Chasing Trouble in Texas

by Delores Fossen

  Usually, Zoey just signed her name or drew little hearts. This time, though, she’d actually written something.

  “Austin, if you haven’t already done it, you need to get on with your life. Find someone nice, someone who’ll make you happy and will be good to our girls. Not Mandy Tupperman, though. I still haven’t forgiven her for flicking a booger in my hair when we were in kindergarten. Oh, and not Veronica Stiller, either. Those fake boobs of hers look good but will bruise your chest. Of course, if you are with Mandy or Veronica right now, then just forget what I’ve said and carry on. Bye, Honey Bee.”

  Austin stared at the card for a long time. Until the words started to swarm in front of his eyes.

  Bye.

  That was a first. Of course, she’d told him goodbye with her dying breath, but it was different seeing it written down. Different, too, because Zoey had written this goodbye before she’d left him.

  He swallowed hard. Blinked hard, too. Shaw wasn’t the only one who’d made a promise to Zoey. Austin had told her that he’d keep the crying and outward grieving to a minimum. For the sake of the girls. For his sake, as well. But at the moment, the grief was all he could feel.

  Austin grabbed his keys, headed for his truck and drove away. He wasn’t even sure where he was going until he took the turn to Em’s. This was a bad idea, but that didn’t stop him. He kept going until he parked at the end of the driveway.

  Putting the card in the glove compartment, Austin got out intending to go onto the porch and knock on the door. Then he heard McCall’s voice. Not coming from inside the house but rather from the side yard.

  He kept walking and soon saw her sitting in a rope swing beneath one of the massive live oaks that dotted the property. She had her phone sandwiched between her shoulder and ear, her arms hooked around the ropes, and she was twirling around while she talked.

  “I know,” she said to whoever was on the other end of the phone line. “I know,” she repeated on a heavy sigh.

  Her back wasn’t actually to him, more of her side, which meant if she glanced in his direction, she’d see him. She should see him, Austin reminded himself. McCall should see him and know that this—whatever this was—was no longer private. But he stood there, watching.

  And listening.

  “I kissed him, Sunny,” McCall said, not with disgust but rather apology in her voice. “Zoey’s probably going to figure out a way to punch me for that.” She looked up at the sky. “Not too hard, though. Zoey, you always knew I had a thing for Austin.”

  Now, Austin really listened. Talk about a flood of feelings. The woman he was lusting after was talking to his late wife. About him. About how hot he was.

  “I keep going back to those dice,” McCall went on. “The ones Zoey and I rolled when we were in ninth grade. Remember? Of course you do,” she said, answering her own question.

  But it didn’t answer anything for Austin. What dice? He didn’t remember either McCall or Zoey ever mentioning that.

  “I swear, I think Zoey cheated,” McCall said. “The dice were loaded or something, but I never called her on it. I knew she had a thing for Austin, too. So when she rolled box cars and I rolled a five and a three, I just accepted that she’d won. Some prize, huh?” McCall gave a little snort. “The winner takes Austin.”

  What the heck? They’d rolled dice for him? That nearly brought Austin out from the side of the house, but his feet suddenly seemed magnetized to the ground and his ear was magnetized to McCall, who just kept talking.

  “Now, I’m back here and kissing him. Three times,” McCall emphasized. “If I’d stayed, I would have kissed him three thousand times.” She sighed. “I’ve already mentioned that he’s really hot.”

  Yeah, that had come up, and while Austin thought this might make him a perv, he doubted he’d tire of hearing McCall say that.

  “And Zoey’s and his girls,” McCall went on. She lifted her head enough for Austin to see her smile. “They’re amazing. So smart and funny.” She paused, obviously listening to whatever Sunny was saying. “Yes, that’s a problem.”

  Problem, he mentally repeated. Maybe McCall was talking about the mess with Cody Joe. Or maybe the fact that he was a widower. Then again, it could simply be a problem because her life wasn’t here in Lone Star Ridge. It wasn’t as if he could pick up and move to Dallas to be with her, and it was likely the same for McCall.

  So, why did he still want her?

  Why was he mulling over how to make this work?

  “I don’t think tit rouge is going to fix this,” McCall said.

  Austin’s head whipped up so fast that he heard his neck pop. WTF was tit rouge? Better yet, how was he going to explain why he was just standing there gawking at McCall and listening in on her conversation? And he was going to have to explain that soon because the neck pop had obviously alerted McCall.

  On a startled gasp, McCall’s gaze speared in his direction. “Austin. Oh, God. How much did you hear?”

  CHAPTER NINE

  WELL, CRAP.

  That was McCall’s first thought, quickly followed by a string of mental profanity that she was glad didn’t actually fall out of her mouth. Clearly, she’d already said too much.

  Maybe.

  And maybe Austin hadn’t heard anything she hadn’t wanted him to hear.

  “I’ll have to call you back,” McCall quickly said to Sunny. Then she stood and faced Austin. “Hi,” she croaked out.

  “Hi, back.” No croak for him, and he was smiling. Sort of. Mainly, though, he was just looking confused.

  This was tricky territory, and McCall wasn’t sure if she should just come out and ask him what he’d heard or if she should wait for Austin to speak. She didn’t get a chance for either, though, because her phone rang. At first, she thought it was Sunny wondering why she’d hung up so fast, but it was Mr. Bolton’s name on her screen. McCall checked the time and realized this was the phone appointment she’d set up with him.

  “Uh, I need to take this call. Sorry,” she added. “It’s a client.”

  “No problem.” He tipped his head toward the house. “I’ll just go inside and see how Em’s doing.”

  So, Austin was staying, and that meant he almost certainly would question her about what she’d told Sunny. McCall gave him a nod, tried not to look panicked, but she went back through her side of the conversation with her sister. Yes, she’d said plenty, maybe even enough for Austin to figure out that she was the owner of a strip club.

  For now, though, McCall had to push that aside and take the call from her client.

  “Mr. Bolton,” she greeted.

  “I can’t talk long,” he immediately told her. “I got a hot date lined up.”

  McCall checked her watch. It was barely ten in the morning, hardly the hour for a hot date. Then again, at Mr. Bolton’s age he might not want to waste any time.

  “We can reschedule,” McCall offered. “How about tomorrow morning at the same time?”

  “That works. Well, unless this date turns to be a sleepover. If that happens, I’ll text you. And don’t worry, I plan on doing the five-minute stuff with her just like you told me.”

  “Good—” That was all she managed to get out before Mr. Bolton continued.

  “This one doesn’t appear to have saggy knockers so I might take even longer. Of course, the saggy ones took a while for me to work my way down. I swear, they drooped a good ten inches.”

  That was an image that McCall was certain would stay in her head for quite a while. “I’m glad things worked out for you and your partner. I’ll call you tomorrow morning at ten,” McCall said, and she hit End.

  Gathering her breath, she went straight into the house, ready to face whatever questions Austin had. Or rather hoping she was ready. But Austin was nowhere in sight. Instead, a tight-faced Bernice greeted her in the foyer.

  “You’ve g
ot to stop Em and your weirdo flake of an assistant from playing that stupid reverse strip poker game,” Bernice complained. “They were playing it again in the kitchen when one of those Jameson boys came in.”

  McCall groaned. The Jameson boy was obviously Austin, and she hoped he hadn’t gotten an eyeful to go along with the earful he’d already gotten from her. She made her way to the kitchen and did indeed find Em and Boo at the table.

  Good grief.

  Like before, Em was more than fully clothed since in addition to her jeans, top and sweater, she was also wearing her Stetson and a red bandanna tied around her neck. In contrast, Boo had on a loose camisole and a pair of equally loose men’s white boxers that were likely something Hayes had left behind. The outfit was skimpy, but she had more covered than she had the night McCall had walked in on them. Apparently, Boo had figured out that because she wasn’t very good at reverse strip poker, she should start the game with more than a demibra and panties.

  Austin snagged McCall’s gaze, and he smiled. “It bears saying again. You lead such an interesting life.”

  She welcomed the smile rather than any immediate questions he could have tossed at her, and since Em and Boo showed no signs of ending their game, McCall motioned for Austin to follow her.

  “FYI,” McCall said to get it out of the way, “Granny Em claims she’s been blue, but I think it’s a crock. Don’t let her talk you into doing anything you don’t want to do.”

  By the time they made it into the living room, Austin’s smile had definitely faded. “But she used the blues to talk you into staying in town?”

  “Pretty much. Shaw told you I was staying?” she asked.

  Austin nodded. “And Edith.”

  He strolled to the large bay window and looked out. He certainly made a picture standing there in his incredibly well-fitting jeans and with the sunlight streaming over him. A cowboy Greek god.

  “You’ll be able to run your business from here?” Austin asked.

  McCall could have sworn her heart skipped a beat or two. Then she realized he was talking about her counseling practice.

  “For the most part,” she answered. “There are some nonclient things that need to be done like checking on the office, but Boo can make trips back to do that.”

  Boo would also need to include Peekaboo in those checks. And Boo also wanted to do the name change in Dallas, which was why she’d be flying back tomorrow. A quick in and out, Boo had assured her. Even though there was no real reason for Boo to stay here in Lone Star Ridge, McCall was thankful that she was because Em seemed to enjoy her company. It was also nice for McCall to have an ally who knew the whole truth about her.

  “Coming here is always like stepping into a time machine,” Austin remarked several moments later.

  McCall walked to him, looking out at the ranch as he was doing. “Yes,” she agreed.

  There must have been something in her voice or body language that alerted him because Austin looked at her, his eyebrow already raised. “Bad memories?”

  “Some,” McCall admitted.

  No need to spell them out. Austin likely knew some of the exploitation games her mother, Sunshine, had played. The woman had been willing to do whatever it took to keep the ratings high. Then, once Little Cowgirls had been canceled, their father had walked out, taking a lot of the money the show had earned with him.

  “What’s a good memory you have of this place?” he pressed.

  That caused her to smile. Leave it to Austin to turn her mood around so fast. There were plenty of happy times here, as well, but one came quickly to mind. Maybe because she had a view of where it’d taken place.

  She pointed to the corral next to the barn. “You taught me to ride there. It was a gray mare named Smoke that you’d brought over from your family’s ranch.”

  “It was scripted,” he admitted, “but you’re right—it is a good memory.”

  Funny, for a second she’d actually forgotten the scripted part, but yes, the producers would have arranged that since they’d still been trying to set Austin up as her boyfriend.

  “Shaw taught Sunny to ride,” she went on. Probably also scripted. “Leyton tried to teach Hadley.”

  And that was another good memory for her. Probably not for Hadley, though, since she hadn’t taken to riding the way Sunny and McCall had. However, Hadley had taken to Leyton for a while until Leyton had decided that he didn’t want the bad-boy reputation that he would have almost certainly gotten had he stayed connected with Badly Hadley.

  McCall pointed to the barn. “I used to sneak up in the hayloft and read Jane Austen novels. That’s a good memory.”

  His eyebrow came up again. “Why’d you have to sneak to do that? If I remember right, you had those kinds of books in your room.”

  She nodded. “They were props, meant to go along with my Good Girl McCall image. It was sort of rebellion that I wouldn’t read them whenever a camera was nearby, but I loved the books. So, I read them in secret.”

  Austin chuckled. “That explains something Shaw told me. He said you used to disappear for a while every afternoon after you got home from school. He thought you were sneaking off to meet someone.”

  McCall hadn’t known that anyone, especially Shaw, had noticed her doing that. “I guess you could say I was sneaking off to be with me. The real me. Ah, the identity crisis of a TV kid,” she added with some drama. Still, that particular guilty pleasure had been one she’d savored.

  Austin shifted a little, pointing to the garden shed. “I kissed you there.”

  Her forehead bunched up. “Was that really a good memory for you, since it was scripted, I mean?”

  “Hey, I was a teenage boy. Even scripted kisses were a good thing.” He shrugged in a “what are you going to do” gesture. Then he paused. “You and Zoey actually rolled dice for me?”

  She sputtered out a breath and then cursed herself for not being better prepared for the question. Austin had thrown her off with the easy conversation. Well, this wouldn’t be so easy.

  “We did,” she admitted. “Obviously, Zoey won.”

  “With boxcars,” he said, letting her know that he’d overheard that part of the conversation, too. “And you thought she cheated by using loaded dice.”

  “Yes, but I don’t blame her. I would have done the same if I’d thought about it.” The moment the words left her mouth, McCall realized they were a mistake. She’d just confessed that she had indeed had the hots for him. The real hots. “I’m sorry. I hope that doesn’t make you feel weird or anything.”

  “Maybe a little.”

  She hoped that Austin wasn’t playing a mental game of what might have been. Probably not, though. Without Zoey, he wouldn’t have his daughters. Plus, she had no doubts, none, that he’d loved his wife. In fact, that’s likely what he was thinking about right now.

  Or not.

  “What’s tit rouge?” he asked.

  McCall was certain she became the human definition of a deer caught in the headlights. Her brain froze for a moment, too, so she couldn’t pick back through the memory of the conversation with Sunny to try and figure out specifically what he’d overheard.

  “It’s, um, breast makeup,” McCall managed to say, actually motioning toward her own chest.

  He grinned, and my oh my, if she hadn’t had wobbly knees from his question, that particular expression would have unsteadied her in a major kind of way. It was a flirty expression that only emphasized his hot face.

  “Makeup,” he repeated, adding a tinge of skepticism to that hotness. “I’m guessing it didn’t fix certain problems.”

  She sucked in her breath, remembering then exactly what she’d said to Sunny. I don’t think tit rouge is going to fix this.

  Well, it certainly wouldn’t fix this heat between Austin and her. Wouldn’t help the issue with her secrets, either. She could blurt out t
hat she owned Peekaboo and had once been a waitress there, but he might tell his brothers. It might get around, and that was something she didn’t want any donors of the foundation to hear.

  “Uh, Austin, it’s probably not a good idea if we see each other,” she threw out there.

  By degrees his grin faded. His breathing became slow and even. “Don’t.”

  That one word was all he said while he kept his suddenly intense eyes on her. McCall thought of arguments she could give him to support them “not seeing each other.” Their complicated lives. The fact that she’d be going back to Dallas soon. The problem with Edith wanting custody. But she said none of that because Austin robbed her of her breath by leaning in and brushing his mouth over hers.

  “Give me a chance, McCall,” Austin whispered against her lips. “Give us a chance.”

  She figured she could blame her response on temporary insanity. Insanity caused by her extreme reaction to Austin’s kiss.

  “Okay,” she whispered back.

  There’d be hell to pay for this, later, but for now, McCall slid right into the kiss.

  * * *

  AUSTIN FELT AS uncomfortable as a flasher in an igloo.

  It’d been a while, nearly a decade, since he’d had to buy condoms, and that certainly wasn’t something he’d wanted to do in his own hometown where the gossips would get wind of it and start speculating.

  About McCall and him.

  That’s why Austin was at the Pump and Ride, a badly named convenience store/gas station just off the interstate exit. It was a good ten miles from Lone Star Ridge, which put some much needed distance between him and that potential gossip pool.

  He didn’t think it was being presumptuous of him, either, to be prepared like this. No. It might have been a while since he’d needed condoms—or been with a woman other than Zoey—but he was pretty sure he’d read the signals right.

  Okay.

  That one-word response from McCall had caused Austin to smile for days. McCall had not only muttered it when he’d asked her to give them a chance, but she had also agreed to go on a date with him. Of course, he’d played dirty by kissing her and continuing to kiss her until she’d said yes, but hey, all was fair when it came to something that he felt was right.