The waitress chose that moment to return with their food, and once the plates had been placed in front of them, she left.
“I understand Gemma is adjusting to life in Australia.”
He couldn’t help but smile. Although he missed his sister, it seemed from all the phone calls they got that she was adjusting to life in Australia. He’d known Callum, the man who used to be the manager of Ramsey’s sheep farm, had loved Gemma for a while, even if his sister had been clueless. He’d always known Callum’s feelings for Gemma had been the real thing and not for the sole purpose of getting her into bed. He’d wholeheartedly approved of Gemma and Callum’s relationship.
“Yes, I talked to her a few days ago. She and Callum are planning to come home for the Westmoreland Charity Ball at the end of the month.” He wondered if she planned to go and if so, if she already had a date.
“Are you dating anyone seriously?” he decided to ask and set his plan into motion.
She looked over at him after popping a strawberry into her luscious mouth, chewed on it a moment, and then she swallowed it before replying. “The only dates I have these days are with my schoolbooks.”
“Um, what a pity, that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun. How about a movie this weekend?”
She cocked a surprised eyebrow. “A movie?”
He could tell his suggestion had surprised her. “Yes, a movie. Evidently, you’re not spending enough time having fun, and everyone needs to let loose now and then. There’s a new Tyler Perry movie coming out this weekend that I want to see. Would you like to go with me?”
* * *
Lucia’s heart began pounding in her chest as she quickly reached the conclusion that Derringer had to have figured out that she was the woman who’d brazenly shared his bed. What other reason could he have for asking her out? Why the sudden interest in her when he’d never shown any before?
Their eyes held for what seemed like several electrifying moments before she finally broke eye contact with him. But what if he didn’t know, and asking her out was merely a coincidence? There was only one way to find out. She glanced back over at him and saw he was still staring at her with that unreadable expression of his. “Why do you want to take me out, Derringer?”
He gave her a smooth smile. “I told you. You’re spending too much time studying and working and need to have a little fun.”
She still wasn’t buying it. “We’ve known each other for years. Yet you’ve never asked me out before. In fact, you’ve never shown any interest.”
He chuckled. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to show an interest, Lucia, but I love my life and all my body parts.”
She raised a brow and paused with the fork halfway to her mouth. “What do you mean?”
He took a sip of his iced tea and then his mouth curved ruefully. “I was warned away from you early on and took the warning seriously.”
She nearly dropped the fork from her hand and had to tighten her grip to place it back down. “What do you mean you were warned away from me?” That was impossible. She’d never had a boyfriend jealous enough to do such a thing.
A grin flashed across his face. “Your dad knows how to scare a man off, trust me.”
Her head began spinning at the same time her heart slammed hard against her rib cage. “My dad warned you away from me?”
He smiled. “Yes, and I took him seriously. It was the summer you were about to leave for college. You were eighteen and I was twenty-two and returning home from university. You attended the Westmoreland Charity Ball with your parents before you left. He saw me checking you out, probably thought my interest wasn’t honorable, and pulled me aside and told me to keep my eyes to myself or else…”
Lucia swallowed. She knew her dad. His bark was worse than his bite, but most people didn’t know that. “Or else what?”
“Or else my eyes, along with another body part I’d rather not mention, would get pulled from their sockets. The last thing he would put up with was a Westmoreland dating his daughter.”
Lucia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She could see her father making a threat like that because he was overprotective of her. But she doubted Derringer knew how much his words thrilled her. He had been checking her out when she was eighteen?
She nervously moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue and couldn’t help noticing the movement of his gaze to her mouth. Her skin began burning at the thought that he had been attracted to her even when she hadn’t had a clue. But still…
“Aw, come on, Derringer, that was more than ten years ago,” she said in a teasing tone.
“Yes, but you probably don’t recall a few years ago I dropped by the paint store to make a purchase and you were working behind the counter and waited on me.”
Oh, she definitely remembered that day, and three years later hadn’t been able to forget it. But of course she couldn’t tell him that. “That was a long time ago, but I think I remember that day. You needed a can of paint thinner.” She could probably tell him what brand it was and exactly how much he’d paid for it.
“Yes, well, I had planned to ask you out then, but Mr. Conyers gave me a look that reminded me of the conversation we’d had years before and that his opinion of me pursuing you hadn’t changed.”
She couldn’t help but laugh and it felt good. He had actually wanted to talk to her then, too. “I can’t believe you were afraid of Dad.”
“Believe it, sweetheart. He can give you a look that lets you know he means business. And it didn’t help that he and Bane had had a run-in a few years before when Bane swiped a can of paint on display in front of the store and used it to paint some not-so-nice graffiti all over the front of Mr. Milner’s feed store and signed off by saying it was a present from your father.”
Lucia wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. “I was away at college, but I heard about that. Mom wrote and told me all the details. You’re right, Dad was upset and so was Mr. Milner. Your cousin Bane had a reputation for getting into all kinds of trouble. How are things going with him and the Navy?”
“He’s doing fine at the Naval Academy. It’s hard to believe he’s been gone for almost two years already, but he has.”
“And he hasn’t been back since he left?”
Derringer shook his head sadly. “No, not even once. He refuses to come back knowing Crystal isn’t here, and he’s still angry that he doesn’t know where she is. The Newsomes made sure of that before they moved away. We are hoping he’ll eventually forget her and move on, but so far he hasn’t.”
In a way, she knew how Bane felt. She hadn’t looked forward to returning to Denver either, knowing she was still harboring feelings for Derringer. It was hard running into him while he was dating other girls and wishing they were her. And now to find out they could have been her. Her father had no idea what he’d done and the sad thing was that she couldn’t get mad at him. Bane hadn’t been the only Westmoreland with a reputation that had made it hard on the other family members. Derringer’s younger brothers—the twins, Adrian and Aidan—as well as his baby sister Bailey had been Bane’s sidekicks and had gotten into just as much trouble.
Needless to say, it had gotten to the point everyone in town would get up in arms when they saw any Westmoreland headed their way. But she had heard her father say more than once lately that considering everything, he thought Dillon and Ramsey had done a pretty good job in raising their siblings and in keeping the family together, and that he actually admired them for it. She knew that several people in town did. All the Westmorelands were college-educated and in some sort of business for themselves or holding prestigious jobs. And together they were the wealthiest family in the county and the largest landowners. People no longer feared them, they highly respected them.
“Just look how things turned out, Derringer,” she heard herself say. “The twins are at Harvard. Bailey will be finishing up her studies at the university here in a year, and Bane is in the hands of Uncle Sam. Ramsey mentioned that Bane wants to beco
me a Navy SEAL. In that case, he has to learn discipline, among other things.”
Derringer chuckled. “For Bane, even with Uncle Sam, that won’t be easy to do.” He picked up his glass to take a sip of his iced tea. “So do we have a date for Saturday night or what?”
A date with Derringer Westmoreland…
She couldn’t stop herself from feeling all giddy inside. She almost trembled at the thought. But at the same time she knew she had to be realistic. He would take her out on Saturday night and probably some other girl on Sunday. He’d asked her out to the movies, not a trip to Vegas to get married.
She would take the date for what it was and not put too much stock in it. She hadn’t been born yesterday and she knew Derringer’s reputation around town. He dated a lot, but let it be known that he didn’t like women who clung or got too possessive.
Still, she couldn’t help but smile at the thought that he was attracted to her and had been since she was eighteen. Didn’t that account for something? She decided that it did.
“Yes, I’d love to go to the movies with you Saturday night, Derringer.”
Four
Derringer frowned the moment he pulled into his yard and saw his sister Bailey’s car parked there. The last thing he needed was for her to drop by to play nursemaid again. Megan was bad enough, but his baby sister Bailey was worse. She had only been seven when their parents had gotten killed. Now at twenty-two, she attended college full-time, and when she didn’t have her nose stuck in some book it was stuck in her five brothers’ personal affairs. She liked making it her business to know anything and everything about their comings and goings. Now that Ramsey was married, she’d given him some slack, but she hadn’t let up with him, Zane and the twins.
He wondered how long she’d been there waiting on him and figured she probably wouldn’t like the fact that he hadn’t been home and had driven into town. Since she wasn’t out on the porch, that meant she had let herself inside, which wouldn’t be a hard thing to do since he never locked his doors. His sister flung open the door the moment his foot touched the step. The look on her face let him know he was in trouble. She was there when the doctor restricted him from doing almost anything, other than breathing and eating, for two weeks.
“Just where have you been, Derringer Westmoreland, in your condition?”
He walked past her to put his hat on the rack. “And what condition is that, Bailey?”
“You’re injured.”
“Yes, but I’m not dead.”
He regretted the words the moment they left his mouth when he saw the expression that suddenly appeared on her face. He and his brothers knew the real reason Bailey was so overprotective of them was that she was afraid of losing them the way she’d lost their parents.
But he could admit to having the same fears, and if he were to analyze things further, he would probably conclude that Zane had them as well. All of them had been close to their parents, aunt and uncle. Everyone had taken their deaths hard. The way Derringer had managed to move on, and not look back, was by not getting too attached to anyone. He had his cousins and his siblings. He loved them, and they were all he needed. If he were to fall in love, give his heart to a woman, and then something were to happen to her—there was no telling how he’d handle it, or even if he could. He liked things just the way they were. And, for that reason, he doubted he would ever marry.
He crossed the room and placed a hand on her shoulder when he saw her trembling. “Hey, come on, Bail, it wasn’t that bad. You were there at the hospital and heard what Dr. Epps said. It’s been almost two weeks now and I’m fine.”
“But I also heard him say that it could have been worse, Derringer.”
“But it wasn’t. Look, unless you came to cook for me or do my laundry, you can visit some other time. I’m going to take a nap.”
He saw the sad look on her face turn mutinous and knew his ploy had worked. She didn’t like it when he bossed her around or came across as if she was at his beck and call. “Cook your own damn meals and do your own laundry, or get one of those silly girls who fawn all over you to do it.”
“Whatever. And watch your mouth, Bailey, or I’ll think you’re slipping back to your old ways and I’ll have to wash your mouth out with soap.”
She grabbed the remote off the table, dropped down on the sofa and began watching television, ignoring him. He glanced at his watch and fought to hide his smile. “So, how long are you staying?” he asked. Because she hadn’t yet inherited her one hundred acres, she had a tendency to spend time at any of their places. Most of the time she stayed with Megan, which suited all her brothers just fine because Bailey had a tendency to drop in unannounced at the most inconvenient times.
Like now.
She didn’t even look over at him when she finally answered his question. “I’m staying until I’m ready to leave. You have a problem with it?”
“No.”
“Good,” she said, using the remote to flip to another channel. “Now go take your nap and I hope when you wake up you’re in a lot better mood.”
He chuckled as he leaned down and planted a brotherly kiss on her forehead. “Thanks for worrying about me so much, kid,” he said softly.
“If me, Megan and Gemma don’t do it, who will? All those silly girls you mess around with are only after your money.”
He lifted a brow in mock surprise. “You think so?”
She glanced up at him and rolled her eyes. “If you don’t know the truth about them then you’re in real trouble, Derringer.”
Derringer chuckled again thinking yes, he knew the truth about them…especially one in particular. Lucia Conyers. He didn’t think of her as one of those “silly girls” and knew Bailey wouldn’t either. He would be taking Lucia to the movies Saturday night. He intended to return her panties to her then. He looked forward to the moment her mouth fell open and she realized he knew what she’d done and had known all this time. He couldn’t wait to see what excuse she would come up with for what she had done.
Before heading up the stairs, he decided to feel his sister out about something. “I ran into Lucia Conyers a few moments ago at McKay’s.”
Bailey didn’t take her gaze off the television and for a moment he thought that possibly she hadn’t heard him, but then she responded. “And?”
He smiled. “And we shared a table since McKay’s was crowded.” He paused a moment. “She’s pretty. I never realized just how pretty she is.” The latter he knew wasn’t true, because he’d always known how pretty she was.
He watched as Bailey slowly turned toward him with a frown on her face. “I hope you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
He smiled. “Oh, I don’t know. What do you think I’m thinking?”
“That you plan to hit on Lucia.”
He grinned. “If by ‘hit on her’ you mean ask her out, I’ve already done so. We have a date to go to the movies this Saturday night.”
Bailey’s eyes widened. “Are you crazy? That’s Chloe’s best friend.”
Now it was his turn. “And?”
“And everybody around these parts knows how most of the single male Westmorelands operate. You’re used to those silly girls and wouldn’t know how to appreciate a woman with sense like Lucia.”
“You don’t think so?”
“I know so and if you end up doing something stupid like hurting her, Chloe would never forgive you for it.”
He shrugged at the thought. Chances were, Chloe had no idea what her best friend had pulled that night. And as far as what Bailey said about Lucia’s having sense, he didn’t doubt that, which made him uneasy about just what she would gain from tumbling into bed with him.
“Lucia is an adult. She can handle me,” he said. He wouldn’t break it down and tell her that Lucia had handled him and had done a real good job doing so. He got a hard-on every time he thought about that night.
“I’m still warning you, Derringer. And besides being Chloe’s best friend, Megan, G
emma and I like her as well.”
He cocked an amused brow. “I guess that means a lot. The three of you never like any of the girls I date. I’ll have to keep that in mind.”
Without giving his kid sister time to say anything else, he quickly moved up the stairs for his nap.
* * *
Lucia couldn’t wait to get back to her office to give Chloe a call and tell her about her date on Saturday night with Derringer.
“I’m happy for you,” Chloe said with a smile in her voice that Lucia heard. “Falling off that horse must have knocked some sense into him. At least you know why he never approached you before. I can see your dad warning him off. I heard the Westmorelands had quite a reputation back in the day.”
Lucia nodded. “And you think I did the right thing in agreeing to go out with him?”
“Come on, Lucia, don’t you dare ask me that. You’ve loved the guy forever. You’ve even gone so far as to sleep with him.”
She drew in a deep, ragged breath. “But he doesn’t know that. At least I don’t think he does.”
“You honestly think he doesn’t know?”
“I assumed he did and that was the only reason he wanted to share my table.”
She heard Chloe bristle at that assumption. “Why do you continue to think you’re no match for Derringer when you’re classier than all those other women he messes around with?”
“But that’s just it, Chloe. I’m not the kind of woman he prefers, the kind he has a history of dating. I can’t hold a candle to someone like Ashira Lattimore. And everyone knows she has been vying for his attention for years.”
“I’ve met her and she’s spoiled, self-centered, possessive and clingy. Definitely not wife material.”
“Wife material?” Lucia laughed. “A wife is the furthest thing from Derringer’s mind. You know that as well as I do.”
“Yes, but I’m sure a lot of people said the same thing about Ramsey before I arrived on the scene. So that means a man’s mind can change with the right woman. All you have to do is convince Derringer you’re the right woman.”
Brenda Jackson The Westmoreland Series Books 16-20 Page 46
