Heart of Dixie (Moreover #1)

by Ruthie Henrick

  “You know Deke moved on after you dumped him. Surely you didn’t think he’d wait for you?”

  “I didn’t come back because of Deke.” She stared as if searching for the truth.

  “So, you’re married?”

  A stack of a newly released bestseller was piled nearby. I picked one up to busy my hands. My eyes kept straying out the front wall of wood-framed windows.

  “No, not married. Unless you count my job.”

  Across the street Deke casually sauntered along the same sidewalk I pretty much trotted down only minutes ago. He reached the corner and turned to cross the street.

  Damn, he was coming our way! Keep walking, keep walking, please keep walking. My silent plea had no effect. A few moments later the bell above the door jingled as the rustic portal opened and his broad shoulders were backlit by the glare of the afternoon sun. I took a step so I was partially hidden and turned my back. He strolled past and into the open floor space, and I turned my head to watch him over my shoulder. “Hey, Coll, where are you? Are you in the back?”

  “If you’d put on your glasses, you’d see I’m right here.” Her voice was full of laughter when he nearly crashed into a rolling cart of new stock before he noticed her. “And keep your voice down. I have a . . . customer.”

  Busted. But if Colleen was still so protective of her younger brother, why ever did she make sure he knew I was here? I let out a sigh and turned to face them.

  Deke glanced over his shoulder and then froze, his eyebrows lowering and clouds passing through his clear caramel-colored irises. “Dixie. I thought you were spending the rest of the day with Beth.” The hurt I’d just witnessed on his face bled through in his voice.

  I lifted my hands in a helpless gesture. “Someone was sick so she got called to work.” It sure must be easier for twelve-year-old girls to plan a sleepover, because Beth and I were having a hell of a time meshing our schedules.

  “You should have called.” His closed expression reminded me of the younger Deke I remembered. He gestured outside, where the lowering sun cast long shadows across the sidewalk fronting his sister’s shop. “We still have plenty of time. Would you reconsider dinner?”

  I reshelved the book in my hand and moved between the tall racks, stopping to lean against a wall of thrillers. Deke followed and crowded close when I spoke, but I had no intention of sharing my personal business with Queen Colleen.

  His hand reached out to rest on my hip. The flesh beneath his palm was covered only by the cotton of my slim skirt, and suddenly I was warmer than when I was hoofing it down the pavement. “I thought maybe you and I should take a break.”

  His eyes flew up from where his thumb moved over me in lazy strokes. “Take a break? We haven’t gotten started yet.” He captured my gaze. Could he intuit my uncertainty? “Three more days, Dixie. You’ll only be here three days.”

  It would be torture to have to avoid him the rest of the time I was here.

  He lowered his chin and my head fell back. I gave in to temptation and allowed him to rub his firm lips up the sensitive skin of my throat, tickling the soft skin beneath my ear before sucking in my lobe and nipping at it. I let out a little moan that had Deke pulling back and grinning. “I think a break is a really, really bad idea.”

  The feel of his mouth on my skin had goose bumps erupting, and my knees going weak. He was right. That felt too good to ignore, and a break was a bad . . . No! No more goose bumps; no more weak knees. I lifted my hands to his chest—to that wall of muscle that made my fingers want to dig in and cling, damn him—and gave him enough of a shove that I could step around him. The heavy, achy spot between my thighs that hadn’t seen much action until Deke entered the picture began swearing at me in several different languages.

  I turned toward the selection of books, ran a fingertip across a row of spines in the D-G section. “I’m not a tease, I swear.” I kept my voice low as my head swiveled to meet his curious gaze. I allowed my hand to land on his upper arm and trace the tribal pattern circling his bicep. Interesting. And damn sexy. “But like you said, it’s only three days. I’m here to take care of Cooter and then I’m gone, Deke. I shouldn’t start anything with you while I’m here.”

  What was I saying? Deke was totally cut, totally hot, and I was turning him down. But I had to. As much as a couple of days rolling around in the sheets with him might be fun, there was a true and overpowering reason for holding back.

  I took another step away, then laid my hand on his chest when he took a step forward and followed me. “It will hurt too much when I leave.”

  His eyes went wide even as he sucked in a deep breath. He turned away from me and my hand drifted to my side.

  If only Colleen weren’t mere feet away, but it seemed we were having it out here so I kept my voice lowered. “What, you think you were the only one who got hurt when I left?”

  “I may have been the one who left—and don’t get me wrong, I still believe it was the right decision for both of us.” His head lifted. His narrowed eyes pinned me, but I held my ground. “But I gave up a lot when I left, Deke. I gave up my life here—a life I loved, even if Cooter did all he could to make it miserable.”

  A bell echoed; I glanced to the front of the store but the door remained closed. Then again, the sound had felt more like a warning bell in my head than any chime. I turned my steady gaze back to Deke. How did I make him understand how mislead and lonely I was when I first arrived in Chicago?

  “I went straight to live with my mother from here, but she was a stranger. The more I got to know her the more I realized she was no longer a person I liked.” Deke raised a brow.

  “She changed?”

  I scoffed. “You could say that. All she cared about was appearances. Making certain we were perfect for social engagements and her husband’s political campaigns.”

  I moved further into the stacks, gaining distance from the desk where Colleen could be heard intermittently clacking away at the computer keyboard. I stopped and turned and—damn it—found myself wrapped in Deke’s solid arms. The sturdiness and warmth of them should have felt overpowering and clingy, but instead they were comforting, reassuring. For once my body behaved, and even when he dropped his lips to mine for a quick kiss I didn’t wrap myself around him like a vine.

  I gazed up into the golden liquid eyes that had always seen into my soul, before even I knew what was there. “You were the greatest tragedy, Deke. My greatest regret was leaving you.”

  Silence stretched with my heart pounding in my chest and our eyes locked together. He loosened his arms and took a step back. “Yet you did. We spent hours—months—making plans for the future and you knew you were leaving.”

  A lock of hair fell over my eye when I shook my head; I reached up to pull it back. “No, I didn’t know I was leaving until that last night. The night Coot was so ugly to you.” My heart hammered in impatience. Can we touch him now? I gave in and wrapped my arms around Deke’s waist, sank into his chest when his palms rubbed circles on my lower back. “But after that night I knew two things.”

  Deke’s hands stilled and he tilted back, lifting my chin with a finger so I would meet his eyes. “Two things?”

  I gave him a puny smile. “That there was no way Cooter would ever change. There was no way he would ever treat you like the kind, warm, brilliant person you were.” Like the person I loved.

  “Brilliant, huh?” Deke’s grin made mine grow, but the knowledge of what came next had it shifting into a frown. I lowered my head and nodded against his chest. He resumed the rubbing on my back and lowered his cheek to rest atop my head. “What was the second thing?”

  The backs of my eyes burned at the hum of his murmured words. I blinked fast, then widened them to keep the tears at bay. I pulled my head back and met his eyes, which instantly went soft. “That I couldn’t live that way any longer.”

  The caramel in his eyes darkened and his grin faded away. “Aw, princess.” His strong hands slipped down and tightened again
st my hips to draw me closer. The beating in my heart sped to a gallop when my hand flattened against his chest and met the thudding echoes within.

  He lowered his head to press his forehead against mine; our breaths mingled as they stuttered through parted lips. It would be so easy to lean in, to lift my chin. To let him know I wanted his lips on mine again, not with the threat of Tuesday looming before us, but with the treasured memory of Deke and Dixie surrounding us. Life had been both simple and complicated back then, when we were idyllic teenagers who believed that love could be enough to overcome . . . everything.

  “I’m going to kiss you, Dixie.”

  See how smart he is? The man is not only gorgeous but he reads minds, too. My inner slut whimpered in gratitude.

  “Yes, please.” I lifted my face to him and welcomed the barely there brush of his firm lips against the corner of my mouth. I shifted closer even though I had nothing to blame my actions on today. I couldn’t attribute lifting my arms around his neck to pull him closer to anything more than the teasing nibbles that wreaked havoc on my good intentions.

  “I want you to kiss me, Deke.” More than anything, my heart cried out for the feel of his mouth on mine. I parted my lips and captured the sound of his low growl. Neither of us had been drinking today, yet my knees went wobbly. I leaned against the sturdy wooden shelving and found myself held there by the width of Deke’s hard muscled chest.

  We’d managed to work our way to nearly the far end of the row of books; shelves of romance novels concealed us. We were sheltered in privacy and my heart let out a deep sigh. My fingertips trailed down his chest, mapping firm ridges through the thin cotton of his T-shirt. His thighs crowded into mine, held our bodies flush against each other. The hard outline of him behind his zipper pressed firmly into my belly and teased me with his heat.

  My fingers continued their downward journey. They stopped to tug the hem of his shirt from the waistband of his jeans and slipped inside, against those acres of warm, smooth skin. Flattening my wandering hand over the width of his abdomen, I came to the trail of coarse hairs and paused. My fingertips trickled through it, followed it until they were buried under the denim waistband. A ragged moan crawled up my throat. Deke caught it and matched it with one of his own.

  “Ahem! Would you two mind getting a room!”

  I yanked my hand out of Deke’s pants. “Oh, Jesus.”

  “Go away, Colleen.” The deep rumble of his voice vibrated against my chest, pretty much right beneath the place that had been tingling only a moment ago.

  His strong hold kept me from turning until Colleen’s soft-soled footsteps faded away. Which was sweet, considering the edges of my blouse hung unnoticed at my sides. I reached up to tug the flaps together, and fumbled with buttons.

  Deke’s hand cupped my face. His thumb stroked the curve of my cheek. “Looks like we’re about to be kicked out of here. Can I interest you in dinner now?”

  With my eyes closed, I rested my forehead against his chest and nodded my head. I wasn’t hungry. God knew food was the last thing on my mind. But my clock was counting down, our minutes together sifting through the funnel of an imaginary hourglass. I’d make time for Beth, somehow, between organizing a burial and shutting down what was left of my former life. And with the bat radar the biddies of Moreover seemed to possess, she probably already knew she lost her temporary roommate.

  “I have an idea.” His eyes shot through the glass of the front window, to where he was parked at the street. “Where’s your rental?”

  “I left it down near the diner.”

  “Run it back to the lodge and I’ll be there in—” His eyes stole a quick glance at his wristwatch. “Thirty minutes. Oh, and you’ll want to change into jeans.” He linked our fingers and led me out through the shop without a word to his sister. It didn’t bother me at all; she just caught me making out with her brother. I wasn’t sure my face was back to its normal shade yet.

  At the sidewalk Deke opened the passenger door of his truck. “Get in. I’ll drive you to your car.”

  “That’s not necessary. I’m just around the corner.” I pointed in the general direction.

  His face broke out in a wide grin. “You’re from LA. As I understand it, nobody walks if they can drive it.”

  I scowled, but climbed onto the seat. It wasn’t that we absolutely had to drive . . . more like everything was so far. Before I saw Deke in the hardware store and felt the need to find a bunker, my stroll up Main Street had been enjoyable. I needed to make time for another walk around before I left to go home.

  “So, what’s this idea of yours?”

  The late afternoon sun caught him in the eye. He squinted. “Just a place I know. I thought we might have a picnic.” He paused to flip the visor down. “You might want to bring a light jacket, too. The mosquitoes will be out later.”

  I wasn’t big on surprises. Even less excited about mosquitoes. “A picnic could be fun.” I reached for the door handle as he pulled up behind my car and blocked Main Street.

  He reached for me before I could slip out of the truck. “Relax, Dixie. It’s no big deal. Really. Just something I want to show you.”

  I grinned. “No big deal to you, maybe. I have to explain to Beth why I’m blowing her off for dinner again.” I gave the door a shove and managed to avoid dinging the chrome of my bumper. “You’ve got thirty minutes, McAllister. And this better be one great picnic spot.”

  Half an hour later the throaty blast of a car horn sounded from across the gravel parking lot. I moved to stand in the open doorway of my cabin to find Deke pulling up in a classic Mustang. He parked and hopped over the side, a grin stretched across his cheeks. He offered a friendly wave.

  “Come on over!”

  All the invitation I needed. I bounded across the threshold.

  “Deke, you got her! You really did it!” I couldn’t help but squeal as I moved closer. The Shelby had been his dream car for as long as I’d known him. I trotted over and ran my hand over the high gloss sheen of the polished fender. “Red. You always said it could only be red.”

  I circled the car, oohing and aahing. The idea of owning this car had always been important to him. “So, tell me. How long have you had it? Did you have to fix her up or did you find her already this perfect? Oh, it is a she, isn’t it? Aren’t all cars?” An incredible aroma drifted from inside. “Do we get to take her on our picnic? Because that would be really great!”

  “Hop in.” He reached to pull the door open for me, but I waved him off. If he could hop over, I could hop, too. I hadn’t given up my heels for nothing.

  Deke kept the speedometer at the regulation twenty-five going through town, but once we hit the highway, he opened it up. With the top down, my hair whipped around my head, so I confined it in my fist at the nape of my neck. The dust from the road mingled with the cedar from the woods and the wild jasmine growing along the shoulder to tickle my senses. I got another whiff of dinner and my stomach rumbled in protest. It had been far too long since I ate that pickle.

  I braced myself in the seat as the road deteriorated to two rough lanes, then clutched at the dash when Deke bypassed the bridge, left the road, and blazed a narrow track along the edge of the creek to where the water widened to a pond. I glanced at the path behind us, but we didn’t seem to have left any parts in our wake. “You know, there’s a popular amusement park near my house. It charges a boatload of money to take people on rides like that.”

  He just laughed. “I didn’t realize the road would be quite this bad.”

  “Road? The only road down here is that rut we just made as you bounced us through the grass.”

  He opened the door to get out, shut the door with a slam. “Yeah. Poor Lucy.”

  I got out and slammed my door too. “Lucy?”

  “Sure. Lucy. That’s her name.” He gave the doorframe a loving pat, then proceeded to unload the back seat. Out came a blanket, which he flung over his forearm. Next he hefted out a loaded up five-gallon bucket.
That piqued my interest.

  I hustled to keep up when he took off toward the edge of the water. Now that we were slogging around in the soft earth, I understood the eye roll I received when Deke got his first glimpse of my wedged high-tops. But he said picnic, and they were the only sneakers I had with me. I gave my step a burst of speed and was only slightly out of breath when I caught up with him.

  “Lucy. I should have guessed. You always said she’d be red and you always said you’d name her Lucy.”

  There finally came a clearing in the brush. He led me down to the bank and set the bucket in the grass. “See. Some dreams actually do come true.” He muttered the words nonchalantly as he shook out the blanket and let it settle to the ground.

  The covering hovered atop the dense fescue. I bent to tamp it down against the thick cushion, and pretended I hadn’t heard the sarcastic dig. “Don’t tell me that’s all you ever wanted, Deke.”

  He nudged the bucket to weigh down the edge of the fringed picnic cloth against the warm breeze and pulled out a brown paper sack with the top rolled down. I caught a whiff as Break an Egg’s signature yellow logo landed beside me. That’s where all the tempting aromas were coming from, but I was quickly losing my appetite. He reached in again and I doled out the disposable plates and forks he wordlessly tossed at me. Where this sudden surly attitude came from I had no idea. An hour ago he had his hand down my pants, and now—now he acted as though he’d rather I popped out of the car and landed in one of those ruts.

  He spent several silent minutes positioning a pair of long metal stakes, then using a heavy-looking mallet to batter them into the ground. Horseshoes emerged from the Mary Poppins bucket, and my imagination ran wild as the pause in our conversation became more and more strained. At long last he flung a shoe, and hooked it on the short pole.

  “What the hell’s wrong with my car, Dixie?” His eyes swept the body of it, hood to trunk. “It’s not as fancy as the limos you’re used to riding in? You and your celebs.”