Cover charge, ten dollars. Beers for ladies on Friday night, three bucks. Since this was not a date, Fiona was insistent on paying her own way, though thirteen dollars was more money than she had spent on entertainment in more than a year.
“I’m buying the first round of beers to get us loosened up for dancin’.” Deke motioned for the bartender to bring them five beers.
“Thank you,” Fiona said.
Sharlene claimed the first one set on the bar. “Nothing better than a good cold beer drawn up in an icy mug.”
Mary Jo reached for the second one. “Unless it’s a single cowboy who’d like some company.”
Fiona cut her eyes around to Mary Jo, but neither she nor Sharlene were giving Jud a come-hither-and-sleep-with-me look. Deke downed part of his beer and zeroed in on a tall blonde across the room. By the time the band started the next song, he was hugged up so close to her that they looked like one person with two heads.
A short red-haired cowboy with freckles across his nose and a winning smile sidled up to Mary Jo and she wasted no time wrapping her arms around his neck and swaying to the slow country song the band played.
“See that lonesome cowboy in the corner? The one with the red and black plaid shirt? He looks like he needs to unburden his soul and I’m just the woman to listen to him.” Sharlene turned up her mug and drained it.
“You have a boyfriend,” Fiona reminded her.
“Won’t hurt to listen to troubles and have a few dances with him. I’m making you the guardian of my soul, Fiona. If I get drunk, carry me out, throw me in the truck, and take me home but don’t let me go home with that boy or anyone else.”
“I don’t want that job,” Fiona said.
Sharlene patted her on the cheek. “You don’t have to like it. You just have to do it or else you’ll suffer the consequences.”
“Which are?”
“I won’t have a boyfriend tomorrow and then I’ll go after yours,” Sharlene said just loud enough for Fiona’s ears.
“I don’t have one for you to go after,” Fiona said tersely.
“Bullshit!” Sharlene motioned for the bartender to bring her four shots of tequila and she expertly wove in and around the dancers until she reached her destination. The cowboy grabbed a shot in each hand and threw them back one after the other before he pulled out a chair for Sharlene.
Jud held out a hand. “Guess that leaves you and me. How ’bout a dance?”
“That’s what I came here to do.” She put her hand in his, much like she did most nights when he walked her across the landing. But tonight the excitement in the place, the loud music, the warmth in her belly from the beer all combined to make the vibes between them even hotter and wilder.
He led her to the edge of the floor, pulled her arms up around his neck, and then dropped his hands to the lower part of her back. The female singer in the band sang “Breathe” and every lyric in the song felt as if it were written especially for Fiona and Jud for that night.
When the song ended, a male singer took the microphone, and Jud buried his face in her hair and sang the lyrics to “Amazed,” along with the lead singer. Lord have mercy! Was every song going to be a love song? Was that all the band knew how to play and sing?
“I am amazed by you,” Jud whispered.
“Why?”
“Hell if I know, but like the man says, everything that you do amazes me more than the last thing you did,” he answered.
“Is that your best pickup line?”
“No, but wait.” He pulled her even closer and swayed to the next song. “This one is talking about a wild child with a whole lot of gypsy.” Then as the tempo picked up, he swung her out and brought her back to him in a twirl as the words said that she drove him wild. “That would be my pickup line if I was trying to talk you into going home with me. I’d ask you if you were a wild child with that gorgeous red hair and green eyes.”
Fiona laughed. “Where do you get this stuff?”
“Had lots of practice and tutoring from my older two cousins. They are the pros at women. Me, I just listened and learned, but they were the ones who were never going to settle down. I’ve always wanted to fall in love with the right woman.”
Fiona wasn’t sure how to answer that comment. Thankfully the female singer in the band stepped up to the microphone.
“Hey, you ladies, this one is for you. You cowboys plant your boots, stand still, and let the ladies strut their stuff.” The first guitar strands introduced “Any Man of Mine,” and the singer did a fine job of sounding like Shania Twain.
Fiona got lost in tormenting Jud with her dance. He folded his arms over his broad chest and he flirted with her with his eyes the whole time she twirled around him, gyrating to the beat, touching his cheek and running her hands across his wide shoulders. She was so involved in the dance that she didn’t notice when the rest of the dancers dropped out of the crowded circle one by one.
Shake a little more red in her hair and she could be Shania’s kid sister. The angles in her face were basically the same, but her smile was unique to Fiona Logan and she had far more curves than Shania did.
Jud couldn’t have taken his eyes off her if he’d wanted while she expertly moved to every word the singer belted out. Every time she touched him, he wanted to throw her over his shoulder and drag her back home. He didn’t want any of the cowboys in the place getting any ideas about her dancing like that for any of them. When she moistened those sexy red lips and ran her forefinger down his jawbone, he was so involved with her that he didn’t notice they were the only ones on the dance floor until the song ended and the applause started.
“Now, folks, let’s all get back out on the dance floor and you ladies stand still and let your cowboys show you their swagger.” The steel guitar came to life and the singer started Josh Turner’s “Your Man.”
Fiona started for the bar but Jud grabbed her hand and twirled her around to stand before him. “My turn. Listen to the words, darlin’.”
Jud’s granny always said what was good for the goose was good for the gander, so he moved slowly, teasing her with his eyes and his dance moves but not touching so much as her pinky finger. Her shallow breathing told him all he wanted to know.
When the song ended, they were alone on the floor again and the band broke into another Josh Turner song, “Why Don’t We Just Dance.” The singer told them this one was for both parties and it was a fast swing dance. Jud had never danced with anyone like Fiona. She totally lost her soul and body to the beat of the music, as if no one was around but her partner.
The scent of her coconut shampoo mixed with a floral perfume perfectly to take his imagination to a beach where they were dancing under the stars. The sand was warm on their bare feet and his heart kept a steady beat with the sound of the ocean waves lapping at the seashore. He opened his eyes to realize they were in a bar full of people and not all alone on a deserted island with no one else around. His hand grazed the curve of her waist as he adjusted his hold on her and his breath caught in his chest. He’d held women in his arms, so why was this one different?
A question that would take some pondering but right then all he wanted was to never let go of Fiona, to dance off into eternity with her still in his arms. He remembered his conversation with the guys when they were painting. Not one of his previous women were anything near as hot as Fiona and none of them had ever made him turn a blind eye to everyone else in the bar.
Jud caught Sharlene’s eye as she was going back to the bar for more tequila shots and she winked. Deke bumped him on the shoulder during one dance. Jud dreaded giving up the best dance partner he’d ever had, but Deke just gave him a thumbs-up and two-stepped away with his tall blond lady.
The song ended and Fiona blinked, grabbed Jud’s hand, and started toward the bar. “I’m thirsty.”
He pointed toward the bottle someone was holding and then held up two fingers to the bartender. His long arm shot over the top of a dark-haired Latina beauty to get the beers. The sultry way she stared him up and down, starting a few inches lower than his belt buckle and then up to his face, would have had him inching closer to her a few weeks ago. Tonight he noticed, but he wasn’t interested.
When he turned around, Fiona was gone and the dance floor was filled with line dancers. He finally caught sight of her making her way through the crowd to Sharlene’s table. Taking the longer but faster route around the edge of the room, he made it to the table at the same time she did.
She took the beer when he offered it and sat down beside Sharlene, leaving him the one empty chair in the whole place. Sharlene touched Fiona on the arm, leaned over, and cupped her hand around Fiona’s ear to say something, threw back the last tequila shot, and patted the kid on the cheek when she stood up. Evidently, the therapy session was over and Sharlene was ready to dance.
“She’s a good lady,” the kid slurred.
“What’s your problem, cowboy?” Jud asked.
“Woman problems. What else would drive a man to drinkin’?”
Jud held up his beer and the kid nodded; then suddenly the dullness left his eyes and he pushed back his chair. A woman wearing a long denim skirt and a bright green Christmas sweatshirt stopped right in front of him. With her ponytail swinging and her mouth set in a firm line, she popped her hands on her hips and glared at the grinning kid.
He laid a hand on her shoulder. “Darcy, darlin’.”
She flipped it off like it was an irritating fly. “This is your last chance, Tommy. Next time, the wedding is off.”
“I’m so sorry,” he slurred. “I won’t ever do it again.”
“If you do, it’s over. Go home, sober up, and I’ll see you in church Sunday morning.”
“Will you walk me out to my truck?” he asked.
She took his arm and they disappeared into a fog of smoke and line dancers.
One of the perks of a loud bar is that a person has to get close to another to be heard when they speak. Jud moved his chair around so he was right beside Fiona and touched his beer bottle with hers.
“To never needing one last chance,” he said.
“Wonder how many chances he’s already had?”
“I’d say by the look in that girl’s eyes that it’s been too many. What’s the odds they’ll make it to the altar?”
“Pretty good. The girl evidently wants a wedding. It’s the odds that they’ll stay married that are slim,” she answered.
“Speaking from experience?”
“I didn’t give a damn about a wedding. Got married at the same courthouse where we got our divorce. So, no, I’m not speaking from experience.”
Deke slid into the chair the kid had left and set a fresh mug of beer on the table. “Band is fixing to take a ten-minute break, so figured I’d better get something to drink before the bar is so crowded that I couldn’t get to it. Y’all looked real good out there.” The last song ended with a fancy bit of play from the drummer and then the noise factor dropped by fifty percent.
“Thank you.” Fiona flashed a smile across the table. “I haven’t been dancing in such a long time.”
“How long’s it been since you were in a bar? Those fancy clubs in Houston don’t count, either. I mean an old country bar like this one.”
“Seven years,” she said honestly. “I had to use a fake ID last time, but you should remember that. You were with me.”
“Whole bunch of us had a good time that night, didn’t we?” Deke laughed.
The blonde tapped him on the shoulder and crooked her forefinger. “It’s hot in here. Let’s take our break out in the cool air. Maybe in your truck? I bet you’ve got a really big truck.” She all but drooled on his shirt.
“I came with some other folks, so I don’t have a truck here,” Deke said.
“Then we’ll see if my car is big enough to hold a sexy cowboy like you,” the woman said.
Deke pushed his mug across the table. “Here, Fiona—don’t let this go to waste.” Then he was gone into the same fog that the kid and his girlfriend had vanished in.
“It’s cold out there? They’ll either freeze or die of carbon monoxide poisoning if they leave the car running long enough for…” She hesitated as a blush worked its way up from her neck to dot her cheeks with crimson.
“I don’t think either of them is going to mind the chill in the air or stay long enough to die of any kind of poisoning,” Jud chuckled. “You ever go outside to cool off after dancin’?”
“Honey, I was only in a bar twice. Once on graduation night and then again the weekend I left for college. My life plan was set in stone and I didn’t have time to screw around with boot-scootin’ cowboys in those days.”
“And now?” he asked.
“And now I’m enjoying this night and not thinking about any of that. I’ve figured out that even the best laid plans can be wrecked.” She picked up Deke’s beer and tasted it, then went back to the bottle. “But nowhere in any of my plans, past, present or future, do I expect anyone to crawl up on the water tower and paint ‘Dry Creek, Texas, home of Fiona Logan’ on it in John Deere green or even Christmas red.”
“Hey, can we sit with y’all?” Mary Jo and her red-haired fellow, each holding a margarita, appeared behind Deke’s chair.
“Sure thing. Got room for two more folks here,” Jud said.
“Tables are hard to get,” Mary Jo said. “Y’all, meet Scooter. Scooter, these are my friends Jud and Fiona.”
Scooter tipped his hat and held a chair for Mary Jo. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise.” Jud nodded.
“Who left their beer?” Mary Jo asked.
“Help yourself to it. Deke’s cooling off outside,” Jud answered.
Mary Jo’s laughter was loud enough that several people turned to look in their direction. She slapped a hand over her mouth until she could get control, then picked up the pint glass and downed half the contents. “Poor old Deke. I know that woman he’s dancing with. He’d best be careful or he’ll be listening to the pitter-patter of little feet. She’s got wedding dresses on the brain right now.”
“Seems like everyone does,” Fiona said.
“You got something to tell us?” Mary Jo pushed her brown hair behind her ears and licked the salt from the rim of the margarita glass.
“Not me! The band is getting set up again. I came to dance,” Fiona said, taking a long swig of her beer and then standing up.
“We’ll hold the table.” Mary Jo moved close enough to wrap her arms around Scooter’s neck and share the taste of salt with him through a long kiss.
The two singers each picked up a microphone, but the woman did the talking. “And now for the next hour we’re going to kick off the holiday season with country music Christmas songs, starting off with Blake Shelton’s version of ‘Jingle Bell Rock.’”
Fiona’s moves were right on, but her heart and soul weren’t in it like before. Now she was more aware of Jud. Never, not even one time, had Fiona not been able to get lost in the music. It didn’t matter if her partner was smooth on his feet or if he stumbled through the steps, she loved the way the music made her feel. But tonight the sound of the guitars and drums took a backseat to the way Jud held her against his buff body. Melting into him, listening to his heart beat against her breasts, feeling the heat of his hands on the small of her back was more important than the rhythm of the steel guitar and the drums. When that fast song ended and “White Christmas” started, Jud pulled her into his arms and started a slow waltz.
“Have I told you that you are beautiful tonight?” he asked. “That green shirt is the exact color of your eyes.”
“Thank you,” she mumbled.
“What are you thinking about? Your face is a mixture of emotions right now,” he asked. “Are you tired of dancing?”
“Not at all. I’d forgotten how much I missed this,” she answered.
“We could do this every weekend,” he said. “Talking about dancing put a happy look on your face.
“Hey, don’t tempt me.” She smiled. “Do you read all women so well or am I that transparent?”
“It must be the vibes between us. You can’t deny that they are there,” he said.
“Let’s talk about something else or just dance.” She tucked her head into his shoulder.
“Long as you are in my arms and we’re dancing, we can talk about anything. Do you want a white Christmas?”
“Do you?” she asked.
“I don’t care if it snows on Christmas or if it’s eighty degrees and the sun is shining. I just want family all around us.” He stepped back, did some fancy footwork, and twirled her around a couple of times. “This is good holiday music.”
“I like Blake Shelton. Met him once, and he’s as country as his songs,” she said.
“For real?” Jud asked.
“The rich and shameless get backstage passes at concerts,” she said. “But before you ask, I’m not interested in being that high on the corporate ladder again. I would like to be a couple of steps up from the convenience store, though.”
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
“I’m still working on that, but right now I want to dance some more.”
Folks formed a line to dance to “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Sharlene fell in beside Fiona but she’d had so many shots with the melancholy boy that she had trouble keeping up with the moves.
“Lord, I’d better go sit out a few and just drink Coke until this gets through my system. Hey, where’s my sad boy?”
“His woman came in and took him home,” Fiona said.
“Well, good for her.”
“Deke?”
“Cooling off outside.”
Sharlene’s eyes widened and she giggled. “He’d better be careful if he left with the woman that’s been glued to his zipper all night. See y’all when we shut down the place.”
“The wagon train leaves at twelve sharp,” Jud said. “I’ve got to work tomorrow.”
“Party pooper.” Sharlene staggered off.
When midnight rolled around, Fiona still wanted one more dance with Jud, to feel his arms around her for a few more hours and to spend a little while longer looking into his fascinating brown eyes.
When they stepped out into the cold night air, there was no big lovers’ moon hanging in the sky. Not even one little bright star could find a hole in the gray skies to push its brightness through. Other than the streetlamps on the four corners of the parking lot and a few headlights as folks headed home, it was a dreary night.
Fiona welcomed the fresh, icy air when she sucked it into her lungs. Jud laced his fingers in hers and hunched his shoulders against the bitter wind blowing from the north.
“I don’t see any of them,” she said.
“We’ll call Deke from the truck.”
Snowflakes had begun to fall from the sky when they were inside his truck. “White Christmas may be a reality if this keeps up all month,” he said.
Her phone vibrated in her hip pocket. Deke had sent a text. Scooter would take Sharlene and Mary Jo home after breakfast. Deke had found his own way back to Dry Creek. They’d all see them in church on Sunday if not before.
“Guess we’re on our own.”
“They’ve all got plans, right?” he asked.
“Looks that way,” she answered.
“Hungry?” He backed out of the parking lot and made a right-hand turn onto the highway.
“More tired than hungry, but we could get a burger to go at that McDonald’s at the next exit,” she said.
“So you know this area well enough to know that?”
“No, I saw a sign that said the golden arches were at the next exit when we were driving up here. This place has grown so much in seven years that I hardly know it at all.”
“We’ll get used to it together, then. We did our partying down around Dallas or else west of Gainesville if we didn’t want to drive all the way into the big city, but this is all new territory to me.” The lights were still on and the sign said the drive-through window was open twenty-four/seven, so he eased the truck up to the order place.
“Name your poison,” he said.
She unfastened her seat belt and leaned toward him so she could see the menu. Remnants of shaving lotion, smoke clinging to his shirt, beer on his breath, tousled blond hair all worked together to send her hormones into a whining state.
“Burger with mustard and no onions, fries, and coffee,” she said, but her mind damn sure wasn’t on food right then.
The lady repeated it back. “Anything else?”
“Double that and add a chocolate shake to the order.”
“Large?”
“That’s fine,” Jud answered, and handed her a bill.
Fiona opened her mouth to argue but he laid a finger over her lips. “I’ve had a wonderful time tonight. Just let me buy you a burger without a fight.”
She straightened up. “Thank you. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun.”
Fiona’s phone buzzed in her pocket. When she checked it, there was a text message from Allie.
“Audrey needs diapers. We need to go to the store on our way home,” she said.
The lady reached out and tapped on the truck window to get their attention. Jud hit the button and rolled down the window. She handed him the order and he drove forward to let the car behind him move up.
“So drive and eat or park and eat?” he asked.
“You might enjoy it more if we parked,” she said.
He nosed the truck into a parking spot but left the engine running. She settled the coffee into the two cup holders at the end of the console and removed everything from the bag. She flattened the paper bag onto the console and made it into a mini picnic table. The two containers of fries became one big order when she poured them all out in a pile.
“Looks like you’ve done this before,” he said.
“On payday, I treated myself to a burger. I went to the park not far from where I worked, parked the truck, and put the console down just like this. Then I pretended Lizzy or Allie was in the passenger seat and I talked to them,” she whispered.
Jud folded the paper back from his burger and bit into it. “You were really lonely, weren’t you?”
“At times.” She shot ketchup from two small packages onto one of the empty French fry sacks. “These are addictive, you know. They have a special salt they shake on them and it makes you keep coming back for more.”
Like you, she wanted to say, but she crammed fries into her mouth to keep from talking.
“I like Allie’s fried potatoes better. She makes them like my mama does, in a cast-iron skillet with onions. It’s snowing harder. I thought the Lucky Penny was far enough south that we’d only see snow a couple of times a decade,” he said.
“It’s crazy weather all right. Maybe you Dawsons brought it with you from northern Texas. We might have had a white Christmas one time when I was growing up and we never had a white Thanksgiving. I remember an ice storm once when I was about ten.” She removed the lid from her coffee and took a sip. “It snowed, but it never stuck around for more than a day and seldom ever covered the ground.”
“So it’s our fault?” Jud chuckled.
“Must be. You’re the only thing that’s changed.”
“I believe two things changed. You came home, too,” he argued.
“I came from the south. We don’t get bad weather in Houston,” she protested.
“Want to talk to me about those floods?”
“That’s not snow and sleet.”
“But it’s bad weather all the same. Slide off the road with ice and snow. Get washed off with rising water. Either way, you’re still off the road.”
“Well, Mr. Smartass, you’d better finish your burger because the way this stuff is falling, we might find ourselves sitting in a ditch like Toby and Lizzy did last spring.” She put the lid back on her coffee and wondered what it would be like to cuddle up next to Jud all night with nothing but a single blanket to keep them warm.
They were only two miles from the store and it stayed open twenty-four/seven. The parking lot was full, even though it was well past midnight, but they did snag a spot about halfway out from the front door.
“What’s going on? Is this a Black Friday sale a week or two late?” she asked as she made her way gingerly toward the doors on the slick concrete.
“Not that I know of. I guess lots of people don’t have anything better to do at nearly one o’clock in the morning other than go shopping,” Jud answered.
“Oh. My. God.” She gasped. “Look at that. My eyes may never be the same. I thought those pictures on the Internet were doctored.”
The man rolling his cart out had a beard, tattoos up both arms, and a bald head. Yet, bald wasn’t the right word. The whole top of his head was hairless but the rim around the edge had been let go until it was long enough to make a ponytail in the back. He wore camouflage leggings with a hot pink western shirt with pearl snaps and cowboy boots. But the crazy thing was the makeup job on his face. It looked like it had been applied by a six-year-old who’d spent the day with her grandparents getting sugared up on candy and soda pop. And right there in the cart was another person—a woman with hot pink hair, wearing a red prom dress that was two sizes too big and a plastic tiara. She waved at everyone they passed like she was riding on the top of a brand-new Caddy in a homecoming parade.
“Well, it is after midnight,” Jud chuckled.
“But it’s not Halloween,” she said softly.
“Don’t burst their bubble,” he teased.
They were met by warm air when they walked through the automatic doors. Fiona brushed the snow from her shoulders and snagged a shopping cart. Jud walked along beside her all the way to the back of the store where the diapers were shelved in the baby section.
“What size?” he asked.
“She didn’t say,” Fiona answered.
Jud picked up a package and read the print on the outside. “This one says up to twelve pounds. Does Audrey weigh that much?”
“I have no idea. She was seven pounds and some ounces at birth.”
“She wears that number two,” Deke said right behind them. “I had to get some a few days ago when I was up here.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Buying beer.” He pointed at his cart. “Date didn’t work out too good. She wanted to go to her place, but when we got there, I found them bride magazines strewed all over the coffee table. That’s my cue to run faster than the wind.”
“Were you…did you use…oh, hell, tell me you used protection when you were out in the car with her.” Fiona spit out the words but couldn’t keep the blush from dotting her cheeks.
“Geez, Fiona! Of course I did!” He grinned. “Y’all might want to pick up some beer while you are here and maybe a cooler to keep in your room. Dora June wouldn’t find it and y’all could have one when you want. Not that I mind sneaking a couple over to you, but it would sure make things easier. Besides, both of those old folks will be in bed when you get home, so it will be easy to sneak it inside.”
“Smart idea.” Jud tossed two packages of diapers into the cart.
“I’ll see y’all tomorrow sometime,” Deke said. “Be careful on the way home. Roads are getting slicker by the minute.”
He disappeared into the food section and Jud took over the cart. “That idea of his was smart. I’m going to buy a cooler and a case of beer.”
“I’m going to buy a bottle of strawberry Boone’s Farm and see if it tastes as good as it did in high school,” she said.
“I’ll share my beer if you share your Boone’s.”
“It’s a deal.”
“Well, look who’s out late?” Lucy said as they turned the cart around. “Y’all out making a diaper run for Allie?”
“Yes, ma’am, we are but we were already here. We went dancing,” Fiona answered.
Lucy winked at Fiona. “I remember going dancing with Herman many years ago. In those days we sure didn’t let anyone know what we’d been up to. But things change. We didn’t have throwaway diapers then, either.”
“Probably couldn’t have afforded them if they were on the market,” Fiona said.
“You got that right, honey. Did y’all see that woman in the cart? They’re in the store somewhere. I wonder what they’ve been smokin’?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t know but I don’t want any of it,” Fiona laughed.
“Oh, I don’t know. It might be something wonderful to try.” Lucy winked again. “I got to drag Herman out of the hardware stuff and take him home. We was up here at the hospital for our great-granddaughter. She was born tonight. Mama and baby are doing fine. They named her Dakota. Ain’t that the craziest name for a little baby girl that you ever heard. See y’all later.” She waved and hurried off toward another part of the store.
“Aren’t you glad we didn’t have the beer in the cart?” Jud whispered, his warm breath sending deliciously warm shivers down Fiona’s back.
“Yes, I am. She would have told on us for sure.”
“Then we would have had to share with Dora June,” Jud said seriously.
Fiona slapped at his arm, getting another quiver down her spine when her hand brushed against his bare neck. “You are evil.”
“And you are running with me,” he teased.
Brightly colored Christmas lights lit the way back to Dry Creek. Farmhouses that she’d never noticed before and those tucked back down lanes had lights shining out through the huge snowflakes. Decorations had been strung up in the small towns of Holliday, Dundee, and Mabelle. Fiona didn’t realize she was humming “Jingle Bells” until Jud started singing the lyrics.
“All these lights put me in the holiday mood,” she admitted.
“Me too.”
“Take the next left onto that farm road. It’s a shortcut and we’ll get home faster. Oh my! Look at that. Those folks strung lights across the top of their barbed wire fence. I’m glad Mama didn’t see it or she’d be shipping more twinkling lights home from Florida or telling me to buy enough to put around all twenty acres of Audrey’s Place.”
“Have y’all ever considered selling Audrey’s Place?” Jud slowed down and followed her instructions.
“Why would you ask such a thing?”
“Just wondering. It’s got the Lucky Penny on three sides of it and the townsfolk…well, some of them don’t have a kind word to say about the ranch.”
“Audrey’s won’t ever be for sale, not in my lifetime. Make a right at the next corner.” For the first time in her life, Fiona felt a stab of guilt about leaving Dry Creek. In the beginning, there were two sisters still in the house. She had no problem with either or both of them inheriting the land and the house because she damn sure did not want it. Now they each had their own place and her mother wanted to retire. That left no one to hold Audrey’s down until the next generation came along to claim it…except Fiona.
And I don’t want it, she thought as Jud parked his truck beside Deke’s in the front yard. I don’t want anyone else to have it but I’ve never wanted to live here, so I’m not taking this guilt trip.
“You’ve got that look on your face again. Like you are fighting with demons,” he said.
“Leaving town in one hand.” She held up a palm. “Dry Creek in the other. Some days one is full of hope and the other one is lacking. Other times it reverses. I think about leaving and I think about staying. Most of the time leaving is the one that is most appealing.”
“And tonight?” he asked.
“Tonight Dry Creek is winning. Tomorrow is another day, though.”
When they pulled up to the Lucky Penny, the house was dark. Jud grabbed the big bag of diapers from the backseat and eased in the front door to leave them in the entryway before quietly locking up and returning to the car.
“I swear, it’s colder here than it was in Wichita Falls, and that ground is so slippery that you could ski to work if we lived on a mountain.”
Fiona giggled.
“What’s so funny about that?” he asked.
“I’m imagining you in a cowboy hat and boots on skis.”
He shut his eyes before he put the truck in gear and smiled. “Well, I’m imagining you in a hot pink bikini on skis.”
“Silly cowboy.” She swatted at his biceps. “Redheads don’t wear hot pink.”
“Oh, honey, in my mind you do and it looks almighty fine.” He wiggled his head but did not open his eyes. “There you go down the mountain slope. Swoosh, swoosh. And the ice and snow is melting behind you because you are so damned hot in that pink bikini. Your hair is blowing in the wind and oh, there’s a cameraman taking pictures for me.”
“Did you get too close to that lady in the cart and breathe in some of whatever she’d been smoking?” Fiona asked.
His eyes snapped open and he backed the truck out, turned it around, and started down the lane. “Dammit! Why did you have to replace my beautiful picture with that one?”
“It’s late and we’ve both got to get up early,” she said.
“We still need to put those snow tires on Katy’s car. We can pull it over into one of the barns on the Lucky Penny on Sunday and take care of it. You’ll drive real careful until then, right?”
“I don’t need you to tell me how to drive, Jud Dawson.”
“Says the woman who ran through our barbed wire fence into a tree.” Jud chuckled, taking the sting out of his words.
“Hey now!”
“Aw, c’mon, I’m just teasing you. You’re even more gorgeous when you start to get all indignant.”
“Are we flirting?” she asked bluntly. “It’s been so long since I did any of that I’m not sure that I wouldn’t have to drag out the Flirting for Dummies book to refresh my memories.”
“Darlin’, you don’t need a book. All you have to do is flutter those pretty eyelashes and smile. Here we are. Want to make out in the truck or is it past your curfew?”
She opened the truck door. “No to both. Let’s get inside and go to bed.”
“Oh, I do like that idea much better,” Jud said with a wicked grin.
“Rephrase. We should go inside and get some sleep.”
She stepped out into the snow and her feet almost slipped out from under her. So much for slick-soled boots. Very carefully, she made her way from truck to porch and held on to the railing as she went up the three steps. She used her key to open the door, slipped inside, and flipped on the foyer light, then turned around to shut the door and ran right into Jud’s chest. He wrapped his arms around her, held her steady until she could get her bearings, and then tipped her chin up with his thumb.
Every fiber in her body wanted the kiss. Every bit of her brain said that she should take two steps back. She listened to the loudest inner voice and moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue.
Lord have mercy! Sometime during the fourth long, lingering kiss—or was it the fifth or sixth?—she managed to shuck out of her coat and throw it on the foyer floor.
She was panting when Jud started guiding her backward up the steps. He lost his coat somewhere about the third step and by the sixth one, she gave a little tug on the top pearl snap and revealed a whole bed of soft light brown hair on his chest. Her arms left his neck and pulled the shirt free, then found their way to his muscular back. She’d never known that cold fingers on warm skin could make her forget everything, including her name and where they were.
Her shirt left her body and dropped not far from his on the landing right before she felt the cold bedroom door on her back. Jud pressed firmly against her front, leaving no doubt he was every bit as aroused as she was.
One hand found its way up under her shirt while he drove her absolutely wild when his mouth brushed the tender area right under her earlobe and worked the hooks on her bra. Her hand was deftly managing her belt buckle while the other one tried desperately to locate the doorknob behind her. The bed would be so much more comfortable than wrapping her legs around his waist and having wild sex against the wall.
A door slammed.
Fiona’s breath caught in her chest.
Jud laid a finger over her lips.
“Damn kids!” Truman ranted. “Throw their coats on the floor. Leave the lights on and I’ll be damned if they didn’t leave the door unlocked, too. I bet they came home drunk and tomorrow morning Jud will have a beauty of a hangover. So much for him helping me.”
The lock on the front door clicked shut.
“Guess I’ll have to start waiting up for them to be sure things is locked up and we ain’t wastin’ electricity. Kids today ain’t got a lick of sense.”
The lights went out, throwing everything into darkness.
“Dammit! More snow and cold weather makes my bones hurt like the devil. Wonder if Dora June still has any of that liniment she used to brew up when we first married. Hell, no! It burned up in our house if she did have any.”
The kitchen light sent a sliver of illumination up the steps but not much. Fiona giggled and Jud stifled it with a kiss but the mood had been broken and everything was funny.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been called a damn kid,” she whispered.
He chuckled. “Last time I heard someone say ‘damn kids,’ it was a friend complaining that the kids had interrupted a well-planned evening of sex with his wife. I feel like saying ‘damn old people’ right now.”
She raised an eyebrow. “So was this a well-planned evening of sex?”
“Hell, no! This was spontaneous, which is ten times better than planned. But now that you’ve mentioned it, it could be a night of wild passionate sex. The bedsprings could try to keep up with your moans and screams.”
“Yeah, right. What about your moans of ecstasy, cowboy?”
“Want to see who can make the most noise?”
“Good night, Jud.” She grinned.
“Good night, Fiona. See you tomorrow morning if that old fart wants to drop by the store for coffee.” Jud gave her one more parting hug and in a couple of long strides disappeared behind his bedroom door across the hall.