Love Is All Around (2 page)

“What are you doing? Oh, great, they’re coming over.” Rolling her eyes, Patsy put a hand over her face. “I hope she doesn’t bust out of that dress while she’s here. Nobody needs to see that.”

The comment earned Patsy a keep-quiet look from Ruthann. “Shush, she’ll hear you. Here they come.”

“Hey, Ruthann,” Jessica flashed them with the full force of her former-Miss-Daisy-Creek smile. “Patsy.” Her tone deepened slightly. “You all remember Will Barnes, don’t you?” Jessica performed a little shimmy move up her companion’s side, sending the tiny heart-shaped charms on her bracelet tinkling.

So it was Will. Patsy watched as Ruthann made a fool of herself, stuttering out nonsense and twisting in her seat. You’d think the man was Clint Black, the way she and Jessica were carrying on. Sure, he was good-looking, probably six feet two or so, brown hair just long enough to curl at the ends and an even, white smile, but so what?

As Granny said, you could dip a cockroach in chocolate, but that wouldn’t make it go down any easier. Not if you knew what was hiding under that tasty coating. Will Barnes had shown his nature a long time ago. Just because he had money now didn’t make him any sweeter.

“You remember Patsy, don’t you, Will?” Ruthann was sucking Patsy into the conversation. Patsy rolled her head to the side and looked up into warm gray eyes.

Make that eye.

She didn’t remember that. His eyes were two different colors—one gray, one blue. Patsy wondered what Granny would say about that. In her world of hill-lore, there had to be some kind of warning about a man with mismatched eyes. A kick from Ruthann alerted Patsy that she was staring.

Patsy sat up. “Excuse me? You say something?”

Both eyes, the blue and the gray, clouded with confusion.

“You remember Patsy, don’t you, Will? She was always scrapping with somebody.” Jessica smoothed her hands down her hips. “I believe Patsy was the one who filled Lisa’s thermos with worms. Wasn’t that you?” She pursed her lips and looked at Patsy, mascara-heavy eyes wide.

“Oh, I don’t remember that at all. You must be thinking of somebody else.” Ruthann twisted her head back and forth between the two women.

“Crickets. They were crickets, not worms,” Will said. “It was on the bus. Lisa took the lid off her thermos. They jumped out and went flying all over the place. She wouldn’t take a thermos for the rest of the year. Mother had to give her money for milk.”

Jessica grinned at Ruthann. “See? I thought that was Patsy.”

Patsy took a drink of her beer. She knew the polite thing would be to pretend remorse she didn’t feel, but it wasn’t going to happen. “It was her own fault. I told her they were there. Dwayne was going fishing that afternoon, and he said he’d pay me a penny for every cricket I caught. Lisa drank her milk at lunch. I just borrowed the thermos. She got all uptight because I had it and insisted on seeing what was inside. I told her what was in it, but she twisted off the top anyway.” Patsy’s bottle landed on the table with a clunk. “What’d she expect them to do, just chirp at her from the bottom?”

Taking a deep swig of her drink, Ruthann looked around the room. Patsy raised both eyebrows and stared at Will.

“One of them jumped down Lisa’s shirt.” His face was solemn, not revealing his thoughts. “I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that hard. How’ve you been, Patsy Lee?” A small smile edged his mouth upward.

Patsy was taken a bit off guard by his good-natured response. “Uh, fine.” She blinked up at him.

“You have certainly changed. I wouldn’t have recognized you if Jessica hadn’t brought up that old story.” His voice was low and velvety, and when he smiled, the skin around his eyes crinkled. Patsy felt something in the vicinity of her chest do a little skip at the sight. It wasn’t attraction, not to the good-for-nothing rich boy. No, it was the beer, definitely the beer. She took another mouthful.

Jessica shifted her gaze between Will and Patsy. “Patsy was quite the little tomboy, even through high school. She spent so much time tromping around the woods with that Ozark history group, it’s a wonder she even had time to date.”

Patsy’s fist tightened around the top half of her beer bottle. “I don’t think Will’s interested in what I did in high school.”

“No, probably not. But being a tomboy can make keeping a man a challenge.”

Patsy ran her thumb around the circular ridge of the bottle neck. “You know much about keeping a man? I thought stealing was more your specialty.”

“It isn’t stealing if he’s already lost.” Jessica’s voice had a slight tremor. Remorse, from the bimbo? Couldn’t be.

Ruthann placed a cold hand on Patsy’s free arm. “You need another beer?”

Seeing Ruthann’s tense face, Patsy relaxed her grip on the beer bottle. “That’s true, you can’t steal what’s already lost, and I guess every town needs a lost-and-found. Nice to know you’re doing your civic duty.”

 “How about a drink, Jessica?” Ruthann leapt from her chair, almost knocking Will down.

As Ruthann tugged Jessica toward the bar, Will stayed next to the table, analyzing Patsy with an inscrutable light in his eyes.

Patsy said, “Excuse me, Will. It was nice seeing you again, but I think I need to take a trip to the little Tomboys’ room.” She pushed herself away from the table and walked toward the restroom.

 o0o

Will watched as Patsy Lee Clark sashayed away from the table. She was something. Little and cocky, that was the same. What was different was her looks. Her blond hair used to look like her mother cut it using a soup bowl as a guide, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen her without a film of dirt covering most of her. Now, green eyes competed with full lips. Her hair was still short, but it flipped out in a random manner that gave him the urge to run his fingers along her scalp to try and calm it. And the back view as she walked away—well, it gave him thoughts the earlier dirt-covered version of Patsy Lee never had.

He needed a beer. Free of Cindy less than twenty-four hours and already scoping out replacements. Not this time.

Refocused, he scanned the crowd. Normally, he avoided scenes like this. Crowds, especially loud, jostling crowds, set his teeth on edge, but Jessica had assured him she could reintroduce him to a couple of men he’d known as beer-guzzling teenagers. Somehow they’d grown into big shots in the community. The profits from selling Consult.com weren’t going to last forever, and if he wanted to stay in Daisy Creek, he needed all the contacts he could muster.

o0o

Patsy leaned against the pool table watching Randy Jensen line up a shot. Dwayne had caught her on her way back from the bathroom. There was no way to avoid him and Randy without being obviously rude. Plus, Patsy had nowhere to go. Ruthann was still standing at the bar with Jessica, and Will Barnes had taken over their table. He sat there now, laughing and talking with a couple of Gordie regulars. One was the assistant DA, and the other owned the local paper.

They were both rednecks, rednecks with fancy jobs and impressive titles, but rednecks all the same. They were the types who got a little money and suddenly thought they were operating on a higher plane than everybody else in town. They were probably sucking up to Will though. He had everything they respected—pedigree, connections, and money. The little issue of his past would be nothing when weighed against that, especially the money.

Carrying a frothy pink concoction, Jessica returned to the table. The DA made a production of wiping the table for her, but she barely seemed to notice. She placed the drink in front of an empty seat. She was too busy eyeing Will. The DA pulled out a chair and her eyes still on Will, she slid into it.

Patsy wondered where the DA’s wife was. Probably at home with their two kids. Annoyed with all of them, she turned her attention back to the pool game.

“Hell, Dwayne, that’s two in a row. I don’t need to lose any more money tonight.” Randy placed his cue back in the rack that hung on the wall. “Besides, there’s ladies here now.”

After taking a swig of Busch, Dwayne replied, “I don’t see nobody but Patsy. But if you two got plans, don’t let me stand in your way.” He gave Randy a wink.

Rolling her eyes at her brother, Patsy picked up the cue Randy had deserted. “I’ll play you. What’s the bet?”

“I’m not playing you. I have standards.” Dwayne pushed his thumbs into the front pockets of his Levis and rolled up onto the toes of his Redwing boots.

Appearing behind him, Ruthann drawled, “Yeah, and you don’t like to lose either.” Eyes lowered, she said, “Hey, Randy. How’s Luke doing? He sure looked cute all dressed up for church last Sunday.”

“He’s doing good. He’s staying with my mom tonight.” Randy watched Patsy. “I told her I might be out late.”

Ignoring him, Patsy addressed Ruthann, “How’s the barracuda? Looks like she has a few fish lined up, all ready for a snack.”

“Yeah, well, she has better luck than I do. That’s for sure.” Ruthann flicked her gaze at Randy before looking back at Patsy.

“You girls just aren’t packing the right bait. Ain’t that right, Randy? A man likes to see a little bounce and twist.” Dwayne cupped his hands over his chest and shook his skinny ass. Patsy resisted the impulse to whack him with the pool stick.

 o0o

There’s the girl I remember, Will thought as he watched Patsy Lee Clark lean on a pool cue, her green eyes snapping. He could see by the way Dwayne was laughing that he was taunting her. It would probably serve him right if she belted him. Will was sure Dwayne and Patsy Lee had survived more than one argument that ended in blows. Even with the seventy or so pounds Dwayne had on her, a smart man’s money would always ride on Patsy Lee, and Will was a smart man.

Jessica leaned over the table, brushing her breasts against his bare forearm. Her musky perfume stomped past the smell of stale beer and cigarette smoke that filled the bar. Strangely, he missed the beer and smoke.

“So, what do you think, Will? You going to need some office space? There’s a real nice building open next to David’s.” She motioned toward David Wood, the current assistant DA of Daisy Creek County.

Taking a sip of Budweiser to cover his need for a fragrance-free breath, Will carefully moved his arm away from spandex-compressed flesh. “I don’t know yet. I’m still weighing my options. For right now, I can just work out of the house. I won’t be doing anything that’ll violate the zoning laws.” He smiled at his companions.

Richard Parks, owner of the weekly
Daisy Creek News
, balanced his chair on its back legs and laughed. “You don’t have to worry about zoning laws here, Will. You could just about start a hog farm in the courthouse, and as long as it brought in jobs, nobody’d complain.”

Will raised an eyebrow. Just the kind of offer his father would seize. Striving for a light tone, he said, “Well, that’s reassuring.” Maybe Daisy Creek needed a bit more help than he’d thought. Switching his gaze back to the scene by the pool table, he continued. “I see someone I haven’t talked to in years. How about I give you two a call after I’m more settled?” He stood to leave. Jessica uncrossed her legs as if to follow, but he motioned for her to stay.

“I appreciate you walking in with me, and reintroducing me to people, but I’m fine now. You enjoy yourself. And thanks again for helping me get the house.” He stepped away from the table before she could object. She was attractive but a little obvious and way too needy. Best to make it clear right out of the gate where his intentions lay, or didn’t. He wasn’t looking for a relationship, or even a fling. It was time for him to start over, alone. There was no space for anyone but his dog in his plans right now.

He strolled to the pool table. As Dwayne twisted around the table next to Patsy, she reached out with the cue and snagged a full beer mug through the handle. Flicking her wrist like she was flipping flapjacks, she poured the beer down the front of Dwayne’s jeans.

Will smiled. Slick move.

“What the hell is wrong with you? You have no sense of humor at all.” Dwayne jumped away from the dripping mug and slapped his hands against his wet crotch.

As Will passed a nearby table, he grabbed a white bar towel and threw it to Dwayne. “Long time, Dwayne, Randy. How’s it going?”

“Well, Will Barnes. I heard you were back in town.” Dwayne mopped at his wet jeans. “Excuse my mess; my little sister is still as prickly as a cocklebur.”

Looking completely devoid of remorse, Patsy stood at the pool table pretending to line up a shot.

“You looking for a game?” Will nodded his head at the empty table.

Still bent over the pool cue, Patsy ignored him.

“You don’t want to play her,” Dwayne interrupted. “Let me buy you a beer.”

“So, are you looking for a game?” Will repeated, adding just a hint of a challenge.

Her eyes flickered. Standing, she replied, “I guess I can handle just one.” She sauntered to the middle of the table and shoved quarters into the coin slots.

She had a natural sway to her step, almost athletic. Her short hair bounced against her neck, leaving Will again with the urge to comb his fingers through the teasing locks.

The balls rolled down with a thud, bringing him back to the moment.

“You break,” Patsy said. “I don’t want to be accused of cheating when I beat your city ass.”

Will grinned. “No ladies first?”

“No ladies here.” Dwayne guffawed. “Let’s get a beer.” He waved Randy toward the bar. Ruthann watched them leave, but took a seat at a nearby table.

Will went to select a cue. When he turned back to the pool table, Patsy Lee was stretched across the top, rolling the rack into position. The view of her shorts pulled high on her thighs stopped his breath somewhere around his heart. Nothing like a nice round rear to put a man off his game. He wondered if he could call a handicap.

Patsy popped back onto the floor. “All ready.”

Something was ready, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t what Patsy Lee was referring to.

With a smile, he replied, “Glad to hear it.”

She stepped back. “You gonna break, or what?”

Or what
, Will’s inner letch screamed. “Just getting a feel for the table,” he replied.