by Kadie Scott
He sat back, giving her a long, speculative look. To cover her nerves, she took a sip of her water.
“Do you get the feeling that we’re headed down the friends path?” Jason asked.
Beth choked on her sip. After a coughing fit that left her red in the face, if the heat in her cheeks and neck were any indication, she managed a stilted chuckle. “That was direct.”
Jason shrugged. “I’m a lawyer. Comes with the job. Sorry.”
She shook her head. “No. It’s good. Actually, I think you’re right about the friends thing.”
There went her chance at the best bachelor in town.
He took a deep breath. “I won’t pretend I’m not disappointed. I think you’re pretty terrific, but…”
“No spark?” she asked.
“Not really. It should be there, right?”
“I know. You can’t bleed a turnip, I guess.” A phrase her mother had used for years, and which finally made a bit more sense. Still, disappointment tugged at her. It’d been a heck of a long time since anyone had called her nice things. “Thank you for the terrific part, though. I think you’re quite a catch yourself, Mr. Trask.”
In fact… now that he was officially off her radar, perhaps an intro to Juliet wouldn’t be a stupid idea. Lexi’s usual aversion to lawyers ruled her out, despite how nicely Jason had handled Autry’s situation. The second the thought popped into her head, Beth started working through logistics. Tonight could actually work to squeeze in an intro if she moved fast. Fridays, her sisters kept the store open until ten for all the folks in town on the weekends.
“What do you say I buy you ice cream by way of a start at a beautiful friendship?” She gave him her most imploring look, batting her eyes even.
Jason tipped his head. “Are you going to call me Louis in a second?”
“Maybe.” She chuckled at the Casa Blanca reference.
Jason pulled out his wallet, catching the waiter’s eye at the same time. “I will take you up on the ice cream. Did you see a place here?”
“I was thinking the Ice Cream Bucket in La Colina.” Two doors down from her sisters. “They have the best rocky road ever.”
Autry would be proud of how diabolical she was being. For good cause, of course. Beth slammed on the brakes. She shouldn’t be worried about what Autry Hill thought of her actions or decisions. She was an independent woman who didn’t need a man’s approval or thumbs-up.
Damn straight.
She only just stopped herself from giving a nod. To herself. In a restaurant. In front of a date. Well, not exactly a date anymore.
They quickly finished up dinner, paid, and left. Somehow, with the specter of “relationship” no longer hovering between them, the conversation turned into an easy dialogue. By the time Jason pulled into a spot in front of the courthouse on the square, across the way from the ice cream parlor, they were laughing over Beth’s descriptions of a few of the town’s more notorious characters.
“You’re kidding me. He pulled a shotgun on his neighbor just for singing?”
Beth shrugged. “Technically, he was singing on Mr. Carson’s property. Plus, as I understand it, he did it for days, just to be a pest.”
“I’ll say.”
“Beth!” Mid-crosswalk, Beth turned toward the source of the sound. As she suspected, Lexi was leaning around the glass door to the shop, her honey-blonde curls spilling over one shoulder. No way would her sisters see her and not want to say hi.
“Where are you off to?” Lexi called once she had Beth’s attention.
“Getting ice cream,” Beth called back.
“Ooh! Can I come?”
“Don’t you have customers?”
Lexi’s eager expression fell. And no wonder. Her sister loved ice cream almost as much as Christmas, but through the glass front displaying her sisters’ wares to snag the window shoppers, Beth could see the store was full of ladies milling about. “How about I bring you some?”
Exactly as she’d planned. Add diabolical to her middle name.
“Mint chocolate chip!” Lexi agreed, back to eager. She popped her head inside while holding the door open, and Beth could hear her asking Juliet.
“Jules wants cake batter with sprinkles,” Lexi reported back.
“Okay.” Beth flashed a thumbs-up.
With a grin that transformed her face from beautiful to impish delight, Lexi went back in the store to wait for her goodies.
“Who was that?” Jason asked.
Beth had to wrestle back a grin. For once. She recognized that note in a man’s voice. Heck, she’d heard it often enough from the guys she’d dated in college, though this time she didn’t mind so much. Starstruck was how she termed it. Men took one look at either, or both, of her sisters and their rational minds disappeared in the face of total instant interest. Or lust. Whatever.
Her sisters were smart, thoughtful women, though. They were waiting for the guys who got past the beauty and took in the whole package. Especially Lexi after her first experience.
But not a lot of men seemed to be able to get past the surface.
“My sister, Lexi,” she answered. “She and our other sister, Juliet, own that shop. Do you mind?”
“Not at all.”
Beth gave the guy top marks for not sounding too enthusiastic. After all, he was technically still on a date with her. However, Beth had plans to fix that.
The Ice Cream Bucket was full, as it usually was on weekend nights, so it took a little while to get served. To give Jason credit, he didn’t ask more questions about her sisters, chatting idly about other things to do in the area. Coming from Austin, the guy was in a bit of small-town culture shock.
Doing her best to play it off as a casual thing, Beth took two of the cones, while he took the other two. “Come meet my sisters.”
Inside the shop, they had to navigate their way around several women taking their time browsing through the racks. Her sisters had decorated in a shabby-chic style that suited both the items they sold as well as their clientele. They’d lined one wall with various hutches and cabinets painted white but antiqued, used to display their goods. Along another wall were large, old-fashioned wardrobes, similarly painted, that carried the clothes they offered. In the center were round tables, again, matching the décor, displaying jewelry, accessories, and home décor.
The walls, like the rest of the shops in town, showed the exposed limestone rock of the original building, and the beams overhead were also original. From the beams, they’d hung glass and iron chandeliers to light the store. In the back of the long, fairly narrow space were the changing rooms and the register, brilliantly forcing folks to walk past all the goods before trying sizes or purchasing. The entire place gave off an elegant yet homey vibe that basically was an exact reflection of her sisters’ personalities and styles.
Juliet was busy behind the counter helping a customer, while Lexi was hanging up clothes from the dressing rooms.
“Yay!” Lexi dropped what she was doing to snatch up her ice cream. She gave the green treat a long lick, then gave a little moan of delight. “So good. Thanks, Bethie.”
Beth slid a sidelong glance at Jason’s face and almost burst out laughing. If a man could be turned to stone by something other than Medusa’s stare, this would probably be how. Smitten already, she’d bet.
Could he change Lexi’s lawyer antipathy?
“Lexi, I’d like you to meet my new friend, Jason. Jason, this is my older sister Lexi, and behind the counter is my younger sister, Juliet.”
Juliet waved a hand but didn’t look up from what she was doing at the register. “Be with you in a sec.”
“Nice to meet you.” Jason held a hand out to Lexi.
Her sister finally paused and lifted her gaze from her cone and blinked. She managed to pull it together and shake Jason’s hand, but Beth had seen the spark of interest that Lexi swiftly snuffed.
Maybe…
A break in customers brought Juliet around the counter to ta
ke her ice cream from Beth and nod at Jason. “Nice to meet you.” She turned to Beth. “Did you say friend? Looks kind of like a date to me.”
“We were—” Jason started.
“Nope. Just friends.” Beth aimed an innocent smirk directly at Lexi, who flicked a glance between her and the handsome lawyer. Beth was pretty dang happy at this point, that she hadn’t told her sisters about him, yet. Not the dating part at least—the lunch date or tonight.
At the time, she wasn’t sure what held her back. Usually, she shared everything about her life with them. Maybe, somewhere deep down, she’d known this was where it would end.
“How’d you two meet?” Lexi asked, not convinced yet.
Beth didn’t blame her. She’d been known to introduce dates to her sisters to test the guy’s level of interest in her. It cut a lot of the guessing out of the process.
“I’m a county attorney,” Jason said.
Rats. Beth had hoped to avoid that tidbit. The corners of Lexi’s lips turned down. Dang it. My stubborn sister isn’t going to see past the job.
Beth could tell Jason was going to leave it at that, so she expanded for her sister. “Jason’s the attorney who was assigned to prosecute Autry’s case after the skunk incident.”
“Oh,” Lexi said around a bite of ice cream. Then recognition lit up her eyes, her frown lifting. “Oh! You’re the one.”
Jason glanced between sisters. “Is there something I need to be aware of?”
Lexi shook her head slowly, but she was eyeing him with more interest now. It took a lot to impress Beth’s older sister. “Beth told us how you allowed community service as a punishment. That was very… lenient of you.”
Jason shook his head, sandy hair falling in his eyes only to be brushed back. “She’d done her homework. It was a legally appropriate punishment for the situation.”
“Still. That took common sense, compassion, and the ability to listen—not exactly traits I associate with lawyers.”
Beth gave her sister a look to cool it. One Lexi ignored with a twitch of her shoulder.
But Jason just laughed, a deep sound of true amusement. “You must’ve tangled with one and gotten burned.”
Ouch. Beth winced. So did Juliet. Not the right thing to say to Lexi, who gave him a sugary smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Married to one once, and I’ve got the permanent scars to prove it.”
On that note, Lexi took her ice cream cone and stalked to the register, despite the fact that no clients needed help right then.
Jason followed her departure with his gaze. Yup. He was interested. Interesting when Lexi tended to be standoffish where Juliet was the friendlier of the two. Would he stand up to that test when her sisters were almost identically lovely?
“I hope I didn’t offend her,” he turned to Beth.
“You didn’t know. Lexi tends to be…” She searched for a word that didn’t make her sister sound scary when it came to men.
“Challenging?” he provided.
“Good a word as any,” Beth said.
“She’s been hurt before,” Juliet defended. She tipped her cone at Jason. “Thanks for the ice cream.”
“I had something to do with it,” Beth teased.
“But he’s cuter than you are.” Juliet sent him a twinkling smile, dimples on full display. A feature Beth had in common with her sisters, along with their eyes.
“My pleasure.” Jason smiled in return, but not the same way he had at Lexi.
He glanced over at where she manned the register with determination, not looking anywhere near them. She’d already finished her ice cream cone. Interesting. Beth and Juliet shared a glance that said they were on the same page.
The ring of the bell over the door sounded, and both her sisters put on their customer faces. “Come on in,” Juliet called.
Beth, with her back to the door, didn’t bother to turn around.
“Hi, Ms. Cooper.”
Blinking, she spun to find Dylan standing behind her, with Autry right behind him. Tension invaded her body, stringing her tighter than a compound bow. Fiddlesticks. What was he doing here?
She did her best not to make a face, but Autry showing up put her in a bit of a pickle. It took less than the eight seconds to ride a bull to realize a few things. He knew this was a date with Jason, and she didn’t want him discovering that it hadn’t worked out. After all, a girl had her pride and, where Autry was concerned, Beth needed the buffer for her wildly inappropriate thoughts about the man. At the same time, she was trying to clear a path for Lexi to get out of her own way.
She gave herself a mental shake and focused on her student, who, for once, was the easiest relationship in the room.
“Hi, Dylan!” She held open her arms without thinking, because she gave every student a big hug when she encountered them outside the classroom. She loved her kids.
Usually Dylan didn’t go for it, but for once, he allowed a quick squeeze before backing up. Progress.
“What are you two doing here?” she wondered, finally lifting her gaze to Autry.
Today, instead of his usual jeans and boots ensemble, he was wearing loose basketball shorts and a matching long-sleeved T-shirt to ward off the chill in the air. Even with hairy legs on display, that annoying spark of awareness that had been taunting her constantly still sizzled down her spine.
She’d made it two weeks without seeing him, bumping into him, or hearing from him. No new mishaps had befallen her. She was well aware he’d had several more meet ups with Dylan, because the boy had told her about riding horses. Tonight must be another one. He’d knock out that community service in a hurry if he kept this up.
“Dylan saw you in here and wanted to say hi,” he said, the low rumble of his voice rolling over her in the most delicious way.
Wrong. Not delicious. Not anything.
“You saw her first,” Dylan pointed out with a scowl.
Autry glanced at the boy then lifted his gaze to her, a slow grin stretching his lips. One she wanted to believe was for her and her alone. “I guess I did.”
*
Beth’s only reaction was to raise her eyebrows in obvious doubt with a dash of disdain for flavor. What was he doing, hinting that he’d seen her first?
What the hell am I doing here?
Except he had a pretty damn good idea what he was doing here. A green-eyed monster had driven him across the town square and into this shop.
He’d seen Beth and Jason get out of a low-slung silver car from the booth in Pete’s Barbeque where he and Dylan had been sitting and eating dinner. Another date? Hadn’t they had one last week, too? Things must be going well then. A notion that tugged at something inside him in a way that shouldn’t be happening. Beth and Jason had gone into the ice cream shop, then, fifteen minutes later, popped over to her sisters’ store with four cones in hand.
Not that he’d been obsessively watching for her or anything.
“Hey.”
He’d turned to face Dylan who was frowning. Not that frowning was anything new with the kid.
“Sorry, buddy. I saw Beth.”
“Ms. Coop? Where?” Dylan craned his neck to get a look.
“She went into her sisters’ dress shop. Want to go say hi if they’re still there when we leave?”
Dylan turned to face him with a speculative look that was way too old for a kid his age. “You like her, don’t you?”
Called out by a ten-year-old. Autry raised his eyebrows. “Of course. She’s super nice.”
“No.” Dylan gave his head a shake. “I’ve seen the way you look at her.”
Autry speared a piece of barbeque sauce soaked brisket. “I look at her like a good friend.”
“Whatever,” Dylan muttered. “You look at her the same way she looks at you.”
Autry paused with the bite at his mouth. Now this was getting interesting. “What way does she look at me?”
Dylan shrugged. “I don’t know, dude. Girls are gross. But she likes you, too. I can tell
.”
Autry popped the bite in his mouth and chewed, though the meat turned to sawdust. Holy cow. I’m talking to a kid about a girl having a crush on me. Maybe Dad’s right, and I need to quit women for a long time. A lot longer than six months.
“I’m done.” Dylan tossed a shredded napkin on his tray. “Let’s go say hi to Ms. Coop.”
Now here they were, surrounded by clothes and home décor. He, the boy he was acting as big brother to as part of community service in lieu of a fine, the lawyer who put him here, Beth, who was dating the lawyer, and Beth’s sisters. Not to mention what felt like half the ladies of La Colina, shopping in Kiss N’ Tell.
“Hey, Juliet. Lexi.” He tossed them a nod. He held out a hand to Beth’s date. “Jason.”
The guy shook hands before holding out a hand for Dylan to shake and introducing himself. An act that put a smile on Beth’s face. An irrational spike of irritation shot through Autry. Why? Because the lawyer was good with kids?
I’m good with kids. And now he was talking to himself. Not a good sign.
Meanwhile, he couldn’t pull his gaze from the woman standing in front of him. Beth had worn pink pants that showed off her slim legs, pairing them with a black-and-white polka dot blouse and some kind of sparkly pink necklace. She’d even worn black heels. Maybe that was what had him hot and bothered, because the entire ensemble screamed teacher, a look he was quickly developing a thing for. He shouldn’t be wanting to unwrap her like a Christmas present to see what all those prim clothes hid underneath.
But he did want to.
“Autry.” Lexi came around from the countertop. To his shock she walked right up and gave him a quick hug before stepping back. “I wanted to thank you for the whole skunk thing. Beth could’ve drowned in that stupid river.” She gave her sister a glare over her shoulder. “And we wouldn’t have known until someone found her body.”
A nightmare scenario that had been waking Autry up at night since it happened, truth be told. Not that he’d share that with anyone. He cleared his throat and pulled out the practiced charm he used as a crutch, pretending to tip a hat he wasn’t wearing. “My pleasure, ma’am.”