Famous in a Small Town

by Kristina Knight

  Savannah nodded, shaking her head. “Figures you’d come down here like the police to throw out someone who doesn’t belong. You know, sometimes people just want to have a little fun.”

  Collin blinked. What did that mean? If she had been a townie, not that he’d been in any doubt, she would have been trespassing—an illegal activity. “People shouldn’t swim alone,” he said. Then he considered her words. “And if that was a straight-up slam against me, I know how to have fun.”

  “Playing lifeguard is your definition of fun?” Her soft voice sounded musical to him, which was odd since her rigid stance and folded arms screamed that this time she wasn’t flirting. She was annoyed.

  When she put it like that, no. But practicing his CPR skills on her suddenly seemed like a good way to pass some time. Not that he would do that. This was just about talking, being friendly so that whatever this was between them moved firmly—and only—into the friend zone.

  “Actually, I thought a swim seemed like a good idea. Why are you in such a foul mood?” Not that he could blame her. He hadn’t exactly rolled out the welcome mat since Savannah had come back to town.

  Something flashed in her chocolate eyes and, for a split second, Collin thought she must be hurting over something. Possibly over someone. Then the emotion was gone and she shook her head.

  “I don’t know how to milk a cow.”

  Collin blinked and then tugged on his earlobe as if he could tune his ear the way he tuned his car. There was no way Savannah Walters was upset about not knowing how to milk a cow. She’d never seemed at all interested in the Walterses’ family business.

  “Did you say till a plow?”

  She folded her arms over her chest.

  “Lick a towel?” He couldn’t resist teasing her.

  “Milk a cow,” she said, enunciating each word carefully.

  “Why would you want to milk a cow?” He was curious now, wondering what had gotten into this woman who used to be the girl he thought he knew everything about, even though he’d never really spoken to her.

  She shrugged and wouldn’t look him in the eye. “It’s what my family does. Figured it was time I learned.”

  “You’re twenty-seven and you want to learn how to be a dairy farmer? You could have started with something easier.”

  “Like what?”

  Collin opened and closed his mouth, trying to think of something simpler than milking a cow. Nothing came to mind.

  “See? I’m inept.” Savannah sank onto the seat of her four-wheeler, shoulders slumped. “I don’t give a fig about milking cows, but after being raised mostly at the ranch—and why do they call it that, anyway? It’s a dairy farm. No one calls it a dairy ranch—”

  Collin interrupted. “Your grandfather raised beef cattle. Bennett is the one who made the switch to dairy. The name stuck, though.”

  She blinked at him. “Oh. How did I not know that?” She shook her head. “Don’t answer that, I already know. I was a scared kid who turned into a stubborn, angry, self-absorbed teenager who never bothered to ask questions. Still, I should have picked some of it up, right? I couldn’t even get one of the cows to follow me into the milk barn this morning.”

  There was a lot to key into in those few sentences, but Collin stuck with the actual farming bit. He had no business giving anyone personal advice, but he was good at the business side of things.

  “No one learns dairy farming by osmosis, Van,” he said, her nickname slipping from his lips as if he’d always called her by her family’s pet name. “If you really want to learn, I’m sure Levi or your father would be happy to show you the parlor.”

  She rolled her eyes and the expression was so similar to the Savannah he remembered that he grinned at her. “No one calls it a ‘parlor’ anymore. It’s just a living room.”

  “The ‘parlor’ is what they call the milking room.”

  She blushed, a pretty pink color that made the light sprinkling of freckles over her nose stand out. Collin swallowed.

  “See?” she said. “Inept.”

  “Is there a sudden need in Nashville for milkmaids?”

  Savannah shook her head, as if his question didn’t matter, but there was an emotion he couldn’t quite read in the depths of her big brown eyes. He had a feeling the question did matter. A lot.

  “I’m just feeling disjointed, I suppose. Being back here when I’ve been touring for a while.” She fanned her face with her hand. “I’m going back in for another dip before I face round two in the milking parlor.”

  “Here’s one tip. If the cows have already been milked this morning, there’s no way in hell you’ll get anything else out of them until at least midafternoon.”

  “Then there’s plenty of time for another swim,” she said, and pulled the elastic from her head, making all that thick hair frame her face.

  She looked about twelve with her hair pulled back, but with it all in her face, she was pure siren. Collin ordered his libido to back off.

  It didn’t listen.

  “Well, are you coming in or not?” Savannah stood, took the towel from around her waist and laid it over the seat of the four-wheeler.

  He should go back to the ridge and refocus on his business and his family.

  He always did the right thing. He was the one to hide his sisters when children’s services came to the tiny apartment in Kansas City when they were little. The one to call their grandparents when he realized CPS would keep coming back, and that their parents wouldn’t. He worked hard at the orchard so his grandfather didn’t have to hire additional help, worked hard on the football field to get a scholarship, worked hard in college because he knew keeping the orchard growing would fall to him. He was glad he’d done those things. He’d carved out a nice life from the mess his parents began all those years ago.

  As much as he had messed things up with Amanda, the two of them would find a rhythm and she would find her purpose.

  Taking the morning off to swim with Savannah wasn’t the same as blowing off work for an afternoon at a strip club, but a voice in his head still warned him to turn the four-wheeler back toward the orchard.

  The hot summer sun beat down from the sky, and the beautiful woman slipped off her flip-flops and walked to the dock. It was just a quick swim, and then right back to the orchard and he would finish his weekly survey of the trees. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to do the wrong thing just this once.

  Collin pulled his old T-shirt over his head and threw it across the handlebars. Ten minutes, and right back to work.

  His body cut through the water in a smooth dive, and the cool water instantly made him glad he was off the four-wheeler and out of the sun. He blew air out through his nose and then surfaced, cutting his arms through the water as he stroked toward the middle of the narrow lake.

  This wasn’t showing off. It was swimming. Enjoying the late Monday-morning sunshine and heat. If Savannah was impressed with his stroke, there was nothing wrong with that.

  Not a damn thing wrong with that.

  He came up for a breath and realized Savannah was right beside him, cutting through the water with a strong freestyle. Of course she could swim. Bennett had probably taught her just as he had taught Collin and Levi when they were kids. They swam side by side for a while. Collin’s arm brushed hers a few times, and a little zing of heat seemed to sizzle the water around them.

  Finally, Collin flipped onto his back so he could see the clouds lazily floating in the crystal-blue sky.

  God, he loved this place. He looked beside him. The company wasn’t bad, either.

  Savannah flipped, too, breathing heavily. “It’s been a while since I swam like that.”

  He watched her for a long moment, staring at the sky as he had been. Her breasts rose unevenly as she slowed her breathing. Her long brown hair floated around her
in long, skinny braids. She looked so inviting. It would be easy to close the space between them and taste those full lips. Feel her body under his hands.

  No. Kissing Savannah was a step past bad, straight into terrible.

  To occupy his hands he waved them gently in the water, putting a little more space between them. “Me, too. Usually when I come down here it’s to jump in the water and get right back out.”

  “Seems like a poor way to spend an afternoon at the lake,” she said. Savannah gently kicked as she floated, sending a few ripples his direction.

  Suddenly, jumping into the water with the intention of getting right back out did seem like a poor excuse for relaxation. Well, he was making up for that now, he thought as he spread his legs and arms wide.

  He turned his head to look at her again. “Yeah, well, you’re a bad influence,” he said, joking. But he caught that fleeting expression again, a darkness that almost turned the brown of her iris black, and that made him want to draw her to him. He regretted the words. “That was a joke. You’re not actually a bad influence. On me or...anyone else.” He didn’t want to have this conversation looking at the sky, so Collin turned his body around to tread water, but she remained on her back, not looking at him.

  “No. I am a bad influence, or at least, I’ve done some things I’m not proud of.”

  “We all have. I shouldn’t have said that, and I shouldn’t have implied it at the market, either. You were just talking to Amanda, and she obviously needs someone to talk to.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t exactly make a great impression on you that night at the Slope. Coming on to Adam, then making a ham-fisted play for you.” Savannah changed position to face him, too. “I was doing what I’ve always done. Being the good-time girl. I’m tired of being that girl.”

  Savannah blew out a breath. She shouldn’t be talking about this with Collin. She knew that, but she couldn’t seem to stop the flow of words. She did want to change, and she didn’t care all that much about dairy farming or milking parlors, but after that call with her manager she needed to figure out some way to make herself useful. Not just to her family, but to herself.

  There was very little chance she would be useful to anyone in Nashville now that her record launch was on hold and the scuttlebutt around town was that the label was considering dropping several new artists. Her name was at the top of their hit list.

  Earlier that morning she’d stood in the driveway for a long moment, trying to figure out where she could go. Bennett took her Honda to a repair shop in town, so she didn’t even have a working car. The sound of cows in the barns was her inspiration. Maybe she could finally figure out a way to fit in here.

  And she’d wound up at the lake, trying to swim off her aggravation at her own stupidity. Now, as she faced Collin in the cool water, she wondered if she’d been right from that first moment in the bar.

  She didn’t belong here in the long run, but would it be so bad if she had a little fun while she was here? Kissing Collin, feeling his hands on her body, would be more than a little fun. They were both consenting adults. Sure, sex was part of what had gotten her into this mess, but Collin wasn’t married or even dating anyone as far as she could tell. No-strings sex with him couldn’t make things any worse.

  She allowed the current in the water to carry her closer to him. “Well, maybe I’m not completely ready to put Good Time Savannah into the closet.”

  Collin’s pupils dilated, making his light blue eyes darken.

  Definitely both consenting adults, she decided when he didn’t kick away from her. Her foot touched his leg under the water, and that zing of heat she’d been trying to resist since she’d seen him beside the dock intensified. She swam a little closer, letting her legs tangle with his.

  “I’ve never been interested in being a good-time guy,” he said, and although his voice was rough, the look in his eyes told her to come a little closer.

  “It has its benefits,” she said, closing the distance between them. Legs kicking in the water, arms skulling forward and back, they hung there for a long moment. Savannah couldn’t sever the connection between their gazes. She didn’t want to. She wanted him. Wanted, just for a little while, to not be Savannah the Screwup.

  Collin was a good man. No woman could be called a screwup if she was with him.

  That magnet thing happened again. Savannah felt herself being pulled the remaining inches until she was chest to chest with Collin. She stilled her legs, letting him kick for both of them and locking her arms around his waist. She tilted her head to the side and put her lips on his.

  His mouth was softer than she had imagined. He didn’t smile very much, and somehow she’d thought his mouth would be hard because of it, but his lips were smooth. She slid her hands over his back, his skin slick beneath hers, and couldn’t resist sliding her hands over his ribs and chest so she could bury her hands in his hair. Collin’s arms came around her waist, holding her in place as he ran his tongue over the seam of her lips.

  She opened for him, and he dipped his tongue into her mouth.

  God, she should have kissed him a long time ago. Should have made a bigger fool of herself at the Slope. Should have set her teenaged sights on him instead of that troll Vince Honeycutt.

  They slid beneath the surface, but she didn’t care. Even under the water she felt like she could kiss Collin for a year and not get enough of him. He kicked hard for the surface, and when they broke free of the water, leaned away from her.

  Savannah leaned forward, but Collin released her. Maybe it wasn’t the same for him. Maybe it was just a kiss, not an earth-shattering, life-changing event.

  How stupid could she be?

  “If we’re going to do this, it isn’t going to be in ten feet of lake water,” he said, his tongue tripping over a couple of the words and his breath coming in ragged gasps just like hers. He watched her for a minute, but Savannah couldn’t make her voice work. She could only nod.

  Collin’s big hand captured hers under the surface and he began a slow kick back toward the dock. Savannah kicked alongside him, feeling as if she were in a daze.

  When they reached the dock, Collin pulled himself out of the water before reaching for her hand to help her up. When her feet were on the dock, he pulled her into his arms and this time his lips weren’t soft. They were devouring.

  His big hands played the sensitive skin along her rib cage while his mouth nipped at her lips. Savannah put her thumbs through the belt loops of his cargo shorts, holding him close to her. She could feel the thickness of his erection through the layers of his clothes, and the hardness sent a wave of heat between her legs.

  “Not here,” he said against her lips.

  “We’re not in the water,” she said, pressing her mouth to his once more. “No worries about drowning or man-eating bass attempting to feed on our flesh.”

  “God, Van, this isn’t a horror flick,” he said, and a chuckle escaped his throat.

  Savannah thought Collin’s chuckle was one of the sweetest sounds she’d ever heard.

  “I mean we aren’t getting naked here on the dock. This is private property, but between your ranch and my orchard there are about thirty different people who might decide to go for a swim this afternoon.”

  “Where do you suggest we go on a Monday afternoon when we both still live at home? I’m assuming you live at the orchard?” He nodded. “How pathetic are two twentysomethings who can’t have sex because their mommy—in your case sister—might catch them?” Savannah giggled.

  “There’s a hunting cabin on the east side of the pear grove that no one uses anymore.”

  “Too far.” She couldn’t do this, not if she had to walk or drive to do it. It would give her too much time to think, and thinking would make her second-guess, and second-guessing would leave her with a set of raging hormones. She could get off by h
erself, but it was never as fun as getting off with someone else.

  And that, right there, was the number-one reason to say goodbye and run like hell away from Collin’s fabulous chest and very talented mouth. The last time she’d had sex for the hell of it she’d blown her life up. There was a chance having sex with Collin would blow up in her face, too, but there was a bigger chance, based on that night at the Slope, that it wouldn’t. He wasn’t tied to anyone; he didn’t want ties to her. No one had to know.

  She slid her fingers through the belt loops on Collin’s cargos and pressed her lips to his mouth, demanding a response. Collin wrapped one hand around her neck as he devoured her lips. She could feel the coarse hairs on his chest through her wet bikini top, and it pushed the fire in her veins to another level. She wanted to feel his skin against her, wanted to wrap her legs around his waist and lose herself for a little while.

  “We’re not going to make it to the cabin,” he said against her lips.

  “And we’re not doing this at noon on the dock, either.” Her breathing was heavy, and she tried to push aside the lust fogging her brain to figure out a solution. Her gaze caught on the tree line near the shore, and she remembered a small grassy area where she’d liked to sunbathe.

  Savannah grabbed his hand, leaving her flip-flops and clothes on the ground near the dock, but grabbing her oversize towel as they passed the four-wheelers.

  She was going to have sex with Collin Tyler, and there were a million reasons to say no, but she was determined to ignore every single one.

  It only took a moment to pass through the trees near the dock. She laid the towel beneath the spreading branches.

  “I think this is out of the way enough, don’t you think?”

  “I’d forgotten about this little area.”

  “I guess it wasn’t my secret hideaway, hmm?”

  He shook his head. “We’re not going to talk about that.”

  She nodded. “No, we’re not.” She didn’t want to talk about past sexual partners or teenaged—or adult—trysts either of them had here before.