Texas Curves (2 page)

Calming down wasn't on the menu -- not with Cherry Thompson sliding through the kitchen doors after me.

"Hey, Pudge Pie, I'm taking over station seven unless you want me to tell Roy what you just did." Her tone was pure southern bitch, sounding like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth even though everyone in town knows exactly what Cherry is willing to do with that mouth and every other hole she has after a few free beers at Teddy's Roadhouse.

Funny how she had the worst tips among all Roy's wait staff. I would have thought the free blow jobs behind Teddy's on Fridays and Saturdays would have been worth a few extra coins when the guys came into Roy's with their buddies or wives later in the week.

Normally Cherry Thompson is the last person I'd back down from, not that I'm use to backing down at all. But I didn't think I could face another round of my driver making fun of me. I was half ready to cry as it was and they wouldn't all be angry tears.

"Fine." I shoved the glass of sweet tea into her hand and turned to the wash station before helping Bud cut vegetables for tomorrow's soup. If I could dodge Roy for the next hour, I firmly intended not to step out of the kitchen until my driver was done and gone.

Silly me, thinking I could hide from a man with money intent on making me miserable and knowing not only where I worked but, thanks to that old biddy Elaine Henderson, my name, too.

**********************

"You are coming, right?" My brother Beau stood in the doorway to my bedroom, his bright green eyes twinkling beneath a fall of red hair. Unlike me, he's as brown as any Kelly has ever managed to get. Working the oil derricks like he does, he spends most of his days shirtless and dripping sweat. "C'mon, Ginny boo, Shelly is working a double shift and doesn't want me to go alone."

I pulled a pillow from behind my head and covered my face with it. A week had passed since my run in with the stranger at Roy's. It was my first day off since then, too, and I needed the break from looking over my shoulder constantly to make sure the man hadn't reappeared. The last thing I wanted to do was go to some company picnic in late July on my day off.

Feeling Beau tweak my big toe, I jerked my leg then threw my pillow where I expected his head to be. He caught it before it could so much as muss his hair and threw it right back at me.

I put the pillow over my face again, my voice muffled as I talked through it. "Why are you even going? McKinley Oil isn't exactly your employer anyway."

He had been picking up odd workdays at the McKinley sites and a few others whenever they were down a crew member, but hadn't landed at any company permanently. His chances of doing so were pretty slim. Most of the oil companies that had invaded the land around Tupperville brought workers in from other locations instead of hiring locals. My little West Texas town was loaded with strangers now.

"Because I stand a damn better chance of getting on permanent if I do. And, once I do, you can cut your hours in time for the fall semester at Midland."

I growled, half annoyed, half feeling guilty. Leave it to Beau to make it sound like he was doing me a favor when he was asking me to do one for him. I still didn't understand why he needed me to go. Shelly didn't have a jealous bone in her body and wouldn't throw a fit if he went stag, despite Beau being the best looking man in Tupperville.

Well, the best looking aside from my driver.

Ugh! I pressed the pillow harder against my face. I'd gone all morning without thinking about that man, now was not the time to start!

Beau tweaked my toe again and pulled the pillow from my face. "C'mon, little sister. Throw on some shorts, slap a little sunscreen on, and let's go."

Grousing the whole time, I changed clothes,
slathered
sunscreen all over my pale, freckled limbs and put a spot of makeup on -- just a swipe of mascara and some brow pencil for shaping. The sun had already kissed my cheeks well and good that summer, so I didn't need any extra color on my face.

"No e-reader, no books, no magazines." Beau took the device away and handed it to momma, who was waiting by the door. "And you can keep your phone in the glove box. You're going to be social today, Virginia Kelly."

Momma smiled and kissed my cheek. "Listen to Beau, sugar. You've been awfully quiet these last two weeks, even if you don't want to admit it or tell us why. Try to have a little fun at the picnic."

Ah, so that was it. They were trying to get me to be social for my own good. This had nothing to do with Shelly or with Beau trying to get on at McKinley. They didn't know I was upset because my driver, Mr. Tall, Dark and Cruel, had pretended to flirt with me, likely so he could have a little fun at the fat girl's expense. Sighing, I kissed momma back, pulled my sunglasses down and followed Beau out to his truck.

Half an hour later I was picking at potato salad and barbecued ribs, sipping on a sweet tea and still hiding behind my sunglasses, when someone sat down next to me at the picnic table. I didn't look to see who it was, didn't know anyone I'd seen yet and didn't really feel like exchanging names for the tenth time with someone I probably wouldn't see again.

All I knew for the first few minutes was that the person was quiet and male -- and tall by the look of his shadow falling across the table. Gender I knew by the scent of him, engine grease, a squirt of citrus and sandalwood blended together with a few deeper, masculine spices I couldn't name. He had a nice smell, the kind a girl could snuggle up to at the end of a long day.

Before my curiosity could get the better of me, I heard that noise -- that small, short sound only one man I knew made and that had the power to turn my world upside down in a heartbeat. Already scowling, I turned to look at my driver. His deep, drowning blue eyes crinkled at the corners like I was supposed to be pleasantly surprised at his appearance.

I felt my face pucker into something unpleasant but couldn't unscrew it any better than I could get my heart to slow down.

His hand moved to fill the small of my back as his voice rumbled low across my lap. "You're not going to run away on me again, are you? I don't think my ego could take it a third time."

"Mister, I don't think anything could make a dent in that ego of yours!" I started to grab my tea and plate to leave.

His hand moved lassoed my hip as his big body leaned in. "Are you going to at least tell me why you keep running away from me, Virginia Kelly?"

"Right after you tell me why you're so intent on being cruel." I sucked more air between my teeth.
Biscuits and gravy!
Now I had all but admitted my hurt feelings. With all my years of being the fat girl in class and at work, I knew nothing got a bully going like seeing blood, and I'd just shown this stranger my open wounds.

His brow crinkled, mouth drawing down as his blue eyes grew shaded. "What do you mean?"

I felt something brush along my side, realized it was his thumb moving slow and sweet like a caress, one that zipped all helter skelter to tease my nipples and down between my legs, my clit swelling all big and achy as I caught the warm smell of spices rising up from his skin as he flushed lightly.

"Same thing you're trying to do right now!" I tried to stop my mouth, failed miserably. "Pretending at flirting with me!"

Chewing my bottom lip, I worked hard to hold my tears back. I was twenty-four, a grown woman even if I did still live with momma and daddy. Grown -- g-r-o-w-n. Not some stupid high school girl waiting on my doorstep in a prom dress because Bobby Jackson pretended he liked me just so he and Cherry Thompson and a bunch of their juvenile friends could drive by the house ringing cow bells.

Glaring at my driver, I wrenched his hand from my side and scooted down the table. To hell with him! It was time to put my big girl panties on because I wasn't going anywhere. And I sure as hell wouldn't let him see how badly he had gotten to me. If he saw, Beau would see, too, and Beau had kicked Bobby Jackson's ass to the county line and back. That's not exactly the impression my big brother wanted to make at a company picnic.

"Little girl, you've got things all--"

Beau's big, booming baritone interrupted him. "Mr. McKinley, I see you found her."

Confused as all get out, I looked from my brother's smiling face to the man sitting next to me. His cheeks had flushed a little darker but he forced an easygoing grin to his face.

"Yep, now I'm just trying to get her to say yes."

I kept looking between the two men, my mouth open wide enough to pop a baseball into it. What in blazes was going on? And was I sitting next to Hawk McKinley -- the second in command of McKinley Oil Company until his daddy Harrison decided to retire or kicked the bucket?

Closing my trap, I stared at him. He still faced Beau, just giving me a view of his profile and the occasional side glance, but everything I knew about Hawk McKinley fit this man. Not that I knew a lot. I'd never seen his picture, just knew he was a good ten years older than me and that McKinley Oil was run out of offices in New York. Oh, and put all his family together and the McKinley clan had more money than the devil himself.

"My baby sister is a bunch of things, but foolish isn't one of them. And she'd be a fool to say no to working the site's office with you." Beau laughed, his knuckles giving the table top a superstitious double tap just in case a June bug had crawled up his baby sister's ass.

McKinley finally looked at me, his smile jerking slightly askew as I glared at him.

"So, you want to hire me. Why?"

"Well." He cleared his throat, his smile tightening. "After seeing Beau work this week and him talking you up, I figured the only thing better than having one Kelly on my crew is having two."

I took a deep breath in, carefully trying to navigate this strange conversation without upsetting Beau or his plans. "Two?"

"That's right." I could hear the happiness in my big brother's voice. "You're looking at McKinley Oil's newest permanent hire."

"That's great, Beau." I smiled, my heart tucking deep inside my chest in search of a safe place. "Could you give us a few minutes, I can't negotiate if I'm getting tag teamed like this."

Beau laughed again, the sound like rolling thunder. I knew what was going through his head. Not just my fall tuition but something for his sweetheart Shelly, something with a diamond and maybe a down payment on a place of their own so he could finally ask her to marry him.

"See, I told you she was something. You willing to double her salary over Roy's and pay for next semester's school, but she's all set to bend you to another condition or two." Getting up, Beau beamed at me one last time, making me feel like McKinley had just stuck a salad fork in my chest and given it an extra twist for good measure.

I waited until my brother was out of earshot before I hissed at Hawk McKinley. "You're going to fix this. I don't know how, but you are. Tell him there's some software I've got to run but don't know or something."

"Mm-hmm." Hawk slid across the bench seat until he was right up against me once more. "Excel?"

"Puh-lease!" I nudged him with my elbow to keep him from getting any closer. "My gran is almost seventy-five and she knows how to run Excel. Don't you go insulting me with Word or Powerpoint next. You could have at least come up with something like QuickBooks."

Hawk still sat way too close, his proximity squeezing all the air from my lungs as his hand found that small valley low on my back once more. "So, you don't know QuickBooks--"

"Of course I do." I rolled my eyes at him. He must really think I was some kind of dumb West Texas hick. I may have only been picking up two classes a semester at Midland, but I'd gotten through all my General Education classes and had started on business and accounting. I wanted to stick my tongue out at him and tell him QuickBooks was so two semesters ago, but that didn't seem very mature.

"Well, little girl, it looks like you’re the perfect person to get the Tupperville office in shape."

Steam started to come out my ears, I'm sure of it.

"Look, Hawk McKinley. I'm not coming to work for you. You're going to fix this and you're going to stop calling me little girl. I'm not--" I snapped my mouth shut before I embarrassed myself anymore. It just made me mad to have him call me little girl. If I was little, I might be foolish enough to think he wasn't flirting with me just to have a little fun at my expense. Doesn't mean I'd take the job or do anything about the flirting, but it wouldn't hurt half as much.

"Mmm…" Hawk captured my hand, holding it so that it rested palm-to-palm with his much bigger hand.

Even sitting down, he towered over me by at least a foot and his broad shoulders dwarfed mine. So, yeah, he had the capacity to make me feel little, just like Beau made his sweet Shelly feel petite when she was every bit as big as me if not a little bigger. But I didn't have a smile that could melt an iceberg like Shelly did. I didn't put people at ease like she could. I was always charging in, head down, fists clenched…

Hawk leaned closer, his lips brushing my ear for a second. "I'm not fixing this. You don't want to work for me, fine, but you're going to have to come up with your own reasons and I'm nowhere close to finished
negotiating
with you."

I really didn't think this was part of the HR-approved McKinley recruiting program. I sucked a breath in and told him so. "You don't really want me to go to work for you."

His mouth quirked in a smile and he blinked like a cat between naps. "You're right, I want you in my bed, but it seems like you're going to force me to take baby steps first."

Bed…baby steps?

Oh, hell no!

I scanned the other tables at the picnic site and the crowd around the volleyball net and horseshoe spikes, my eyes landing at last on Cherry Thompson. Somehow, it was entirely fitting that she had found a way to be at the McKinley company picnic, standing alongside one of the young workers and rubbing her hands up and down his muscled arms.

"There." I jabbed a finger in Cherry's direction. "If you're looking for a hole to fill, you don't need to go through all this fuss, Mr. McKinley."