“Mandy, there isn’t going to be...” His husky voice drifted away with the bitter wind.
Tracy forced a shaky smile and laid a hand on Mandy’s small shoulder. When the little girl turned bright, hopeful eyes on her, she fought the burn in her sinuses. “Why don’t we talk about something else?” She pulled her hand away and glanced at Zack. “I was hoping we could have a barbeque Sunday night after my family comes home.”
Zack shrugged and picked up his cooling cup of coffee. “Sure. Sounds fun.”
An uneasy silence settled over them for a few moments and no one seemed interested in breakfast.
“Hey, Sheriff, do you have to work today?” Bobby flicked a glance at Tracy.
Zack shrugged and sat his mug on the table. “I was planning to. At least for a few hours this morning. Why do you ask?”
Bobby’s shoulders slumped, and he picked up his spoon, but he only played in his cereal by stirring it. “It’s nothin’.”
Mandy reached for the sugar bowl and dumped two spoonfuls on her Cheerios. “Bobby wanted to come over to the CW so you can teach him how to ride.”
“Mandy,” Bobby chided again.
“Well, you did. I figured you could ride old Grasshopper since he’s nice.”
Zack glanced at Tracy before saying to Bobby, “You’d like to go riding?”
Bobby shrugged one shoulder and kept on stirring his cereal. “You’re busy, so don’t worry about it.”
* * * *
Zack swallowed hard, besieged by so much emotion he wasn’t sure what he felt. Despite the embarrassment of a moment ago and the tension afterward, he couldn’t deny he didn’t want the time this morning to end. Somehow, he belonged here with this woman and their children. He wanted to take this little boy and tuck him under his wing.
“Daddy, do you really have to work today? I want to go riding with Bobby. I want to show him Holly and how I can ride around barrels on Poppy,” Mandy whined, referring to her mare and pony. “Please, can’t you take today off?”
Mandy never complained about him working. He knew she didn’t always like it, but she hadn’t ever asked him to stay home. He glanced at Bobby–his face pinched in disappointment. When Zack lifted his eyes to Tracy’s, he saw the hope in them. Did he really have to go in? Dawn, Wyatt, Herb, and the rest of his deputies had the investigations covered. At least, for a few hours.
“I suppose I don’t have to go in to work today. I can check in later. Do you have to work this morning?”
Tracy sighed and nodded. “Unfortunately, Melissa and I have to do all the hair for the Oberton-Garcia wedding. Eight attendants, the bride and both mothers. They’re coming in at nine and have to be done by one. I normally only work on the Saturdays Bobby’s with Jake.” She looked at Bobby. “Sorry, sweetheart, but I guess you’ve got to spend the day with me at the shop. Maybe later we can go over to the CW–”
“You know I hate sittin’ there! Why can’t I just go with Dad? What happened yesterday at the court? Dad said you’d say anything to make him look like the bad guy.”
The mix of anger and pain in Bobby’s voice tugged at something in Zack’s gut. He hated Jake Parker more than ever before. How could that bastard play on his own kid’s emotions?
But it was the pain in Tracy’s voice that clenched his heart. “Bobby, you don’t understand everything that’s going on. Your dad couldn’t...”
Zack reached over and ruffled Bobby’s hair. “How about you come over to the ranch with Mandy and me while your mom’s at work?”
Bobby pulled away from Zack’s touch and looked at Tracy.
She smiled and met Zack’s gaze, then said to Bobby, “It’s okay with me if you want to go with Zack.”
“But Dad doesn’t–”
“Your dad isn’t making decisions for you,” Tracy interrupted. “I think it’s high time for you to learn to ride, and Zack is the best rider I know.”
Bobby looked up at him. The boy’s apprehension was almost palpable, but so was his anticipation. “You’ll teach me how to ride?”
“You bet, buddy.”
“Yay!” Mandy jumped up and down, clapping her hands.
“Well, then. I think we should start eating this great breakfast you two made.” Tracy reached for the milk carton and poured some over her Cheerios.
Zack caught Tracy’s gaze, and his heart skipped a beat. What would life with her be like? Damn, he wished he could allow himself to find out.
Chapter 16
Zack and Tracy made their way through the packed barroom. They found a small table in the back when another couple got up and left. Zack wished the stage was easier to see, but it was the best they could do.
On the stage, Logan sang one of his own songs about a brokenhearted rodeo cowboy. His deep voice had the usually rowdy Longhorn crowd mesmerized, and the dance floor packed with couples two-stepping.
When Tracy sat in the chair he held out for her, Zack was hit with her perfume. The light flowery scent hit him hard in the pit of his gut. He took the seat beside her and draped his arm over the back of her chair.
Julie Larson approached, took their drink orders and collected the cover charge for the live entertainment. Although he saw curiosity in the waitress’s smile, she kept the conversation short when he handed her his credit card. She headed off to give the order to her older brother behind the bar.
The day had turned out to be a good one. While Tracy had gone to her shop, he’d taken Bobby and Mandy back to the CW. There he, with Mandy’s help, had taught Bobby how to sit a horse, and how to ride around the same corral where Zack had learned to ride his first pony when he was still a baby. He’d been surprised at how easy the kid caught on, and how well he’d done in the saddle. The three of them eventually had gone for a ride through the pasture near the barn.
After a supper of hamburgers and potato salad at the ranch, Amy Jackson had come to sit with Mandy, and Tracy had taken Bobby to her friend’s place to spend the evening. Logan was done at eleven o’clock, which was perfect so she could take Bobby home.
As much as Zack wanted to spend the night tangled in the sheets with Tracy, she’d said that she couldn’t leave Bobby with a friend while she spent the night with him. She didn’t want to give Jake that much advantage in his custody case by doing exactly what he’d been accusing her of. Even though the devil would be ice fishing in the bowels of hell before Jake Parker ever won a custody case, Zack humored her. Besides, hearing his little girl say the S word that morning was enough to dunk his libido into a bucket full of ice.
Julie brought their drinks. He took a sip of his Coke and sat back to watch Tracy. She looked every bit a cowgirl in tight jeans, tailored white Western shirt with red roses embroidered across the yoke and red lace at the collar and cuffs. But the sexiest things she was wearing were her red cowboy boots and a doe-colored Stetson. Would she ever agree to have sex with him wearing only her boots and hat and nothing else?
When Logan started the next song–a cover of Restless Heart’s I’m Still Loving You, she turned to him. “Want to dance?”
“Sure.”
Hand-in-hand, they found room at the edge of the dance floor and fell into an up-close dance. Logan and his band sang about how he’d need his lover until the sun didn’t shine and time stood still. Was his brother trying to tell him something?
Could he just walk away from her in a few weeks? Or was it too late?
Could he go back to endless days of work and trying to raise his daughter without a woman around? Would Amanda’s bedtime prayers go from wanting her momma to come home from heaven to wanting Tracy back in her life?
The song ended and she looked up at him when he moved her into the next step after the last note. He sucked in a breath.
Before they could move off the floor, the next song started with fiddle and steel guitar in a classic old Texas swing melody. Logan sang about finding love again and never learning to live without that one special woman. Where the hell had the boy come up with the lyr
ics? As far as he could remember, his brother had never been in love.
His body responded to Tracy’s closeness, and he was damned glad the tail of his Western shirt was tucked into his jeans, which fit well, but fortunately, weren’t skin tight.
She laid her head on his shoulder and hummed along with the melody.
“How do you know this song?”
Tracy shrugged and looked up at him. “The CD Logan cut a few months ago. He gave me one before he started selling them after his shows.”
He let the topic drop, but a memory wiggled its way to the surface of his mind while he danced with the woman he’d never learned to live without.
“Oh, maybe that’s why she’s back with Logan, then.” Fifteen minutes after Brent Parker had made that puzzling statement the day Zack had stopped him for speeding, he’d caught Tracy and Logan in a close hug. Had he missed the kiss, or had he interrupted before it could happen?
The song wound down, the band broke into a faster tune, and the line dancers took over the worn wood floor. He and Tracy headed back to their table, which they’d saved by leaving her Stetson and their drinks. Once they were seated again, she drank some of her sweet tea and swayed to the music, completely focused on the man on stage.
Zack took a sip of his Coke. “I didn’t realize you and Logan were that close of friends.”
“What?” She looked at him with a puckered brow.
Her hand rested on his thigh, and his arm was around her chair. They appeared to be the perfect dating couple, but he knew better. He and Tracy had a gulf between them as big as the state of Texas, and he couldn’t see any way for them to close it.
She’d still be the one who’d cheated on him, and his lack of love for his wife, because he’d never let Tracy go, had been the reason for Lisa’s death.
Was Tracy now sneaking around behind his back with his own brother?
“I just find it surprising. I knew you and Logan were friends, but he hadn’t given me one of his CDs until I asked for it.” He didn’t give a shit he sounded like a jealous husband. But, damn, he was pissed that he was jealous.
If she was seeing Logan, wouldn’t that be the perfect way to break it off and never see her again?
She looked at him, but he tilted his head under his hat brim to hide his face. “I told you Logan became my best friend over the years.”
“No, you never told me.”
She sipped her drink. Without looking at him, she set the glass on the table, shrugging. “Over the past few years he’s filled some of the gap left when Dylan went off to the Army. Whenever I’ve needed a friend, he was always there.” She turned her attention back to his brother on stage. When the set was over, she clapped and whistled through her teeth. “Damn, I just know he’ll knock somebody’s socks off in Nashville.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, well, if it’s not the happy couple.” Jake grinned and bracketed his waist with his hands, elbows out.
The gauze wrapped around Jake’s right hand looked fresh. How deep was the wound, to warrant such a bandage a week after the supposed accident with a broken wineglass? Wearing a dinner-plate-sized silver belt buckle, the boots and hat, Jake looked like he’d finished the day punching cattle and cleaned up for a night on the town. New York City wasn’t the only place with rhinestone cowboy-wannabes. Jake hated horses and grew up in the middle of town. At least Zack had earned the silver buckle he was wearing the old-fashioned way–by winning it. He’d bet Jake bought his at a pawnshop in Waco.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Tracy asked before Zack had the chance to.
Jake shrugged. “Decided to have a few beers. Question should be what the hell are you doing here? And where’s my son?”
“My business is my business. And my son is spending the evening visiting with his best friend.” Tracy stiffened in her chair.
“I wonder what Judge Delaney would think about you pawning our boy off to your friends so you can cat around town with your latest fling?”
Zack stood and glowered at the other man. “I think you should move along, Parker.”
Jake dropped his hands to his sides and sneered. “Or you’ll what? Arrest me on some other trumped up charge? I wonder if that dog and pony show yesterday in the courtroom was just so you and my whorin’ ex-wife could drag my reputation down and make me look bad in front of the judge? My lawyer thinks that might be enough to get another judge on the case.”
Zack didn’t want a bar brawl, and he sure as hell didn’t want to be the one to throw the first punch, but he didn’t take to Jake calling Tracy a whore, despite his own concern over her relationship with his brother. He bunched up his fists and leaned toward Jake.
Tracy stood and touched his arm. “Zack, don’t. He’s not worth it.”
Jake snarled and his face turned red. As he stepped closer to Zack, he shook his left fist at him. “You fuckin’ Cartwrights and Fergusons think you own this county.”
Zack caught sight of Sam Larson moving from around the bar, billy club in hand. The Longhorn didn’t have a bouncer at the door. It didn’t need one. Sam could smell a fight and have the instigators out the door before the first punch was thrown–usually. If he couldn’t handle it, Julie pulled a sawed-off shotgun from behind the bar and backed up her brother with enough redneck grit to stop a freight train.
Zack felt every eye in the place on him, Tracy and Jake. Most of the patrons were quieter watching them than they had been watching Logan gyrate over the stage in the front, singing a cover of Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. The music abruptly stopped, but Zack didn’t take his eyes off Parker to see what his brother was doing. “Before you decide to throw any punches, Parker, just remember I’m still the sheriff. I’ll arrest you and throw the book at you.”
Jake grabbed the end of the table and sent it flying. Tracy screamed as she jumped out of the way. Zack blocked the punch and spun away, grabbing hold of Parker’s wrist. Jake landed with a thunk and a grunt face-first against the back wall of the bar. The memorabilia of old signed photographs of country singers and rodeo riders of long past rattled. Zack held Jake’s wrists behind his back. Too damned bad he didn’t have a pair of handcuffs.
Tracy stood back, glaring at Jake, and Logan moved in beside her. He slipped his arm around her shoulders, and she didn’t push him off.
“Zack, don’t do anything you’ll regret,” Logan said.
“Tell me, Zack.” Jake’s voice was muffled from being pressed against the wall. “Has Tracy told you just who she left me for, yet?”
“It’s a lie!”
Zack glanced over his shoulder at Tracy. Her face flushed, and her hands clenched into tight fists on her hips. Logan still had his arm on her shoulders, but he looked mad enough to eat his guitar.
“Why don’t you ask your little brother?” Jake asked. “They’d been goin’ at like jackrabbits for years. I bet she’s still fuckin’ him when you aren’t around. One man has never been enough for her–as you should know, old buddy.”
Zack didn’t want to react, but the stab in his heart was too much. He spun Jake around.
Sam Larson brandished his billy club. “Damn it, you boys take this outside, or I’ll bash both your fool heads in, and I don’t give a tinker’s damn that one of you’s the sheriff.”
Zack fisted his hand, determined to pound the smirk off Jake Parker’s smug face. Logan grabbed his arm before he could let the punch fly. “If you believe that pile of shit, Zack, you’re a fool.”
“Go on, ask him who paid the rent for her and got her a job in Waco when she filed for divorce. Hell, he even paid for the divorce!” Jake snickered.
Zack glared at his brother, shook him off, then looked at Tracy. Despite his best intentions, he’d fallen in love with her again, and she’d lied to him. Again.
She shook her head and tears ran from her gray eyes. “Zack...I never...”
The burn in his gut was too much like the first time she’d cheated on him. He let go of Parker with a shove and s
cowled at his brother. Too drained to do anything else, he grabbed his Stetson off the floor and pushed past his brother, leaving them and the stunned bar crowd behind.
* * * *
Tracy stared at the old-fashioned saloon doors as they moved back and forth from Zack shoving them open. A flash of movement and the patrons’ exclamations drew her attention to the men behind her. She turned, and Logan threw a punch knocking Jake into the same wall Zack had.
“Logan!” Tracy screamed the same time the crowd took sides and either cheered or booed. While Sam Larson rushed forward with his billy club held high.
Jake pushed away from the wall, pulled back his arm and let go with a left hook that landed on Logan’s jaw. He stumbled back, and Jake rushed him, using his shorter stature and bulk to ram Logan in the gut with a shoulder, linebacker style. The couple sitting at a neighboring table grabbed their Mason jars of beer a second before the two men fell onto it. The flimsy table crashed to the floor when its legs gave out on one side. Tracy was too upset to watch who got punches in.
Logan’s band members stood next to her watching and cheering on their lead singer. Sam Larson was yelling for the two men to stop or he’d bash in their brains and even got a few whacks in, but the men continued to throw punches.
The cocking of a shotgun in the midst of the fray was like flipping a switch. The room went quiet, and Julie Larson pointed a sawed-off shotgun at the men locked in battle on the sawdust and peanut shell littered floor. “That’s enough ruckus, or I’ll fill both your sorry asses with enough lead to sink y’all to the bottom of Gambler’s Lake.”
Logan was the first to move to his feet. His left eye would be swelled shut by morning, and his lip was split and bleeding; his jaw was already purpling. He moved his bloody right hand to his midsection. Guitar picking would be impossible for a few days.
Jake followed to his feet, and with his right hand, wiped at the blood on his mouth where his lips bled. The bandage was nearly torn off, and he shook the hand as if it was numb. His plaid Western shirt was torn, and he seemed to be favoring his right knee–the same one he’d injured the summer before his senior year of high school.
Gambling On a Heart Page 24