by Cora Seton
Austin’s face flattened like Billy’s had, as he stepped back and lowered Billy’s feet to the floor. With a little push, he said, “Go tell your grandma your mommy doesn’t want lunch.”
“Lunch?” Sunny repeated, her gaze flying to the alarm clock on her nightstand. It was eleven thirty! She’d slept half the day away.
“Oh my God, I’ve got to get to the station!” she screeched, dropping the bustier to run for her fire gear which was scattered all over the floor around her bed. She dropped the coat, pants and boots in a pile by the dresser then fumbled through the drawers until she found a clean pair of sweatpants and a fresh tank top and hastily pulled them on. She had a clean uniform at the station, so she’d just change there, she thought, grabbing her boots and shoved her feet in them.
When she stood, Austin McBride was still there—staring at her chest.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” he asked nonchalantly. His eyes dropped to the purple bustier by her left foot, and her eyes followed. When he looked back up, their eyes met and he winked. “You might be starting fires instead of putting them out though, if that’s what you wear under your turnout gear.”
That condescending wink and those words raised every hair on her body. Sunny knew right then what a cat must feel like when riled, because her claws dug into her palms as she resisted the urge to scratch this man’s eyes out.
“What I wear or don’t wear under my gear is none of your business. And didn’t I tell you to get the hell out of my room?”
“I was waiting until you were over your freak out to tell you not to rush. I called the Chief and he’s at the station. I need a ride back to the ranch, and he said you could take me.”
Oh did he now?
The fact that Austin McBride was getting so chummy with her uncle pissed Sunny off. McBride was evidently a first class ass-kisser and her uncle was enjoying every minute of it. Well, if this man thought that was going to get him her job, he had another think coming. Her uncle might be gullible, but unlike Sunny’s father, his younger brother, Silas Gleason was loyal and he wasn’t stupid. She had worked her way up at the station, worked her ass off there, and the Chief owed her that job. Austin McBride could take his brown nose back to that cattle ranch and ferment in the bullshit he was dishing out.
Sunny bent to grab her coat and pants from the floor. “Call one of your hands to come and get you then. I have things to do and don’t have time to babysit.” Brushing by him, she walked down the hallway. “Or call my uncle to take you since you’re such good friends,” she tossed over her shoulder.
“You jealous, Sunshine?” McBride had the gall to ask as he followed her to the living room. “Afraid your uncle might like me better than you?”
Anger zipped up her spine like wildfire to set her scalp on fire. Sunny dropped her gear and spun to face the man who had become her irritating shadow. She poked her finger in the center of his chest, spearing the bucking bull that told her he’d met her brother and borrowed one of his shirts. “No, I’m afraid you have your nose so far up Chief’s ass, he might confuse your ass-kissing for sincerity. You must be the one who’s insecure if you think you have to do that to get a damned job.”
Austin frowned and leaned his nose a little closer to hers. “I sincerely like your uncle, so it’s not ass-kissing or about a job I’m not even sure I want yet.”
Sunny’s insides unclenched and a sense of relief flowed through her, but she didn’t trust this man. “Last night you were all about applying for the Chief’s job.”
“Well, this morning, the sun is up and I have other things to worry about, like the job I already have and the ranch I get paid very well to take care of.” Austin gave her another condescending wink that boiled her blood. “Now, be a good girl and lace up your boots and give me a ride back to the ranch. Your brother is coming with us.”
Anger swirled up to her head like a tornado gathering up all kinds of nastiness, but a soft hand squeezed her arm, stopping it at her mouth. It came out in a hot rush of air as she looked down into her mother’s soft blue eyes. “I made you a sandwich to take with you, because I know how you get when you don’t eat,” her mother said.
Sunny didn’t want a sandwich. The only thing that would make her feel better was being allowed to kick Austin McBride in his brass balls. “I don’t want a sandwich, Momma. I need to get to the station.”
“Silas said you need to take today off, because you’ve been working too hard. Rand is excited about seeing Austin’s ranch, and so is Billy. Spend the day out there, it’ll do you good.” Her mother’s nose wrinkled and she frowned as she tiptoed to bury her nose in Sunny’s hair. After a cursory sniff, Pauline whispered hotly, “For God’s sake, Sunny Jane, take a shower before you leave—you smell like a chimney! I think you forget you’re a woman sometimes—fix yourself up and find something else to wear.”
Because Billy needs a daddy. And evidently Pauline saw prospect written all over Austin McBride’s handsome face. How many times had she heard that from Pauline Gleason since she’d lived with her? Too many times, and just another reason Sunny needed to move out.
Being cooped up in a truck with Austin McBride and her brother was not the way she wanted to spend an unexpected day off. But it looked like that was exactly what she was going to have to do, because her whole family it seemed had ganged up on her, led by a man she’d only met yesterday, but who had obviously brown-nosed his way into the fold.
Chapter Seven
‡
After her shower, Sunny purposely put on the rattiest pair of jeans she owned and paired them with a paper-thin, faded t-shirt she’d had since high school. Her one shot at rebellion with her mother who frowned at her on the way out the door. Billy might need a daddy, but she certainly did not need a husband or even a man in her life messing things up. And Austin McBride had hot mess written all over him. Why the hell couldn’t her mother see that?
Probably for the same reason she couldn’t see or didn’t acknowledge her husband’s cheating ways until it was too late. Her mother thought the answer to the world’s problems was a hard-working man to take care of her, that all women should aspire to having that in their lives.
Well, Sunny would never ascribe to that theory. She was more than capable of taking care of herself and her son. She was the hard-working person in her little family, and absolutely did not need a man. Well, except for one thing, which she hadn’t had in five years. The one thing that Austin McBride might be good for, if he wasn’t an asshole, or a wannabe fireman. Especially one who might end up on her crew if Silas had his way. Sunny had learned her lesson about going there with a co-worker, a firefighter.
And dammit, Austin McBride still hadn’t given her back her truck keys that he’d confiscated yesterday. It seemed the man had taken control of her life just as easily as he’d taken control of her vehicle. He took the driver’s seat without even asking if he could, Rand took the front passenger seat of the Suburban, and she was forced to sit in the back with Billy, and look at the large patch of dried blood on the floorboard that she would have to clean up. Leaning up, Sunny grabbed the blanket she kept in the back and spread it over the stain.
“Mommy, let’s play license plate poker!” Billy squealed, as he clipped his seatbelt across his waist and Austin put the truck in gear.
Poker? Billy was four-years-old. What in the hell did he know about poker?
Her eyes slid to burn a hole in the back of her brother’s cowboy hat covered head, but Billy named the culprit. “Austin said he’d teach me to play!”
Austin. Taking over another piece of her family.
“Poker is not something you need to learn how to play, Billy. Just sit still,” she growled, her eyes flying to the rearview mirror where she found mocking gray eyes burning a hole in her.
The left one dipped into an irritating wink. “Sunshine, you need to loosen up some. My daddy always played that game with me on road trips. Kept us occupied.”
Well, you’re not Bil
ly’s daddy, and I’m more than capable of keeping my son occupied. The words flew to her lips, but she pinched them. Once she was sure they wouldn’t come out, her breath came out in a rush. “You worry about driving, and let me worry about my son,” Sunny grated.
Rand snorted. “There’s not a damned thing loose about my sister. She’s wound tighter than a two-dollar watch twenty-four seven.”
Anger shot up her throat to scald her cheeks. “I think you are loose enough for both of us, rodeo clown,” Sunny shot back, folding her arms across her chest. “Loose is what gets you stepped on by a two-thousand pound bull.”
“No, taking your eye off the bull is what does that,” Rand argued. “And I’ve told you I’m not a clown, I’m a bullfighter. That’s my career just as sure as yours is being a fireman.”
“Firefighter,” Austin corrected, his eyes darting to hers in the rearview, before sliding back to the road.
“She acts like a man most of the time, so it fits,” Rand replied sullenly, and his nasty snicker irritated every nerve in her body as it pinged through her.
“Acting like a man is not something you would know a thing about, Rand Gleason,” Sunny replied with equal cruelty. “I guess someone in our family needs to act like one.”
With a growl, Rand unclicked his seatbelt and spun in his seat to face her. “I’m as much of a man—”
“Y’all please cut the crap—you’re scaring the kid!” Austin grated.
Sunny’s eyes flew over Billy, and sure enough, his arms were wrapped around his middle, his eyes cast out the window. Sunny felt like a total ass, a juvenile who had no business with a kid. After another hot glance, Rand turned in the seat, but the tension inside the truck was a living thing. Heat waves poured off of her brother, and Sunny wasn’t much cooler.
“Billy, I see three of a kind, aces,” Austin said, and Sunny’s eyes darted out the far window. “See those three ones on that plate?”
“No, I don’t see it,” Billy replied, leaning up in the seat to look out the window.
“Red car at the stoplight,” Austin said.
Thank God, her mother had taught Billy his numbers and alphabet in preparation for him going to kindergarten in the fall. And thank goodness Austin was distracting him, because Sunny was so choked up at the moment the burn she was fighting behind her eyelids would soon be a lost cause if she had to talk. She felt like a failure as a mother, and an adult.
Billy tapped her thigh, and her eyes met his. “Play with us, Mommy—this is fun!”
Fun—something she knew nothing about these days.
Sunny’s eyes flew to the rearview to meet Austin’s and he winked again. This time it didn’t irritate her, instead it felt like those long dark eyelashes brushed her skin like butterfly wings. With a deep sigh, Sunny forced herself to relax against the seat and cast her gaze out the window.
“Ha—I see four of a kind on that white truck in the parking lot,” Sunny said, forcing excitement into her tone.
“Does that win, Austin?” Billy asked.
“Sure does sport, sorry. Let’s play again,” he said.
They played a few more times, and Sunny let Billy win. Every time she did she looked at Austin in the mirror and his smile grew wider. By the time he pulled into the hospital parking lot, he was grinning from ear to ear, and Billy was giggling like a fiend. Sunny felt light inside like she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
She opened the back door, and Austin helped Billy out. Rand got out and didn’t wait for them. Back stiff, he limped inside the sliding doors at the front. When Austin and Billy walked around the front of the truck, he was holding Billy’s hand as they crossed the lane in front of the hospital. Something shifted in Sunny’s chest and that knot she’d fought earlier came right back up to choke her. What the hell was wrong with her?
Billy needs a daddy. The knot grew, because she knew it was true. He was latching onto any man who wandered into his orbit.
“I want a hat like my Uncle Rand’s,” Billy announced, as they walked through the front entrance and he spotted Rand at the reception desk chatting up a pretty nurse he obviously knew. “He’s a cowboy, and I want to be one too.”
That light feeling inside of Sunny turned brick-hard and settled in her stomach. She opened her mouth, but Austin laughed. “I’m a cowboy, and I’m telling you it isn’t easy,” he informed, ruffling Billy’s hair. “You’ll see once we get to the ranch. It’s hard work.”
“I like hard work,” Billy pronounced, and Sunny bit back a laugh. Her son couldn’t even clean his room without complaining. He looked up at Austin and his eyebrows furrowed. “But I thought you were a firem—” Billy glanced at Sunny, then finished, “Firefighter?”
Austin laughed, and the sound loosened the tightness in her chest. “I’m a cowboy, a firefighter and a paramedic. I’m confused kid, but I can do anything I want to do, and so can you. You don’t have to pick one or the other.” He ruffled Billy’s hair again, as they stopped at the reception desk beside Rand. “And you have plenty of time to decide.”
I can do anything I want to do.
Sunny hoped Austin McBride decided he wanted to be a cowboy. That he’d leave the firefighting to her. She needed the Chief’s job and it should be hers. Unlike him, she didn’t have options. He hadn’t brought it up again, and she wasn’t about to remind him of the Chief’s offer or his words last night at the diner. Worry boiled in her stomach eating a hole there, but his words from earlier gave her some hope that he had changed his mind.
Well, this morning, the sun is up and I have other things to worry about, like the job I already have and the ranch I get paid very well to take care of.
Those words made her think that maybe the idea had been brought on by the adrenaline and excitement of the call. Or maybe the marijuana. Now that had worn off, and in the light of day he realized he had it damned good where he was.
Austin elbowed her and Sunny stumbled. “Stop frowning, or you’ll get wrinkles on that gorgeous face of yours.” His wide, warm grin melted the ice in her veins, and showed he had wrinkles of his own around that sexy smile, crinkles beside his smoky gray eyes.
Those lines said he took life about as seriously as her brother did. He could—he wasn’t a single parent worrying about feeding and clothing his child. “I have a feeling I’ll earn every one of them before Billy is eighteen,” Sunny replied.
“You have a long row to hoe, Sunshine, so you should pace yourself.” Austin laughed again, and winked. The man laughed at everything, winked as if it were a habit or a tick. It was beginning to irritate her a little. What irritated her more though, was she liked it.
Jolie walked up to stand beside Austin, and shot a glance at Sunny as she waggled her eyebrows then put her hand on Austin’s arm. “Ooh, hi again, Austin, was it?” she purred, setting Sunny’s teeth on edge.
Austin turned, leaned an elbow on the counter and his eyes lit up as they streaked down Jolie’s body to her toes. His face split into a wide smile. “Hi, Jolie—How’s Tanner doing?”
Jolie chuckled, and gave him a saucy wink. “Other than having an extra hole in his behind, which made him damned grumpy, he was fine when he left the ER.”
The electricity buzzing between Jolie and Austin, their easy comradery, pissed Sunny off too. They both acted like they had nothing better to do than flirt. Well she had better things to do than spend her rare day off watching them flirt.
Sunny glared at Austin who was busy checking out Jolie’s curvy little body. “Is this the fricking social hour at the hospital, or are we actually here for a purpose?”
He dragged his eyes back to hers, and they sparked with agitation. “I need to check on Tanner to see when he’ll be released so I can update my boss,” Austin said shortly.
His boss? Sunny had a hard time believing this man answered to anyone. He was too busy taking control of everything and everyone. “Then get it over with so I can drop you off at the ranch and get back home. I have things to do today.”
Austin’s smile slipped, and he leaned around Rand to talk to the nurse at the desk. When Jolie’s eyes fell to his ass, Sunny ground her teeth.
“When are we going to have that drink, Sunny? You free tonight?” Jolie asked, without dragging her eyes from Austin’s ass. Her friend was so tuned into the cowboy-firefighter, Sunny was very surprised Jolie even remembered she was standing there. Jolie puckered her lips and blew a breath, before her gaze swung to Sunny. “Sharkey’s at seven?”
“Yeah, I guess, if I’m back in time,” Sunny replied grumpily. She really wanted to tell Jolie she couldn’t make it now, she just wasn’t in the mood for chit-chat tonight. But she’d already put her off two times now, and promised the next time Jolie asked she would.
Austin stood back up and turned toward them. Jolie’s eyes immediately locked on his and she smiled that smile that could drop a man at fifty paces. Those slanted, cat-green eyes of hers traveled down Austin’s body to his boots, and glided back up. “You wanna come with us to Sharkey’s tonight, cowboy? I’ll teach you how to play pool.”
“He won’t be here,” Sunny interjected, grabbing Austin’s arm to forcefully turn him and push him toward the elevator. “We’re taking him back to his ranch.” Where he belongs, and hopefully he’ll stay. She released Austin’s arm and jabbed the button, but Billy tugged on her hand.
“Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom,” he said in distress, dancing from one foot to the other which told her he needed to go right then.
“I’ve told you time and again not to wait til the last minute,” she grated. Taking her son’s hand she towed him down the hall. “I’ll meet you at the truck.”
During the hour ride out to the ranch, things were eerily quiet inside the cab of the Suburban. The earlier games and giggling were gone, replaced by a strange tension. Billy had fallen asleep, and Sunny was tempted to wake him up just to break the silence.