Vince hated unknowables even more than he hated owing anyone anything.
While he waited to hear from the bank, he learned as much as he could about running a convenience store. He met the store’s suppliers and Luraleen’s two employees, Patty Schulz and George “Bug” Larson. Both seemed capable enough, but nether struck him as particularly having a fire in their bellies for anything. Except maybe jalapeño cheese dogs. If and when he took over the Gas and Go, Patty and Bug were going to do more for their ten bucks an hour than sit on stools and ring up cigarettes and beer. He was going to make other changes, too. First, he would take a sledgehammer to the place. As a member of the SEAL teams he’d been an insertion specialist, but he did love to demo. Second, when he reopened, the Gas and Go would close at twenty-four hundred hours. Not twenty-two-hundred or whenever the
mood
struck Luraleen.
His second week in Lovett, he took over his aunt’s night shifts and the responsibility of closing the place. And over the next few nights he discovered that the people of Lovett gossiped like it was a natural reflex. Like breathing and saying y’all.
One night over a Snickers and a cup of decaf, Deeann Gunderson told him that Jerome Leon was “skirtin’ around” behind his wife’s back with Tamara Perdue. Deeann owned Deeann’s Duds and was a pretty thirtysomething divorced mother of two. She let him know she was interested in more than a candy bar and gossip and that she was free every other weekend. As long as she wasn’t looking for a daddy for her kids, he might take her up on it. He didn’t have anything against kids. Just mamas who wanted a new husband.
He heard that someone ran over Velma Patterson’s little dog, and that Daisy and Jack Parrish were expecting a baby girl. He learned that Sadie Hollowell was in Laredo with her sick father. Everyone seemed to have an opinion about the Hollowells in general and Sadie in particular. Some, like Aunt Luraleen, thought she was an ungrateful daughter. Others that her father was neglectful, more concerned with his cattle and horses than his own child. Whatever the opinion, they all loved to talk.
Like Vince gave a shit.
Besides the average customers who just stopped when they needed a fill-up, the Gas and Go had regulars. People who stopped in every day or so at the same time for a fountain Coke or gas or beer.
One of those regular customers who stopped by for a nightly fountain Coke turned out to be Becca Ramsey. Which he did mind.
“Vince!” she’d shrieked as if they were old friends the first time she’d seen him in the Gas and Go. “Are you stayin’ in Lovett?”
He wondered if he could get away with lying to her. “For a while yet.” After that, she came in for a pack of gum, a candy bar, and a Rockstar on her way home from the Milan Institute in Amarillo. Apparently young Becca was going to beauty school, and for some reason thought Vince gave a flying fuck.
“If I have to give one more old lady a perm,” she said, her words drawn out, “I swear I’m goin’ to flip the freak out!”
“Uh-huh.” He rang up her energy drink.
“I saw Slade drivin’ around in that slut Lexa Jane’s truck. He’s so broke down he can’t even afford his own vehicle.”
He felt a sudden stabbing pain in his left eye. Like a nail driven into his iris. The next day, she stopped in to tell him she’d cut her first wedge. Apparently it was a type of woman’s hairstyle, and for the first time in six years, he could imagine an upside to his hearing loss. Maybe if he turned his bad ear toward her, he could block out her voice. Or maybe she’d run out of words and shut the hell up.
“And she didn’t look like she had dog ears when I was done.” She laughed. “You just can’t believe the number of girls who can’t cut a wedge.”
No such luck. Vince had been trained by the finest military in the world on how to escape and evade. He could get out of tight spots, but there was no way to E and E Becca without putting her in a sleeper hold.
“Next week I’m having a birthday party.”
“How old are you going to be?” he asked as he rang up her Big Hunk. Vince would guess, barely legal. Some men might find a young, attractive girl fair game. Vince wasn’t one of those guys. He liked mature women who didn’t weep all over him.
“Twenty-one.”
When he’d been twenty-one, he’d just finished SQT and was headed to the teams. He’d been full of himself and riding high on testosterone and invincibility. He’d been arrogant and tenacious with a full bag of skills to back it all up.
“You should come and take shots with me.” She dug in her wallet and handed him a five.
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not? We’re friends now.”
He made change, then looked at the silly girl in front of him. She actually thought they were friends. “Since when?”
“Since we talked at Tally Lynn’s wedding. You were there for me, Vince.”
Jesus, she thought he’d sat in that bride’s room because of her. He’d been there because he’d had a hard-on for Sadie Hollowell and he’d had to wait it out.
“You helped me see that Slade is shallow and that I’m better off without him.”
“I did?” He didn’t remember saying that.
She smiled. “I want more. I
deserve
more, and I’ve moved on.”
Suddenly he had a very uncomfortable feeling. Like someone had a bead between his eyes and he was caught completely unarmed.
The chime above the door rang and he looked from the big brown eyes in front of him to the woman strolling into the Gas and Go. Into the face of the woman who’d made his life uncomfortable in more ways than one. Her blond hair was pulled back into a loose, messy ponytail. She wore a rumpled dress and zip-up hoodie. She looked like shit, but for some reason, his body responded like he was in junior high and the prettiest girl in school just walked into sex ed class.
S
adie pushed open the door to the Gas and Go and hitched her bag onto her shoulder. She was beyond exhausted. She’d spent the past two weeks inside a hospital in Laredo, and she’d just deplaned about an hour ago in Amarillo. She’d had a four-hour layover in Dallas, and she was not only exhausted, she was cranky as hell. Her ponytail was falling to one side and her eyes were scratchy. She looked like crap and she just didn’t care.
She glanced up through her scratchy eyes at Becca and beyond to the man scowling like a black storm cloud was sitting above his dark head and big shoulders. Great. Vince was still in town. She didn’t have the energy to care or be embarrassed about what had happened at Tally Lynn’s wedding or how she looked. She’d be embarrassed tomorrow after her brain rested and she could recall every humiliating memory of his warm mouth and hot touch.
“Hi, Sadie,” Becca moved toward her and gave her a big hug like they were old friends. “I heard about your daddy. How’s he doing?”
She was a little surprised by how good Becca’s hug felt. “Cranky.” She pulled back and looked into the younger woman’s brown eyes. “Thanks for asking.” The doctors said it would be a few more weeks until he could be moved to a care facility in Amarillo, followed by months of rehabilitation. “He’s going to be moved to a rehab facility in Amarillo soon.” Which was why she was back home. To talk to the administrator and determine what care was best for him. Best for a cranky old rancher with anger issues.
“I know you were planning on going home. Are you in town for a while now?” Becca asked.
“Yeah, probably a few more months.” She was stuck in Lovett for
months
. Taking care of her father who didn’t want anyone taking care of him, it seemed, least of all her. Sadie dropped her arms to her sides and moved past Becca toward the coolers. Her mind might be too tired to retrieve every memory of that night in the bride’s room, but the testosterone rolling off Vince like a tsunami reminded her body in a crashing wave that created a bit of turbulence in her chest.
“The night of Tally Lynn’s wedding, everyone wondered why you ran off before the bouquet toss. Now we know why you were in such a hurry.”
Her tired feet stopped and she looked over her shoulder at Vince. “We do?” Had Vince told Becca, or had someone seen them in that room?
He didn’t say a word. Just raised a dark brow up his forehead.
“Yeah. If my daddy had been hurt, I would have run out without saying good-bye to anyone, too.”
Relief dropped her shoulders and Vince laughed. A deep, amused rumble. She was too tired to care.
“Well, I gotta go,” Becca announced. “See you around, Sadie.”
“Bye, Becca.” She snagged a big bag of Chee-tos and headed to the coolers. When she returned to the front of the store, she was alone with Vince. A tight white T-shirt hugged his big shoulders and chest and was tucked into a pair of beige cargo pants. A rack of various brands of cigarettes hung behind him. Had he looked that hot the night of the wedding? No wonder she’d let him stick his hand up her skirt.
She set her Coke and Chee-tos on the counter next to a box of Slim Jims. Hopefully, he wouldn’t mention the other night. “So you work here now?”
“Yeah.” He looked her up and down, his green gaze pausing for the briefest of moments on the front of her dress. “You look like shit.”
“Wow.” And here she’d been thinking he looked hot. “Thank you.”
His long fingers punched numbers on the cash register. “Just saying maybe you should brush your hair before you go out in public.”
She pulled her wallet out of her purse. “Didn’t they teach you charm in SEAL school?”
“Yeah, at Camp Billy Machen. It was taught between recon and demolition.”
“Well, you obviously flunked.” So far so good. He hadn’t brought up the other night. Talking about how bad she looked was much preferable.
“Can’t flunk any part of SQT or you ring the bell.” He pushed total.
“What’s SQT?” She watched him shove her Chee-tos into a bag.
“SEAL qualification training.”
“And exactly what do SEALs train for?” Not that she was all that interested, but it was a safe topic.
“Hunting down bad guys. Fixing the world.”
“I guess they didn’t teach you how to fix broken-down trucks on the side of the road. I thought SEALs were trained to go all MacGyver in any situation.”
“Yeah, well, I was all out of paper clips and sticks of gum that day.”
She almost smiled. “What do I owe you?”
He looked up at her and smiled, but it wasn’t the nice, pleasant smile she’d seen the night of Tally Lynn’s wedding. Gone was the nice guy. “At the very least, a thank-you.”
She pointed at her purchases. “You want me to thank you for buying a Diet Coke and Chee-tos?”
“For the Coke and Chee-tos, five dollars and sixty cents.”
She handed him six bucks.
“But you still owe me for the other night.”
She guessed she’d hoped for too much. He wanted to talk about it. Fine. “Thank you.”
“Too little, too late.”
His gaze lowered to her mouth. The other night she’d found him watching her lips sexy. Tonight, not so much. “How much is an orgasm worth these days?”
“That one?” She’d been raised to be nice. To be a lady, no matter how rudely she was being treated. To smile, say, “Bless your heart,” and walk away, but she’d hit her quota of nice. She was all filled up with smiling at obnoxious, rude men. “Keep the change and we’ll call it good.”
One corner of his mouth slid up. “Honey, you think that orgasm was worth forty cents?”
“I’ve had better.” Maybe, but none faster.
“Still worth more than forty cents. You said, ‘Oh God’ at least twice.”
“If it’d been a really good orgasm, I would have said it more than twice.”
“I barely touched you and you went off.” He held out her change and dropped it in her palm. “That makes it worth more than forty cents.”
She closed her hand around the coins and shoved them in the pocket of her hooded jacket. “So, I take it we’re not square anymore.”
His lids lowered over his light green eyes, a smile turned up his lips, and he shook his head. “Payback’s hell.”
She grabbed her bag as the door chime rang. She pointed to the ceiling and said, “Saved by the bell.”
“For now.”
“Sadie Jo?”
Sadie looked across her shoulder at the woman carrying a toddler on one hip while two other little kids trailed behind. Her blond hair had an inch of brown roots and was pulled on top of her head. “RayNetta Glenn?”
“It’s RayNetta Colbert now. I married Jimmy Colbert. Remember Jimmy?”
Who could forget Jimmy Colbert? He’d had a taste for Elmer’s Glue and smoked pencil shaving wrapped up in lined paper. “You have three kids?”
“And two on the way.” She moved the little girl she held to one side. “Twins due in September.”
“Oh God!” Sadie’s mouth fell open. “Oh my God!”
“That’s two ‘oh gods,’ ” Vince said from behind the counter. “You owe that woman forty cents.”
She ignored him.
“I heard about your daddy.” RayNetta adjusted the toddler on her hip. “How’s he doin’?”
“Better.” Which was true, but still not good. “I’m moving him to a rehab hospital in Amarillo.”
“Bless his heart.” The two little boys behind RayNetta ran around her and headed to the candy rack. “Only one,” she called after them. “Kids.” She shook her head. “You married?”
There it was. “No.” And before RayNetta asked. “Never been married and don’t have any kids.” She adjusted the plastic bag in her hand. “It was good to see you.”
“Yeah. We should get together and catch up.”
“I’ll be in town for a while.” She glanced over her shoulder. Vince had planted his hands on his hips, and her gaze climbed up the ladder of chest muscles, past his square jaw, to his green eyes. “Good-bye, Vince.”
“See you around, Sadie.” It wasn’t a good-bye as much as a warning.
She bit her lip to keep from smiling. She supposed she should be scared or at least apprehensive. Vince was definitely big and overpowering, but she didn’t feel the least threatened by him. If he’d wanted to use his strength to get a “payback,” he would have at Tally Lynn’s wedding.
She moved out into the deep shadows of night toward her Saab. She’d be in town for only a few days before she headed back to Laredo, so she doubted she’d run into Vince. Especially if she stayed away from the Gas and Go.