LuAnn and Ida had been friends since birth, as they liked to tell people. They’d been born on the same day, only a few minutes apart, and as preemies, they’d shared an incubator since the hospital only had one at the time. They’d had double weddings. Ida, however, had gotten pregnant with Carson almost immediately. LuAnn hadn’t had Evie—or rather Evette Elise—until eight years later. Both women had stopped after just one child.
If there’d been a picture in the dictionary of helicopter moms, LuAnn’s and Ida’s faces would have been there.
It’d been the age gap that had made LuAnn and Ida decide that Carson and Evie weren’t right for each other but that Bennie was, since Evie and he were the same age. Carson could see their logic and maybe would have agreed with it.
If Evie hadn’t deserved better, that was.
“Baby Girl,” LuAnn said, rushing to Evie. “We’re gonna make this right.”
“I promise, we will,” Ida added. “Bennie shouldn’t have treated you this way, what with your c-a-n-c-e-r and all.”
To the best of Carson’s knowledge his mom had never actually said the word aloud in front of Evie. Maybe Ida couldn’t bring herself to say it. Either that, or she thought Evie couldn’t spell and therefore didn’t know what she was talking about.
Evie’s father didn’t get in on the conversation. He just kept scowling, but that was because he was looking at the mess left by the partiers. Carson took out his wallet, emptied the entire contents onto the bar.
“If that’s not enough, send me a bill,” Carson offered.
That still didn’t get the scowl off Roy’s face, and the gaze he’d been volleying around the mess finally settled on Carson. “You couldn’t stop Bennie from doing this?”
“The situation got away from me,” Carson settled for saying. He thought maybe that’d happened in between his seventh and eight shots of tequila.
Roy’s gaze went from the coffee mug to the red panties on the floor. Back to Carson’s mouth.
Hell, Carson hoped he didn’t look as if he’d just been kissed.
“I’ve been trying to call Bennie,” Ida went on, “but he’s not answering.”
No surprise. Bennie was probably either still drunk or having wild sex with his stripper-wife. Either way, Carson needed to track him down. And get to work. That was going to be hard to do when he didn’t have a clue where his truck was. It was possible that Bennie had used it to go somewhere. Hopefully, though, he’d gotten someone sober to drive it.
“You can drop me off at the Granger Ranch,” Evie said to him, clearly figuring out what was on his mind. “Then, you can use my car.”
Normally, Carson wouldn’t have wanted to put her out like that, but he did need a vehicle, and he certainly didn’t want his mom chauffeuring him around. Especially since he didn’t want her to hear the things he was going to say to Bennie when he finally got a chance to talk to him.
“Don’t cry about this,” LuAnn said, giving Evie another hug.
Carson had never seen a woman further from tears. In fact, Evie was smiling. A small Mona Lisa smile, but it let him know that Bennie hadn’t done as much damage as Carson had thought. Then again, maybe it was the worst kind of damage. After all, Evie had kissed him, and that had opened a really bad Pandora’s box. That kiss had seemed to be some kind of declaration that she not only wasn’t going back to the way things were but that she also was coming after him.
While Evie and he got out of there, Carson tried to call Bennie. No luck. It went straight to voice mail.
“Call me, you dumbass idiot,” Carson snarled into the phone. “Things have gone to hell in a handbasket here in Wrangler’s Creek.” He added some profanity that he hoped would spur Bennie to call him as soon as he heard the message.
Evie chuckled and ran to her car. Even though it was only a few feet from the Longhorn, Carson still got wet because the rain was coming down pretty hard. Good. Maybe it’d wash away some of the tequila smell and help clear his head.
“Hell in a handbasket, huh?” Evie repeated. She started the engine as soon as he had on his seat belt. “Did you mean Bennie’s marriage or that kiss?”
“Both,” he answered honestly.
Evie smiled again and drove away from the Longhorn with her parents and his mom watching them from the doorway. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you for a while. Seemed like a good time.”
She was yanking his chain. On the last part of that, anyway. “Bennie’s like a kid brother to me, and you’re—”
Her narrowed gaze slashed to his. “If you say Bennie’s girl, I’m going to pull over and kiss you again. This time, I’ll make it French with some possible groping involved.”
He frowned and wished that sounded unappealing. It didn’t. In fact, it appealed to every part of his body. One part in particular.
“You’re in a weird mood,” Carson grumbled.
She lifted her shoulder. “Post-cancer awareness. I realized life’s too short not to do what you want to do. I don’t want to be Bennie’s girl. I don’t want to be anybody’s girl.”
All right. That spelled it out for him. At least Carson thought it did until she continued.
“I want to be someone’s woman,” Evie added a moment later. “Someone’s lover. Preferably someone I’m incredibly attracted to even if that someone won’t look at me because he’s too good of a man to do something he’d consider low-down and dirty.”
Yeah, that was it in a nutshell.
Carson didn’t confirm it, but Evie huffed. “Bennie’s not in love with me,” she went on, “and I’m not in love with him. He still calls himself my boyfriend because he feels sorry for me. Personally, I think he’d be relieved if I got you drunk and hauled you off to bed.”
The images came, shoving aside the fog, and for a couple of seconds, he could see Evie naked and riding him hard. Hell, he could feel it, too. And that’s why he looked away from her.
“Your parents wouldn’t be relieved about that,” he reminded her. “Neither would my mom.”
She stayed quiet a moment, then groaned. Because she knew it was true. He might have a “good guy” label, but Evie wasn’t exactly a bad girl. She’d toed just as many lines as he had.
Still quiet and now with no trace of that smile, Evie took the turn toward the Granger Ranch, and the place came into view. Most people just called it sprawling, and it fit. Miles of pastures and white fences. Barns, corrals, stables and the house that also qualified as sprawling.
“If you don’t mind, I’d rather not see Garrett,” Carson said. After all, he had to do business with the man. “What are the chances he’ll be at the ranch this morning?”
“A hundred percent. He’s waiting on me so we can finish the quarterly taxes.”
Great. Since Garrett also ran a business, Granger Western, miles away in Austin, Carson was hoping that was where he would be. No such luck, though. Because Garrett was sipping a cup of coffee on the front porch. It would be too rude for Carson just to let Evie out and then drive away, so he bit the bullet. Once she’d come to a stop in the circular drive that fronted the house, Carson joined her as she made her way to the porch.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said.
But Garrett waved it off. “Is it true?” Garrett asked her. “Did Bennie elope with a stripper?” Before she could even confirm it, Garrett pulled her into his arms. “God, Evie, I’m so sorry.”
That I’m so sorry seemed to apply to more than just Bennie, and Carson got a glimpse of what Evie had been going through. People were indeed treating her with kid gloves. That was probably okay while she was going through treatments and such, but it was likely wearing thin.
“You want me to call Sophie and have her come out?” Garrett asked her.
Sophie was his sister and Evie’s friend, and while it would have been nice to talk this out
with her, Sophie was busy with work at the family business in Austin. “Thank you but no. I’ll call her later.”
Garrett nodded, but he didn’t look so caring and sympathetic when he turned to Carson. “You’re going to fix this?” Garrett snapped, and the snap was for Carson. Garrett’s expression quickly softened again, though. No doubt because he remembered he had a younger brother, Roman, who made Bennie look like a choirboy.
“I’ll certainly try.” And his first attempt to do that came before he had even finished giving Garrett that assurance.
Carson’s phone buzzed, and when he saw Bennie’s name on the screen, he stepped to the side of the porch to take it. Of course, Evie and Garrett would still be able to hear him, but thankfully they went inside.
“Where the hell are you?” Carson demanded the second he answered.
“Uh, I’m not sure. A hotel room, I think.”
Carson wanted to curse a blue streak along with knocking Bennie upside the head. “Is the stripper with you?”
“Who? Car, I’m not feeling so great. I think I’m gonna puke.”
“You can puke after you’ve answered my questions. Where are you, and did you marry that stripper?”
Bennie didn’t answer. At least not with words. Carson heard a retching sound. Followed by something else. A woman’s voice.
“You poor thing,” she purred. “Let Gigi make it all better.”
Hell. Carson hadn’t actually remembered the stripper’s name until now. But that was the woman with the stash of red panties all right. “Gigi?” he yelled into the phone.
“Car?” she said, and he hated hearing his nickname purr from this woman’s pouty lips.
“Yeah, it’s me. Where the hell are you?”
“Vegas, I think, but I can’t talk right now. Bennie just puked on the petunia.”
Carson had no idea if that was code for her lady part or if it was maybe a pseudo bridal bouquet. It didn’t matter. He needed answers.
“Did Bennie and you get married?” he pressed.
But he was talking to the air because Gigi, her petunia and the puking Bennie were no longer on the line. Cursing, he tried to call Bennie back, but like before it went to voice mail.
“Well? What’s the verdict?” Evie asked.
With all the cursing and the rain hitting the tin roof, Carson hadn’t even known that she’d stepped back onto the porch with him. He shook his head. “Bennie couldn’t talk, but he’s with the stripper. Don’t know, though, if they’re married or not.”
If not knowing bothered her in the least, she didn’t show it. “I’m sure they’ll be okay.”
She went to him, took his hand and dropped her keys into his palm. “Forgot to give these to you. Garrett’s going to drive me to the Longhorn when I’m done here because I have a couple of hours of work to do for my dad.”
“Not cleaning, I hope, because I can hire some extra help.”
She waved that off. “I’ll call some of the Busbys and get them to help Bud. It’ll be cleaned up before afternoon opening.”
Yeah, but he still owed her dad another apology. Probably a whole bunch of other people, too. The only saving grace about the night was that he hadn’t ended up with a stripper.
“When you bring back my car, you want to go for some coffee or something?” she asked.
Carson didn’t have to think long or hard on that. “It’s probably not a good idea.”
Well, unless he could talk her into giving Bennie a second chance. Or in Bennie’s case, it was more like a sixteenth chance. Of course, for it to do any good, he’d have to verify that Bennie wasn’t married.
And Carson would have to put his own feelings aside, too.
Because he didn’t want Evie with Bennie.
That kiss was responsible for the way he was feeling. It had put doubts in his head, and right now there was enough going on up there without adding doubts to the mix.
She smiled again. That evil Mona Lisa smile. “Consider this,” she said. “We can please our folks, maybe Bennie, too, if we keep our hands off each other. You could hang on to your ‘good guy’ label and I can continue being Bennie’s girl. Or you can meet me after work and we can figure out how we can make a go of this.”
“This?” Carson questioned.
“Sex,” Evie answered without hesitation.
And with that smile still on her hot little mouth, she turned and went inside, leaving him to wonder where the hell the rug was that she’d just pulled from beneath his feet.
CHAPTER THREE
“YOU DID WHAT?” Sophie Granger asked Evie.
Even from the other end of a phone line, Evie had no trouble hearing her friend’s surprise. Sophie’s concern, too. Concern that Evie hoped to nip in the bud. While she was at it, she wanted to do some sympathy nipping, too, because Evie figured that would soon surface in this conversation.
“I threw myself at Carson,” Evie repeated.
Yep, she had. Evie had thrown down the sexual gauntlet to Carson, and now she had to see if he would do anything about it. She had to accept that he wouldn’t, that he would put Bennie and his reputation ahead of her.
And if that happened, it meant she had made a fool of herself for nothing.
It also meant she’d misread the signals, that maybe Carson wasn’t actually feeling what she’d been feeling for him for years. If so, that was going to hurt. Because she suspected those feelings went past the mere attraction stage.
“The timing seemed right for me to do that,” Evie explained. “And I’m expecting him to show up at the Longhorn any minute now.” At least she was hoping he would show.
“Uh, are you sure about that?” Sophie asked. “Don’t get me wrong. I’ve wanted you to dump Bennie for a long time. Yes, he’s charming, and he’s got that whole bad boy, hot cowboy thing going on, but I don’t think he’s the settling down type.” She paused. “Is that why you asked out Carson, because you want to settle down?”
Sophie probably thought that since she knew all about Evie’s quest to grab some gusto in life. “For starters, I just want to make out with Carson. From what I could tell, he’s a really good kisser.”
“He looks like he would be, and he’s got a great butt, too. I just want you to think before you leap. You know, make sure this is what you want and that it’s not some kind of knee-jerk reaction.”
“It’s not knee-jerk. And yes, settling down is at the back of my mind. Funny, though, that I’d never thought of settling down with Bennie, but my mind can weave some very sweet fantasies when it comes to Carson.”
Sophie chuckled. “Then go for it.”
It was the exact reaction Evie wanted her friend to have. Sophie was probably the only person who knew her who would approve of this.
“Gotta go,” Sophie said. “Let me know if any of those fantasies come true,” she added, ending the call.
Evie put her phone on the table and checked the time again. Carson was late. He’d texted her earlier to say that he’d meet her at the Longhorn to return her car. He hadn’t said a peep about sex, but then phone messages probably weren’t the best way to converse about that sort of thing.
“Want to talk about it?” her father asked. Since he’d come by the booth where she was waiting three times, it was obvious he was worried about her.
She hated that, the worry. The fear in his eyes. He loved her, and nearly losing her had cut him to the core. Her mother, too, of course, but at least her dad hadn’t tried to smother her.
Well, not as much as her mother, anyway.
“I’m fine, really.” Evie forced a smile.
Her dad would know it was forced, and that was probably why he lingered a moment. He didn’t sit down, though, because he was manning the bar, and while there were only two customers at this early hour—f
our o’clock—he wouldn’t want to be seen lollygagging. Like Carson, he had that whole reputation thing to uphold.
“You do know your mom and I want the best for you,” he added. “We want the best for Bennie, too, because we’ve always thought of him as part of the family.”
And there was the problem. It was hard to oust a family member even after he’d run off with a stripper, and in their minds Bennie had also broken her heart.
“What if I don’t think of Bennie as family?” she threw out there. “What if I’m actually glad this happened?”
He sighed, patted her arm. “Once you get past the shock, you’ll be thinking a little clearer.”
Now she sighed. Part of her just wanted to scream that Bennie wasn’t right for her, but if her folks couldn’t see that now, they would never see it. Screaming wouldn’t help. And that meant she had to come up with another way. One that didn’t crush them but still kept what was left of her dignity intact.
She’d already run into at least a half-dozen people today who had upped those “poor, pitiful Evie” looks. Not only had she had cancer—which was always spoken in a whisper or spelled out as Ida did—but now she’d lost her man.
The door opened, and Carson finally came in. The relief she felt was instant. At least until she saw his face. Something was wrong, and he was possibly trying to figure out how to turn down her offer of sex.
Her father walked away as Carson slid into the seat across from her after asking her father to bring him a beer. “Still want to have sex?” Carson asked.
She nearly choked on her own breath. “Uh, yes.” Evie hadn’t meant to sound hesitant, but something was wrong. “That’s not exactly a ‘let’s have sex’ look in your eyes.”
He mumbled some profanity and stared at his hands that he had balled up on the table, but he didn’t say anything else until her father had served him the beer and left them alone.
Even though her father was now out of earshot, Carson still whispered, “I don’t want you crying, upset or having a setback.”
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