He breathed the words so closely to her ear they sent her fine tresses airborne to tickle his nose. Amanda didn’t respond other than a tensing of her shoulders. A second later, she slammed the door in his face without ever once looking back at him.
Cody grinned and then laughed as he jogged back to his truck. Yeah, messing with Amanda was fun. It made him feel alive in all sorts of ways, and soon enough he wouldn’t have to be racing home to take a much needed shower. No, Cody would be taking one with her.
Fantasies of just how much fun he could have with Amanda in a shower blurred most of the trip home. He found himself rolling into the carport without much memory of leaving Amanda’s. Not particularly concerned, Cody bounded from his truck and then had to restrain himself from moving too fast and waking up the ranch dogs.
They were good guardsmen and enjoyed the revelry of greeting people. They’d also rouse Knox from whatever he was up to, which would begin an inquisition and delay Cody’s shower. Save a few seconds to lose an hour was not a deal Cody wanted to make. He kept his steps steady and light across the yard.
“How did your date go?”
The smooth drawl caught Cody off-guard. Obsessing over the dogs, Cody had failed to take note of the dark outline of a man tucked into the corner of the porch.
“Damn, Jace.” He clutched the railing, using it to reach the first porch step. “Give me a heart attack, why don’t you?”
“You’re too young for one of those. I take it your date went well for you to be so unaware of your surroundings.”
Cody shrugged as he cleared the top of the steps. What he really wanted was to get inside, but he knew if he rushed the conversation, Jace would become suspicious. “Well enough, and I was being quiet so I didn’t wake the dogs.”
“They’re not here.”
“What happened?” He knew something had happened. The dogs went out with the men for the most part and the men didn’t go out at night unless something happened.
“Old man Wilkes came around talking about wolves being out near the eastern pasture.”
Cody snorted. “Wolves?”
“More likely a pack of dogs, but don’t tell Wilkes. Either way, we’re down two cows and Knox got it in his head to go ride out and see—”
“See if there are wolves, oh excuse me, wild dogs killing our cows?” Cody grinned.
Jace shot Cody a dirty look. “Look, he was sober and wanted to do it.”
“But you didn’t join him.”
Finally sharing a little bit of Cody’s humor, Jace snorted. “It’s camping and you remember the last time Knox and I went camping together.”
“I remember.” Cody would never forget. “I was eight and you shot Knox in the ass.”
“It was an accident.” Jace stuck to his line, still devout after a decade.
“Tell it to Knox,” Cody retorted. “If memory serves me right, he was sixteen at the time and he fricken beat the crap out of you then.”
“And you laughed,” Jace shot back. “You laughed so hard you were rolling on the ground.”
Cody laughed just remembering. “Hell, man, I wished I’d have shot him.”
“We could go camping and you could take your chances.”
“I’d love to go camping.” Cody sighed. “But when? You know when I think back over everything, I don’t know how our parents found the time to raise us.”
“It’s easier when you got more than two parents. You think back to all those good times and it’s not the whole family. It’s either Dad or Father or Pa, but rarely all three at the same time. We were spoiled rotten with attention, and that’s what we’re going to give our kids.”
Kids. The idea had Cody going silent. When Sharon was around, the idea of family and stability warmed him. With her passing though, the image faded to old and gray.
“So what’s she like?”
“Who?” Cody blinked at the sudden break in silence.
“Amanda, dumb shit, or did you swap her out over dinner?”
Cody cocked a smile. “No. I kept her.”
“So?”
“So?” Cody shot back. Jace might have rights to ask these questions, but Cody could sense something deeper in his brother’s interest.
“That’s it? No more details you want to share?”
“Not really.”
Jace settled back into his seat and held his silence for a minute. “You’re a mean son of a bitch.”
“And you’re a nosey one.”
“Fine. I’ll let Knox grill you.”
Knox would too, come first thing in the morning. Maybe he’d wait until after church when the brothers congregated at the table for brunch and Sunday afternoon games. Cody had better have some good reasons to keep Amanda on their list.
More like lies, and I won’t even be good at giving them if I don’t put this boner and myself to bed.
“Well,” Cody got to his feet. “I guess I need my sleep if I’m going to tangle with Knox. Night.”
* * * *
“Night,” Jace called out almost as an afterthought.
The night was peaceful, and without the sun, almost pleasant. He’d been sitting out here with anticipation for Cody to come home. With hope for some details, some tidbits to fuel his imagination, Jace felt wholly disappointed in Cody’s refusal.
Amanda.
Jace silently repeated her name.
He still remembered the first time he’d seen her. It was at the bank, nine years ago. He had just withdrawn money for the ring they’d been intent on buying for Sharon. Filled with thoughts of the upcoming proposal, Jace had almost flattened James, the bank guard.
They’d talked, James pointing out the man who had caught his attention. Outside the bank’s tinted windows, a very rough-looking man had kicked the stand down on his bike. A cold sensation trickled over him, fueled by the knowledge that danger had arrived.
James might have been checking out the biker with all the tattoos, but Jace’s attention had caught on his passenger. More child than woman, she hadn’t been wearing a helmet. With her hands full of wild tresses, she had fought them back from her face. In a second, she had entranced Jace.
Rubbing his chest, Jace sighed. Yeah, he remembered the moment with both awe and shame. Something magical had happened, something so special, so exceptionally rare he’d hung onto it over the years. Every time he saw Amanda, he felt it.
Felt it and the guilt for feeling so much for a woman he didn’t know, when Jace already had the love of a good woman. A woman he loved for all her sweetness and gentleness, for her compassion and for the beauty that went beyond skin deep.
Sharon. He’d never once wronged, never betrayed, her. Not physically, but in his heart, Jace had loved Amanda in every way he wanted. So many ways, so many nights, and he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Chapter 8
Monday, June 23rd
“So, how did your date with Cody go?”
Amanda watched Will shake the sugar pack before tearing off the top and upending it into his coffee. It was five minutes before noon, and already the diner was overflowing with customers. People were packed around booths and tables with barely enough room to fit everybody. Somehow, though, it all worked out. Nobody ever left The Lunchbox hungry.
“Mandy?”
She watched Will swirl his spoon through the coffee, clinking metal against porcelain, and gave a shrug. “I’m not going to be seeing him again.”
“Why am I not shocked?”
Will finally took a sip. As the beige rim touched his smirking lips, Amanda wanted to reach over and tip his cup from the bottom up. Spilling hot coffee on Will would have been cruel and fun all at once. That kind of explained her mood since Cody all but dared her to try and have a climax without him.
Pain-in-the-ass bastard. She’d have her climax, and Cody Reese wouldn’t be involved in the equation.
“Okay, okay.” Will’s cup hit the table. “I get it. You don’t want to talk about Cody. You don’t need to try
to set me on fire with your glare.”
“Sorry.”
Amanda released a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. It was so odd, how they’d come to be here. Will was the only person alive to know the truth, the whole truth, about the night she lost her family. That single tragedy had bound them together, merging their grief into a single, shared memory. Nothing could ever break them apart.
Why, then, did she feel so worried? Amanda swallowed and tried to force a brave front. “I just didn’t get much sleep this weekend.”
“Well, I did.” Something in Will’s tone made Amanda’s stomach tighten even more. “I’ve made a few decisions.”
“Sounds serious.”
“It is.”
Amanda smiled trying to lighten the moment, but it was a tense, feeble effort. She’d sensed a darkness growing around Will over the past few months. Never particularly outgoing, Will withdrew even more. Their weekly bowling night faded into the past. Sunday morning breakfast gorging was put on a diet. One-by-one, all the little traditions and rituals binding Will to her like a brother over the years started to disappear.
She knew why. Like a true brother, Will might try to keep his secrets, but Amanda knew he had a problem with pills. After what she’d done to him all those years ago, he had a right to have a few problems, as well as secrets. Amanda didn’t push.
Will looked down. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my life and wondering how I ended up like this.”
“Like what?” Amanda made a show of looking around. “Like everybody else?”
“Well…yeah.” Will smirked, settling back into the booth. His hand slapped over his shirt pocket to pop out a pack of cigarettes.
“You really shouldn’t smoke.” Amanda just couldn’t help herself.
“I know.” Will clicked his lighter and the sizzling sound of dry tobacco held the moment for a second. “You tell me every damn day.”
“I should have it tattooed on your hand so you see it every time you go to take a drag.”
Will snorted and rolled his eyes. “Like that would stop me. I got to die some day from something.”
Before she could respond, their plates came. They were both terse with the waitress, salting and peppering their food with agitation. Amanda paused with one ketchup-covered fry halfway to her mouth.
“So tell me already.”
“Tell you?” Will actually had the nerve to look confused.
“Why we’re having lunch together. You refuse to talk about your sick little affair with Marion Myers.”
“Keep your voice down,” Will snapped.
“And you’re obviously not interested in my disaster of a love life.”
“You’re the one who refused to talk about Nick or Cody.”
“So tell me what you’ve got to say, and I know you got something to say.” Amanda pinned him with her no-bullshit look. It always worked on Will, even if it never worked on anybody else.
“I’m leaving town.”
Her fry dropped back into the massive blob of ketchup and sank beneath the surface. She could have sworn her mouth fell open as she stared at him. Will met her gaze with a steady, determined look.
“Get out of here.”
“That’s my plan.”
“Where you gonna go?”
“Not sure.” He shrugged. “I guess wherever.”
Amanda studied him for a second, but shook her head. “This is too much. You’re actually going to leave Humble?”
“Yep.”
“What about the Break Down?”
“I’m going to close it until I come back,” Will responded way too calmly. “I talked to Eddie, and he’s already talking to Cindy about getting a job down at the shop.”
Amanda looked to heaven for patience. “If you close the Break Down, what are you going to do about money?”
Will’s glance darted from side to side as if looking for something before settling back on her. “Not worry about it?”
“Not worry about it? Did you fall and hit your head, Will? You’ve had some strange ideas in the past, but this…how are you going to eat? Bathe? I mean where are you going to live? These things take money.”
“Relax.” She could tell he was getting annoyed now. Will always got irritable when she started being logical. “I’ll get a job doing something to cover my bills, but I’m not going to be tied to anything. I’ve lived my whole life in this damn town. I only had one goal as a child.”
“To get out of it,” Amanda finished for him.
It was a common enough goal for most of the younger citizens of Humble. They normally went down to Texas or off to Kansas City. Some place more exciting than a town whose biggest boast was having three traffic lights down its main street.
“You can understand, can’t you?”
All too well. Hell, if it wasn’t for her, Will might have realized his dream of escaping Humble long ago. Amanda wouldn’t be the one standing in his way a second time. She just hoped he found his way to rehab. Amanda wanted to offer him money, a helping hand, but Will wouldn’t take it. Worse, he’d get insulted. Instead, she faked a smile and shrugged.
“If you were eighteen, I’d say let’s trade in the Jeep for a Harley and leave this town in our dust.”
“Yeah? You know if I was eighteen, then you’d be ten and the cops would be trailing after us.”
Amanda kicked him under the table and took some pleasure in the wince on his face. “You know what I meant. You’re thirty-five years old. You’re supposed to settle down to a nice, stable life, not go off chasing after the sunset.”
“No. You’re supposed to settle down.” Will leaned in over his plate. “That’s your dream.”
“Let’s not start that argument.”
“You want to tell me why you broke up with Nick?”
“No. I want to argue about you leaving me alone in this damn town,” Amanda retorted, not putting any real heat into her tone. “It’s boring enough, and you’ve been cancelling on me for the last few months. Now you’re just going to leave me to rot? I should get my gun and shoot you, Will McKinney.”
“I’m going, so you might as well tell me about Nick while I’m here.”
Amanda pursed her lips. She hated the way he blatantly forced the conversation in a new direction. Will had always been one stubborn pain in the ass, but he’d always been hers. Since she was fifteen and woke up to a world without family, Will was her anchor to the past. As much as Cindy had been there for her, she didn’t really understand, not the way Will did.
“Come on, Amanda. You’ll feel better.”
With a deep breath and a dirty look, she gave in. “I caught him drilling his new dental assistant in the exam chair.”
Will met her heated look with a straight face, but it didn’t hold. An irritating smirk quivered around the edges of his lips. This time she kicked him harder, but it didn’t even register in his eyes.
“I really am going to shoot you.”
“I’m sorry, Amanda, but…I told—”
“Don’t.” She held up a hand to stop him. “I don’t want to hear it. Nick is a low-down, dirty, stubbed-dick, smelly-balled bastard.”
“That’s what I told you.” Will outright gloated, which got him another kick. “Damn, woman! I’ll have to leave town just to let the bruises heal.”
“I’m going to hunt you down just to kick you if you leave,” Amanda shot back.
Will lost his smirk and cocked his head in a puppy-like fashion. It always had her forgiving him for whatever piece of stupidity had pissed her off in the first place. “I have to go, Amanda.”
He was making her feel guilty. “I know. You are going to stay in touch, at least.”
“I figure I’ll give you a call every now and again.”
This time her foot hit the hard wall of the booth and she cringed as her toes curled painfully under the impact. “Ow!”
“Too slow.” Will’s smirk had come back. “Aw, don’t give me that look. You know I’m
going to call you.”
“Every night?”
“Gee, Mom, I was thinking I could have Friday night off to take Susie to the movies.”
“You really weren’t beaten enough as a child.”
“You really do have violent tendencies.”
He hadn’t even finished his comeback when a fry hit him in the cheek and left a splat of ketchup. Will’s eyes dropped, as if he could actually see the mess she’d made. His movements were slow and deliberate as he lifted a napkin to wipe away the goop. Amanda watched silently, another red-tipped fry ready.
“You know I’m really going to miss you. In fact, you’re the only thing in this damn town I will miss.”
“What a rotten thing to say,” Amanda shot back. Now she had to drop the fry. If Will had come at her with anything other than sincere sadness, she could have had an outlet for her anger. But no, the bastard has to go all soft on me.
“It’s true. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Stop it.” Amanda waved his comment uncomfortably to the side. “You’re not going to distract me with flattery. I want to know when you are leaving and where you are going.”
“Well,” Will’s look had her tensing, “like I told you, I’m heading in whichever way the car points, and I’m leaving right after lunch.”
* * * *
Amanda’s shoulders slumped when she saw who waited for her on her front porch. She didn’t want to handle him right now. The day had been long, draining and overdone. Time to crawl into bed and pray for a better tomorrow. Apparently, life’s not yet done with me today.
It sent her one last obstacle—Cody Reese. With his Stetson pulled low enough to block out the waning sun’s last brilliant beams, Amanda could barely make out the features of his face. From the way Cody’s head slanted forward with the brim of his hat dipping down low, he looked passed out.
Maybe he is. Maybe if I’m quiet enough, I can slip past him and get into my house. Clenching her keys in a tight fist, Amanda gave the porch a wide berth as she approached her front steps. Cutting a path through the grass, she avoided the cement path, afraid the clicking might rouse him from his afternoon slumber. Eyes fixed on Cody, Amanda went up the four short steps of her porch on her tiptoes, keeping to the very edge of the steps to avoid any creaking. She experienced a well-earned moment of victory as her key slid silently into its hole.
Kansas Heat Page 7