"Tonight?"
Catherine nodded. "A bunch of us go out around once a month on a Friday night just to get away. Tonight Kelly is a little under the weather over some idiot she just broke up with."
"Not that new fella she seemed to like?" Aunt Eileen flashed an irritated scowl.
"Yep." Catherine bobbed her head. "He kept fussing at her about her eating and her weight. Finally told her she could stand to lose a few pounds."
"She's got a nice full figure." Aunt Eileen's gaze flashed so cold and hard that Joanna almost took a step back. "One a real man would appreciate."
Catherine's hands went up palm out. "Don't tell me. You're preaching to the choir. Anyhow," she looked to Joanna again, "we all thought a drive out to Butler Springs and the Boot 'N' Scoots was in order. You up to it?"
"Oh, I don't—"
"Go on and say yes." Aunt Eileen's frown disappeared. "You'll have fun. Music is good for the soul. And the imagination."
"I suppose if Finn doesn't mind."
"Mind what?" Finn walked in the door as if he'd been summoned.
"If she joins us for girls' night," Catherine answered.
Finn shrugged and smiled. "That's up to you. I'm probably going to turn out the lights early tonight anyhow."
"Well." She did like the idea of getting to know everyone better. "Yes. Thank you."
"Great. I've got the truck out front. Meg's expecting us."
"Oh. I should probably change."
"Nope. We don't stand on formality around here." Catherine smiled, turned to Aunt Eileen and kissed her on the cheek. "Save me some of that, please. It'll be great for lunch."
"You bet." Aunt Eileen nodded.
"Will I need a key?" Joanna grabbed her purse. "Or will someone be up?"
"No need for a key." Finn grabbed a biscuit from the breadbasket. "Not much need for locks around here."
"Oh. Then, guess I'll see you later." With a wave and a smile, Joanna followed Catherine out the door. Life in West Texas sure was unpredictable. Rattling snakes in the morning and boot scooting at night.
***
Only two previous nights spent with Joanna joining the family at the dinner table and something didn't feel right not having her here tonight. Finn was definitely losing it. She was an old college pal. A good friend, but nothing more. He definitely needed to get out more. Not spend what little off time he had on the ranch. At least once in a while.
"Don't you think?" his father said.
Finn had no idea what was being discussed at the table. "I'm sorry, think what?"
"That Jake Thomas and his wife are better off with her people?"
"Oh, well." Finn hadn't given much thought to it, but old man Thomas was definitely not one of the most supportive people in the world.
"I think it's important that he know the town doesn't hold him responsible for what happened." Aunt Eileen picked at her food with the edge of her fork. "The poor man was sick. "
"Anything new on the case?" Ethan gave his daughter a Cheerio and her swing a nudge.
"According to DJ," their father said, "with the additional information from the specialist on brain tumors that Allison recommended, the judge has finally agreed to interim probation with medical evaluations and monitoring of behavior to determine if the tumor was indeed the cause of his dangerous behavior. Jake Sr. says Jake Jr. and his wife are going to settle permanently near Houston."
"I still can't stand the idea that Jake Jr. doesn't feel he can come back here." Aunt Eileen pushed to her feet and lifted her empty dish and silverware. "Though I am glad that the doctor's feel he'll make a full recovery and will be back to his old friendly self."
Finn's phone buzzed in his pocket. He didn't get many personal calls but tonight he was especially glad to hear it ring.
"Excuse me." He lifted a finger and walking his plate from the dining room to the kitchen sink, answered his phone. "Hello."
"You got plans tonight?" Reed Taylor, one of the patrol officers under DJ, asked without introduction. "Ken Brady and I are thinking of heading to Butler Springs for a little Friday night R and R."
The invitations to join his childhood friends had been coming fewer and farther apart. The usual, 'no thanks, I'm beat,' was about to spill from his lips when he remembered not ten minutes ago he'd told himself he needed to get out more. "Free as a bird. What's the plan?"
"Probably Delancey's. Grab a couple of beers. Watch a game on any of a dozen screens. Maybe shoot some pool."
"Sounds good to me. Be at your place in an hour."
"Great. See ya then."
Twenty minutes later he was well on his way when his phone rang again. This time it was Ken. "Listen, my car doesn't want to turn over and it won't take a jump. You mind swinging out my way and picking me up?"
"No problem." Fortunately, Finn hadn't reached the turn off yet for Ken's place. A century ago the dirt drive had been the entry to a single ranch. Through the decades the land had been parceled out by varying acres to the expanding family. Some folks had more land than others. Some merely owned a house on a decent plot off the main drag, known as Brady Road, for the last generation or so.
At the far end of the road, Ken still had his head under the hood when Finn's quad cab rumbled up. Ken slammed the hood shut and shaking his head, grabbed a nearby rag, wiped his hands, tossed it aside, and climbed into the truck.
"You look pretty neat for someone who just had their head in an engine." Finn shifted the engine into drive.
"Just looking, not touching. It's gotta be the starter."
"Sure it's not the alternator?"
Ken shook his head. "Not sure of anything. I'm better with four hooves than four wheels."
"I hear you." Finn had to laugh. He knew enough about cars to keep them from throwing a rod from lack of oil, but that was about all he knew. Ethan and Connor were the mechanically inclined of the family.
"Man, I am so ready to get out and away from all things cow."
Again, Finn chuckled with his friend. He loved what he did, but Ken was right. Between his brothers all pairing up, children joining the family, new babies on the way, and now Joanna around to make him smile, Finn realized there was a very good reason why people for centuries had been maligning all work and no play. He definitely needed to play.
Finn had no idea how they'd gone from the plan of a few beers and a game on the big screen to pulling up to the Boots 'N' Scoots, but here they were.
"Surely Tuckers Bluff has grown enough to warrant having its own little night spot?" Ken climbed out of the backseat of the truck.
Reed slammed his door shut. "The problem is we're one of the few all dry counties in the state. There just isn't enough interest to make Tuckers Bluff wet."
"Has anyone ever tried?" Ken asked, looking to Finn then Reed.
Finn shrugged. Driving an hour into his hometown at the end of a workday for a beer held little appeal. Though driving into Tuckers Bluff on a Friday night made a lot more sense than hauling ass ninety miles to Butler Springs.
"Maybe," Ken followed Reed and Finn inside, "it's time our generation brought it up again."
"Okay," Reed stepped aside, "let's say the town votes to make Tuckers Bluff wet. Who's going to invest in a night time establishment when half the neighboring residents don't actually live in town?"
"Think of it as a baseball movie. If we build it, they will come." And with a huge face-splitting grin, Ken marched to the bar.
Reed shook his head and turned to Finn. "The thing is, it's not a half bad idea if you can get the liquor thing past the blue haired church ladies."
Visions of his aunt and her card-playing friends along with a wall of empty booze bottles in the kitchen flashed in front of Finn. "I have a feeling the tide may be turning on that one."
The two of them had barely caught up with Ken at the bar when a pretty brunette caught his eye and he was off to dance.
"He was right. A little dance time with the ladies is good for what ails a man." Finn survey
ed the crowded dance hall and then his brows dipped into a mini-frown. "Hell."
"What?" Finn followed his direction and spotted the table in question. "I thought they were going to Meg's?"
"I didn't think about girls-Friday-night-out at all." Reed expelled a long breath "No matter. It's not like any of us were planning on making an all-nighter out of this."
"Agreed. Might as well say hello." Finn led the way. Though the original reason for tagging along with his friends had been to get out and shake his thoughts clear of Joanna, as the table of town women grew closer, he found himself just more than a little pleased to have wound up at the same place as her.
"Well aren't you all a sight for sore eyes." The latest addition to the girls night out gang, a Marilyn Monroe wanna-be since childhood, jumped to her feet and quickly sidled up to Reed. Finn wondered how much of the sweet dumb blonde was real and how much was an act. "Care to dance with little old me?"
Like the gentleman that would make any parent proud, Reed extended his elbow and smiled down. "It would be my pleasure."
They squirmed their way through the crowds, leaving Finn the only man standing at a table of nothing but smiling women. He tried not to let his gaze shift too quickly to Joanna, but the effort was futile, her fingers tapped in rhythm with her toes and the tune blaring in the background. "Shall we take a turn?" He extended his hand to her.
"Thought you'd never ask."
Chapter Twelve
"I just love this song." Becky swayed in her seat to the tune of "I Like the Sound of That" and turned to the rest of the girls seated at the table with her. "I'm thinking we need to start doing a dancing date night once a month, too."
"Oh." Drumming her fingers on the table in time with the music, Catherine nodded. "Even I can two-step."
"So is this just for the married people?" Kelly, Adam's receptionist, tapped her foot to the beat.
"Nope." Becky wished that DJ were here now so they could do a twirl on the floor. For years coming here on girls' night every so often had been a lot of fun, but tonight it just didn't feel the same anymore. "Anyone can come and bring a date or find a date."
Meg gave a thumbs-up. "I like the idea. Good to get out of town and have a nice dinner and then do a little boot scootin'."
"Boot scootin'?" Toni chuckled. "Saints preserve us, we've become Texans."
"Speak for yourself." Meg waved a finger. "I've always been a Texan."
"Yeah," Toni nodded. "But a city Texan. Did you even know how to two-step before you married Adam?"
"Well," Meg's cheeks turned a rosy shade, "I didn't know a lot about living before marrying Adam."
"I'll say one thing for sure." Toni casually waved a finger at the dance floor. "For a city girl, Joanna seems to scoot her boots just fine."
"I'd scoot my boots just fine too if I were dancing with a Farraday." Kelly glanced up at the multiple sets of eyes that had turned in her direction. "None of your Farradays of course."
The table rumbled with laughter and Meg shifted her attention to the dance floor. "They do look a bit cozy."
Two steps forward and a shuffle back, Finn and Joanna followed the circle of dancers around the dance floor and at the moment Meg looked up, Finn gave his partner a little twirl and Joanna burst into giggles.
"This is certainly not the first time they've been dancing." Catherine focused on the couple. "There seems to be quite an air of familiarity between them."
"The question," Meg kept her gaze on the dancing duo, "is how familiar?"
"Do you think back in college they had more of a horizontal tango going on?" Toni asked.
Both Becky and Kelly whipped their heads around to face Toni as if she'd asked if Finn had participated in sacrificing a virgin to the volcano gods. The idea was almost laughable. Becky shook her head. "Have you learned nothing about the Farraday men?"
Kelly blew out a sigh. "Dogs don't crap where they eat and the Farradays don't play around with friends. If Finn and she shared a house with friends, you can bet your last dollar he never laid a hand on her." She cleared her throat. "At least not, well… you know what I mean."
"The Farradays do all seem to have an unusually wide honor streak," Toni agreed.
"A bit old fashioned." Catherine smiled. "Kinda nice."
All the women returned their attention to the couple on the dance floor. Another spin and turn, a laugh, and when the chorus came about "too loud on the highway" Finn's lips seemed to move in time with the lyrics.
"Is he singing to her?" Meg leaned forward and like a crowd at a sporting event, so did the two women on either side of her.
"Looks like it, doesn't it?" Kelly was the first to lean back in her seat. "But it is a catchy tune."
"She's right." Becky turned and lifted her glass. "I'm also singing a little louder when they get to the end of a sentence and sing 'youuuuuuuu'. Makes me smile."
"I like the line about laughing too much to sleeeeeeep." Meg smiled. "Reminds me of Adam."
"I bet." Toni set her hand on her stomach and reached for her ginger ale. "We are awfully lucky. All of us."
"Too bad there aren't more brothers." Kelly hefted a lazy shoulder. "Then again, except for Becky here, the Farradays never paid much attention to the women in their own backyard. Which is why we know that if Finn says he and Joanna were just friends—"
"They were just friends," Meg and Toni repeated.
"Hell, they didn't pay much attention to me either," Becky said. "Took a baby and court ordered foster care to get their attention."
"I don't know about that." Meg tipped her head. "I always thought DJ looked at you with a little too much interest."
"Really?" Toni asked. "I thought he had something going with Abbie."
"You too?" Catherine leaned into the table to say something and then noticing the slight frown settling on Becky's face, straightened in her seat. "The important thing is DJ's head over boot-heels in love with Becky and champing at the bit for this big bash wedding to be over."
The tension in Becky's shoulders eased. "I can't believe a few more weeks and I'll be an official Farraday."
"Look." Toni pointed to the floor again. A new song came on, a little slower, and neither Finn nor Joanna showed any sign of taking a break. Toni turned to the women and lowered her voice. "Are you sure about Finn and Joanna?"
Meg and Catherine squinted their eyes, but like Becky, Kelly bobbed her head vehemently.
"One round of fresh drinks." Reed Taylor set down a glass in front of Meg, Becky and Catherine.
"That was really nice of you." Meg lifted her white wine. "You seriously didn't have to go get this."
Reed did that casual manly shrug thing and smiled. "My pleasure. The place is packed and they don't have enough waitresses working the tables."
Once he and the Marilyn Monroe look-alike had come back from a single song spin on the dance floor, Reed realized the ladies were still waiting on re-fills of the drinks. As if his day job were bartending instead of patrolling the city streets, he'd taken the orders and disappeared into the crowd.
"Now that you've prevented these ladies from dying of thirst," Kelly stood up, "any interest in taking another turn on the dance floor?"
Reed extended his elbow as he'd done earlier. "With you, always."
They'd made it just close enough to the dance floor to be out of earshot when Toni turned to Becky. "Did I miss something with Kelly and Reed? Not that a little manly attention right now isn't what she needs, but that sounded a bit more than polite."
Becky shook her head. "Nope."
"You sure?"
"Yep. The problem with finding a good man in Tuckers Bluff is everyone has known each other since they were in diapers and it's kinda hard to think of each other as anything other than a good buddy."
Toni laughed. "Looks like a lot of friendly dancing going on for a bunch of good buddies."
Becky glanced from where Reed and Kelly joined the circle of dancers to Finn and Joanna. Where Kelly and Reed shuffled for
ward and back and smiled, every so often Finn leaned forward to say something to Joanna, or she leaned in to speak with him, and each time they laughed just a little harder or the smiles grew a bit wider. Either way, Becky resisted the urge to look over her shoulder and see if maybe the disc jockey was a shaggy stray dog.
***
It had been way too long since Joanna had found herself on the dance floor, never mind with a man who could dance. Of all her friends in school just about everyone could do a two step, but Finn could dance. He didn't just follow the line, he twirled and spun and she absolutely loved it.
What she loved even more was the warmth of his hand at the small of her back and the strength of his other hand gently enfolding her own. "I've missed this."
"Dancing?" Finn twirled her and spun her back into the fold of his arms.
She nodded. "None of the guys I've dated over the years have done anything more than sway from side to side and too often not even to the rhythm of the music."
"Can't be that bad." Finn offered a lazy smile that sent goosebumps down her arms.
Joanna noticed just about everyone around them was moving and keeping time without any effort. "Maybe it's a country thing."
Finn's head tipped back at an eruption of laughter. "The music or the people?"
A shy smile pulled at her lips. "I suppose both."
"I don't know about all country people, but we were raised with music in the background. Once a month there's a potluck lunch at the church and there was always a fiddle and a song and a circle of dancers. We all pretty much learned to dance at the same time we learned to walk."
"I believe you." She could picture a little version of Finn dancing with his aunt in a barn with hay piled around like an old movie musical. The next song shifted the beat. A slower ballad. The circle of dancers continued to move in the same general direction, but Joanna had instinctively inched closer and to her surprise, Finn had done the same. He moved so close to her she could feel the warmth of his breath blowing lightly on her cheek.
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