at the table where his breakfast was waiting. “And you have every right to be.”

  “You’re damn right I do.” He hadn’t meant to raise his voice and instantly regretted it because it let Helene know that what she’d done had put his heart through the shredder.

  “I want you to know that what happened that night wasn’t planned,” she explained.

  “Various parts of a clown just happened to fall into your vagina?” Logan snapped.

  Her mouth tightened a little but not for long. She quickly regained her cool composure. “It was a mistake. One I’ll regret for the rest of my life, and I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you.”

  Even that wouldn’t be enough time, but Logan had something more important on his mind right now. “What did you say to Reese?” he repeated.

  “I only introduced myself.”

  Maybe that was true. Helene could intimidate with just a smile. It was one of the things that had actually attracted him to her in the first place. He’d wanted a woman who could hold her ground, go toe-to-toe with him. And Helene had done just that. Or rather had pretended to do it. Like the gossip, Logan didn’t know what was fact and what was fiction when it came to his years with Helene.

  “I didn’t come here to spoil things with Reese,” she said, pausing right before Reese’s name. There was some disdain in her voice. Maybe some jealousy. Or fake jealousy at least.

  “Then why did you come?” he asked.

  “Forgiveness.”

  Logan would have laughed if he could have gotten his jaw unclenched. “Try something simpler. Something you actually stand a chance of getting from me.”

  In that moment he wanted to ask her why she’d fucked a clown. Why she had betrayed him, but Logan figured there wasn’t nearly enough time to get into that. He needed to go to the meeting and then find Reese and discover the truth behind what Helene had said to her while he’d been in the shower.

  “All right,” Helene finally said. “I don’t want you to stand in the way of my return. For the past month I’ve been in therapy to help me understand why I cheated, and I’m in a much better place in my life now. I want to come home.”

  “It appears you’re already here.”

  “Yes, and I plan on staying.” She took a deep breath, patted her chest as if to steady her heart. Or maybe it was just to remind him of her huge breasts. “I know I have fences to mend, not just with you, but with the entire town. I’ve already gotten started on that.”

  Logan didn’t ask her how. “I have a meeting. I have to go.”

  “Greg told me. I won’t keep you, but I wanted you to know that I’ll be hosting a fund-raiser reception this Friday at the civic center. I’m donating money for the building extension, and this will be a good first step to repairing my image.”

  The only image Logan had was of a naked Helene on her desk, getting intimate with the red clown nose.

  “I hired a publicist, and she’s the one who suggested the civic center donation and reception,” Helene went on. “She specializes in human branding, which isn’t as BDSM as it sounds.” She laughed.

  Logan didn’t.

  “Anyway, I’m inviting the entire town to the reception, and I want you to come, as well,” she added.

  Now he did manage a laugh. He also opened the door and headed out. Helene followed him down the stairs.

  “Just think this through,” Helene said. “If you don’t go, people will say you’re too torn up to face me. They’ll say your heart is broken.”

  Hell. The woman knew just how to go after him. Had she always been this way, or had she honed her bitch skills in the past three months?

  “Well?” she asked when they reached the bottom of the stairs. “Should I put you down as a yes for the reception?” And Helene made the mistake of smiling at him. An “I’ve got you by the balls” kind of smile.

  But two could play this game. “Yes, plus one. I’ll be bringing Reese as my date.”

  Logan did enjoy the glimpse of Helene’s bitch face to go along with her bitch skills. But it was only a glimpse. He didn’t wait around to see what else Helene would do or say. He went up the hall to the meeting wondering just one thing.

  How the hell was he going to talk Reese into going with him to his ex-girlfriend’s party?

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “NO WAY IN HELL,” Reese told Sissy Lee.

  Reese didn’t have to think about it, either. If Sissy Lee was right, Helene was throwing some kind of big party on Friday night, and Logan would be expecting Reese to go with him. But Sissy Lee had to be wrong about this.

  “You’re sure you wouldn’t want to show up at Helene’s fancy to-do and give her what for?” Sissy Lee asked.

  Reese wasn’t exactly sure what Sissy Lee meant by that, but if it involved her going to a party as Logan’s date, then it wasn’t happening. Of course, Logan wouldn’t allow it to happen, either.

  Probably for several reasons.

  When Reese had left Helene in Logan’s flat earlier, the woman’s smile had made it crystal clear that she was there to reclaim her man
. A man Reese was unworthy of. Helene had punctuated her claim with the scalp-to-soles glance she’d given Reese. The woman didn’t have to say a word to let Reese know that she wasn’t acceptable in Logan’s and her social circles.

  And Reese didn’t want to be acceptable.

  All right, maybe she did, but not like this. Not showing up with Logan just so she could rub it in Helene’s face.

  “What are you going to wear?” Sissy Lee asked.

  “I’m not going.” Reese finished the burger she was making, plated it and slid it to Sissy Lee, hoping that would put an end to this conversation.

  Apparently not.

  “I’m wearing the purple dress I wore to my prom,” Sissy Lee declared, helping herself to one of the fries on the plate. Since Sissy Lee was in her midthirties, it had been a while since that prom had taken place.

  “You might want to take that order to the customer,” Reese reminded her when Sissy Lee ate another fry. Much more of this, and Reese would have to make a second batch, and since the lunch shift was nearly over, she didn’t want to do that.

  Sissy Lee finally headed out into the dining room, but she had no sooner walked out when the swinging doors to the kitchen opened again. At first Reese thought Sissy Lee had forgotten something, but it wasn’t the waitress.

  It was Logan.

  “No, I’m not going to Helene’s party,” Reese said right off.

  He huffed. “I see the gossip made it here ahead of me.”

  “Hours ahead of you.”

  Which was her way of reminding him that it’d been nearly half a day since Helene had shown up, and he hadn’t called Reese to give her any hint of what had gone on in the loft after she left. Judging from the buzz that Logan wanted to take Reese to the reception, it hadn’t gone well.

  Reese tried not to smile about that.

  Logan opened his mouth to say something, glanced out at the diners who were watching them and then he pulled her to the side so they’d be out of sight.

  “Look, I’m busy,” Reese said. “Lucky and Cassie’s engagement party is only a week and a half away.” Of course, what she wouldn’t tell Logan was that she already had everything planned out because then he would argue she was free to go with him to the reception.

  But even though she didn’t say that, he argued, anyway. “I can hire someone to help you with the engagement party, but if I don’t show up at the reception, it’ll look as if I’m licking my wounds.”

  “Are you?” Reese came out and asked.

  He made a face. “I hadn’t realized how disgusting that sounds. But no, I’m not. And I want you to go with me.”

  “So you can…what? Show Helene that you’ve moved on? I’m sure you can find a more acceptable date for that. Besides, I don’t have anything to wear.”

  “I’ll take you shopping.” Judging from his dour expression, doing that would be about as much fun for him as sliding down razor blades while naked.

  “I don’t need you to take me shopping. If I were going, I could find something on my own.” That was possibly the truth. Possibly.

  Logan glanced around, then up at the ceiling as if asking for divine guidance as to what he could say that would make her change her mind. But there was nothing he could say.

  Except what he said.

  “Please.”

  That was it. A single word from him attached to a desperate expression.

  Reese considered having another go at convincing him to take someone else. Anyone else. Or even his going alone. But then she gave that some thought. Did she really want Logan alone at the party with Helene? Helene might see that as an open invitation to pursue him.

  Something she was likely to do, anyway.

  Still, why make it easier for her by serving up Logan on a silver platter?

  “You’re going, aren’t you?” Logan asked. He pulled out the big guns. A smile. And a dimple flashed in his cheek.

  Good grief. How could she say no to a dimple like that? And the please?

  Reese huffed first before she answered. “All right, I’ll go.”

  Another smile. Logan dropped a quick kiss on her mouth. “You won’t regret this.”

  He was wrong about that. Because Reese already did regret it.

  * * *

  AND REESE CONTINUED to regret her decision to go.

  However, what she regretted even more was that she’d brought Jimena with her on the shopping trip to the San Antonio mall. Her friend and she clearly had different ideas about what constituted a suitable dress.

  Jimena studied the latest one Reese had tried on. Electric blue and with enough sparkles to possibly trigger seizures in some people. It was also far shorter and tighter than Reese preferred. Call her old-fashioned, but she didn’t like the idea of someone discovering the color of her panties if she happened to lean even an inch in any direction.

  “It’s not slutty enough,” Jimena insisted. “You want to wow Logan’s ex when you walk into that party.”

  She would wow Helene, all right, but not in a good way. The woman already thought Reese was trash, and this dress would go a long way toward proving it.

  “In a slut contest, this dress would win,” Reese argued. “I’m definitely not getting it.”

  Jimena looked shocked, though Reese didn’t know why. So far, Reese had vetoed every dress that Jimena had chosen for her to try on. In several cases, she had vetoed without even trying on the outfit.

  Maybe it wasn’t too late to tell Logan to find another date. Or for her to leave town. Of course, that was probably what Helene wanted her to do, and the reminder gave Reese enough of a resolve to go back into the dressing room and try the next one. It was another of Jimena’s selections.

  Acid green and, yes, sparkles. The back was what Jimena called a crack back. Reese hadn’t asked for clarification, but she doubted her friend had meant the dress was suitable for selling drugs or a spinal adjustment.

  “So, did I tell you I dumped Elrond?” Jimena asked.

  “Really?” She gave Jimena a dose of that same shock Jimena had given her with the dress. It wasn’t a shock at all. Jimena went through men as quickly as Reese was going through these dresses. “Was it because of the clown outfit?”

  “No. I actually sort of got into that. Did you know there’s an entire clown fetish thing?”

  “Didn’t have a clue.” She paused. “Did he ever confess if he was the one with Helene?”

  “Never. In fact, he denied it all the way up to the time I dumped him. And you know what? I believe him. Who does Logan think it was?”

  “He doesn’t know.” And this conversation wasn’t making her feel any better about any of this. Here she was trying on dresses to go with Logan to his ex’s reception, and he was still obviously concerned about the identity of Helene’s lover.

  Nope, there was no chance of Reese getting a broken heart over this.

  Reese put the crack back dress aside and went to the next one. One of her own selections. It was black, plain. And boring. She could be a wallflower in this dress, which was the exact reason she tried it on. She came out of the dressing room ready to hear Jimena make the fake gagging sounds she’d made at all of Reese’s selections.

  And that’s exactly what happened.

  “The idea is for you to look good,” Jimena pointed out, her voice flat. “So good that the ex will turn green and Logan will want to have sex with you on the hors d’oeuvres table.”

  Those were high expectations for a mere dress, but Jimena did have a point. As long as she was going to be there at the party, she might as well wear something she knew Logan would like.

  With her mission clarified, Reese went back into the dressing room, looked through the choices she had left and came up with a tomato-red dress. No sparkles, but it was silk and had a shimm
er to it. That silk whispered over her skin when she put it on, and Reese knew that even without Jimena’s approval, this was going to be the one. Not because she loved, loved, loved it, but because she was tired of shopping, and it was on sale.

  As she’d done too many times to count, Reese came out of the dressing room, prepared to twirl around to show Jimena how enthusiastic she was with this choice, but her enthusiasm sort of stalled in her throat.

  Helene was standing there.

  “Well, hello,” Helene said, giving Reese another dose of that creepy smile. “What a coincidence, running into you here.”

  Reese doubted it was anything but a coincidence. Helene was checking her out. Literally. The woman’s attention was lingering on Reese’s bust area. Reese’s B-cups obviously weren’t measuring up to Helene’s DDs.

  Jimena looked at Reese, and she didn’t think it was her imagination that Jimena was silently asking if Reese wanted her to punch the woman’s lights out. She did, but that wasn’t going to happen. If anyone punched out Helene’s lights, it would be Reese.

  “Is that what you’re wearing to the reception?” Helene asked. A glacier wouldn’t melt in that cool mouth of hers.

  “No,” Jimena said at the same time Reese said, “Maybe.”

  Helene’s expression tightened, just enough to show her disapproval. “It doesn’t do anything for your skin, does it? It washes you out. May I suggest something in yellow or green?”

  Colors that were certain not to look good on her. Maybe Reese should put on the electric-blue one and try to trigger a seizure in Helene.

  “Then again,” Helene went on, tapping her chin as if she were truly giving some input that Reese might take. “This one does make your stomach look flat since it skims over the body rather than hugging it.”

  Reese figured that was a dig about the pregnancy rumors.

  “I think it’s perfect,” someone said.

  Logan.

  He wasn’t exactly hurrying when he came into the viewing area of the dressing room, but judging from his slightly rapid breathing, there’d been some hurrying involved before his arrival.