Texas Hustle (5 page)

“Love your new Hondas. Why are you hauling them and not Reno?”

“We agreed that I would tow them down. He’s going to haul them back.” He glanced over at her, his deep-blue eyes vivid even in the early morning light. “And I lost the coin toss.”

She laughed. “What’s it like having a twin? You two look so much alike, although not exactly the same. You’re fraternal twins, right?”

He nodded. “Yep. But when we were younger, we looked more alike than we do now. You know, it’s hard to say what it’s like to be a twin since I’ve always been one. I don’t know life any other way. I don’t have anything to compare it with.”

“Never thought about it that way.”

“Reno is my best friend and my worst competitor.” He chuckled. “We spent our childhood trying to outdo each other.”

“Fights over girls?”

“Only once.”

When he stopped there, her curiosity got the better of her. “Serious fight?”

“Oh, yeah. Very. We were six and in the first grade. We were both sure that Nancy was our girlfriend, so we fought over which one of us she liked best. We had a fistfight on the playground.” He glanced over with a grin. “Very serious stuff. I got a cut over my eye,” he said, pointing to a slight scar in his brow. “Reno got a chipped tooth and split lip. Sounds like we really went at it, huh?” He shook his head with a snort. “We both missed when we swung our fists. I fell against a swing and he hit his mouth on a rock when he landed on the ground.”

Porchia giggled. “That’s hysterical.” She twisted in her seat toward him, drawing her knee up. “So what happened to Nancy?”

“Oh, well, Nancy liked Craig, who thought girls had cooties and wanted nothing to do with them. She chased him all over the playground for a month.”

She gave a deep belly laugh. As she did, she felt the tension she’d been carrying ease out. This trip would be good for her. The break from work, early hours and threatening calls and visits would be a welcome relief.

“I had to get some stitches,” he continued. “Reno didn’t, but there’s still a very light scar if you know where to look for it. Mom was not happy.” He frowned. “No. That’s not quite right. It was more like she was disappointed in us, which hurt more than if she’d spanked us. Told us we were brothers. Special brothers. That not many people got to have a special person like we did. Girls might come and go, but we would always be special brothers. You’d think that at only six years old, her talk would go over our heads, but it didn’t. Sure we had fights over the years, but never over women.”

“How did you avoid it? Surely at some point you both liked the same girl.”

“Turns out we have totally different tastes in women. For example, I was never attracted to Magda. I mean, I like her. She’s a great gal, but a romantic interest? Nope. Never.”

“Speaking of Magda, how come you were so sure last year about getting them together?”

He grinned. “Reno is the worst at keeping secrets, even when he thinks he’s great. Those two were sneaking around seeing each other. Thought the rest of us were clueless.” He snorted. “Not hardly. But then something happened in August last year that sent Magda flying out of town like she’d seen the devil. Reno was total hell to live with after she left. I talked to Mom about it and she hired Magda to work for us. Of course, I acted like I was going to hit on Magda, get her in the sack, really make some moves on her. You should have seen Reno’s face. He was grinding his teeth so hard, I’m surprised they didn’t crack. Threatened me if I so much as looked at her funny, much less touched her, he would cram my teeth down my throat. It was all I could do to keep a straight face. Once she moved in, the way they looked at each other made me want to get out of the room.”

“Puppy eyes, huh?”

“Let’s-go-to-bed eyes. I was so pissed when I broke my leg but it was the best thing that happened for them.” He laid his palm on her knee. “Thanks again for helping get them back together.”

His rough hand on her flesh felt as if someone had placed a lit match. Hot and burning. Except she didn’t have the pull-away response. Instead, she would be happy if he kept it there for the next fifty miles or so. When he put his hand back on the wheel, she was simultaneously relieved and disappointed.

She needed to keep reminding herself that he was too young for her and, more importantly, she just needed this break from life to think, not to start a romance. Not that being tangled up in bed sheets with Darren Montgomery wouldn’t be a luscious way to spend a few hours…or a few days. But he was her good friend and she was determined to keep it that way.

Now what were they talking about? She’d been so focused on his thick fingers that she’d lost track of the discussion.

“How did you get away from the bakery?”

Thank goodness, Darren threw her a lifeline.

“The bakery? Right. Well, the couple of months that Magda worked with me made me realize that I really need more help, especially when she left. I hired a couple of women to help, and then one day, the ideal baker came in. Have you met Mallory James? She works at night, so she’s probably been gone every time you’ve come in. Along with Callie’s help, she’s handling the kitchen. I’ve got a couple of women manning the counter. Plus, Tina promised to check in every day.” She chuckled. “Of course, that cost me a few pastries. Anyway, it’s not as if they can’t call me if there is a problem.” Her eyes widened. “We will have cell service where we’re going, right?”

“Spotty service. It comes and goes depending on where you are on the property. But sounds like you’ve got it covered, so I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Easy for him to say. He didn’t have Slade Madden breathing down his neck. Speaking of which…

“Listen, I have to tell you something,” she said.

“Okay. Shoot.”

“Besides your charming company, there’s another reason I needed to get out of town.”

He glanced at her with raised eyebrows. “Yeah? What’s that?”

“Remember the guy from the bakery? The one who was holding on to my arm?”

“Yeah,” he drew out. “What about him?”

“Well, he’s a guy I knew back in high school. Not an old boyfriend or anything like that. Just someone I knew. Anyway, he’s a little down on his luck and has been dogging old classmates for money.”

A little twist on the truth, but close enough.

“And you gave it to him?” he asked incredulously.

“No, no,” she hurriedly added. “But I am hoping he’ll move on if he can’t find me for a couple of weeks.”

“You talk to Singer about him?”

“Why would I talk to the sheriff about this? It’s no big deal. Just a pain in the ass I hope gets the message that he’s not getting any money from me when he can’t find me.”

“If he’s still bothering you when we get back, I’ll have a word with him.”

“You will not,” she exclaimed. “I don’t need you doing that. Really. But I felt like I had to explain why I don’t want to take you up on your offer to buy me out of this trip. We’re friends, and I’m sure we’ll have a great time. I just wanted to be honest with you about why I’m going.”

He frowned in her direction. “So it’s not my sparkling personality and studly bod?”

She rolled her eyes and then laughed. “Yeah, it’s those too.”

He smiled. “Seriously, if this guy is a problem, let me or Singer have a talk with him when we get back.”

“Sure.”

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. Still, it was nice that he’d offered. And now she could go into this vacation with a clear conscience.

Chapter Four

By the time Darren turned off the back road into the entrance for Whiskey Creek Preserve and stopped at the gate, his brother and Magda had long since left them behind. Pulling the trailer with the ATVs had them arriving after Reno by at least twenty minutes.

“I’ve got it,” Porchia said, jumping from the truck. “Hey,” she hollered back. “Want to share the code?”

He grinned and leaned out his window. “Yeah. That might help.” He pulled a piece of paper from his truck’s sun visor and leaned out again. “Five. Seven. Two. Seven. Four. Nine. Five.”

Her fingers worked the buttons and the gate swung open. He pulled forward and then stopped to let her climb back in.

Behind them, Drake Gentry’s Range Rover turned in and stopped. Darren waved out the window at his sister and her husband and drove forward. Drake followed closely on Darren’s trailer’s bumper and cleared the gate before it could close.

“I know that’s your sister and her husband, but I don’t know them very well.”

Darren glanced over. “KC’s pretty cool. Drake is okay, I guess. I’m sure by the end of this camping trip, you’ll know them well, if we can keep them out of their cabin.”

Porchia chuckled. “Really?’

“You have no idea. You’d think they invented sex.”

She coughed, and he figured she was choking back another laugh.

“Actually,” he went on, “I’m glad they’re together. I’ve never seen KC happier. Of course, Reno and I did warn Drake that if he did anything to make her cry, we’d see to it that he’d be crying next.”

Porchia rolled her eyes with a muttered, “Oh brother.”

The truck bounced over the ruts in the dirt.

“You know,” she said, “I don’t really know any of your family well other than Reno and Magda. I’ve met the women but hardly any of the men. And I’ve never met your parents.”

“You’ll love them. And I’m sure they’ll adore you.”
As much as I do.
Not that he could say that out loud.

She smiled and touched his arm. “Thanks.”

The drive from the gate to the lodge was a little over two miles. As each tenth of a mile passed, the tension in the truck cab rose. Porchia pulled her knee off the seat and put both feet on the floor. Then he noticed how straight she sat, eyes focused to the front. Her hands were folded in her lap. Her entire posture reminded him of the year KC had been a debutante. He and Reno had teased her mercilessly, but she’d gotten her revenge when both of them had served as debutante escorts a mere four years later.

The last bend in the road exposed the two-story log lodge. It’d been built in the early nineteen-fifties as a hunting camp for some rich banker who’d rarely ever used it. The preserve had changed hands a couple of times until it had been bought by some friends of the Montgomerys about twenty years ago. Six newer cabins had been added over the years, with the seventh one still under construction.

The drive circled in front of each log cabin and the lodge and around a large fire pit. There were folding camp chairs already set up near the stone pit.

Outside the ring of buildings, two camping sites were available for tents or recreational vehicles. Cash Montgomery stood in one of those sites directing a truck backing a fifth wheel into a site.

“Whose fifth wheel?” Porchia asked.

Darren grinned so wide his cheeks hurt. “Marc Singer. He and Cash are pretty tight.” He chuckled. “With Lydia as his date, this could get interesting.”

He stopped his truck in front of the lodge and climbed out. Two hours of driving had him stiff. He wasn’t used to staying still for such long periods of time except when he was sleeping. Even then, if the sheets on his bed were to be believed, he tossed and turned a lot at night too.

Porchia hopped from the passenger side, flung her arms over her head and stretched. Then, bending from the waist, she touched her toes with a groan.

“Man, that feels good.” She stood and twisted side-to-side.

Darren made it around the hood of his truck in time to get a good look at her tight ass when she bent. He lost his train of thought the minute she touched her toes.

“Stop staring at her and come hug your mother.”

He jerked his gaze from Porchia’s backside and up to the porch. His mother stood with her hands on her hips, a knowing smile on her lips.

“Hi, Mom.” He hurried up the stairs and lifted his mother off her feet in a bear hug.

“Stop that,” she said, slapping his shoulder.

He set her back on her feet. “When did you and Dad get here?”

“Yesterday. Your dad and Lane wanted to go riding before the rest of you got here.”

“Uncle Lane brought horses?”

Nadine Montgomery snorted. “I wish. Those two fools bought new ATVs. When your dad test drove the ones we got y’all, he had to have one.” She sighed dramatically. “I wonder which one of them will hit a tree first.”

Darren laughed. “Lucky for us that Travis had the foresight to marry a doctor.”

He sensed Porchia’s presence before she said a word. Heat washed over him, followed by a tingling at the base of his spine. In all his life, he never remembered having this type of physical reaction to just being near any one woman. He turned to face Porchia and the heat notched up about a hundred degrees or so.

“Mom. This is Porchia Summers. Porchia, this is my mother, Nadine.”

Porchia extended her hand. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Montgomery.”

Nadine shook Porchia’s hand. “Please call me Nadine. If you yell Mrs. Montgomery this weekend, there’s no telling who’ll answer.”

Porchia’s smile was extremely polite and formal. “Of course. Nadine it is then.”