Trouble in Dixie

by Becky McGraw

  “You’ve been so good to me, baby, and I appreciate it, I really do…but I’m really not as helpless as you think I am,” she said softly and his shoulders slumped. She wiggled her finger at him and gave him a sexy grin. “Come here cowboy, mama needs a kiss.”

  Tommy growled and then hurried around the couch. He slid his hand gently under her neck, and the other under her legs, then turned and sat back down with her on his lap. She put her nose into his neck and inhaled deeply. He smelled of hay, sunshine and pure man, and her senses soaked him up like a sponge. Placing a kiss on his neck, she brought her right hand up to his face and ran her hand over the light stubble there, then kissed her way up to his ear and nipped his earlobe. He groaned and then turned his face and captured her lips in a gentle kiss that wasn’t enough for her. She licked his bottom lip and he opened his mouth and she forced her tongue inside and teased his into an erotic dance.

  Katie pulled back and looked deeply into his eyes, and told him softly, “I missed you so much…I can’t wait til these ribs heal, so I can show you how much.”

  Tommy hugged her to him and she could feel the emotion pouring through him, because his body trembled and his breathing was unsteady. “You’re never going to have the chance to miss me again, baby…I’m not letting you go, ever.”

  The doorbell rang and Tommy kissed her hair and said, “That must be the new housekeeper.” He lifted her up gently, then laid her back on the sofa and walked toward the front door.

  Katie smiled and laid her head back on the pillow, but lifted up again when she heard loud voices, one of them Tommy’s at the front door. Panic coursed through her, and she ignored the pain in her side and sat up to see what was going on. Whoever he was talking to was still on the doorstep, because he hadn’t invited them inside. She saw his jaw was clenched as were his fists at his sides, and she gingerly sat up, then pushed with her good arm to stand. The arguing continued, as she put one foot in front of the other and slowly made her way toward the door.

  When she was halfway there she saw Dixie’s terrified eyes, as she put her back against the wall and snuck past her daddy, then ran for the back of the house. With determination, Katie squared her shoulders and picked up her pace, because she had a feeling she knew who their visitor was. Tommy waved with his hand and shouted over her then slammed the door in her face and fished his cell phone out of his pocket.

  “Roger, this is Tommy Tucker, we need to speed things up. I just got served by Edith Preston and her posse. Get that restraining order, because if she comes back on my property, I’m gonna pepper her skinny ass with buckshot,” he yelled into the phone, then said, “Yeah, I’ll fax it to you right now,” Tommy said then disconnected, and crumpled the paper in his hand.

  “What did she want?” Katie asked flatly, and took the last step, so she was at his side.

  He lifted his head and met her eyes, and evidently redirected his anger to her. “What the fuck are you doing up?!?” he shouted at the top of his lungs, then picked her up roughly in his arms and she groaned as pain shot through her chest and she lost her breath. Her hand flew to her chest and she tried to suck in a breath, but couldn’t.

  Tommy looked down at her and his eyebrows slammed together and his face blanched, then he all but ran to the sofa with her. Gently he laid her down, a lot more gently than he’d picked her up, then he put his hands on her face and he had tears in his eyes.

  “Oh, baby—I’m so sorry—Jesus, I’m an idiot,” he berated himself, then urged in a frantic voice, “Breathe baby, breathe…” as he rubbed the spot between her breasts.

  Katie swallowed down the pain, then was finally able to draw a breath. She laid back against the pillow and concentrated on taking breaths to get the pain under control. When she managed it, she opened her eyes again and said in a raw whisper, “Don’t you ever talk to me like that again.”

  Tommy shook his head, then leaned down to kiss her and she put a hand in between them to stop him. “Just leave me alone for a little while,” she said then closed her eyes.

  He stood back up and she opened her eyes, saw him slap his forehead then heard him curse, before he turned and walked off.

  “Dixie!” she yelled at the top of her lungs, and then heard her tentative footsteps coming from the back of the house. “Get your books, let’s do your homework!” she added, then huffed out a breath and closed her eyes to get control of the emotions ripping her apart. Maybe the mundane task would help distract her from the doubts that were pouring through her as to whether agreeing to marry Tommy had been such a good idea after all.

  She heard his keys scrape on the table by the door when he grabbed them, then the door opened and shut, and she guessed he was leaving for a while. That was fine with her, because she did not want to talk to him again until she calmed down.

  ***

  Calling himself an idiot for the umpteenth time, since he’d left the ranch, Tommy swerved to miss a bicyclist, then swung into the copy store, so he could fax the damned notice of summons to his attorney. He made a note to buy one for his office the next time he came to town, because he certainly wasn’t going to do it now in the mood he was in. It seemed like every time he turned around these days he was fucking up.

  The horrified look on Katie’s face when he’d yelled at her in the foyer, was forever burned into his mind. Emotion surged up into his throat again, and he swallowed it down, then went in the store and got the clerk to fax the paper, then he walked back out to get into his truck, and his eyes snagged on two things, a flower shop, and a jewelry store. Softly, he closed the truck door and walked to the jewelry store. He hadn’t gotten Katie a ring yet, needed to get her one, so everyone who saw it knew she was his. She’d agreed to marry him, and he was going to hold her to that, even though she was probably having second thoughts after the way he’d treated her earlier.

  Yelling wasn’t in Tommy’s nature, but he’d been so upset by Edith’s visit, then she’d promised to stay on the couch and take it easy, yet she’d hobbled all the way over to the door, he’d just lost it. He needed to make it up to her…and make his proposal a lot more romantic than a spur of the moment thing first at his house, then at the hospital. She deserved better.

  He walked into the jewelry store with purpose and found a woman to help him. There were several men hanging out behind the counter, but he zeroed in on her, because if there was anyone who knew what a woman would like, it was another woman.

  She must’ve shown him thirty rings, before he settled on one in the first tray they’d looked at. It was a princess cut diamond with two baguettes, one on either side of the sizable center stone, set in platinum. The matching wedding band had a row of four baguettes channel set into a dainty platinum band. Katie didn’t wear jewelry typically, so he wasn’t sure about the ring, but she’d wear this engagement ring, and he’d put the matching band on her finger very soon.

  “I’ll take it,” he told her, and she pulled the set from the tray, then got a small blue velvet box from under the counter and slid them inside.

  Snapping it shut, the woman handed it to him with a smile, then said, “Your fiancé is a very lucky lady…she’s gonna love it.” Hopefully she still loved him, that was the sixty-four thousand dollar question. Tommy shoved the box in the pocket of his jeans, then pulled out his wallet and tossed his credit card down on the counter.

  On the way to the register, a horseshoe shaped necklace caught his eye. A diamond heart dangled from the chain in the center of the horseshoe. He stopped and tapped on the glass, then said, “Can I see that too?”

  The woman opened the case and pulled it out, and he lifted it from the velvet bed and twirled the dainty chain to look at the pendant closely. It was so Katie…she would love this, he knew it. “I’ll take this too, please,” he said and handed it back to her.

  His credit card was smoking by the time he left the jewelry store, but he was smiling. He went next door to the flower shop, and flinched when he walked inside, remembering his last attempt t
o give Katie flowers. Something about the yellow roses he’d given her had set her off, and he was not going to repeat that mistake. Tommy was going to find out how he’d screwed that up, and what he should have done.

  The gray haired lady behind the counter, looked up from the cash register when he walked in and gave him a bright smile. “Oooh, I see you’ve been next door. Looks like your lady is going to get doubly lucky today,” she said in a chirpy cheerful voice. “What can I do for you young man?”

  “I gave my girlfriend yellow roses once, and she almost hit me over the head with them…can you tell me why?”

  The lady chuckled and asked him, “We’re you just friends then?”

  “Well, um, no, we weren’t just friends. I’d done something stupid, and was trying to make it up to her.”

  “Flowers have a language…that’s why when you give them, you have to really consider what you’re trying to say with them.”

  “Really?” Tommy snorted then leaned on the counter.

  “Yes, indeed…every type of flower has a meaning. The yellow roses you gave to your girlfriend? That meant you wanted to be friends, not lovers.”

  “Holy, Sh—Moly!” he shouted, then stood up and felt the blood drain from his face. “No wonder she wanted to hit me with them!”

  She chuckled, then asked him, “So, young man, what message are you trying to send to your lady today?” then she walked around the counter to the showroom and said with a wink, “Maybe I can help you say it right this time.”

  “I want to say that I love her, and want to spend the rest of my life with her. I’m going to ask her to marry me,” he said sincerely.

  “Red roses with primroses, maybe a few pink buds,” she told him then went to the cooler and started pulling out stems of flowers. “True love, eternal love, and desire…sound about right?”

  He huffed out a relieved sigh that this woman knew what she was doing, and told her, “That sounds perfect, thank you.”

  She quickly arranged the flowers in a pretty vase, and put a bow on it, then took his credit card and rang up the purchase. When she handed him his receipt, she told him, “Good luck, with your lady…she’s a lucky woman.”

  “I’m the lucky one, ma’am…I don’t know what she sees in me, but I’m damned glad she must see something she likes,” he told her with a wink, then walked out of the store, his mood much lighter than it had been.

  Two down, one to go…he needed to order some dinner for them. He sat the flowers down on the floorboard of the truck and propped an old pair of boots he had behind the seat against them, so they didn’t tip over, then he pulled out his cell phone and called Marco at his favorite Italian restaurant, and placed a to go order.

  After he picked up the order, and talked to Marco, who was an old friend of his dad’s, for a few minutes, because he couldn’t get out of it, he headed back for the ranch. He grabbed his cell phone again and called his home number, and Karlie answered on the second ring.

  “Hey, it’s Tommy…” he announced, then asked hesitantly, “Is Katie doing okay?”

  Karlie snorted and he smiled, because it was a really funny sound. “Yeah, she’s pissed at you though…what the hell did you do now?” she asked.

  Tommy figured Karlie must’ve been upstairs when he’d yelled at Katie earlier, and he was glad, because he knew Katie’s feisty sister would’ve kicked his ass right then and there.

  “I was an asshole as usual, but I’m going to fix it, I promise…can you take Dixie to dinner and the movies? I need some time.”

  “Sure, but I don’t have a vehicle…Gabe’s gonna pick me up on Friday.”

  “I’ll be home in fifteen minutes, you can take my truck. Meet me out front,” he told her, then disconnected.

  With every mile he got closer to the ranch, the more excited Tommy got. He was going to do this right this time, and he was gonna keep doing it right from now on. Katie Upton was the love of his life, and he was going to prove it to her.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Why the hell was he so nervous? She’d already said yes once, he knew she was going to say yes again this time, or he hoped she would. Yeah, she was mad at him, but it wasn’t the leaving kind of mad, was it? Tommy didn’t know, but he was as nervous as the last turkey on Thanksgiving.

  When he got back home Katie was in the bathroom. Evidently, Karlie had helped her in there before she left. How the heck she was gonna manage a bath, banged up and one-armed, he didn’t know, but she was so stubborn, he knew she’d give it a try…and might hurt herself in the process.

  After turning on the oven to warm, Tommy slid the tin containers inside, then quickly set the table for two, and put some candlesticks he’d gotten from the china cabinet in the center of the table and lit them. He put the vase with her flowers between them, then stood back to look at his handiwork. It looked damned good, and he hoped Katie would appreciate the effort.

  He assumed she was in the downstairs bath, because it would have been too damned hard for her to get upstairs, so he headed into the living room, then down the hallway toward the back of the house. He saw the main floor bedroom door was open, and he went inside. Her suitcase was open on the bed, and some of her clothes were laid out beside it. He heard water running in the bathroom, and walked across the big room, and tried the knob. It wasn’t locked, and he heaved a relieved breath. If it was locked, and she hurt herself in there, he’d have to break the door down to help her.

  With a knock, he twisted the knob, and walked in before she could tell him to stay out. His breath caught, when he saw her sitting on the toilet, half-dressed and crying. Walking quickly over there, he helped her stand, then sat down and pulled her onto his lap.

  “Aww, baby…don’t cry,” he said soothingly, and hugged her to him, then kissed her hair.

  “It’s been a crappy day,” she sniffled, then her tears fell faster, and her lip trembled as she finished, “And it ends with, I can’t even give myself a bath…it’s just humiliating.”

  He looked over at the big garden tub that was half-full of water and bubbles, then told her. “Everyone needs help sometimes, baby…you just need to let people help you.”

  She groaned and he loosened his arms around her, then she gave him a watery chuckle and said, “It’s not fun eating your own words, you know.”

  He knew she was talking about him letting her help him with money to hire a lawyer. “Kind of ironic, huh?” he said softly, then told her, “Here’s what we’re going to do…we’re going to take a bath together.” Tommy helped her stand, then he stood too, and pulled her shirt up over her rounded belly. When he revealed her beautiful breasts, he sucked in a breath and instantly hardened, but averted his eyes, because this was about helping her not ogling her.

  “Okay, sweetheart, pull your good arm out of the sleeve,” he told her gruffly, and she did as he requested. Lifting her left arm, he slid the shirt over her head and down her arm, then tossed it on the ground, and gently lowered her arm back to her side.

  She’d taken the sling off already, and he saw it on the counter between the sinks. He leaned down and searched in the cabinet for the box of replacement liners for the trash can, and pulled one out, then found a plastic zip tie. Turning back around, he looked only at her arm, as he slid the white liner over the gauze and splinting, then tied the zip tie around it at the top. He leaned down and kissed her lips, then said, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way, darlin’.”

  Kneeling down in front of her, Tommy grabbed the stretchy shorts she had on, and pushed them down her long legs, and she stepped out of them, then he went back and grabbed the elastic at her hips and pushed her panties to the floor. He stared at her belly for a minute, and wanted to laugh at the distorted she devil tattoo on her hip, but he didn’t. Instead he leaned forward and kissed her belly, then laid his cheek against it.

  The love in his heart expanded in his chest to a point, he thought his heart might explode. He put his arms around her hips and hugged her, and her belly gave
him a one, two punch in the cheek and he pulled back and looked up at her in shock.