Lone Star Nights

by Delores Fossen

  “There you are,” Livvy said. At least it sounded like Livvy, but the woman walking toward them was dressed like Mackenzie. In fact, exactly like Mackenzie, right down to the black lipstick and black spiked hair.

  Mackenzie was trailing along behind Livvy. Andrew, too. And Zeke.

  “I wanted to try a different look,” Livvy said, twirling around. She looked like a character in a Tim Burton movie. “And tomorrow I’ll try a different look, one where people can see my actual hair color.” She winked at Lucky.

  Not a flirty wink but one that was perhaps meant to let him know that she was teaching Mackenzie a lesson—that it was okay to look normal every now and then. But the wink sort of got stuck in Livvy’s eye when her gaze skirted over them.

  “Hay in the hair,” Livvy whispered almost frantically.

  That sent Cassie and him into a frantic hair search, with them raking at their heads with their fingers. Livvy didn’t help at all. In fact, she picked up a handful of hay and, giggling like a loon, tossed it at them.

  Okay, maybe Livvy helped after all, because to the others it might have appeared they were in the middle of a hay fight. Of course, such a fight wouldn’t make sense to a normal, sane person, but Livvy wasn’t known for doing normal, sane things.

  Andrew and Mackenzie stopped right in front of them. Mackenzie was giving them her bored look while Andrew took notice of everything around him. Particularly of the placement of Lucky’s Stetson. Lucky hoped the guy didn’t ask to try it on.

  “Chaps and spurs, huh?” Livvy asked, tossing up another handful of hay.

  “Lucky was riding the bull,” Cassie explained. Which sounded dirty because she’d hesitated slightly after the word riding.

  Livvy picked up on it, of course, and threw more hay, causing Andrew to cough and fan his hand in front of his face. Maybe the sudden allergy attack would get him moving so Lucky could have a few more seconds before he attempted to walk.

  “That’s something I would have loved to watch,” Livvy declared. “Any chance you can ride the bull again so we can get a look-see?”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea right now,” he managed to say. “Maybe later.”

  However, if he did ride the second bull, he’d make sure Cassie wasn’t around. Bull riding had always given Lucky the mother of all adrenaline highs, but this was a first for making him horny as hell. Naturally, Cassie was responsible for that. There had just been something about seeing her standing there while he’d been getting his brains scrambled, and he hadn’t been able to resist her.

  But then she hadn’t resisted much, either.

  At least she hadn’t in the hayloft, but Cassie was definitely putting some distance between them now. That was partially thanks to Andrew. He’d slipped his arm around her waist and was trying to inch her away from the rest of them.

  “Cassie and I need to talk,” Andrew finally said. “It’s important,” he added. “It’s about Hannah.”

  Until he tacked on that last part, Cassie had been holding her ground. But what he said caused her gaze to meet Andrew’s. Lucky was betting there was no way she’d pass up any and all news about Hannah, her client who’d committed suicide, and he was right. Cassie nodded and stepped away with Andrew. Far away. They went out of the barn and headed toward the backyard.

  Livvy glanced at Cassie and Andrew. Then she glanced at Lucky. Then the hayloft. Then Mackenzie—no doubt to see if she was picking up on any of this, but the only thing Mackenzie was picking at was some hay that’d landed on her black top. After all the glancing, Livvy looked at Lucky and raised her eyebrow.

  Lucky understood the question. What’s going on? But since Lucky didn’t have an answer to that, he just shrugged. And changed the subject.

  “How’d the shopping trip go?” he asked.

  Mackenzie kept picking at the hay. Thankfully, Livvy was more accommodating, especially since Lucky needed a distraction. He kept looking at Cassie and Andrew, and every time he did, they were looking at him. He would have just moved this conversation into the house and out of their line of sight, but that would have meant walking right past them. If Cassie had wanted him to hear what Andrew and she were discussing, she would have asked him to join them. Or just stayed put.

  “We bought drugs,” he heard Livvy say.

  That caused Lucky’s and Mackenzie’s attention to snap back to Livvy, who now had a gotcha look on her face. “Just checking to see if you were listening.”

  “Well, I am now. What’d you buy?” Though he didn’t think for a second that it was drugs.

  “The shopping bags are in the house,” Livvy went on when Mackenzie didn’t say anything. “Don’t worry. We didn’t max out the credit card you gave us, but we got some things for Mia. Some things for Mackenzie, too, of course. Tops, shoes and...other things.”

  Now Mackenzie looked at him.

  “Other things?” Lucky pressed. He had to tear his eyes away from his latest glimpse of Cassie and Andrew so he could look at her.

  “A dress,” Mackenzie finally said. “To wear to Riley and Claire’s wedding.”

  At first Lucky didn’t see a problem with that. Then he did. The timing of Aunt Alice’s arrival, and the woman’s insistence that she wanted the girls to leave with her right away.

  “Mackenzie and I were thinking that it would be fun for Mia and her to stay for the wedding,” Livvy suggested. “Thinking along those same lines, we also got Mackenzie an outfit for the picnic.”

  The truth was that Lucky wanted the girls at both events. After all, Mia had gotten close to Ethan and Claire, and Mackenzie had apparently gotten close to Livvy. But Lucky had to shake his head. “I’m not sure it’ll be up to me.”

  “Oh, you can sweet-talk Aunt Alice into letting them stay,” Livvy insisted. “I mean, especially after Cassie and you stepped up to take custody of her nieces. Heck, the aunt could go to the picnic and wedding, too.”

  It was true about the sweet-talking part. He might be able to pull that off, but there was something fishy going on here, and Lucky was pretty sure what that fish’s name was.

  “I know Brody will be at the picnic,” Lucky tossed out there, “but I’m guessing he’ll now be at the wedding, too?”

  Mackenzie nodded and had the decency to mix a little sheepishness in with her insolence. “I asked Claire to invite him, and she said she would. I’d also like to go on a date with him.”

  Lucky had hesitated about the wedding and picnic possibilities, but he didn’t waste a second responding to this part. “No way. He’s too old for you.”

  “Only by two years,” Mackenzie protested after a loud huff.

  That was more than enough. “Look, Mackenzie, Brody doesn’t come from a good family.”

  “Neither do I!”

  The jury was still out on that, depending on Aunt Alice, but Mackenzie had a point. Her mom and dad hadn’t been stellar examples of the human race. Aliens looking for higher life-forms would have skipped right over those two. Still...

  “No date,” Lucky insisted, and he tried to make sure it sounded like his bottom line. Because it was. “You’re too young. He’s too old. And that’s not a good combination.”

  There. Bottom line, finished, and Lucky punctuated it with a firm nod.

  But Livvy shrugged and did some hemming and hawing. “What if I chaperoned the date?”

  Clearly, Livvy hadn’t picked up on the bottom line. “My answer’s still no. I like you, Livvy, but if I looked for a picture in the dictionary next to ‘responsible adult chaperone,’ you’re not going to be there.”

  That didn’t seem to hurt her feelings. Livvy just shrugged again. “Then what if Claire and Riley chaperone? I’ve already asked,” she quickly added, “and Claire said if it’s all right with Cassie and you, then Riley and she would do it.”

  “An
d it would just be a date to the dance at the civic center,” Mackenzie begged. “We could even put a time limit on it—like two hours. Miss Claire and Mr. Riley could drive us there, stay with us the whole time, and then drive us back.”

  Apparently, Livvy and she had already worked out their own version of a bottom line. And Lucky could feel himself wavering. Damn it. That’s because Mackenzie actually looked happy for the first time since she’d arrived at the ranch. But he was still wavering.

  “Here’s a different scenario,” he suggested. “I’ll talk to Cassie about it, but if she agrees—and that’s a big if—” he hoped she would “—then Cassie and I will chaperone. And there won’t be any slow dancing.”

  Of course, with Brody’s fifteen-year-old body fueling his every thought and move, just laying eyes on Mackenzie would work him up.

  Some of Mackenzie’s glee went south, but she finally nodded. Now all Lucky had to do was convince Cassie. And if he managed to do that, it’d sort of be like a date for him and her, too.

  Sort of.

  Other than that, there was one other silver lining here. With Mackenzie leaving town soon, there wouldn’t be much time for a romance to develop between Brody and her. That was something at least.

  Lucky glanced at Cassie again, but she was no longer talking to Andrew. However, she was chasing him, and Andrew was storming right toward Lucky.

  “Lucky McCord!” Andrew shouted. “What the hell did you do to Cassie in that barn?”

  * * *

  CASSIE HAD TO run to make it to Lucky before Andrew got to him. Not because she thought Andrew would punch Lucky or anything. But she didn’t want Lucky to blurt out something before he understood what’d prompted Andrew’s question.

  “Lucky didn’t have anything to do with that,” Cassie insisted.

  Andrew didn’t pay any attention to her, and Lucky just looked confused. Because he thought Andrew was asking about what had gone on in the hayloft.

  Her ex just kept charging like a bull toward Lucky, and she could see Lucky already posturing for a fight. A fight that wasn’t going to happen.

  “Lucky doesn’t even know,” Cassie tried again. She managed a burst of speed at the last moment and darted in between Lucky and Andrew.

  “Of course he knows,” Andrew argued.

  Lucky was still looking perplexed, no doubt because he thought this had something to do with her near orgasm. Of course, Cassie knew Lucky would have had no trouble actually making that happen if they hadn’t been interrupted. But it was best not to think about that right now.

  Even though it was difficult with Lucky still wearing those crotch-framing leather chaps.

  “Uh, what do I know?” Lucky asked.

  “You somehow talked Cassie into wanting to quit her job,” Andrew accused.

  “No, I didn’t,” Lucky said at the same time that Cassie repeated, “Lucky didn’t know.”

  Cassie huffed and continued while she looked at Andrew. “In fact, I didn’t know I was thinking about quitting until just a few minutes ago when I was talking with you.”

  “You’re quitting?” Lucky asked.

  Andrew came with his own quick follow-up, not to Lucky’s question but to Cassie’s comment. “You can’t quit. Being a therapist is who you are.”

  Lucky cleared his throat to get her attention. “Does this have anything to do with, well, anything?”

  Since Mackenzie was standing there, Andrew perhaps thought Lucky was referring to the children, but Cassie suspected it had more to do with their near sex. Hopefully, Lucky didn’t think she’d seen that as some kind of commitment.

  “No. Nothing to do with...anything,” Cassie assured him. “I just... Well, I think that maybe I’d like to try something different.”

  “Hogwash,” Andrew spat out. The ranch setting must have rubbed off on him because to the best of her knowledge, he’d never said anything like that. “What would you do if you couldn’t be a therapist?”

  Cassie had to shrug. She wasn’t sure, but she wouldn’t mind having a job where people didn’t die because she’d botched things. Or a job that didn’t spur a panic attack just thinking about it.

  And no, it didn’t have anything to do with Lucky and the girls.

  Andrew huffed and snorted, sounding like a smaller version of the bull Lucky had ridden. He opened his mouth a couple of times as if to dole out the perfect words to make her change her mind. But perfection must have escaped him because he turned to walk away.

  “I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Andrew said. “By then maybe you’ll come to your senses and won’t even be thinking about making the biggest mistake of your life.”

  “Is he right?” Lucky asked her. “Would this be a mistake?”

  “Tell you what,” Livvy interrupted before Cassie could answer. “Why don’t Mackenzie and I go inside and try on those new clothes?” She slipped her arm around the girl’s shoulder and led her toward the back porch.

  Cassie thanked Livvy for picking up on the cues that this wasn’t a conversation Cassie wanted to have in front of Mackenzie. In front of anyone, really. However, she couldn’t help but notice that Mackenzie seemed less sullen than usual. The girl actually seemed happy.

  “Yeah, she’s smiling,” Lucky verified. “You probably don’t want to hear why since you’re going through your own personal crisis right now.”

  Of course, that meant she had to hear. “Mackenzie’s smiling because of a personal crisis?”

  “No, I’m the one having the crisis. She’s smiling because she’s happy that I lost my mind and just agreed to let her go on a supervised dance date with Brody. Claire and Riley volunteered to chaperone.”

  “You agreed to that?”

  She was about to tell him that nothing would have made her give consent for a date between those two. But then she remembered Mackenzie’s smile. Yes, that’s why he’d done it. And while Cassie wasn’t exactly comfortable with it, she knew how persuasive teenage girls could be.

  “I’m thinking it might be a good idea if we go to the dance, too,” Lucky went on. “Maybe we can hang back near the wall. I could bring binoculars. Maybe a stun gun. A shovel in case we have to bury Brody’s body.”

  Cassie couldn’t help it. Despite her blue mood, she smiled, too.

  “There it is,” Lucky said, joining in on the smile. His was a lot better than hers, though.

  She mentally caught hold of that smile for a couple of moments, bracing herself for the nonsmiling conversation to follow. Lucky didn’t keep her waiting, but it wasn’t exactly the subject she’d been dreading—the one where she’d been thinking about quitting her job.

  “Mackenzie wants to stay for the wedding,” Lucky went on. “For Brody, of course.”

  “Of course,” Cassie repeated. “You think the aunt will agree to that?”

  Lucky lifted his shoulder. “You think she’ll agree to let us see the kids after she takes them? I don’t mean right away or even that often. I’d just like to check on them every now and then.”

  “So would I.”

  But she wasn’t even sure if the aunt would grant them any concessions. Or if legally Lucky and she could insist on visits. Cassie seriously doubted temporary custody would trump blood kin.

  However, that led her to her next thought. She did want to keep tabs on the girls. Mackenzie likely had a tough road ahead of her, and Cassie wanted to give Mia and her at least the option of calling from time to time. And to think, a week ago Cassie would have been glad to get rid of them.

  “Your wanting to quit your job is about Hannah,” Lucky concluded. “How serious are you about it?”

  “I’m toying with the idea.” She was terrified about it, too. “And it doesn’t have anything to do with the hayloft,” Claire added. “And I’m not thinking about quitting all of it. Just the
clients part. I could still do the TV and radio shows.”

  Lucky stayed quiet, staring at her. She stayed quiet as well, and tried not to stare at him. Mainly because her gaze kept drifting to those chaps. Talk about fueling a fantasy.

  “All right, then,” Lucky said. “I’m sure you’ll figure out what you want to do.” He paused. “And the hayloft?”

  Cassie figured the right answer wasn’t to say she wanted to go back there and have him finish what he’d started. No, definitely not the right answer. They had the girls for six more days at the most, and after that Cassie would leave. Lucky would leave, as well. And if they decided down the road that there should be other trips to the hayloft, then they could make their decision without so much hanging over their heads.

  It was the adult thing to do.

  Or...

  She could offer Lucky a one-night stand. Or even a six-night stand.

  Nothing bad could happen from that, right?

  Plenty of good could come from it, though. Like a minimum of six orgasms.

  But the other little voice in her head reminded Cassie that in her messy emotional state, she might not be able to deal with any more emotional mess. She wouldn’t die from the broken heart she would get because of Lucky, but she might not recover from it, either.

  Cassie wasn’t sure she would have shared that info with Lucky anyway, but thankfully she didn’t have to. Mia came running out the back door of the house, and she was waving a piece of paper in her hand.

  “I got a letter!” she said as if someone had just handed her the leprechaun’s pot of gold. “It’s got my name on it.”

  Cassie smiled at first, but then realized it could be from the aunt. Maybe a letter to say she was coming even earlier than expected.

  Lucky scooped Mia up in his arms when the little girl reached them. “Who’s it from?” he asked.

  “Miss Dixie Mae. Miss Livvy said it comed from the grave.” Mia’s forehead bunched up a little. “What’s a grave?”

  “A place where people don’t send letters from,” Lucky mumbled, looking at the envelope. “But that’s Dixie Mae’s handwriting.”