Looking For Trouble (3 page)

He wanted some time to play with Cole and
Sabrina's new baby son, William Wiley Jackson, his godson, too.
He'd been so touched when Sabrina had asked him to be Will's
godfather, he'd almost cried...and Wade Roberts did not cry. When
she asked him, Sabrina told him that she wanted him to be a part of
their lives forever, and that, because she and Kenny hadn't given
him a niece or nephew, she felt that was the next best thing.

Pulling off his shirt, he swiped his face
with it, then took off his hat and shook out his hair, then dried
it with his shirt too. Wade was glad they'd rented the huge fans to
put at each end of the tent, they were having a hot spell, and it
didn't look like it was going to let up. It hadn't rained in a
while either, so the grass was really dry, and he was worried about
the cattle. The cows didn't have the luxury of fans to cool them
off. Luke had installed ceiling fans in the barn, so he wasn't too
worried about the horses, though. The mares and their new foals,
were doing just fine.

After he arranged the last chair around a
table near the stage, Wade picked up his shirt and headed for the
house to take a cold shower. His stomach rumbled when he got a
whiff of the barbecue the caterers had been working on since early
this morning, and remembered he hadn't eaten lunch yet. When he got
to the fence line, he hopped it and saw a dust cloud coming down
the driveway, so he waited to see who it was.

A white van drove past him and pulled up in
front of the house, and four guys got out, followed by a tall woman
with sleek and shiny shoulder length black hair. Wade looked her
over and a wave of familiarity washed over him, but he couldn't
place the woman. One of the men waved at him, and he waved back,
then walked toward the van.

"Can I help ya'll?" Wade asked curiously,
then his eyes traveled involuntarily to the woman's round ass
sticking out of the side of the van, as she reached back inside for
something. One of the guys cleared his throat and Wade looked over
at him, and shrugged then grinned, feeling blood rush up his
neck.

The guy didn't return his smile, he folded
his arms across his flat chest and gave Wade a stare down. She must
be his girlfriend, Wade thought, and held back a chuckle. That was
a lot of woman for that guy, for sure, he thought taking in her
long legs. She had to be at least three inches taller than the
guy...probably more in the high-heeled western boots she had on
with the short, low-cut jean shorts and black t-shirt, which was
tied right under her impressive boobs.

"We're the band, where should we set up?"
the guy asked Wade shortly, and stepped in front of him to block
his view of the woman.

"Tents are over there," Wade told him then
pointed to the pasture. "One in the middle is where the stage is,
so I guess that's where you need to set up," Wade told him
arrogantly then went to walk by him to the porch. The woman stood
up from the van, and he almost bowled her over. He put his hands on
her shoulders to steady her, and her sunglasses slipped down her
nose. Wade sucked in a breath, when his eyes met a pair of cat-like
green eyes he'd never forget as long as he lived. "Jess..." he said
a little out of breath. "What did you do to yourself?"

Her hair wasn't the only thing different,
her whole bearing was different, less confident and assured, not to
mention her breasts were larger and seemed to be trying to escape
from her tight t-shirt.

She whimpered then shoved her glasses back
up on her nose, and said, "People change...how've you been?"

Since she didn't call him by name, he
figured he must
not
have told her what it was. He was going
to fix that right now. "Wade Roberts...my name is Wade, and I've
been fine. How's the big recording career going?"

Wade wished he hadn't asked when he saw her
chin tremble, then a single tear slid down her cheek from beneath
the sunglasses. "It's not," she told him shortly, "Things came
up."

"I'm so sorry, sugar...that sucks," he said
feeling like an ass now for bringing it up. He should have known it
didn't happen, because why would she be back here playing an
anniversary gig, if it had?

She waved her hand as if it were nothing,
and said, "Stuff happens...I'm not sorry."

He saw one of the guys had a fiddle case in
his hand and he asked her, "Where's Jazzie?" That's all he
remembered about her best friend and fiddle player, was her
name...because she had been instrumental in the events of that
night.

Jess snorted, then put her hand on her hip.
"Figures you'd remember Jazzie," she said snottily.

"Whoa, I
don't
remember her...I
remember you said she was your best friend and fiddle player...I
just wondered why he was carrying a fiddle," he told her with a
chin tilt toward the tall skinny guy.

"She'll be here later," she told him
vaguely, then reached back in the van for her guitar cases.

She had two, so he took one from her and
said, "Here, I'll help you with that," to be a gentleman.

With a trembling hand, she jerked it back
from him and said, "No, thank you," then walked past him toward the
pasture. "Travis, can you bring the van over to the tent, sugar, so
we can set up the amps?"

"Sure thing, Jess," the guy who'd given him
the stare down said. He gave Wade another warning look, then got
into the van and cranked it up. One of the other men went to shut
the sliding back door of the van, and Wade saw a kid's car seat
affixed to one of the benches. He also saw a pink stuffed elephant,
and a rattle of some sort on the floor.

Wade wondered if Jess had a baby now...and
if that guy was her husband or something. The thought made his
stomach churn, as did the cold shoulder she was giving him. Her new
short black hair didn't help, she looked as hard now as she was
acting. Wade wasn't even sure he
wanted
to go to the party
tonight now. He'd probably be better off just avoiding her.

Maybe he'd just stay in the house and baby
sit Will or something, he thought, then remembered that Sabrina and
Cassie had arranged for Imelda to come and watch Bella and Will.
Besides Sabrina had made him promise her a dance. Wade also wasn't
a coward, so he wasn't going to avoid Jess Sparks, he'd go to the
damned party and be as cold to the ice princess, as she had been to
him. With determination, Wade stomped up on the porch and went into
the house to grab a sandwich to hold him over.

He stopped short when he passed her in the
entry "Oh, hey, Wade," she said with a smile, then looked him up
and down. "Wow, you look pretty nasty there. I hope you're taking a
shower, before the party," she teased him, and fanned herself then
added, "They might think we're downwind of the pig sty if you
don't."

He growled, because he wasn't in the mood
for teasing from his beautiful redheaded friend. She always gave
him hell, and normally he played along, but he wasn't in the mood
right now. "That's from hard work sugar, something
you
wouldn't know about today," he told her smartly, then said, "I'm
going to the bunkhouse in a minute, I need to grab a sandwich or
something...I didn't stop for lunch."

"Well, my sister is coming to the party and
you have an automatic dance partner if you go and get cleaned up,"
she told him then added with a saucy wink, "
I'd
dance with
you like you are, because I
like
dirty boys, but she prefers
her men Irish Spring clean."

"You better shut the fuck up, because I
don't want Gabe kicking my ass if he hears you," Wade told her with
narrowed eyes. Her husband was a jealous ass sometimes, but he was
a friend and knew Wade wouldn't cross that line with his
wife...although before they got married, he'd been damned tempted
to do just that.

"My handsome husband happens to know I
prefer
him
, and
only
him, dirty or clean, so you
don't need to worry," she said with a chuckle, her bright blue eyes
sparkling, then she sobered and asked, "You heard Katie went back
to the rodeo, right? She found another partner and decided she
wasn't done yet."

"Is she done with Tucker?" Wade asked with a
lifted eyebrow. The last he heard, Karlie's equally beautiful,
identical twin, sister was staying at the Rockin' D in Amarillo,
working for Tommy Tucker...among other things.

"Yeah, I don't know what happened there, she
won't talk about it, but I think it's over," Karlie told him, then
added with a shake of her red head, "Hell, it never even really got
started, I don't think."

Wade grinned then said, "Now,
that
is
interesting, sugar. I think me and Miss Katie will have a fine time
tonight, then...guess I'd better go get that shower."

Karlie might have broken his heart by
marrying Gabe Kelley, the Chief Deputy of Bowie, but her identical
twin sister was still available. Not that that mattered to him
really, because, although the two beautiful redheads looked exactly
alike, inside they were as different as night and day. Karlie was
sass and brass, and Katie was sugar and spice. He'd almost fallen
for Karlie, because she was his kind of woman, but sweet Katie
wasn't, although she would do for a distraction tonight, one he
sorely needed.

Wade glanced at the clock on the wall and
blew off getting a sandwich, he didn't have time now, so he headed
back out the front door, and then hurried to the bunkhouse.

***

Swiping a hand over her forehead, Jess
grabbed her bottled water off the stool and downed it, letting the
cool liquid soothe her throat. The band had finished setting up and
done a sound check, but still had an hour or so before people would
start showing up, so Jess told everyone to hit the food tent, and
she went too, although there was no way she'd be able to eat.
Seeing the handsome cowboy she'd had the fling with last year on
her birthday again had her stomach churning with a mixture of
emotions, fear and lust topped the list, but she was determined to
overcome both.

That cowboy, Wade Roberts as he'd told her
earlier, didn't know it, but he'd given her more than a good time
for her birthday present. He'd given her something precious that
she has no intention of sharing with him. Wade was a complication
that neither she, nor her daughter Angel, needed in their lives.
They were doing fine without him, and would continue to do
fine.

Jess wondered what the hell he was doing
here anyway, she'd thought he was a wandering rodeo cowboy, and a
random guest at the wedding last year. Evidently, she'd been
mistaken, in more ways than one. Lifting the silver cover on a
warming plate, the barbecue pork smell hit her wrong and she
gagged. It wasn't that it didn't smell and look delicious, her
nerves were just humming like a ten-thousand volt electric line and
her stomach felt like someone was stomping grapes in there.

Quickly, she put the cover back on the
chaffing dish, then turned toward the bar instead. Maybe a beer
would help settle her down. Before she could move though, her
brother Travis came up behind her and put his hand on her back and
rubbed, then he asked, "You okay, sis? You look pale, did that guy
up at the house upset you that much? You know him?"

Boy did she know him, in the biblical sense
even, but there was no way Jess was going there with her brother.
He didn't know who Angel's father was, and she wasn't telling him.
Only she and Jazzie knew, and they were pinkie sworn to secrecy.
"Nobody special, just some guy who gave me a hard time the last
time I played here," she told him with a nonchalant shrug.

"Well, let me know if he does it again,
because I'll have Denver, um,
talk
to him," her brother told
her, speaking of the brick wall that was their drummer. The guy
looked like a professional wrestler, but was like a big teddy bear.
Den had been with her since they started the band, and thought he
was her personal body guard. Although it gave her a measure of
comfort to have him watching her back, sometimes he went a little
overboard with it.

"You need to head back to Henrietta, Trav,
so Jazzie can get here, or she won't be here for the opening
number. It's an hour drive there and back." Jess had picked a low
budget hotel in the nearby town, because she couldn't make herself
stay at the bed and breakfast again, the place where Angel had been
conceived.

"Yeah, I was just about to go...I was just
worried about you," he said with a frown. "You sure you're going to
be okay?"

"Stop worrying, as long as you're taking
care of Angel while we're here, I'll be just fine, I promise," she
told him with a wide smile, then leaned over to kiss his cheek. "I
don't know what'd I'd do without you..."

"You won't ever have to find out, sugar," he
said then pulled her into a hug.

Someone bumped into them, then lifted the
cover on the pork again, and the smell wafted over to her and she
covered her nose, then pulled out of Travis's embrace. She looked
and saw it was Wade Roberts who'd pushed them, his face was flushed
and his eyes glittered angrily.

"Excuse me for
interrupting
, but I'd
like to get some food," he grated and jerked a bun off of the
platter next to the chafing dish, then spooned a glob of the
barbecue pork on the bun, before slamming the lid down again.