McCall groaned, and Austin even dropped his grin. “What the hell did he want?” Austin snarled.
“He said McCall had blocked his number—”
“I did,” McCall verified. “Anything he has to say to me, or to you, should go through my lawyer. I don’t want to talk to him.”
“Yeah, I pointed that out to him in the bitchiest way I could manage and called him King Dickhead. Don’t think he liked that much, but it got him to turn off that sappy fake charm fast so I didn’t have to listen to any of his bullshit excuses about why he screwed up. Anyway, he wanted you to know that he’ll sign the papers severing his ties to the foundation.”
McCall had geared up to call him a much worse name than King Dickhead, but that stopped her. “Why didn’t he just tell the lawyer?”
“My guess is that he thought this was a way of making amends. He said he was sorry and all. I told him he was indeed sorry, and I didn’t mean the kind of sorry that went with an apology.”
Something was fishy about that, but then maybe Alisha had pressed for him to make that call. Alisha didn’t want continued bad publicity any more than McCall did.
“Cody Joe didn’t have any conditions for signing, did he?” McCall pressed, and she took the exit off the interstate for Lone Star Ridge.
“Nope, but he did say that his mom would probably want to talk to you soon.”
Great. McCall couldn’t imagine that being a fun conversation. And it might not even be a necessary one. Once she was at Austin’s place, and after they’d talked things out, she’d call her lawyer and ask him to field any communications that came from Alisha.
“So, Studly Desires?” Austin asked when she’d ended the call with Boo.
“It won’t be called that,” she assured him. “The idea is to class up the place, not make it sound tawdrier than it already is. But Boo came up with the idea of converting Peekaboo to a tea shop where hot costumed male waiters serve the food and drinks. Obviously, it’ll be geared toward female customers.”
“Does that mean you’d need to be in Dallas for the changes?” he asked after a long silence.
Good question. “Maybe, just until everything is set up. But if it works out as I want, Boo will be the manager and she’ll hire some of the current strippers to work with her. That doesn’t mean I think it’s a good idea for me to stay in Lone Star Ridge,” she quickly added.
Austin paused again. “What would make you think it was a good idea to stay?”
Now, that was a bad question, one that could lead her to say things she shouldn’t say. Like she wanted to stay. Desperately wanted it. That she wanted him with that same desperation. And that if she stayed there was no chance that she’d be able to hide her feelings from Austin.
“I just don’t want you and the girls to get hurt,” she settled for saying. It was becoming her broken record response, one that she’d no doubt be repeating even more.
Of course, that caused him to huff, but then he followed it with what seemed to be a sigh of resignation. If he was resigned to her leaving, then maybe this talk wouldn’t be as tough as she’d thought it would be. That was the mind-set she had, anyway, when she turned into his driveway and pulled to a stop in front of his house.
“Tell me you don’t have feelings for me,” Austin challenged.
There were some lies that would just stick in the throat. That was one of them. So McCall didn’t even attempt it. “My feelings shouldn’t play into this.”
“Uh, then whose should? And please don’t say Edith’s. I’ve already told you that I don’t want her to have a say in my personal life.”
“But that’s just it. She has a say because she’s your daughters’ grandmother,” McCall argued.
“She doesn’t have a say in my personal life,” he repeated. “I’m not putting the girls in danger. I’m not mistreating them. I’m being the best father I can be, and that means Edith has to butt out.”
All of that sounded, well, logical, but she wasn’t so sure that Edith would stick with logic. The woman could and would skew all of this to convince herself that Avery and Gracie could indeed be harmed.
McCall took a moment to figure out how to convince Austin of that before she turned to him. That wasn’t a good idea, though, because looking at his face put a serious dent in her willpower.
And he knew it.
That cocky half grin he flashed her was lethal.
McCall muttered some profanity and nearly told him that she shouldn’t go inside. Even if that’s what she wanted. Especially because it was what she wanted. But she hesitated just a little too long, and she didn’t do diddly to turn away from him when he leaned in and kissed her.
There it was. The pleasure and sensations that she’d missed in few short hours she’d been away from him. She’d missed his arms, too, and he helped her out with that by popping her seat belt and pulling her to him. Across the console and into his lap.
Suddenly, they were face-to-face, body-to-body, and he was kissing her as if starved for her. McCall totally got that because she was starved for him. And Austin was doing a really good job of feeding that need.
“I feel like an idiot,” she managed to say. “Because I should be stopping this.”
Austin pulled back just enough for their eyes to meet. “Do you want me to stop?”
McCall knew that he would do exactly that. All she had to do was say the word. A word that just wasn’t going to come especially since she was the one to start the next round of kissing.
“We should take this inside,” Austin said. At least, that’s what she thought he said. Hard to tell with their mouths going after each other in the most carnal kind of way.
Part of her wanted to stay put and just enjoy this especially since his erection was pressing right in the center of her thighs. It was creating some amazing pressure that only made the kissing more incredible. But he was right. Austin’s place wasn’t on the beaten path, but someone could come driving up at any moment and see them. That definitely wouldn’t help either of their reputations. Still, if they moved, she might come to her senses.
At the moment, her senses was the last thing McCall wanted.
And her body agreed.
Austin opened the car door, and they nearly fell out. That brought her back some. Not enough, though, because Austin just righted their balance and kept kissing her. Somehow, he also managed to get out of the car without dropping her.
McCall hooked her legs around his waist, keeping that amazing contact in the center of their bodies. Austin made that pressure even better by sliding his hand to her bottom and pushing her even tighter against him. He kicked the car door shut and headed toward the house.
Not easily, though.
Basically, he was walking blind, and coupled with the distraction of her touching his chest and trying to get his shirt unbuttoned, he stumbled a few times. There was more stumbling when he got her on the porch and inside the house. He didn’t even head to the bedroom, though. They only made it as far as the sofa where he dropped her down and followed on top of her.
Exactly where she wanted him to be.
One day they might have sex in an actual bed, but apparently it wasn’t going to be today. Not with this urgent battle going on between them. She was fighting with his shirt, and he was at war with her dress. Every part of her body was demanding that she have him now, now, now.
Austin was thankfully in on that now, and he finally got her dress off over her head. In the same motion, he flicked open the front hook of her bra and did some breast kisses that only made her want to up that now to immediately. She gave up on his shirt and went after his belt and zipper instead.
McCall freed his erection from his boxers. No easy task since he was huge and hard. She wouldn’t have minded dropping some kisses all the way down him and doing some tasting of her own, but those breast kisses only sped things
up for both of them.
Cursing, he pushed her panties down below her knees, fumbled for his wallet and pulled out a condom. Something McCall was certain she wouldn’t have remembered. Thank goodness one of them still had a shred of sensibility, but she was certain that even Austin lost that shred when he got on the condom and thrust into her.
The world turned to warm honey. All sweet and delicious. That lasted for the first few strokes, but warm honey couldn’t hold up against a need for fierce and primal that it was all-consuming. McCall needed one thing right now.
Release.
And Austin was working hard to give her just that.
The orgasm rippled through her, consuming her and sending her flying. Austin joined right in there with her. Every nerve and muscle got in on the pulsing, causing the pinpoint of pleasure that was certainly the best she’d ever had. And because it was the best, it fogged her mind, and McCall found herself blurting out something she had no intention of blurting out.
“I love you, Austin.”
* * *
WELL, HECK. MCCALL decided she needed her head examined. Admitting she was in love with Austin solved nothing, and in fact could make things worse. Still, she’d said it, and the only thing she could do now was own up to it.
And leave.
The leaving was especially necessary because it was the only way she was going to think straight and figure out how to do some damage control. Which, of course, Austin didn’t help with when he grinned down at her. It was surprising that he could manage that within seconds after an orgasm, but he did.
“Want to repeat that now that I can actually hear?” he asked.
McCall didn’t have to think about this answer. “No. I need to go.”
His grin didn’t waver, and he moved off her as if he’d expected her to say exactly that. He didn’t stop her when she scrambled off the sofa, pulled up her panties and put her dress back on.
“I love you, too,” he said, not in a snarky, judgmental way but with the honest to goodness tone that she knew was genuine. Austin did love her. And she apparently loved him. Now, they’d have to deal with the fallout.
“I’ll call you later,” McCall said, hurrying out the door.
The moment she was outside, she immediately dragged in some fresh air, hoping it would help, but nope. Her thoughts were flying a mile a minute, and none of those thoughts spelled out a good solution as to what she was going to do. She seriously doubted that it would cause Edith to back off simply because McCall had made the mistake of not guarding her heart carefully enough.
Of course, maybe there wasn’t enough guarding in the universe to have stopped it.
From the moment she’d seen Austin that night of the Cody Joe debacle, McCall had felt that her heart was on a collision course with Austin’s. Even if she’d tried harder to stop it, she doubted she would have succeeded. No. This seemed to be something akin to destiny. Too bad that destiny could seriously screw them both over.
She drove back to Em’s, hoping that she could sneak in and shower, but no such luck. Cait’s SUV was in the driveway, and her grandmother was right there waiting in the doorway. Granny Em probably knew some of what was going on and deserved to know more. However, McCall was hoping she’d hold off on the questions.
Granny Em took one look at her and pulled her into her arms. McCall hadn’t even realized she needed a hug until Em did that.
“You figured out you’re in love with Austin,” Em said with complete conviction.
No need to deny it when apparently she was wearing her stupid collision-course heart on her sleeve. “Yes.”
Em patted her back, released her from the hug and looked her in the eyes. “Nothing makes you feel more miserable than being in love.”
McCall frowned. That wasn’t the brightest assessment of love, but in this case, it fit to a T.
The giggling caught McCall’s attention, and those were giggles she instantly recognized. “Cait is here with the twins?” she asked, hoping she was wrong. She wasn’t sure she was up to facing Avery and Gracie just yet.
Em nodded. “They got here a couple of minutes ago. Leyton had something he had to take care of at work, and Cait wanted to see Hadley. If you want to go on upstairs, I’ll make excuses for you.”
It was tempting, and McCall had just about convinced herself that an escape was what she wanted, but then she heard the girls giggle again. She realized it might help her mood if she saw them. Still, she had to freshen up first.
“Give me a few minutes,” McCall said. “Are they in the kitchen?”
“No, in the old sewing room with Hadley and Cait.”
McCall nearly asked what they were doing in there, but she’d soon see for herself. She hurried upstairs, grabbed a quick shower and changed her clothes. She didn’t bother with makeup, and with her hair still wet, she went back down and made her way to the sewing room.
It’d been years since McCall had been in that particular room, which had apparently once been her grandfather’s home office where he ran the daily goings-on of the ranch. After Hadley had taken an interest in making clothes, Granny Em had converted it to a sewing room. One that Hadley had considered off-limits for anyone else.
Well, it certainly wasn’t off-limits now.
There was still some giggling going on when McCall stepped inside and spotted Cait helping Avery into an old Spice Girls Halloween costume with a British flag. McCall remembered Sunny wearing it way back when, and even though it was miles too big for Avery, Hadley had obviously made some adjustments so that it wasn’t dragging on the floor.
Hadley was also fitting a costume on Gracie, one that McCall recognized since she’d been the one to wear it when she was ten or eleven years old. It was a rather elaborate fake satin aqua-colored Marie Antoinette dress, complete with a powdered white wig made out of knitting yarn.
Cait looked up at McCall and tipped her head to Gracie. “I’m guessing the Little Cowgirls producer or your mother chose that outfit for you?”
“You’d think, but no, it was my choice. Granny Em and Hadley pieced it together from some prom dresses they got from the thrift shop.” And clearly, Hadley had had talent even back then.
“McCall,” Gracie greeted just as Avery said, “The fairy lady!” Despite the bulky outfits, they hurried to her for a hug.
Yes, she’d been right about the girls lifting her mood. This was what she needed.
“This one’s mine for our fashion show,” Cait said, holding up a ghost costume. Or rather a sheet with eyeholes cut out from it. That’d been Hayes’s costume, and Cait pulled it on over her head. “Yours is over there.” Cait pointed to the fairy tale dress that McCall had worn for the ill-fated charity beauty contest.
Since Granny Em was getting into the spirit, too, by donning a vampire cape, McCall pulled on the fairy dress over the one she was already wearing. She couldn’t zip it, of course, what with the added bulk of her regular clothes, but she got enough of herself in it. Hadley put on some music from her phone.
Inappropriate music because it was the old classic “The Stripper.”
It was an instrumental so thankfully there were no words to go along with the sultry beat. Hadley’s grin let McCall know that it was her way of paying homage to Peekaboo.
“Maybe you should play something else,” McCall suggested.
“We could use one of my favorites,” Em quickly said.
Cait, Hadley and McCall were all quick with their “nos.” All of them knew Em’s taste in rap music with explicit lyrics, and since McCall wasn’t sure of Hadley’s alternatives to “The Stripper,” she took out her own phone and hit the play button for Pharrell’s “Happy.”
The girls obviously knew the tune because they clapped and jumped.
And the fashion show started.
Cait strutted around the room giving exaggerated model poses and a few b
reakdance moves that were genuinely bad and weird because she was wearing a sheet. When she stopped and propped her hands on her hips, she motioned for Avery and Gracie. The girls went together, moving much as their aunt had done except there was a lot more giggling involved.
They were such happy kids, and it was hard to stay down around them. However, McCall did wonder how they’d react if they found out she’d fallen in love with their father. Maybe that would also make them happy.
Or it might be too much too soon.
For just a moment McCall let herself imagine how things could be if Austin and she did end up together. She’d be with not only him but also with the girls for plenty of moments just like this. For bad moments, as well, since that was part of life. She knew from her counseling experience that blending a family took work. And that it didn’t always work out.
“Your turn,” Avery insisted, pointing at McCall. The timing was spot-on because it saved McCall from slipping into a blue mood.
McCall did the walk, or rather the dancing strut, to the other side of the room where Avery, Gracie and Cait were standing, and when she was done, she curtsied and winked at the twins. Then Em followed, kicking up her legs like a can-can dancer. Not exactly graceful moves and it didn’t go with the beat of the music, but it got laughs from Avery and Gracie. No laugh from Em, though, because her attention froze on the doorway. McCall quickly shifted in that direction and saw someone she definitely hadn’t expected to see.
Rick Downing, the lawyer.
McCall’s stomach dropped because she seriously doubted that Rick had just dropped by for a visit. The timing fit that this had something to do with the visit Edith had made to his office.
“Uh, the door was open,” Rick said. He looked as if he was trying to figure out what the heck was going on. “I knocked, but you must not have heard me.”
McCall hit the stop button on the music, but the girls immediately protested. She handed her phone to Em so the fashion show could continue with music, and she stepped out into the hall. She shut the door behind her—again to Avery and Gracie’s protests.
Chasing Trouble in Texas Page 24