Getting Lucky (A Nugget Romance Book 5) (17 page)

“You didn’t hear? Ray Rosser was arrested for the shooting. According to Owen, the dead guy stole Ray’s cattle, so Ray shot him. We didn’t even do shit like that in South Carolina.”

“I can’t believe it’s the first I’m hearing of this.” Maybe Lucky didn’t know yet. Although Raylene had to be flipping out. Her father was an abusive bully, but the Rosser name was like gold in this part of the Sierra. Having him face a murder charge had to be a huge black eye on the whole family, especially someone like hoity-toity Raylene.

“Owen’s info can be pretty sketchy, so I wouldn’t take it to the bank. But from what I understand, someone definitely got arrested. You were probably at the hospital when it happened.”

Oh jeez, she had to call Lucky. “Raylene’s probably a mess.”

Brady shrugged. “I’d imagine she would be. Given that Lucky called the guy out, I’m assuming that he and Ray Rosser are not close.”

“Nope,” she said, not wanting to go into the details. Hopefully, for Katie’s sake, that story would never surface. “But he’ll be upset for Raylene.” That was the thing about Lucky. He was loyal to a fault.

“I know you said there is nothing between you two, but are you sure about that?”

“You mean because he’s here all the time? That’s just for Katie.”

“That’s not why. He came into the inn yesterday and I got the distinct impression that he was trying to figure out where you and I stand—romantically. And honestly, he seemed jealous.”

Tawny felt her face heat with embarrassment. “I don’t know where he got that.” She did, though. Raylene.

“Raylene told him,” Brady said. “She walked in on us talking that one day. I think we might’ve been flirting.”

He smiled at her, and if she wasn’t so hung up on Lucky she might’ve fallen for Brady right then and there. Ironic how she’d judged Lucky for holding a torch all these years for Raylene when she’d done the same thing with Lucky.

“You have a thing for him, don’t you?” Brady asked,

“Who, me? No . . . of course not . . . Is it that obvious?”

“Probably just to me.” And then, doing a dead-on Clint Eastwood impression, he said, “I know things about people.”

She laughed. “Lucky is with Raylene. He’s loved her forever.”

“Maybe.” Brady lifted his shoulders. “But I’m not feeling it.”

Brady didn’t know Lucky like she did. “Believe me, he’s addicted to her. And I need to give him a heads-up about Ray.”

Brady got to his feet. “I have to take off anyway. We’ve got a full house at the inn and I’ve got a wine and cheese service to prepare.”

“Hey, Brady, are you ever planning to tell me your secret? I told you mine.”

His eyes turned downcast, and Tawny wished she hadn’t brought it up. “Someday soon,” he said.

“Come over tomorrow and let me trace your feet.”

His expression went from sad to confused. “Is that what passes for sexy time in Nugget?”

“For the boots,” she said.

“Hell yeah. I’m not passing that up. I’ll bring lunch.”

“Excellent.”

As soon as he left, Tawny checked in on her daughter, grabbed the phone, and dialed Lucky. “Hi. Where are you?”

“Home.” She could hear a sheep bleating in the background. “Is Katie okay?”

“She’s fine. But I just heard Ray Rosser was arrested for the shooting.”

“I know,” he said. “Raylene says it was self-defense. Gus was stealing his cattle.”

“Is Raylene okay?”

“She and her mother got him a good lawyer. Raylene thinks he’s getting out of jail.”

“I’m sorry for her. Don’t worry about Katie. Do what you need to do.”
Take care of Raylene
, she thought, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

“What I need to do is check in on my daughter,” Lucky said, sounding surly.

Whatever.
Tawny was just trying to be understanding. “Suit yourself.”

“I plan on it.”

When they got off the phone, Tawny heated Katie a bowl of soup in the microwave and cut her a slice of Brady’s homemade bread. Just what the doctor ordered. Why couldn’t the chef have been Tawny’s antidote too? He was nice, sexy, and available. And damn, could the man cook.

 

“How’s Katie?” Raylene came up behind Lucky as he threw a flake of hay to Bernice.

“Better.” He turned and stood there for a while, just taking her in, wondering how feelings he’d held for so long could wither so abruptly. Maybe it hadn’t been abrupt. Maybe it had been a long time in coming. “I wasn’t expecting to see you today. I figured you’d want to be with your mom. Is Ray getting out?”

“He’s home,” she said. “A lot of drama, huh?”

Lucky would call it more than drama. The man was looking at a murder charge—twenty-five years to life. “It’s a good thing you came.” God, it killed him to have to do this. But it was the right thing to do. The only thing. “I thought we could talk.”

“If it’s about what I said last night . . . about Tawny taking Katie to the hospital, I’m sorry.”

“Sometimes you can be real self-centered, Raylene.” He didn’t have any more excuses for her.

She shrugged, shamefaced. “I know.”

“Let’s go in the trailer.” Lucky rubbed his hands together. “It’s cold out here.”

“Okay. I don’t have a lot of time. Butch is coming. Daddy sent for him. He has it in his head that a family crisis will put me and Butch back together.”

Butch
. Lucky tried to summon some kind of emotion. Anger, jealousy, disappointment. All he felt was a slight hollowness, which he couldn’t quite identify.

“Don’t be mad, Lucky. I’m just playing along for Daddy’s sake.”

He put his hand at the small of her back and they walked the short distance to Lucky’s single-wide. Inside, he flipped on the heat and Raylene started taking off her clothes.

“What are you doing?” Lucky said.

Either she was in complete denial about his intentions or her cluelessness was an act, because she wound her arms around his neck and began kissing and rubbing on him. Perhaps she thought she could seduce him into loving her again.

“I want you,” she said in a breathy voice he’d once found sexy.

He pushed her off him. “We need to talk.”

“We can talk after.” She started unbuttoning his jeans and slipped her hand inside his shorts.

Disgusted, he pulled her hand out of his pants. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”

She stared at his flaccid penis and said, “You appear to be the one with the problem.”

“Raylene”—he rebuttoned his fly—“I said I wanted to talk, not have sex.”

He rested his forehead against the wall. This woman, whom he’d loved forever . . . and now all he could do was think of someone else. It made him a little sick. “I can’t be with you.”

“What are you talking about?”

He didn’t know how to say the words without hurting her. “Us. We can’t be together.”

“Of course we can. Oh, for heaven’s sake, Lucky, is this about Butch?”

That was the thing. It should’ve been about Butch, and Raylene’s obvious reluctance to let her ex go. But it wasn’t. It was about Tawny.

“No. We’re just not working. You’re getting over a bad marriage and I have a sick daughter—”

“Basically, you’re mad at me for what I said last night—and now because of Butch. Grow up, Lucky.”

Damn straight he was angry over her careless attitude about his daughter. About her selfishness. Her pettiness. All the faults he thought she’d grow out of once she got away from Ray, but hadn’t. “Raylene, don’t interrupt—”

“Are you breaking up with me? Just spit it out.”

“Yes.” He didn’t know any other way to soften the blow because even now he felt protective of her. Old habits . . .

“You’re not breaking up with me,” Raylene said like she was bored. “You’re pissed about Butch. You’ll get over it.” She started for the door and Lucky grabbed her by the arm.

“Raylene, we’re over.”

She just rolled her eyes and walked away.

 

Good to his word, Lucky showed up a few hours later. Tawny could tell from Lucky’s damp hair—he must’ve left his hat in the truck—that he’d recently showered. Besides newish jeans and a shiny pair of black cowboy boots, he’d put on cologne. Something spicy that made her mouth water. She wondered if he was going out later.

“How’s she doing?” he asked, giving her a quick once-over.

Still in the same jeans and sweater she’d thrown on after getting home from the hospital, Tawny wished she’d changed into something nicer. “Good. She ate lunch, so at least she’s got a bit of an appetite. She’s sleeping now.”

Lucky made his way through the living room to her bedroom, quietly opened the door, and popped his head in. Just as quietly he shut it, motioning to Tawny that they should go to the kitchen.

“You okay?” she asked him.

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Ray’s arrest must have you shaken up.”

“Not really. I couldn’t care less if they locked him up and threw away the key. What’s shaking me up is that Gus was stealing cattle, and I’d be willing to bet that the rest of my so-called construction crew were in on it. I’d like to fire every last one of them.”

“Why don’t you then?”

He huffed out a breath, clasped her shoulders, and backed her up against the counter, where they stood not even an inch apart. God, he felt good, his chest rock solid, and arms that felt strong enough to take on anything. And for the zillionth time she remembered what it had been like to be under all that strength while he moved over her. Inside of her.

“I’m not supposed to tell anyone,” he said, his voice nearly a whisper. “But Jake and Rhys suspect these guys of more than cattle rustling.”

“Like what?” she asked, having trouble focusing on the subject matter. All she wanted him to do was kiss her.

He pushed away from the counter and she instantly felt bereft of his body heat. Like she’d lost something enormously comforting.

“You have to promise to keep this quiet. The cops think they’re dealing drugs, using my project as a front. They want to catch them in the act by going undercover. I swear, Tawny, if you let this leak, it’ll screw the investigation. As it is, Ray probably ruined it. But I gave Jake my word that I wouldn’t fire anyone until they rounded up the bad players.”

“I won’t tell anyone. But aren’t you worried about the danger?”

“Not to me. But I sure as hell don’t want you or Katie setting foot on the ranch until this is cleared up.”

Tawny swallowed. “You should stay with your mom until this is over.”

“That would look suspicious, don’t you think? Not to mention that I want to keep my eye on the place. And I want these jokers off my property as soon as possible. The valuable lesson in all this is never hire cheap. I should’ve gone with Pat Donnelly and Colin. Man, am I kicking myself.”

“When will the police be done?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Jake is keeping me in the dark. And the shooting is bound to put these guys on guard. I wish I’d never made the deal with Nugget PD, but at the same time I want the message out that you can’t get away with this crap in my town. Damn, Tawny, my people and business are here.”

“What about Ray?”

“According to Raylene, he’s home until the DA files charges.”

“Is she okay?” To Tawny’s surprise, Lucky merely shrugged, like he didn’t really care.

“Butch is coming to be with the family,” he said.

That explained to Tawny Lucky’s show of apathy. “That bother you?”

“It should,” he said. “But it doesn’t. How messed up is that?”

She remembered her earlier conversation with Brady.
Lucky is with Raylene. He’s loved her forever
.

It was messed up all right, as in messing with her head.

“I
s she getting back with him?” Tawny asked.

“I dunno.”

“I’m sorry, Lucky. I know how you feel about her.”

He didn’t want to talk about Raylene with Tawny. There were other things he wanted to do with her instead. Lately his head had been so full of them that he’d been walking around half aroused much of his days. It was getting damned uncomfortable.

“You have dinner yet?” he asked her.

“No.” She looked around her kitchen. A half a loaf of bread—it looked homemade—sat in a basket on the counter. “Sometimes I wish this town had pizza delivery.”

“Or Chinese.” He laughed. “I’ll call in an order at the Ponderosa and pick it up. Something good, like steak.”

“Mm. That sounds amazing.” He liked the way her face went all orgasmic when she said
mm
.

He should’ve been grieving Raylene; instead, he felt like he had a clear conscience.

After phoning in an order for a couple of rib eyes with the works and charging it on his credit card, he found Tawny checking in on Katie again. “Mariah said she’d swing by with our food. It’s on her way home. Katie okay?”

“Sound asleep and no fever.”

He touched Tawny’s back. “We should hear something soon.”

“I hope so. I want her to be better . . . to live a normal life.” Lucky heard everything Tawny wasn’t saying and felt his chest clutch.

“As soon as this bullshit’s over at the ranch, I plan on talking to Colin about building my house,” he said, and she gave him a half smile. “Come sit on the couch. It’s been a long day.”

She followed him and they sat close enough so that their legs were touching. He toyed with the idea of kissing her, but the doorbell rang. A little too fast for the food, Lucky thought. On his feet, he pulled away the lace panel at the window and peered onto the porch.

“Jeez.”

“Who is it?” Tawny asked, going to the door.

“Donna Thurston.” Was being alone with Tawny for an hour or two too much to ask? It seemed like every time he was here, a visitor showed up.

“Be nice,” she said, and opened the door. “Hi, Donna.” Tawny leaned over and kissed the woman on the cheek.

In her typical pushy way, Donna came in uninvited, took one look at Lucky, and said, “You sure brought the excitement to town, didn’t you?”

“Me?” he replied. “I’m not the one shooting people.”

“Talk is all over town that Ray Rosser is home. Apparently the man bought his way out of this one too.”

Lucky would give it to Donna. She was no one’s fool. The Rossers might be Nugget royalty, but she saw right through the old man.

“They don’t think he’s a flight risk. Pfft,” she continued, gazing at Lucky like he had answers. All he knew was that Rosser was claiming self-defense and hadn’t been charged with a crime—yet.

“Do I look like the law to you, Donna?”

“You look like something, Lucky Rodriguez. But definitely not the law.” She pulled him by his collar and gave him a kiss on the lips. “When did you become such a smart mouth?”

He flashed a neon grin, the same one he saved for an arena full of cheering people when he’d made it to the buzzer with a ninety-point ride.

Donna turned to Tawny. “How’s Katie?”

“Much better, thank you.” Tawny offered Donna a drink. A seat.

“I just came to drop this off for our girl while she’s bedridden,” Donna said, handing Tawny a bag of children’s books and DVDs. Lucky silently chanted
hallelujah
. She’d be leaving soon.

“That’s incredibly sweet of you,” Tawny said. “I know Katie will enjoy these.”

“By the way,” Donna said, “I saw those boots you gave Cecilia. She’s so proud of them. You done good, girl.”

Although Donna had promised that she was just dropping Katie’s stuff off, she managed to stay, talking their ears off, until Mariah appeared in the open doorway, holding a couple of plastic sacks.

“Looks like a party.” Mariah handed the bags to Lucky.

“I was just leaving,” Donna said, and sniffed the food. “Smells good.”

“I put some chicken noodle soup in there for Katie.”

“Thanks, Mariah. I appreciate you dropping it off,” Lucky said.

“My pleasure. Give Katie a kiss for me.”

Donna followed Mariah out.
Good, let her jaw someone else to death
, Lucky thought as he shut the door.

“Let’s eat before it gets cold,” he told Tawny.

She quickly stashed the soup in the fridge, set the table, and searched through a cabinet until she came up with a bottle of red wine. “A client gave this to me. It’s supposed to be good.”

“You don’t have beer?”

“Sorry.”

“Wine it is then.” Lucky watched her open the bottle and pour it into two goblets. “What kind of client?”

“He’s another winemaker from the Napa Valley. He wanted boots with his logo and brought me the wine as a gift. Nice, right?”

Lucky wondered if the winemaker was hoping for a gift in return. “You gave my mom a pair of boots?” When Donna had mentioned it, Lucky was surprised—not that Tawny wasn’t generous, because she was, but because he hadn’t realized that she and his mother were that friendly.

“She came by the studio the other day and I just happened to have a pair in her size. I’d made ’em for a trunk show I did in Glory Junction last year.”

“What’s a trunk show?”

“A couple of Western-wear designers were showing their merchandise, and I held a special sales event at some rich woman’s vacation house. A bunch of her friends came and I sold a lot of boots.”

“You could’ve eventually sold the pair you gave my mom, right?”

“I could’ve, but I wanted Cecilia to have them . . . from Katie, her granddaughter.”

“That was nice of you, Tawny.”

“It’s no big deal.”

Of course it was. Lucky knew Tawny needed the money. With Katie’s various medical emergencies, she barely had time to work.

“Did Harlee take that picture of you the other night?” Lucky asked, and when Tawny seemed stumped, he said, “The one for your website.”

“Wow . . . you remembered. As a matter of fact, she did. I already uploaded it, along with a few new boot pictures to the gallery.”

He’d never looked at her website. People who worked for Lucky did his. “Does it get you a lot of clients?”

“It’s hard to say. Most of my business is word-of-mouth, but they probably go to my website to check out me and my work. It’s pretty visual.”

Lucky bet that a lot of men liked what they saw.

The steak tasted good. McCreedy beef. Clay had an exclusive deal with the Ponderosa, which probably pissed Rosser off. He watched Tawny take dainty bites of hers.

“Good?” He cocked his head at her meal.

“Delicious. I can’t remember the last time I had steak.” That would change now that he was around.

When they finished eating, Tawny cleared their plates and loaded them into the dishwasher. “Want coffee?” she asked.

“Sure.” Truth was he wanted an excuse to hang out.

While she prepared the coffeemaker, he got up and moved behind her.

“I have store-bought cookies for dessert if you’re interest—”

Before she could say more, he spun her around and boxed her in against the counter. “This is what I’m interested in.” Then he laid his lips on her mouth and kissed her.

Slow at first. But when she kissed him back, he moved over her with the urgency of a man who had been dreaming about this for weeks. Raiding her mouth with his tongue. She tasted so good, like red wine and heaven. And the way she clung to him made him so hard he feared he’d burst the seams in his fly. So he pressed into her more, hoping for sweet relief. His hands inched under her sweater, finding soft skin.

She pulled at his shirt, untucking it from his waist, and laid her hands against his bare abs, making him hiss in a breath. Never once did she stop kissing him. He reached higher until he found her breasts and fondled them through the thin lace of her bra. Flesh. He wanted the real deal, so he searched for the clasp, sprang those perfect globes free, and molded them with his hands. They were like peaches, and he desperately wanted a taste. Pushing up her sweater, he sucked her nipples and heard her let out a moan of pure pleasure. She brought his head back up and started kissing him again.

“Tawny,” he said against her mouth, pressing deeper against her groin. “Let’s take this into the bedroom.”

She pulled away from him and grabbed the counter with her hands to find support. Lucky knew how she felt. Those kisses . . . her body thrumming underneath his hands . . . had made him unsteady on his feet.

“We can’t do this.” She tried to find her breath and unconsciously traced her puffy lips.

“Why not?” Seemed like they were doing it just fine a few seconds ago.

She glared at him. “Let’s start with the fact that our daughter is in the next room and end with the fact that you’re in a relationship.”

He couldn’t dispute the part about Katie being in the next room. Being a good influence on a nine-year-old was still pretty new to him. He was used to having sex when and wherever he wanted. For the sake of his daughter, that obviously would have to change.

“I’m no longer in a relationship,” he argued.

For a split second he saw something—maybe hope—flicker in her eyes. But it came and went so fast he couldn’t tell for sure.

“You’re angry with Raylene because Butch is here. You’ll get over it.” Her meaning was clear:
No matter how bad Raylene treats you, you always come back for more
. “I won’t be your get-even sex again.”

He recoiled. “What the hell are you talking about? That’s not what this is.”

“Then what exactly is it?”

How could he explain it when he didn’t understand it himself? “I’m attracted to you . . . I want you.”

“Here’s a little news flash from the real world. You don’t always get what you want.”

Why all the hostility when a few minutes earlier she’d been dry humping him with wild abandon? But he still wanted her. More now than ever before. And not because she was a challenge. He got plenty of that every time he climbed on top of a pissed-off bull, which he did regularly. He just couldn’t remember a make-out session getting him as hot and bothered as it had with Tawny.

Holy freaking hell, had it been good.

“Here’s a big news flash for you,” he said. “I always get what I want.”

He forgot about the coffee and went home to check on his stock.

 

“Maybe next time, you wear the boots.” Jake lay in bed holding Cecilia in a haze of post-coital bliss. The woman knew how to float his boat.

She laughed. “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”

“You’re beautiful.” But her in the boots, naked, would be so sexy it might just give him a stroke. Well worth it. “Let’s move in together, Cecilia.”

She flipped on her side to look at him. “You’d give up your cabin?”

“I’d keep it for the girls,” he said. “But I know how much this house means to you.”

“Father Thomas wouldn’t like it.”

For self-preservation he didn’t point out that her priest wouldn’t like the fact that they were getting it on like bunnies, either. Still, it hadn’t stopped them. “What are you saying, you want to get married?”

“I didn’t say that.” She rested her head on his chest. “I’m saying I like the arrangement the way it is.”

“I want more, Cecilia. I want to sleep with you every night and wake up to the same sunrise with you every morning. I want us to be a team.”

“And what’s to say that as soon as you have that, you won’t want it anymore?” she asked.

Because he’d gotten it wrong so many goddamned times that he knew when it was finally right. “I know,” he said. “Now all I have to do is convince you.”

His cell rang and he reached over to the nightstand to get it. Rhys. “What’ve you got?”

“It appears that we’re back in business,” Rhys said.

“Ray’s intel must’ve been good, then?” Evidently the cattle rancher kept some real lowlifes on his payroll.

“Looks like. I know it’s Saturday, but what are you doing this afternoon?”

Jake brushed a strand of Cecilia’s hair out of her face. “I guess I’m working.”

“I’ll bring lunch from my wife’s personal chef.”

“Brady.” Jake laughed. “Sounds like he’s working out well for the inn.”

“Are you kidding? He’s working out great for the whole Shepard family. Every night he sends Maddy home with dinner. I effing love the guy.”

“All right. I’ll see you around noon,” Jake said and hung up.

“You have to go into the office?” Cecilia asked, and Jake suppressed a grin. The
office
. Like he was an insurance adjuster.

More than likely he and Rhys would drive up the mountain from Lucky’s ranch and do surveillance from inside an abandoned Airstream trailer that they’d scoped out before the shooting, which smelled like rotting rodents.

“Yeah, but we have some time.”

He rolled her under him and entered her slowly. She arched up, giving him better access to her breasts. Jake didn’t think he’d ever get enough of this woman. But unlike their first time this morning, his strokes were leisurely and his loving thorough. Gradually, he brought her to the peak and joined her in catapulting off the edge. They lay there for a while, catching their breath. She smiled up at him, looking like a satisfied cat, then rolled out from under him.

Jake kissed her. “I want us to do that dinner thing we talked about. Your family and mine.”

“When?” She traced the hairs on his chest with her finger.

“Sometime before Thanksgiving, if I can swing it. The homicide is keeping us pretty busy, though.”

“I thought you closed the case. Ray confessed.”

“Where’d you hear that?” He propped himself up on one elbow.