Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek)

by Tina Leonard

  He looked at Maggie. “Come on, beautiful. Let’s get you a drink and a warm bed.”

  Maggie got up gratefully. “I feel like I’m abandoning my daughters.” She looked worried.

  Lucy got up to hug her mother. “Mom, we’ll invite you to the next haunted house party we have, promise.”

  “That’s right,” Sugar said. “Go with Lassiter and spend the rest of the evening staring up at the stars.”

  “I shouldn’t leave you here,” Maggie worried. “I feel like a bad mother.”

  Sugar got up, gently pushing her toward Lassiter. “Maggie, we have two strong guys and a sweet dog to comfort us. We’re fine.”

  Maggie went off with Lassiter, who guided her toward his truck.

  “I love you both!” Maggie called.

  “We love you too!” Lucy and Sugar called back.

  “Oh my God,” Sugar said, sinking onto the porch with her sister. “This is weird even for us.”

  “Sugar, I am so sorry.” Lucy put her hand in her sister’s, just like she had when she was a little girl. “I never dreamed some freak might want to come see our house. This is going to do nothing for our reputation in Pecan Creek,” Lucy told her. “You realize we will never, ever be invited to the fine homes and gatherings of the PC elite?”

  “Oh, screw that,” Sugar said. “We weren’t going to be, anyway.” She pulled her sister close to her, and Lucy rested her head on her shoulder.

  “Were you scared when you found him, Sugar?”

  Sugar closed her eyes. “I think it’s safe to say I’ve had better surprises.”

  Lucy shuddered. “Guess it’s better that he was dead instead of alive.”

  “Dear God.” Sugar blinked. Pecan Creek had a minimal rate of crime. Everybody left their doors unlocked; some of the farmers even left their keys in their trucks. There was occasional vandalism, high school mischief, and that was it. The Pillars kept such a tight clamp on everything that nobody bothered to question the chain of authority. “It never occurred to me to think of how he got in the house. We keep our doors locked tight like Fort Knox.”

  “Yeah,” Lucy said. “Except I think I forgot to lock up when I left. Truthfully, I had my mind on Bobby. Something about him just seems to make me so giddy.”

  Sugar smiled, tucking Lucy closer. “I know,” she said. “I know exactly what you mean.”

  Jake and Bobby came out on the porch, carrying a couple of large garbage bags.

  “More bodies?” Lucy asked.

  Bobby carried the bags to Jake’s truck, tossing them in the back. “The sheets and bedding,” Jake said. “The comforter, everything. You spend a couple nights at Bobby’s, Lucy, and in a few days, that room won’t look the same. No more Belle Watling room.”

  “Damn,” Lucy said. “I kind of liked the décor.”

  “Pick out something else,” Jake said, “anything you want. Look at catalogs, on the Internet, whatever.”

  Lucy looked at him. “I’ve never gotten to decorate a room before.”

  He pulled her up from the porch, giving her a tiny push toward Bobby. “You do now. Spare no expense, please.”

  Sugar stared at Jake, astonished. Her sister winked at him. “‘Spare no expense’ are brave words, spoken to a woman.”

  “Scare me,” Jake said, sounding like a man who wasn’t too worried about it. “Mom spent a fortune on those rooms, in her quest for artistic interest. Please stay true to the spirit of bigger than life and overdone.”

  “And gaudy?” Lucy asked.

  “I leave that up to you. Try to have your paint colors to me in a couple of days.”

  “This is going to be fun!” Lucy gave Jake a sisterly poke in the arm and went off to join Bobby.

  Sugar looked at him. “You get a few hero points for that.”

  He shrugged. “Who wants to sleep in a room where a dead guy breathed his last? I’m pretty sure croaking in someone’s house when you haven’t been introduced doesn’t meet PC standards of Southern manners.” Jake considered this. “I saw plenty of dead bodies in the military. Trust me, Lucy needs a fresh start.”

  Sugar tried to reconcile this Jake with the Jake who had blocked her business. “I’m trying very hard to not fall for you.”

  “I know,” Jake said cheerfully. “Come on, ladies, I’ll take you to my place. We’ll have a couple of sips of cheer out on the patio and stare at the stars shining on the pool. And you, young lady,” he said to Paris, who jumped to put her paws on Jake’s chest when he thumped himself there, “are never to open the door to strangers again.”

  Paris licked Jake’s face. Sugar thought about sleeping in her room upstairs, decided she wasn’t brave enough for that. Besides which, Jake was warm and sexy, and all she wanted to do was be with him, anyway.

  But the thing was, there was no Cat-and-Evert moment in the future for them. Not that Sugar was looking for marriage—no way—but a serious relationship, definitely.

  She thought about Jake not being honest with her, about the billboard and the advertising and lots of other things. But he was considerate too. She hadn’t even thought about the fact that Lucy’s room was going to have to be cleaned, and he’d taken care of that and more.

  He made love to her so smoothly, so sexily.

  She wanted him, but she’d been lied to before.

  “You have a guest room?”

  “Sure,” he said. Then he grinned, lady-killer to the max. “Whatever the lady wants, the lady gets.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Jake accepted that he had made a huge mess of everything concerning Sugar. She was sleeping down the hall in the guest room and had been for the last week. Sugar hadn’t said so much as a hello to him unless he said it to her first. If the blue Oldsmobile hadn’t been parked in the garage at night, he wouldn’t have known she was there, except for faint traces of perfume in the air.

  It was time to put the Christmas decorations up in Pecan Creek now. He knew very well that the dead body—a Mr. Tommy Grimes from Galveston who’d had an itch to meet the purveyor of pecans who told such lusty tales on her blog—had probably killed any desire the Hot Nuts had to renew their lease on the family home.

  Sugar didn’t want to go home. Neither did Maggie or Lucy, according to Lassiter and Bobby. They were living in sin, according to Vivian, all of them, but only Jake knew that he wasn’t living anywhere close to the sin he’d like to be living with Sugar.

  Because he was the king of Schmuckville.

  He kind of hoped Sugar staying here meant that they could hit some kind of do-over button on their friendship, but that didn’t seem likely at this point. He couldn’t blame Sugar for being upset. He’d left her a note in the kitchen, telling her to stay in his house as long as she wanted, until she was comfortable going back home.

  She did return home during the day to cook and package her product. But she didn’t spend the night. Finding the body had been too much even for a tough baby like Sugar.

  He got a text, saw that it was from Lucy.

  Paint color: Robin’s egg blue.

  Jake smiled. Texted back: You got it.

  He didn’t know what Lucy was planning, but if she wanted blue, then robin’s egg blue would be on her porch from Bert’s Paint Store tomorrow.

  It’d be a change from the hot, sultry reds of the Belle Watling room and the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas room.

  Sugar hurried into the kitchen, followed by Paris, her ever-present shadow. She looked fabulous in a red skirt and white sweater, almost Christmassy. He didn’t want to think about Christmas. Maggie would be mayor, the parade would wind through town and Sugar would go poof! Gone with the wind, like the bedroom décor that was no longer going to be in the house.

  “Morning,” he said.

  “Hi.” She filled a cup with coffee, one of the plastic kinds with a lid on it she could take in the Oldsmobile. “See ya.”

  “Sugar.” She turned to look at him, her face blank.

  “Yes?”

  “H
ow’s the business going?”

  She nodded. “We’re about ready to launch.”

  “That’s great. I’m happy to hear it.”

  “Lucy told me she’s picked the décor. Once the decorating starts, I’ll…I’ll move back,” Sugar said.

  “You’re always welcome here.” He could tell she was still unnerved. Her eyes were huge in her face. She was pale, didn’t look like her usual vibrant self.

  “Thank you. But actually, this is a good time to give you notice,” Sugar said. “We won’t be renewing our lease.”

  He’d expected that. It didn’t make it any easier to accept. In his heart, he’d been hanging on to the hope that everything would go smoothly with the Cassavechias in the family home, and it wasn’t because of the rent.

  “I’d love to lease the land from you where the pecan grove is. But I remember you saying before that it was a package deal.” Sugar swallowed, her gaze moving away from his. “I’ve found another supplier that I can get pecans from.”

  “No.” Jake shook his head. “I’ll lease you the pecan grove. You’ve been good tenants, and frankly, it’s the least I can do. I wish I’d been more supportive of your business all along,” he said truthfully.

  “It’s okay. It wasn’t your place to give me moral support. Anyway, it’s going to work out for the best.”

  He hated how distant she sounded. “Sugar, I—”

  “I’m going to be late,” she said. “Come on, Paris.”

  They left, and Jake sighed. Filled up a coffee cup, tried to think how to fix this.

  He wanted to. He just didn’t know how.

  Sugar looked over the pink ribbons in the fabric shop, trying to decide on the final detail of the packaging for the Hotter than Hell Nuts design. The designer had suggested red, but because of Maggie’s successful battle against breast cancer, Sugar was seriously considering something in the pink family. The packaging was a clear front with a white cardboard back with chocolate-brown letters on it. She loved the packaging. It was a dream come true, all of it; they’d come so far, and now, the dream was about to take off.

  “Hi,” a female voice said, “are you Sugar Cassavechia?”

  Sugar turned, a smile on her face. The small-set woman with the ruffled blonde hair didn’t smile back. “Yes, I am.”

  “I thought you might be. They told me you were.” She pointed to the women behind them, a group of five dressed in pretty sundresses, trying to look like they weren’t interested in what she was doing.

  “And you are?” Sugar asked.

  “Debbie Underwood. Fixing to not be Underwood anymore.”

  Sugar blinked. “Oh. You’re Kel’s wife?”

  She nodded. “Not for much longer. The divorce goes through the day after Christmas.”

  “That’s rough. I’m sorry.” Sugar was.

  Debbie shrugged. “It’s because of your sister, Lucy.”

  Sugar felt a little heat creep under her collar. “It’s not because of my sister. Lucy never thought anything about your husband. You’re making a decision to divorce your husband on misinformation.”

  Debbie’s eyes widened. “My husband has a crush on her.”

  “Lucy is dating Bobby German. In fact, they’re very, very close. I doubt Kel has a thing for Lucy.” Sugar looked at Debbie with sympathy. “I recently got a divorce myself. It’s rough. I don’t have kids, though, and you do. I’d think about that if I were you, before I went cutting loose a guy who really loves you.”

  “How do you know Kel loves me?”

  Sugar shrugged. “He said so.”

  Debbie blinked. “To you?”

  “Yeah. But that’s all I’m saying. I don’t want to be involved in your marriage.” Sugar turned away, went back to studying the ribbons.

  After a moment, when she didn’t hear anything else behind her, Sugar turned back around. Debbie was gone, but the group of sundresses still watched her every move. “Don’t you have anything better to do?” Sugar asked, curious.

  They looked at her, startled, and took off. Sugar sighed and picked up the hot-pink ribbon to top the packaged pecans with. Her temper was hot pink. Might as well stick with the theme. Hot, hot, hot.

  She seemed to stay hot in Pecan Creek. Jake made her hot, sexually and emotionally. I used to be such a calm person. What happened to me?

  Jake happened to her. She was crazy about him, but insanity was doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result.

  Pecan Creek had to continue to be simply a means to an end.

  “Sugar,” Lucy said, hurrying into the house where Maggie and Sugar were madly stirring pecans in a candied sauce. Painters clanged ladders upstairs, calling to each other in loud voices as they began tearing out the old light fixtures. Sugar hadn’t been up to the Belle Watling room since that night. She couldn’t get over the horror of finding a dead man in her sister’s bedroom. It brought back horrible flashbacks of the night another man had gone into Lucy’s bedroom. Shivers crawled over her skin.

  “What?” Sugar said to Lucy.

  “I’ve had a stroke of brilliance.”

  Maggie and Sugar looked at Lucy. “Brilliance is always welcome,” Sugar said.

  “Every business in town is building a float for the Christmas parade. We need to make one for hotterthanhellnuts.com!” Lucy glowed with exertion, her short hair curling up shorter from riding Vivian’s bike over here. She rode the bike all over town. When Jake heard that Vivian had taken it from Lucy, he’d given it right back. Lucy loved riding the bicycle. When she wasn’t on that bike, it was in the back of Bobby’s truck as he ferried Lucy around. Mainly, he said he just wanted Lucy to be with him. Lucy said, “Have bike, will travel”, and when Bobby was busy at the Bait and Burgers, she got herself around just fine.

  “A float.” Sugar sat down on a stool. “I don’t know how to build a parade float. Anyway, how do you know every business in town is making one?”

  “Because of my job,” Lucy said importantly. “I work for some ladies who run their own businesses, and they’re building a float. I’m supposed to be their princess, but I’d rather be a princess for us. I know all about building a float now.” Lucy beamed. “We’d do it secretly. And that would be the launch of our business!”

  Maggie shrugged. “It would light a great bonfire under the last shreds of our dignity and reputation in Pecan Creek. If we’re supposed to be a hush-hush enterprise, goodness knows ol’ Vivian would really get tense if we had a float.”

  “True.” Sugar considered that. “Is the advertising value worth annoying the in-crowd?”

  Lucy slid onto a stool. “Sugar, here’s where we’re going wrong. The ladies I work for all sell items with a slant on sexy. They just don’t talk about the sexy factor. It’s where I got the idea to sex up your nuts. Don’t you know sex sells?”

  Sugar looked at her. “How do they advertise their product?”

  “They call their businesses soft-focus things like, well, they just don’t ever say anything that offends. While all the time they sell items you normally wouldn’t consider acceptable for everyday conversation.”

  “Are you suggesting we change the name of our business? Because, to be honest, I’m not certain the name is what gets Vivian’s goat. I’m pretty sure it’s just me,” Sugar said.

  “No.” Lucy shook her head. “Vivian is all about Pecan Creek. She’s about keeping it pure. I can’t say she’s wrong about that. I get Vivian now,” Lucy said. “I get why she decorated this joint the way she did, and why she wants everything to be sexless.” Lucy grinned. “Vivian is a protective heroine.”

  “Balls,” Maggie said. “Vivian is a shrew. Only I think she never got tamed or something. Clearly The Taming Of The Shrew was one Hollywood theme she stayed away from in her decorating scheme.” Maggie felt around in the pocket of her purple pants for a pack of cigarettes, realized she no longer smoked and went for a cup of hot black coffee from the Mr. Coffeemaker instead.

  “What would we change t
he name of our business to?” Sugar asked. “To be socially acceptable?”

  “I don’t know about socially acceptable,” Lucy said. “I think we’re pretty much toast here, after the dead guy showed up in one of Viv’s designer bedrooms. Plus you’re staying at Jake’s, and word I hear on that through my employers is that Vivian is fit to be tied.” She smiled hugely. “For once, you’re the one in the family who’s causing waves.”

  “I wish I cared, but—” Sugar considered her sister. “I don’t think we have time to design a float, even if we dared to scandalize the town.”

  Lucy smiled. “I’ll work morning and night on it.”

  “What about your job?” Maggie asked.

  “I’m ready to turn in my notice. As a learning experience, it was great. I think your nuts are going to take off, and I think you’re going to need me to help you. Keep things running.” Lucy grinned. “As you know, I’ve always been the organizer in this family.”

  Maggie tossed a nut at her. Lucy caught it in midair.

  “I’d quit while I was ahead,” Maggie told her. “Bragging on your org skills isn’t going to convince your sister to throw caution to the wind.”

  “Hello!” Jake yelled through the front doorway.

  “We’re in the kitchen!” Lucy called back. “Be nice,” she said to Sugar. “He’s trying to make up for everything, and Bobby says you’ve been giving Jake nine miles of rough road.”

  Sugar blushed as Jake walked into the kitchen. She hoped Jake hadn’t heard Lucy’s comments.

  “Hi, Jake,” Maggie said perkily.

  “Ladies.” He lifted his hat to the room at large, his gaze on Sugar. She felt that nervous zap she always got whenever Jake was around and wished it would zap off. “I came by to check on the workmen.”

  Lucy’s room would be new from top to bottom. Jake had the bed hauled off, and every stick of furniture had gone to a family shelter in town.

  Lucy beamed at Jake in her gotta-tease-big-brother way. “You’re going to be so surprised when you see the new décor.”

  Jake grinned and ruffled her hair. “I like surprises.”