by Liz Ireland
Farley glowered. “What do you mean? That you don’t like our Ruby?”
“Oh, no,” Cody answered quickly. “Ruby’s a…well, she’s a very interesting young lady.”
“Good,” Buck, the second-in-command, said. “’Cause we’ve got a plan for you two.”
Cody gulped. “Plan?”
Bill nodded. As leader of his clan, he stepped forward and offered Cody their proposal. “We think Ruby’s seemed a lot better lately. We think maybe it’s on account of you.”
Cody felt the blood drain out of his face. This was definitely not the impression he and Ruby had hoped to make! “You guys have this all wrong. Ruby doesn’t seem to be doing well in Heartbreak Ridge at all. Haven’t you noticed all the trouble she’s been getting into? I think it’s a sign that she’s unhappy.”
Lucian smiled. “Really? We think it’s a sign that she likes you.”
“Me?” His voice was a squeak.
The four nodded in unison.
“Oh, no, that can’t be.” He began to sweat. How could he and Ruby have botched their plan so completely? “Ruby just sees me as some kind of Dudley Do-Right Boy Scout nerd. I’m not her type at all.”
Bill’s lips hinted at a smile. “We think she’s been raisin’ all this hell on weekends ’cause she wants to be around you.”
Cody shook his head violently. “Well, that’s just plain wrong,” he blurted, forgetting for a moment that he was arguing with four men whose combined muscle power would equal that of the Hoover Dam. “’Sides, you all don’t want her around the jail all the time. You never know what kind of rough sorts will be hanging out there.”
Farley crossed his beefy arms. “She told me you were usually the only one there.”
“Yeah, but what if someday we actually catch a real criminal, or even a serial killer?”
“In Heartbreak Ridge?” Buck laughed. “More likely you’ll find a serial cow tipper.”
Farley stepped forward, obviously tired of arguing. Or maybe he was just gearing up. “Are you saying you don’t like Ruby?”
Cody wasn’t sure which answer would be least likely to result in violence. “Of course I do, but—”
“Then what’s your problem?” Farley asked.
Cody was speechless. His problem? “I don’t even know—”
“Listen, Cody,” Bill said, cutting him off. “We’re not trying to pressure you or anything. We just want you to ask our sister out on a date.”
And the brothers Treadwell didn’t appear to be in a mood to argue the matter.
POOR CODY looked like a truck had hit him.
“Is something wrong?” Ruby asked.
“No, nothing,” he answered tersely.
He’d also been as prickly as a barbed-wire fence all night.
Ruby tilted her head and regarded him more closely, not that she didn’t know every angle of that good-looking mug of his by now. He was worried.
Seeing him unhappy made something tug deep inside her. In all her years, she’d never thought she’d develop a yen for a goody-goody like Cody Tucker, but every Friday night she came here and mooned at him. She had to admit, being in a cell with Cody a few hours a week took a little of the sting out of being stuck in Heartbreak Ridge. Not that she was in love with him or anything, but he was definitely easy on the eyes.
More surprisingly, he’d turned out to be the best friend she’d ever had in Heartbreak Ridge.
He laid down a card, the ten of clubs.
“There is something wrong,” she declared irritably. She hated secrets!
“Why?”
“Because any idiot could have guessed that I’ve been hoarding clubs, and yet you put down the ten of clubs anyway, and now I’ve won my fifth straight gin in a row!”
He winced as he watched her slap down her fistful of cards, which just proved that something fishy was going on. Cody was such a good loser he usually showed no reaction when she whopped him, unless it was admiration for her skill at cards. Being a graceful loser was probably right up there with good citizenship in the Scout manual.
“I’m sorry I haven’t been able to concentrate tonight.”
“Well, why not?”
She was beginning to feel a little prickly. All these weeks of sitting around on Friday nights, playing cards and eating sandwiches and laughing it up, Cody had never treated her as anything more than a pal. In fact, Cody Tucker was probably the first man she’d been around for any amount of time who didn’t try something gamy on her. Sure, his hand had bumped into her chest, but that certainly didn’t count. Of course, she didn’t exactly want him to pounce on her, but his gallantry in the face of their long Friday nights on the cozy jail cell cot wasn’t exactly building her ego to Olympian proportions, either.
“To tell you the truth,” he admitted, “I’ve had something else on my mind.” He rubbed a hand worriedly through his thick blond hair.
The hair her fingers still itched to gambol through.
“Well, spit it out. Even I get tired of winning all the time.”
He nodded, his face as sober as a judge’s when pronouncing a particularly unpleasant sentence. “You’re not going to like this, Ruby, but this has to be our last Friday night in the jail.”
Her heart stopped. The very idea of not coming here anymore left her panicky. “Why?”
He shrugged. “The thing is, people in town are talking.”
She deflated with relief. “Oh, is that all!”
“All?” Cody straightened.
“Heck, people have been talking about me since I wore my Big Bird print bikini to kindergarten on picture day.”
“Well, I’m not used to it,” Cody said. “I was in the Feed Bag the other day and people were saying all kinds of things about us. They think we’re doing this on purpose!”
“And what did you say?”
“I told them that was nonsense.”
She nodded approvingly. “Good. So what’s the problem?”
If thunderstruck had a face, it was his. “The problem is, we are doing this on purpose.”
“But why would anyone suspect that you’re helping me get out of town?”
He looked at her meaningfully. “That’s not what they’re thinking, Ruby.”
She tilted her head. “You mean…they all think we’re using the jail as a love nest?”
“Yup.”
She laughed.
Dark red stained his cheeks. “What’s so funny?”
“People! They get such crazy notions.”
“I don’t see what’s so crazy—it’s a logical assumption when you think about it. After all, you’re a good-looking woman, and I’m only human.”
She wondered about that. Last week she’d worn a halter top with a plunging neckline, and he’d barely seemed to notice her! “You really think I’m good-looking?”
“Of course!”
“Because when I came in with my hair dyed orange I could swear you shuddered.”
“I did not…well, maybe just a little. I was expecting red, not orange.”
She moaned. “So was I.”
“I told you it looks really pretty.” He cocked his head and grinned. “Well, as pretty as orange hair could look. It’s not exactly natural.”
She sighed. “Not outside a big top, no.”
The hair was meant as a ploy to make her brothers think she was really going round the bend, or at least to make them want to get her out of town so she wouldn’t embarrass them further, but to her shock, they’d taken her Bozo dye job like champs. Farley had even said it fit her vibrant personality. And since she and Farley were the closest in age, he was usually the most touchy about her appearance, because he was the one who had borne the brunt of her oddball behavior during school.
“I thought you were pretty even before you turned your hair orange,” Cody blurted.
She was stunned. In fact, this belonged in the headlines. Straitlaced, upstanding Cody Tucker thought she was a dish?
He swallowed. “I thin
k I’d better tell you something, Ruby.”
She leaned forward, practically giddy with anticipation. Was he going to tell her he liked her? Was he going to ask her out?
She knew she shouldn’t want him to. It didn’t really fit with her plan of escaping Heartbreak Ridge and embracing a whole new life…but right now an embrace with Cody seemed pretty tempting, too.
Cody hesitated.
Ask me, she thought, signaling frantically with her mental radar. Just spit it out!
“Your brothers came to see me.”
His words stopped her cold. “My brothers?”
He nodded. “Bill, Buck, Lucian and Farley.” The whole crew, as if she could have forgotten their names! “They cornered me downtown and commanded me to ask you on a date!”
Her blood pressure spiked to danger levels. Of all the stunts her brothers had pulled, this had to be the most mortifying. “They what?”
“They think I would be a good influence on you,” he said miserably.
She planted her fists on her hips. “Those herring heads! No wonder they’ve been so complacent about me being stuck in jail every Friday night. They think you’re a gentleman!”
“I am a gentleman,” Cody retorted defensively.
She bristled. “I know that. We’ve been sitting on this bed for a month and you haven’t so much as touched me!”
A look almost like anger came over him. “Of course not.”
“Well, why not? Were you just spinning a yarn when you said you thought I was pretty?”
“I wasn’t lying.”
“Well, then?”
He lifted his chin. “A man doesn’t just paw a woman because he thinks she’s good-looking.”
“The ones I’ve known do.”
He rolled his eyes. “Apes out at the Chugalug, maybe. You shouldn’t be hanging around that place, anyway.”
She hooted. “Now you sound like my brothers! No wonder they want me to go out with you!”
“Well, now that I know about strange men groping you all the time, I don’t blame them.”
“Thanks for the concern, Cody, but the last thing in this world I need is another overbearing sibling.”
He grabbed her by the shoulders. “Will you stop getting all mad and prickly all the time and just listen? I have a plan that might actually get you out of the mess you’re in.”
She was trying to listen, but all she could think about was those hands encircling her arms. She’d never guessed the Boy Scout was so strong, or that a mere touch could make her go all noodly.
She swallowed with effort. “My first plan didn’t work out so well.”
“Well, plan B might just do the trick.”
“Plan B?” she asked, raising a brow in amused interest. “Okay, what’s your big idea?”
“Let’s give them what they want.”
“What?”
“Let’s go out on a date.”
So he was asking her…but only because her brothers had put the squeeze on him. Only because they needed a plan B.
The moment was less than a romantic thrill. Of course, it was hard to be swept off your feet by a man whose arm was being twisted.
“What would that solve?” she asked. “If you’re worried about people talking about us, the rumors will really be flying around town if we’re seen out together.”
He let go of her, got up and started pacing the length of the little cell. His businesslike manner caused another twinge of disappointment in her. “But that’s my point—people are talking anyway. Why not let them talk and use it to our advantage?”
She took a good gander at Cody’s broad shoulders and knew immediately what kind of advantage she could make of those, but she doubted that’s what he had in mind.
Or maybe he did. At that possibility, her heart skipped a beat.
“Suppose we did this,” she argued. “Doesn’t going out with you defeat my whole purpose? My brothers obviously have come to the conclusion that you’re Mr. Right. I’m not in this to make my brothers happy, you know.”
“No, you’re in it to make them loosen up and let you live your own life. So instead of rebelling so that they’re watching you all the time, why not do what they want for a change?”
“Ah, I see. So you think that after a date or two, they’ll chill out and leave me alone, and I can go flitting off to wherever I want without having to worry about them.”
“Right.”
“You don’t know my brothers! They might think you’re the bee’s knees, but they’re still going to watch us like hawks.”
“Why would they do that?” Cody asked.
She crossed her arms. “Because in high school I went out with all sorts of guys they hand-picked, and they still managed to foul up my every stab at romance. Imagine being at a drive-in with a guy you think is the greatest thing since sliced bread and then discovering that your four brothers are two cars behind you. It’s humiliating!”
Cody absorbed the information. “This would be different.”
“How?”
“For one thing, you’re not in high school any longer.”
She sputtered out a laugh. “Tell that to the fearsome foursome!”
“All right then, so they still think of you as their kid sister. But they can’t think of me that way.”
She smiled patiently. “No, but with your spit-and-polish reputation, they probably see you as the next best thing to a chastity belt.”
“Then they’re wrong.” Before she could wonder what he meant by that provocative assertion, he went on. “Besides, there’s another way that the situation is different than when you were in high school.”
She looked up, surprised to find him close enough that she could practically feel the heat emanating from his body. “What?”
“You don’t think I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread. Your brothers will eventually realize they don’t have to watch us because there’s not much chance that we would lose our heads.” He tipped her chin with his thumb. “Is there?”
She looked at his full lips and felt her heart flop uncomfortably in her chest. Her mouth was dry, and she darted out her tongue to moisten her lips.
He stared at her long and hard, so intently that his blue eyes seemed to see right through her.
Fighting off a feverish rush, she answered, “No, we won’t lose our heads.”
He dropped his arms. “That’s what I thought.”
She ducked her head, hoping he wouldn’t be able to detect the burning in her cheeks. Good Lord, she’d been around Cody too long—she was beginning to blush, too! She moved away on wobbly legs.
Cody leaned against the wall, looking more incredibly sexy than she could remember. She was supposed to go out on dates with that and restrain herself? It suddenly seemed like a tall order—like spending five hours staring at a banana split and not taking a bite.
She suddenly remembered something. “When you first suggested this plan, you said we should use it to our benefit.”
He nodded. “So?”
“So, I can see what I’m going to get out of it—my freedom, I hope. But what could you possibly have to gain by going out with me?”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”
“But I don’t want to make you feel used.”
He set his jaw rigidly and looked away. “Actually, I didn’t want to tell you this, but I’m sort of using you, too. See, there’s a girl out there who hasn’t noticed me, and so I thought if she saw me out and about…”
“I get it. The old the-grass-is-always-greener philosophy.” She looked at him with keen interest. “Is the woman Leila Birch?”
He lifted his shoulders. “I’d rather not name names.”
It wasn’t hard to guess anyway, since Leila was the only other single woman in town. She felt a tug of disappointment in her heart, but she supposed it was for the best that Cody had his eye on another woman since she was unavailable. Or would be soon, if plan B worked.
She reached out her han
d to him. “Partners in crime?”
He grinned. “Then you’ll do it?”
“Sure,” she said. “What do I have to lose, except my virginity?”
His eyes widened in alarm.
“Not with you,” she added hastily. “I only meant…eventually.”
“Oh!” Looking unflatteringly relieved that he wasn’t the one she was counting on to relieve her of her maidenly burden, he reached out and grasped her small hand in his big warm one. Ruby had to grit her teeth to tamp down the fluttery feeling beating to life in her.
“Partners,” he said.
But the way her body reacted to his husky voice and innocent touch, she feared that keeping their outings strictly platonic was going to be next to impossible.
5
“HOW OLD is your truck?”
“Had any transmission trouble?”
Standing in the Treadwell living room, for the first time Cody had an inkling of how it must feel to be arrested. He stood up to the brothers’ third degree as best he could.
“The important thing is to fill up with gas,” Bill lectured. “You did fill up before you came here, didn’t you?”
Cody shifted, feeling woefully remiss. “I think the tank’s three-quarters full.”
The brothers exchanged dubious glances. Bill’s expression seemed to say, I told you so, and Cody could only assume that asking about the gas level in his truck had been a point of debate before he’d arrived.
The trouble was, he’d arrived ten minutes ago, and Ruby still wasn’t ready, and her brothers were beginning to make him worry that this date was the worst idea since New Coke.
“How’s your spare tire?” Buck asked.
Lucian laughed. “Looks like he works out to me.”
Buck glared at his little brother’s lame joke. “I’m talking about on his truck, genius.” He turned to Cody. “Is it a real tire, or one of them dinky manufacturer’s spares?”
“It’s real,” Farley said. “I checked it out.”
“Listen…” Cody cleared his throat, wondering how he could best set their minds at ease. Since he was handpicked by them for this job, he hadn’t expected so much angst on their parts. “You don’t have to worry about Ruby’s safety—”
Lucian rose and lumbered forward, cutting off his words. Of all the brothers, he was the most massive and gravel-voiced. That he also dressed in hunter’s gear made him even more intimidating. “We got you something, Tucker.”