Grabbing her ID, cash, credit cards and lip balm, she slipped them into a pocket and headed for her car. She pulled into Maverick’s only four minutes late and frowned at the nearly empty parking lot as she wondered where in the hell all the customers were. “Okay I’m here. A little late but only a little.”
Following the noise near the back, inside one of the private rooms she froze in the doorway as everyone she gave a damn about sat around a long family style table. “What’s going on?”
Erick appeared at her side wearing a grin she kissed in greeting. She pulled back and took in his look, dark blue top and faded jeans that hugged his body in all the right places. “Dinner. This is a restaurant Dre.”
“I’m well aware of that. What is everyone doing here?”
“I invited them.”
Of course he did. As soon as she spotted Al and Annie she knew he was up to something she might not like. “Why?”
“All will be revealed. What are we drinking tonight?”
Dre glanced over at her father and stepmother and answered without hesitation. “Tequila. The good stuff. The whole bottle.”
“Be nice, babe. Tonight’s going to be a good night.” He pressed another kiss to her cheek. “A great night, even.”
“Promise,” she hooked her fingers through his belt loops and pulled him close, brushing a kiss just below his ear. “Because if it isn’t I’ll expect you to make it up to me.”
His blue eyes lit up as a sexy grin lazily kicked up one side of his face. “It will be and then you can make it up to me,” he assured her. “For ever doubting me.”
“You drive a hard bargain but I agree to your terms.”
“Get a room!” The shout came from Shayna or Burke, she didn’t know and didn’t much care as she pressed a slow, hungry kiss to his mouth.
When she pulled back Dre smiled at her friends. “This is a room.”
“I’ll grab that tequila, save me a seat,” he told her, giving her another quick kiss before leaving her standing there all alone.”
“Lookin’ good sis,” Kira whistled, looking happy and carefree as was her normal state since her shop opened last fall and proved her passion was a success.
“Thanks. I got this top at a great little shop right here in town,” she joked and took one of two empty seats at the head of the large wooden table. Eli hopped in her lap immediately.
“Aunt Dre you look pretty.”
“Thanks kiddo, you’re looking pretty spiffy too. Did you tie this yourself,” she indicated the adorable checkered bowtie that matched his little vest.
“No but Mr. Burke did.” He grinned proudly, flashing an adoring grin at her friend and confirming something she thought might be the case but she hadn’t wanted to pry. Yet.
“Then we better get a picture with both of us looking so pretty,” she told him and handed her phone to Burke.
“I’m a boy and boys aren’t pretty.”
“Fine, you’re handsome and I’m beautiful.” She grinned and hugged him tighter until he giggled. “Okay say ‘cheese’.”
“Cheese,” they both said at the same time as Burked snapped a few photos. As soon as the first flash went off, Zoe and Orchid hopped on her and forced Burke to snap a few more.
“Dre you’re all dressed up,” Shayna said, surprise coloring her eyes a darker shade of green.
“Well Erick said we were having a special dinner tonight though I didn’t think he meant the entire town when he said ‘we’.” She gazed down at the wedges she’d bought in Turkey and back up at her friend. “Besides I’m not all that dressed up. I traded my t-shirt and sneakers for a blouse and nice shoes.”
Shayna laughed and shook her head. “You look good.”
Dre gave her friend a onceover. “So do you.”
“Only the finest tequila for you,” Erick told her as he set the bottle and two glasses in front of her. She poured two fingers in each and they bumped glasses.
“To fun. Friends. And family,” she said softly and took a healthy sip.
“Cheers to that.” Erick grinned and pressed a kiss behind her ear. “You look beautiful tonight.”
“Thanks. You smell good,” she told him, closing her eyes and inhaling that earthy masculine scent that always made her think of making love on the forest floor. Some forest. Somewhere.
“I’m gonna check on the food,” he told her and stood, pulling her up with him. “Al’s here with Annie. Talk to him. To them,” he urged.
She groaned at his retreating back and whirled around, gaze landing right on her father and stepmother who sat beside Sarah and her finally out in the open boyfriend, Hank. The two people she wanted to see least in this world. Still. But her father caught her eye and made his way over.
Alone, thankfully. “Andrea, you’re looking lovely.”
“Thanks.” They had been distant for so long she didn’t even know how to talk to him. If she wanted to. Which she didn’t. Erick wanted her to make nice, felt it was necessary to her future happiness Their future happiness. So she stood there in front of the first man to shatter all of her illusions, waiting for something to say to come to her. “So. How are things?”
He flashed a smile like she hadn’t seen in decades. “Things are well. Annie’s pitching a fit about Kira opening up a store but I’m damn proud of her. Of both my girls.”
She froze at the mention of her stepmother’s name but bit back any reply and ignored his compliment. “Kira is doing very well. She knows fashion and she’s learning business quickly.”
“She said you were instrumental in every step from encouraging her to do it, advice and that splashy logo. I’m glad you girls are finally, really sisters.”
Dre sighed. “Yeah well I shouldn’t have taken it out on her. She had nothing to do with it.”
He nodded in resignation. “I guess you’ll never be able to forgive me for my past and I’ll have to learn to live with that. But I’m glad Kira has you now.”
Dre sighed. “Me too. She’s a great kid. Chatty but cool.”
“Maybe,” he began and stopped, nibbling his bottom lip. “Maybe we can grab lunch again since you’re be in town for good.”
She laughed. “Erick is determined to make it happen anyway but sure, let’s have lunch next week.” His smile told her she’d made the right decision but only time would tell. Things would never be how a father daughter relationship should but maybe they could find a way to be less cold and more civil.
“I look forward to it, then. It’s so good to see you happy and smiling again.”
“Thanks Dad.” With a heavy hand on her shoulder, he gave a squeeze and walked away. She noticed the small smile of pleasure on his face and shook her head.
“If I can have your attention,” Erick said as his hand gripped her waist and pulled her to his side while he addressed the crowd. “I want to thank you all for coming tonight to celebrate what has been the best, the most transformative year of my life. Who would have thought one summer was all it would take to bring this amazing woman back into my life?” He planted a kiss on her cheek and winked. “Before we get to the food and the booze,” he smiled.
“Hear, hear!” Burke called out with a wide grin.
“I wanted to make sure Dre,” he turned to her, “that you know how much I love you. How deeply I’ve fallen in love with you over this past year. Hell I didn’t know I could love you more and every morning when I wake up with you in my arms and your hair all over my face, I feel like the luckiest bastard alive.”
“Me too,” she mouthed the words to him.
“I know you hate cheesy so I’m going to be direct. Dre I want you to be my wife. I want us to spend the rest of our lives together, living and laughing and loving. And fighting. I want to give Orchid a few brothers and sisters and mostly I want us both to fulfill our dreams. Will you marry me?”
She nodded with tears in her eyes. “You are my dream Erick. I have everything I ever wanted and now I have you too.”
“So that’
s a yes?”
She nodded, pressing her forehead to his. “That’s a hell yes.”
The End
About the Author
N.D. Jackson spends her days wandering the streets of whatever European city she and her husband are visiting, creating new characters and new lives for her own novels. Since she picked up her first book at the age of 7, not a day goes by she doesn’t read a page or chapter. Or finish a book. Her first novel, Conflict of Interest was published in 2014 at the ripe old age of she’s not telling and she had been entertaining readers with tales of love and romance ever since.
When she isn’t reading or writing, N.D. can be found indulging in her love of all things true crime, perfecting new vegan cuisine and seeing with the world with her bearded husband! She lives for Foo Fighters, 90’s grunge, curry, Nina Simone, traveling and all things French.
Thanks
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Enjoy this excerpt from the latest installment of the Mustang Prairie series.
It Must Be Love
Chapter ONE
“I can’t believe you found this fabric! I love the silver in it.” Abby Thorpe squealed and twirled in her almost complete shrug with all the enthusiasm a nine year old could muster up.
Trixie Beaumont shrugged. It was no big deal to pick up something she knew the little girl would love. “As soon as I saw it I knew you would love it.” She hadn’t known the girl long, but every day around three she’d find her way into Trixie’s lingerie shop, Under the Skirt. At first she just asked questions about fabric and stitching, but soon it became obvious she was a fellow fashionista and budding designer. “With that blond hair I knew you’d look beautiful.”
Abby’s porcelain skin flushed pink but she swelled with pride. “I’m gonna finish it today. Can you show me how to tie it off so it curves?”
Trixie nodded, barely looking up from the sketchpad occupying most of her attention. Since she returned to the town she’d grown up in, well for a few years anyway, she had played with the idea of starting a lingerie line. It was still just an idea, but she’d bought a few sketchpads for when inspiration struck. “I’ll show you, but first you need to make sure you have enough yarn so it falls just here,” she reached out slashing a hand across the girl’s rib.
“This is so cool Trixie! I always wanted to make clothes, I have pads of sketches but no one to teach me.” She pouted with all the gravity of a fifty year old veteran, “Dad said learning to make clothes was a waste of my talents.”
Trixie smiled. “That’s what his dad used to say about his art.”
“Really?” The light in her eye and that mischievous smile told Trixie her intel might be used for nefarious purposes.
“No, not really. I totally made that up,” she said, rolling her eyes for effect.
Abby giggled and carefully pulled off the shrug she’d worked on for the past three weeks. “Nice try, Trixie. Grandma says a long memory is all a woman needs.”
She tried not to laugh. She really did, but hearing such a sweet young voice say something so cynical struck her as funny and a laugh erupted from deep within her. “Your grandma is quite the character.” She remembered Nina Thorpe as everything a mother should be, nurturing and normal with kind eyes and amazing hugs. Not that there was anything wrong with her own mother but Peri Moon—formerly Robinson but changed it when she was in tenth grade to something less imperial—wasn’t your typical mother. She’d taught her daughter things like how to change a flat tire, where her g-spot was located and how to roll a joint. You know, useful things.
“That’s what my other grandma says too.” Her smile turned thoughtful and she stopped the movement of the wooden knitting needles. “Did you know my mom Trixie?”
Everyone had known Marissa. She was kind and beautiful and popular. And she’d stolen the first boy Trixie had ever loved. “I did know her, she was nice. I didn’t know her well though because she and your dad are a few years older than me.”
Abby sighed, the weight of the world on her tiny shoulders. “You’re the first person who didn’t say she was so beautiful,” she affected some of the old women in town. “Everywhere I go here people tell me how much I look like her. They don’t see me, they see a ghost.” Her sad little face was a punch to Trixie’s heart.
She stood and knelt before the little girl. “I don’t think it’s just about how you look. People just want to be around you, just like Marissa. She pulled people in and they loved her, I think you have it too. The problem is you’re still a kid so they have to explain it, otherwise it would be creepy.” She kept her tone light and Abby smiled just as she hoped.
“I like that Trixie. Thank you.” She wrapped her little arms around Trixie’s next and squeezed.
“No problem, kiddo. Now let me show you how to tie this off.” She sat beside Abby and guided her through looping off the ends for a nice finish. The whole time she hoped Abby’s father Jack, her childhood crush, chose today to come into the shop to pick her up. Or maybe she hoped he didn’t.
She wasn’t quite sure.
Jack sat on his stool, chin in his hand and examined the work he’d done this morning. For the past year he’d ventured out of the comfort zone that had made him an incredibly wealthy man—oil paintings—and started experimenting with metal and wood. He wasn’t sure if anything would come of it but he’d been bored with his paints and canvas. It felt like a betrayal since he’d taken the art world by storm at the ripe old age of twenty-two, sold dozens of paintings for ridiculous sums of money.
Last year he’d moved back home to Mustang Prairie so his girls could have the same safe idyllic childhood he’d had. It was a smart decision for his girls, but had done nothing to inspire him. He’d set up his studio and sat down to paint and…nothing. He’d tried every day for a month to paint something significant. Something evocative. All he’d gotten down was fruit, grass and flowers, his girls. All good, none of it worth anything though. Then one day he’d been walking down Fourth Street and spotted a weird looking metal table in the display at the new lingerie shop and he’d had a light bulb moment.
Two days later he had supplies and then about a dozen stops and starts later, he had the hang of it. And finally the chandelier he’d sketched was starting to take shape. A smile spread across his face and he stood, sliding his welding helmet back in place just as his cell dinged on the table beside him. “Hello?” His voice was gruff, rusty from hours of silence.
As soon as the voice at the other end of the line told him his oldest daughter, Abby, hadn’t shown up for Busy Bees. The Hive Mom, Christy, also told him that she’d never made it on the bus at the end of the day. He barked out a rushed thank you and disconnected the call before calling Ty while he changed shirts and stuffed his feet into shoes. “Ty, Abby is missing. She didn’t get on the bus and she’s not at Busy Bees.” He listened as Ty told him what to do first.
“I’m on my way right now. Don’t even think of getting behind the wheel.”
Jack didn’t want to stand around and wait while his little girl was missing. Sure this was Mustang Prairie and bad things rarely happened here, but a man could never be too safe when it came to his family. He paced out front waiting for Ty as his mind circled with all the ways Abby could need him. She could be hurt, sick, kidnapped or worse. She could be calling out for him and wondering why he hadn’t showed up when she needed him. Just like Marissa. “About damn time,” he muttered as he slid inside the passenger seat of Ty’s patrol car.
“I had to di
sperse information on Abby. If you tell me what she had on when she left for school, I’ll pass it around. All my deputies are on it,” he told Jack as he slowly drove through town. “I was in the diner when the call came in so Luna and Shirl have gone on red alert until she’s found.”
A gentle smile kicked up one side of Jack’s face, thinking of the way the elderly women had embraced his girls. “Thanks Ty.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he pulled the car to a stop outside Dylan’s house. “He’s going to use his big city experience to help us.”
Jack nodded absently, nodding at Dylan as he slid in the back. “Thanks man.”
Dylan clapped a large hand on Jack’s t-shirt clad shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll find her. Ty drop me off on Fourth and I’ll start at the far end. We can meet somewhere in the middle.” A terse nod later and Jack heard the driver’s door open and close and then the passenger door right behind him, as Ty freed Dylan.
When they were at the old end of Fourth Street, where the older businesses were located Ty stood with a sympathetic look on his face, blonde hair sparkling in the late afternoon sun. “Look man you’re wrecked. Go to the Stick Shift and we’ll bring her there when we find her.”
Finally his words penetrated the fog of Jack’s mind and the numbness faded. “What if you don’t find her Ty?”
Ty grabbed his shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. “We will find her. I don’t care if it takes all night, we will bring her home so you can hug and kiss her, then ground her for life” With a cocky grin Ty walked him to the diner and set him at the counter. “Hot black coffee!” He called to the kitchen.
Moments later Shirl sauntered out in acid washed jeans, a Whitesnake t-shirt with weird red sleeves on her forearms. Jack smiled because Shirl had been a character even as a beautiful young woman back when he was a kid. “Keep your shirt on Sheriff,” she winked and rounded the counter, gathering Jack to her bosom. “You poor boy, you must be out of your mind.” She patted his cheek and went back behind the racing motif linoleum. “Here you go,” she slid a steaming mug of coffee and a slice of blackberry pie in front of him. “Eat up. Everyone who can be is out there looking for Abby. We’ll find her Jack.”
Best Of My Love: (Love in Emerald Creek) Page 22