“Yes. Under my shorts. I suspect that will be the safest thing to do. Last year, remember how we all ended up in the pool in the fourth quarter?”
KC laughed. “I do. But didn’t that have something to do with a bet and your fiancé?”
Lydia snorted. “Just an excuse. Can’t remember a pool party at their house that I didn’t end up wet.”
“Okay then.” She held up the red bikini. “I’ve got the perfect suit.” It must look damned hot on her, because Drake had made her wear it pretty much the last two days at the resort…not that it stayed on very long each time she wore it.
The memory tugged at her heart strings. A sense of sadness fell over her like a heavy blanket.
“You okay? I think I lost you for a minute.”
“No, no. I’m fine,” KC said. “Better run. See you in an hour or so.”
By the time KC got to the party, it was in full swing and the game was closer to halftime than kick-off. Being greeted with hugs and kisses from friends made her glad she’d forced herself to come when what she’d wanted to do was stay home and stage round two of her personal pity party.
She found Lydia in the kitchen.
“Wow,” Lydia said. “Look at your tan. You look great. Must have been a hell of a good vacation.”
KC forced her mouth into a wide smile, as though memories of the past two weeks were pleasurable instead of painful. “Awesome. Totally awesome. You’d love where I went.”
“Tell me about the place.”
Before KC could answer, Jason rushed in. “Settle a bet,” he said to Lydia. “Which is worse for a guy? Mumps or the flu?”
“You’d feel awful with either, but because mumps can affect your testicles—”
“Told you,” he called back out the door. He gave her a quick kiss. “Thanks. Come on out. The game’s a blow-out so we’re getting together teams for water polo.” He hurried back outside to the patio and a group of men holding beers.
KC laughed. “Thank goodness I only have to share an office with him.”
Lydia smiled. “Sounds like pool time. You have a suit on?”
“Of course.” KC pulled her shirt over her head to show off her red bikini bra.
“Nice. New?”
“Yes.” She pulled off her shorts and turned in a circle with her arms in the air. “Look okay?”
Lydia whistled. “Wow. You look fabulous in that, not to mention the incredible tan.”
From outside, Jason hollered, “Come on, Lydia. We’re waiting.”
Lydia rolled her eyes and stripped off her T-shirt and shorts. Then they headed outside.
Drake slowed his SUV as he turned onto Muse Lane and started looking for the Henderson driveway. Man, he did not want to go to this damn party.
“Oh, sugar. Cheer up. It’ll be fun.”
He glanced over at Elsie Belle Lambert. “I don’t know how I let you talk me into these things.”
She threaded her fingers into his hair. “’Cause you’re my good friend who’s helping me make your good friend jealous.”
He shook his head. “Never going to work.”
“Sure it will,” she said, her tone confident. “You and Travis have that competitive relationship brothers usually have. Travis and I are perfect together. I just need you to take me here tonight and to the Whispering Springs Country Club dance on Saturday. When he sees me with you, he’ll want me.”
Her whole plan was crazy and would never work, especially since Drake knew that Travis was head over heels in love with Caroline Graham. But it wasn’t his place to tell the world, i.e. Elsie Bell Lambert, about Travis’s new love. Plus, he’d agreed to go tonight because, let’s face it…he didn’t have anything better to do.
Honestly, he’d rather have been with KC anywhere, doing anything, than go someplace with anyone else. He’d picked up the phone to call KC a dozen times since they’d gotten home from the Sand Castle Resort, but always put it down before he finished punching in the numbers. More than a dozen times, something had happened or he’d had a thought he’d wanted to share with her. But he hadn’t called, hadn’t texted. They’d made a deal. Both had agreed to it. It would violate her trust if he were to suddenly try to insert himself into her life.
But that agreement didn’t stop him from thinking about her a lot. He briefly wondered if she’d be at the party tonight. She’d been there last year. If she was there, maybe—
“Dance? Saturday?” Elsie Belle’s question broke into his ruminations, dragging his mind back to the upcoming weekend dance.
“Sure. No problem. What time?”
As they drove to a pool party he didn’t want to attend, she gave him his marching orders for the upcoming Saturday including what to wear and what time to pick her up. Fine with him. He didn’t care what Elsie Belle thought of him. He was a stand-in date since hers had to cancel at the last minute.
He and Elsie Belle had known each other since first grade, and he could truthfully say he’d never felt anything but friendship for her. In some ways, he felt a little sorry for her. She’d been through a couple of husbands, both jerks beyond description. Both had been after her money, but Jake Lambert, Elsie Belle’s father, was nobody’s fool. The pre-nups he’d made her ex-husbands sign before the weddings had kept Elsie Belle’s money in her bank account.
Her folks were nice, but they’d been absentee parents for a lot of Elsie Belle’s life. They were on the party circuit, rubbing elbows with big names in Washington and Hollywood. Her dad was a financier. Her mother a former Miss Texas. Both had come from money, which Jake had increased many times over.
Elsie Belle had inherited a trust from both sides of the family, so holding down a real job had never been on her radar. She’d been trained from birth in social etiquette—which she forgot from time to time—from how to properly set a table for a formal dinner to the proper saddling of a horse. She didn’t have many female friends and she was totally clueless why.
Drake knew why. He adored his friend but she could be a total bitch to women and an overt flirt toward men. The men didn’t mind her so much. However, their wives and girlfriends would probably chip in for a one-way ticket to the South Pole.
He wheeled his Range Rover into the Hendersons’ circular drive. Cars and trucks were parked on the lawn, in the street, the drive, wherever there was space. He pulled in behind a dirty truck.
“I don’t see Travis’s truck,” she said with a pout.
“I don’t know that he’s going to be here. You want to stay or leave?”
“Stay,” she said, her mood swinging from sad to happy in a nanosecond.
Drake got out, shaking his head. Her moods were like the weather. If you don’t like one, you only had to wait fifteen minutes and another front would come through.
She hooked her arm through his. “Here or not. We’ll have fun.” She leaned toward him as though imparting national secrets. “I have on the cutest bikini ever. It’s got polka dots.”
He laughed. “I’m sure it’ll be the hit of the party.”
It was well after halftime when they arrived. Not surprising since Elsie Belle did like to make an entrance. The noise from the party reached them before they opened the rear gate. After letting themselves in, Elsie Belle released his arm and went off to see a couple of the female friends she still had.
In the pool, a heated water polo match was producing waves, threats and a lot of laughs. The ball was served and crossed the net.
“Get it, KC. It’s coming your way.”
Drake’s head snapped toward the male voice and his worst nightmare came true. KC Montgomery was in the pool as the only female on a team of sex-starved men. Hell, he was surprised any of them could concentrate on the game with the way they kept stripping off her red bikini with their eyes.
Red bikini?
Sonofabitch. That scrap of nothing was too small for her to be wearing in public. What had she been thinking?
KC returned the serve and the other team floundered at it but mis
sed hitting the ball over the net.
“Game!” shouted KC. “Pay up.”
On her side of the pool, high-fives were slapping. One guy picked up KC and swung her around in the water. She screamed and laughed.
A white-hot spear of jealousy pierced Drake’s gut and sizzled through his system. Drake’s jaw clenched. He had to bite his tongue to keep from yelling at the guy to get his damned hands off his woman.
Fuck.
The two teams climbed out of the pool. KC’s tiny bikini barely covered her butt. Aw, hell. It didn’t cover it. Her cute cheeks were there for all the guys to ogle.
And that top. He didn’t remember her boobs pushing out of the top as though they were trying to escape. One little tug and her breasts would be free for everyone to see…and he ought to know.
The clench in his jaw grew harder. His teeth ached.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
He grabbed a random towel off a chair and marched over to her.
“Put this around you,” he ordered.
“That’s not mine,” she said, her brows drawn down in confusion. “My towel is in the kitchen. I’ll go get it.” She turned to leave, but he grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her, effectively wrapping her in the towel.
“Drake. What are you doing?” She struggled to get free.
“What in the hell are you doing wearing that suit in public? You look…you look like a…a…” His whisper was a harsh hiss in her ear.
She froze and then turned her head slowly around until their gazes met. “I look like a what?” All the color leached from her face. “You think I look like a slut in this suit? It’s so bad you think you need to cover me with a towel? You bought me this because you saw me as a slut on vacation?” She gasped and fought to get free of his hold. “Excuse me. I need to get dressed.”
“Wait, babe. No. I didn’t mean that. I—”
She slammed her heel down on top of his foot. With him wearing only sandals, she caught him pretty good on his toes. He loosened his hold long enough for her to twist out of his arms, leaving the towel dangling from his hands. A resounding crack sounded when she slapped him before storming across the pool area to the house.
“Hey, thanks, man,” a guy said grabbing at the towel. “I wondered where it went.” The man glanced toward where KC had disappeared through a doorway. “Whatever you said, I think you screwed up. She’s pissed.”
Drake relinquished the towel to its owner. Rubbing his stinging cheek with his hand, he said, “I noticed.”
He began to make his way to the kitchen to find KC, but he kept being stopped and chatted with. By the time he got to the house, she was gone.
Drake had fucked up. He knew it as well as he knew his own name, which might as well be Dead Meat. He called her as soon as he took Elsie Belle home. She answered and hung up before saying anything. Great. His name came up and she knew who was on the line.
After hearing the phone click off in his ear five times, on the sixth call he got a recorded message that told him the number he was trying to reach had a call restriction that prevented the completion of his call. Sonofabitch. She’d blocked his number.
On Thursday, he sent a large floral arrangement to KC at her office. On the card, he just wrote one word. Sorry.
He thought—hoped—the flowers would weaken her resolve enough that she would at least talk to him on the phone. No such luck. The silence from her end continued.
Friday afternoon, he called KC’s office. When told she was out, he left a message, one of too many he was embarrassed to admit. But this was the last one, he decided. He was done.
The damn woman had him tied up in knots and totally confused, but he was done running after her. He’d apologized for his careless remark. Granted, the apology was by floral delivery rather than in person, but the damn woman wouldn’t talk to him. What was he supposed to do?
Maybe he was the dense one. Maybe she was telling him exactly what she wanted from him now, which was absolutely nothing. Hadn’t she done precisely the same thing before they went to the Sand Castle? She’d laid out what she wanted. She’d been clear. Sex. Two weeks of sex. She’d gotten that, and now that she was home, she was moving on, leaving him and Sugar Island as memories.
He needed to move on also. They’d only been together for those two weeks. Hell, he’d been taken with Magda Hobbs and Stella Adams quickly too. Was he trying to make nothing into a relationship?
No, it’d been different with KC. He’d felt emotions for her he’d never felt before.
He loved her. Deeply and profoundly loved her. But he had no idea what to do now.
At five p.m. on Friday, his phone rang. His heart jumped when he read the caller ID. Montgomery and Montgomery. Finally.
“Hello?”
“Drake. It’s Jason.” As soon as Drake heard Jason’s voice, his stomach fell.
“Hey. What can I do for you?” Drake tried to put a carefree tone in his voice that wouldn’t betray his disappointment.
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t really want to. All I know is that Margaret tells me that you’ve called multiple times over the past couple of days leaving messages for KC. KC tells me she doesn’t want to talk about you and will not speak with you. So I’m asking that you stop calling.”
Drake dropped heavily into a chair. “Fuck,” he muttered.
“Yeah. I thought it might be something like that.”
“I’ve got to talk to her, Jason. You’ve got to get her to speak to me.”
“Look—”
“I pissed her off. I need to apologize.”
Jason chuckled. “Yeah, I figured out all by myself that she’s pissed off. Whatever it is, she’ll cool off. Give her some time. And for Pete’s sake, stop calling. Have some dignity, man.”
Chapter Nine
The next day was Saturday, the night of the End of Summer dance at the Whispering Springs Country Club. This was the first major event of the fall season and there was an almost mandatory attendance requirement for anyone in the town who was, or thought he was, a mover and shaker. Of course, Elsie Belle and her family would attend and as her date she wanted him dressed to the nines.
She’d instructed him to wear a nice suit, blue shirt and striped tie and to pick her up at seven-thirty. He’d laughed about the suit. What did she think he would wear? Shorts and a golf shirt? When he’d arrived at her house, he had to admit his date looked spectacular in her long blue dress and diamonds. They may not be a real couple, but she’d look good on his arm tonight.
He wondered if KC would be there. He suspected she would be. The dance was a community event to raise money for the local high school football team. The Montgomery clan was well-known in the area for their philanthropic support. As a Montgomery, he couldn’t imagine KC not being there. Granted, Travis had missed a few years, but dealing with the death of a wife had set him back on his heels for quite some time, and everyone in the community had understood and given him a pass.
When he and Elsie Belle pulled into the WSCC lot, he noticed Dr. Caroline Graham standing at the base of the steps. Apparently, Elsie Belle had noticed her as well, because as soon as they were out of his SUV, the damn woman headed straight for Travis Montgomery’s date. Travis came hurrying up to join them, probably concerned about what venom Elsie Belle might be spewing. He needn’t have worried. Caroline Graham held her own against Elsie Belle’s Southern sugar-coated verbal jabs.
Drake knew all about the marriage Travis and Caroline had staged, but now that he’d met her and seen the happiness in Travis’s face when he looked at Caroline, he hoped his friend had enough sense to make this faux temporary wife into a real one.
As soon as Travis and Caroline headed up the stairs to the ballroom, he took Elsie Belle’s arm. “Let it go. Let him go, Elsie Belle.”
She looked at him with a grippingly serious expression. “I just can’t, Drake. Daddy says I have to get married and stay married or else. Said he’s tired of my divorces and paying
off my ex-husbands. Travis is the only man I know who really believes in marriage. I need him. I know he could keep me on the straight and narrow.”
Drake sighed. “I’m sorry, hon, but I do think you’re chasing a ghost fantasy.” He kissed her cheek. “Now, for tonight, let’s go have some fun.”
As they followed in the wake of others headed for the dance, Elsie Belle’s words haunted him. He believed in marriage. So much so, maybe he did try to find relationships where none existed. Did others look at him and believe otherwise? Had KC looked at him and seen a man interested more in a good time than a serious life partner?
KC downed the last of the wine in her glass and looked up. Her brother Reno had just stood to get his date another drink. She waved her empty wineglass at him. “Please? Fill it to the rim.”
Nadine Montgomery gave KC one of her motherly stares, as though she could read KC’s mind.
“What?” KC asked. “I want another wine.”
Her mother sighed. “This isn’t like you, honey.” She scooted closer. “What’s bothering you? Or…should I ask who is bothering you?”
“Nobody, Mom. I’m fine.”
“You just got home from a two-week vacation so don’t tell me you’re just tired. Did you meet someone while you were gone?”
She hadn’t told anyone about her and Drake’s trip, not even Caroline or Lydia. She wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t as though she was ashamed of it. She thought maybe it was because if she told anyone, they’d realize how deeply she’d fallen for him. Then they’d realize he didn’t feel the same and they’d feel sorry for her.
“No, I didn’t meet anybody,” she said with a smile. “And you know the rules. We don’t ever discuss my love life until the day before I marry. Then, and only then, you get to tell me about the birds and the bees.”
Her mother laughed. “Or maybe you could give me some pointers.”
KC felt the heat flare to her cheeks. Her parents loved each other very much, but the last thing any kid wanted to think about, much less talk about, was their parents’ sex life.
Texas Fandango: Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 3 Page 8