by Liz Talley
“Bubba and I are friends,” Nellie snapped. “He’s a nice guy, Brent. I’m not looking for a relationship right now.” She tossed her bag onto the coffee table.
“Right,” he drawled, folding his arms over the tight T-shirt he wore. “You’re a woman. You’re all looking for relationships.”
Her head shot up. “No. Sometimes we’re just looking for a good time. Sometimes we don’t want any strings attached.” Nellie knew it was herself she wanted to convince. Vegas was about an affair. Just sex. Nothing to do with love. Nothing to do with wanting to have Jack Darby’s babies and fold his underwear for the rest of her life.
“Well, let me go upstairs and grab a shower. ’Cause, baby, I’m all about pleasure without strings.” He gave her the same half-lidded look he’d given her before, rubbing his hands down his massive torso and stretching like a cat who anticipated a bowl of cream.
“While you’re up there, make sure you don’t go through my underwear drawer again.” She suspected the man had rifled through her stuff while she was at work. Which was downright freaky.
Brett didn’t even look ashamed. “I like the little red ones.”
“You’re sick!” Nellie said, prepared to fire him. “You’re not supposed to go through your customer’s things.”
“Don’t get those panties in a wad, Nellie.” He moved her way and her mouth went dry. Brent was a full-grown man with full-grown needs. He wasn’t like Bubba, all sweet despite his obvious maleness. He stopped in front of her, towering, smelling like sawdust and sexy male.
She licked her lips. Stupid. Men always liked that. It was an invitation, so she stepped away, nervous at being alone in the house with him.
“Don’t worry, Nellie,” he said, giving her a knowing smile, “I don’t beg women to go out with me.”
He laughed low and tromped toward the front door, his big work boots rattling the glass in the china cabinet. She dropped her arms to her sides wondering why she’d hired the man. He was seriously twisted.
Nellie shoved all thoughts about men to the back of her mind and walked into the kitchen. Fresh-cut plywood was perched atop sawhorses; cappuccino-colored tiles were scattered round the room; and a stainless sink leaned up against the wall. It looked like a tornado had hit.
The screen door opened again. “Hey, Nellie. You home?”
Bubba.
“I’m in here,” she called.
Heavy footfalls gave way to a gravelly voice. “Whoa! He’s a tearin’ it up in here, ain’t he?”
Nellie spun around. Bubba had just squeezed into the kitchen. He cradled his ball cap in his hands. Ever the gentleman. He might spit tobacco into an old pea can, but his momma had raised him right.
“Yep. But that means progress, right?”
“I reckon,” he conceded, studying the dismantled kitchen with appraising brown eyes. They were puppy dog eyes, odd in such a large doughy face. “Brent Hamilton’s pretty good. I seen some of his work over at the McFarlands’. Solid.”
She turned her own critical eye on the progress. “He’s a pervert. I should have gotten more estimates, I guess, but I just wanted to get started.”
Bubba stiffened. “Is he botherin’ you?”
“Nothing I can’t handle,” she said.
“Well, good, ’cause I ain’t gonna be around much. I got a job.”
“A job? That’s fantastic, Bubba. Where are you working?”
“Oh, some fellow’s up and bought the old Henderson place. It’s been sittin’ there for years. He wants to make it into a horse farm and needs someone to help with the cleanup and such. It’s gonna take a pretty penny and plenty o’ sweat to bring that ol’ place up to snuff.”
“So Hattie finally sold it?”
“Yeah, wasn’t nobody who wanted it. I guess she figured it was time. This fellow seems okay. Little green, but he damned sure could run a tractor.”
Nellie grinned. Knowing how to handle a John Deere was on par with a master’s degree around these parts. “Well, that’s great, Bubba.”
She stepped around him and headed out of the kitchen.
Bubba followed her. She pushed out the front door onto the porch. The sun was hovering over the horizon, ready to sink down and blanket the little town in gentle darkness. Her favorite time. Sunset.
“You hungry, Bubba? I’m in the mood for a burger.”
Her mountainous friend grinned. “You buyin’? I ain’t started this job yet.”
“Absolutely. And you tell Mr…. wait. Who’s the guy who bought the Henderson place?”
Bubba squinched up his face. “Shoot. I’ve done gone and forgot his last name. Plum forgot it. But his first name’s Jack.”
Nellie’s stomach flopped. “Jack?”
“Uh, yeah. He’s got some horse, I don’t know, corporation. Gonna raise racehorses or show horses. No, wait. Rodeo horses.” Bubba snapped his fingers, making a crack loud enough to cause a person to hit the floor.
Nellie jumped. Then she felt stupid. Not her Jack. Her Jack was a city-slick club owner. A fancy-pants urban fantasy of a man. She couldn’t imagine him covered in dust, sweating on a tractor, shoveling horse manure. No way. Didn’t fit. And why would Jack show up here? He didn’t even know where she lived. And with the way she’d left, why would he bother? Plus, to buy a horse farm? Ridiculous. Just a coincidence.
“Well, you make him pay you what you’re worth,” she said, turning back into the house. “Let me get my purse.”
“Shoot, Nellie,” Bubba called through the screened door. “You know I ain’t worth a plug nickel. This guy don’t know what he’s getting. I may be big and strong, but I’m as lazy as a Louisiana bayou.”
She came out with her purse hanging from her shoulder. “Don’t sell yourself short, Bubba. You’re way more than meets the eye.”
“Just like you, Nellie. I always knew you were somethin’. I’m glad we’re friends. I get tired of tryin’ to talk to Woodley and Jimbo about things. They’re just liable to grunt at me, that’s all.”
“I’m glad we’re friends, too,” she said, trotting down the porch steps. She tried to visualize Bubba holding a serious conversation with his cousins. It baffled the mind.
“Let’s get double cheese fries,” he called out behind her. “I’m starvin’.”
Yeah. She’d just use extra cheese to get Jack out of her mind.
Who would have thought Bubba Malone would be her new “Kate”? Bubba Malone, confidant and girlfriend. That made her giggle. Which felt good. “Hey, let’s get the brownie sundae they’ve been advertising too. I love Dairy Barn sundaes.”
“Deal,” Bubba said, rubbing his meaty hands together. “I need to bulk up for my new job. It’s damned hot and I’ll be sweatin’ like a preacher on revival night.”
Darkness descended as they took off through the freshly cut lawn toward the other side of the town square. Nellie slid off her sandals and squished her bare feet through the lush Saint Augustine. She loved the way the grass felt between her toes. Summer decadence.
She put her shoes back on when she got to the sidewalk. Bubba was ten feet ahead of her, plowing through town, a man on a mission. Double cheese fries were so good she wasn’t offended by his failure to wait.
Her walk took her past typical small-town businesses—a nail place, the barbershop where her grandfather had received his first haircut, the vacant green stamp store, and the antique store where she’d bought a Tiffany lamp. Finally, she reached the Dairy Barn. Rusty-red, it was reminiscent of a time when girls with swinging ponytails huddled under their boyfriends’ letter jackets while Charlie Mac served up shakes and fries. It had been an Oak Stand fixture since 1956.
She pulled the door open and the familiar smell of onion rings and bleach assaulted her. Hundreds of eyes swung their way. It was Saturday night in Oak Stand. Nearly everyone was there.
Brent Hamilton dropped the hand he had on Livy Wheeler’s ass and smiled.
What a snake, Nellie thought, noticing Brent had changed h
is shirt and combed the drywall bits from his shaggy brown hair. She ignored him and sauntered to the counter, throwing the stooped Charlie Mac a smile. “Two double cheeseburgers, an order of cheese fries—”
“Double order,” Bubba called over her shoulder.
She nodded to Charlie Mac as his blue-veined fingers scratched out the order on his pad. “Diet Coke, root beer, and a double brownie sundae.”
As she dug the money out of her wallet, Brent sauntered over.
“What’s up, Nellie? Bubba?” He still wore his dusty jeans and boots. Guess Livy didn’t mind him talking to Nellie because she followed him over.
Bubba grabbed his diet coke and shoved past, giving Brent a hard glance. Nellie smiled at Livy. “Hey, Brent. Livy, how’s your momma?”
“She’s doin’ better.” Livy Wheeler glowed with youth. Curvy, brunette—she was a sweet kid, way too sweet for Mr. “Grabby Hands” Hamilton. Her mother had recently undergone a mastectomy and her prognosis was good, unlike Bubba’s mother, who had stage three breast cancer.
“That’s great,” Nellie said. Bubba inclined his head at Livy but said nothing.
Livy averted her eyes briefly before turning back to Nellie with a smile. “Hey, you hear about the new guy who bought the Henderson place? Oh, my gosh, he’s like so hot.” She cast an apologetic glance toward Brent. He looked perturbed. “Sorry, Brent.”
“Really?” Nellie wanted to smile at Livy’s offhanded comment, but something gnawed at her. A hot guy named Jack at the Henderson place. Maybe she could get a description. “You saw him?”
“Only at a distance. At the grocery store.” Livy turned a full-wattage smile on Brent. “But he’s not as hot as Brent.”
Livy’s voice turned singsong. Brent leered. Nellie snorted. Charlie Mac shoved a plastic number her way.
She felt stupid. No way it could be her Jack. Just a coincidence. Coincidences happened all the time.
“Well, gotta go. Y’all enjoy your night.” She slid past both Brent and Livy, glad she’d hadn’t talked herself into going out with her contractor. He was a slimeball.
Nellie wound through the dining section, heading to the large table Bubba anchored—no doubt to hold the vast amount of food she’d just ordered.
“Hey, Nellie,” Hannah Bloom called as she walked by. “You hear about the Henderson place being sold? Ted’s gonna put up a new barn for the guy who bought it.”
Nellie paused at Hannah’s table. Hannah came into the library almost weekly. She was a mystery junkie, eating up Sue Grafton and Elizabeth Peters books like a guilty dieter. Hannah had been worried about her husband Ted, who’d experienced a business slump after he’d broken his leg on a job. “That’s terrific, Hannah. I know Ted must be happy about the job. Probably be a big one if the guy’s raising horses.”
“Yep.” Hannah popped a fry into her mouth. “He’s celebrating with a chocolate milk shake.”
Ted Bloom came up behind Nellie. She’d known him since he’d peed on her front lawn when he was six. “Hiya, Nell. I see you’re with Bubba again. Y’all datin’?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Just friends.”
Lord, she thought. Couldn’t two single people go out and about without people wanting to know where they’d registered their china pattern? She changed the subject. “Hannah told me about your job over at the Henderson place. You’ll be seeing Bubba over there. He was hired to do cleanup.”
“Yeah, that fellow’s hired a couple of folks. Gonna be a big operation, I reckon.”
Nellie caught one of the diner workers weaving her way. She motioned him over to the back of the diner where Bubba sat. “There’s my order. Y’all have a good evening. Congrats on that job, Ted.”
She waved to a few other patrons as she made her way over to her table. She could hear snippets of conversation peppered with “Bubba” and “Henderson place.” When she got to the table she saw Bubba had waited on her like one dog waits on another. His mouth was full of cheeseburger. He pushed out a chair with his foot. “Mfff. What took you so long? Everybody’s lookin’ at me just like at Jupiter.”
Nellie tucked her skirt under her and wiped a smear of ketchup from the laminate table. Nothing like fine Oak Stand dining. “Sorry. Ted’s going to be working out at the Henderson place too.”
“Oh.” He took another bite of the colossal cheeseburger. “I swear it’s got everybody talking as much as when Mrs. Holtzclaw got her niece to do the chairs in the choir loft and Mrs. Monk fell off and everyone saw her girdle.”
Nellie chuckled as she pulled the pickles off her burger. “It’s not that bad surely. Wait. Me and you hanging out or the new guy coming to town?”
“Both, I guess.” Bubba shrugged and attacked the cheese fries.
Nellie guessed a dowdy librarian turned sex goddess going around town with a backwoods Bubba and the news of a “hot” guy moving to Oak Stand definitely called for unchecked gossip.
As she ate her hamburger, she glanced around the busy diner. She knew just about all the customers. Everyone, from her second-grade teacher to the guy who sold her honey, thought they’d known the simple Nellie Hughes.
But she had surprised them. In Oak Stand, each person had a slot. Nellie had slid out of hers when she came back highlighted, plumped and, well, different. All the towns-folk whispered, wondering what happened to the not necessarily homely, but certainly not fabulous Nellie Hughes.
“People’s lookin’ at us again,” Bubba mumbled, tearing her from her contemplation of the room and reminding her that if she wanted some brownie sundae, she’d better grab a spoon.
“Maybe because you have chocolate sauce smeared on your cheek,” Nellie said. Bubba took a swipe at it with a wadded-up napkin. “Besides, as my grandmother always said, ‘Let ’em look.’”
“Your grandmama sure was somethin’. She thought the sun rose and set on you.” He blocked her spoon with his and stole the cherry off the whipped cream.
Nellie blew out an exasperated breath. “You think so?”
“I know so.” Bubba shoved what was left of the sundae toward her. “She was hard on you, sure, but she loved you somethin’ fierce. She wanted lots of things for you. I could see that. I mowed your yard every week, so I saw what you couldn’t.”
She tilted her head. “What do you mean? She barely let me go to college.”
“Yeah, but she was just scared, is all. Everybody left her.”
Nellie had never thought about it in that light. From the loss of her first child to her husband falling down an abandoned well to Nellie’s mother going crazy, Grandmother Tucker had cause to squeeze Nellie tightly. “Bubba, you’re much smarter than you look.”
“That ain’t exactly a compliment, is it?” He leaned back, folding his arms over his generous stomach.
“It’s a compliment.”
Nellie plopped the last fry into her mouth. The diner was still crowded. Every now and then a couple of people would chance a peek at Nellie and Bubba and look quickly away. She thought it was amusing. And annoying.
She had just reached for her purse when near silence descended on the restaurant. She glanced up. And that’s when the room rocked, tilted, and turned upside down like a roller coaster. She didn’t know whether to scream or throw up.
Because Jack Darby was standing in the doorway.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Forget having clean underwear. There ain’t nothing important about clean underwear when you’re in a car wreck. I always thought that was the stupidest of sayings. If you really want to be prepared, don’t leave home without combing your hair and wearing your pearls. You never know when you might run into an ex-boyfriend.
—Grandmother Tucker to Nellie after she’d had her only fender-bender.
NELLIE COULDN’T BELIEVE her eyes. Jack Darby standing in the freakin’ Dairy Barn. Jack Darby in Oak Stand, Texas. Jack Darby with another woman.
Nellie fell back into her chair.She thought about grabbing a menu and hiding behind it, but there were
no menus on the table. The Dairy Barn was strictly counter service.
She felt panicky, sick, confused and every other feeling ever known. All at the same time. It was a kind of drowning feeling, like her head going under water. Now everyone would know. She’d gone to Vegas, and what had happened there hadn’t stayed there the way it was supposed to.
“Well, I’ll be. There’s the fellow that hired me. You can meet him.” Bubba waved one hand in Jack’s direction.
“Stop that!” she hissed, tugging at her friend’s arm.
“What?” He looked at her, confused. “Don’t you want to meet my new boss? He’s a nice guy, even if he is a Cardinals fan.”
Nellie closed her eyes. Maybe Jack hadn’t seen Bubba. Surely he hadn’t. The place was packed. But then again, Mount Bubba was hard to miss.
Oh, shit. Why was he here?
And more importantly, why was he here with a beautiful woman?
“What’s wrong? You look kinda sick.” Bubba leaned forward, his expression concerned. “Was your hamburger bad?”
She felt the cheese fries backing up on her. Bathroom. She needed to get to the bathroom. Unfortunately, it was at the front of the diner. Just to the left of Jack.
Oh, God! What was he doing here? She couldn’t have been more surprised if the Queen Mother had strolled into the Dairy Barn.
“Nell? Hey? You okay?” Bubba rose and headed around the table.
She waved him off. “Nothing. It’s nothing. I’m okay.”
But then she saw Jack heading her way, pulling the brunette behind him.
Oh. No.
She actually contemplated running. Leaping over the table and making a beeline for the door. But there were too many people. Too many obstacles. Plus, she’d never been athletic. She was liable to fall and break her neck.
“Hey!” Bubba crowed, waving again toward the door before dropping back into his chair. “Jack, over here.”
Jack met Nellie’s gaze and held it. His blue eyes seared her, piercing her skin and razoring right to her heart. She tore her eyes from his. She didn’t want to see what lurked in their blue depths. She wanted to pretend this was not happening. That Jack wasn’t here, moving toward her.