The Bull Rider's Manager (16 page)

The doorbell rang.

Glancing at the wall clock, Hunter frowned. His dad wouldn’t show up after nine, especially on a weekday. Probably a neighbor kid.

Swinging open the door, he was surprised to see a grinning Kevin Flavin. A very drunk Kevin, leaning against the wall of the entryway.

“Is Barbie home?” Kevin leered around Hunter. “You two still playing house?”

“What do you want?” Hunter’s voice was cold.

“The girl owes me. I’ve come to collect. Especially since she’s come into some money.” Kevin opened his arms, motioning to the house. “That sister-in-law of yours wants to stiff me, won’t pay me what I deserve for my testimony, so I thought I’d give Barbs a chance to buy my services.”

“Angel was paying you?” Hunter leaned against the doorway. This was getting better and better.

“Not much. I told her I have expenses, but the witch just laughed. She said I could walk right now and the damage had already been done.” Kevin pulled up a half-empty longneck bottle and took a sip. “She told me to go away.”

Hunter thought about Jesse’s suspicions. “Kevin, did you drug Barb when she married you?”

Kevin’s eyes narrowed. “Somebody’s been talking out of school.” He took a second swig of beer. “Ah, hell, it doesn’t matter now, does it? Barb was dead asleep when we were getting married. I found a stripper who was her double, except maybe in bed. Man, that girl was flexible. Of course, since Miss Priss wouldn’t let me do her, I can’t compare the two.”

“You faked the wedding?”

“Let’s say ‘staged.’ It sounds less criminal.” Kevin laughed. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Barb never believed me or the pictures. She passed me on to a new manager, got a quickie annulment, and never even calls on our anniversary.”

“You’re lucky she didn’t press charges.” Hunter could smell the man now. Several days on this bender if the smell of alcohol and sweat could be measured.

“Barb’s not like that. Besides, she liked me.” Kevin laughed. “So what do you say? You ready to give me a new offer?”

“Get off my porch and leave town. Never come back.”

Kevin nodded. “I can do that. What’s my cut?”

“I won’t press charges for trespassing and fraud.”

Confusion filled Kevin’s face. “I don’t understand.”

“I hope you didn’t spend all the money Angel gave you up front, because you’re going to need enough to buy a bus ticket out of town. If I see you around here or bothering Barb again, I’m going to press charges. And make sure Barb does as well.” Hunter looked at the man standing on his porch.

“You’re going to regret this.”

“There’s a lot of things I regret, but kicking you off my property isn’t one of them.” Hunter pointed to the road. “I’ve give you till the count of ten to get walking.”

Kevin stumbled off the porch. “No one gives me a damn bit of respect anymore.”

Hunter watched the man until he reached the street. Kevin lobbed the empty beer bottle toward the house, but the bottle landed short, in the middle of the yard.

“Jerk,” Hunter muttered before closing the door.

He’d let Angel get under his skin. He let her cast doubts in his mind about Barb. Doubts she didn’t deserve and he never should have expressed. And now she was gone.

Hunter turned off the lights, checking the locks on the windows and doors. His momma didn’t raise no fool. Even though Kevin had appeared to walk off, it didn’t mean that the man wouldn’t double back.

Hunter sat in the living room, lights off for a long time that night. Thinking about a future without worrying about a past.

• • •

“Why don’t you come back to Shawnee with us?” Lizzie folded clothes into her bag from the closet of the small hospital room. “You look like you could use some sleep. You can have one of the cabins, and you may not even hear the boys cry at night.”

Barb smiled, looking down at one of the twins she cradled in her arms. Robbie. She was kind of sure the baby she held was Robbie, but how Lizzie told the two boys apart, Barb still didn’t know. Alex slept, already in the car seat. “As tempting as that sounds, I think I’m going to stay in town for a while. I’m heading out with the boys on Friday and I’d like to spend as much time with Mom as possible.”

Lizzie sank on the bed. “He’s not going to change his mind and come running to your side, apologizing for his bad behavior.”

“Who?” Barb didn’t even look up.

Lizzie sat on the bed and stared. “You know Kevin wasn’t your fault. Nothing that man says is true even when you ask him the time.”

Barb stroked Robbie’s cheek, trying to keep tears from filling her eyes. “I let myself get in that situation. I trusted him.”

“And you’re not the first woman to trust what a man says. Kevin planned the whole thing from the beginning — get you as his manager by hook or crook, and his no talent butt would start being thrown from better bulls in better rodeos.” Lizzie patted her friend’s shoulder. “The only thing you did wrong was trust him. And maybe fall for a jerk.”

“Mom always said I could pick the bad boy out of the church choir. I guess Kevin proved her true.”

“Your mama’s one to talk. Look, I know we don’t speak ill of the ill, so to speak, but that woman put you through some hell growing up.” Lizzie gazed at her son in Barb’s arms. “I hope if James dies young I don’t go off the deep end like Lorraine did. My boys will just have to shoot me.”

Barb smiled. “She wasn’t that bad.”

Lizzie shot her a look.

“Okay, she was that bad, but I had your parents to use as role models.” Barb smiled at the memories of growing up with Lizzie as her best friend. That’s when she learned how to pretend, how to make her life seem normal, just like Lizzie’s. And up until Kevin, she’d been good at playing pretend, in her career and love life. She was the ultimate manager. She kept all the plates spinning for her clients. And it was that fantasy woman that Kevin had latched onto and why he had been determined to have her. Not the first time she’d been chased. Just the first time she’d been drugged.

Hell, she knew the marriage to Kevin had been a farce. She’d even seen the tapes of that woman standing in for her. A striking redhead with boobs three times her size. No one, or at least no woman, would mistake her for the bride on the tape. So when Kevin had blackmailed her, she’d sent him on his merry way with a new manager and ten percent of what he’d asked for. As long as he’d signed the annulment papers and never darkened her door again.

Well, he’d blown both of those opportunities. His new manager had fired him after one season and with Kevin showing up at the reception, Barb was pretty sure she should get a refund on the door darkening promise.

“Face it, not everything is your fault or under your control,” Lizzie said.

“You’re messing with my inner vision. Super bitch.” Barb smiled.

“The cradling of a new infant kind of already killed that image. Sorry.” Lizzie put her arm around Barb. “Things will work out. If Hunter’s the one, he’ll realize he’s an idiot and come crawling back.”

And that’s exactly what I’m worried about.
Instead of responding, she gently rocked the baby, trying to get him to sleep. Finally she looked up at her friend. “Why would I want that?”

“Sure, play dumb. Are you sure staying here’s a good idea? You’re not going to go all stalker on his butt, are you?” Lizzie reached for Robbie. “Let me bundle this guy up and get him settled.”

“When have I ever gone crazy about a guy?” Barb handed the baby over to his mother.

Lizzie shook her head. “Do we have to talk about Larry again?”

“I was fourteen. And besides, you helped me follow him around that summer.” Barb grabbed her purse. “I’ve got to get home. I told Kati I’d make her cupcakes for school tomorrow.”

Lizzie just looked at her.

Barb lifted her hand. “I swear this is the last time. I promised her and I’m not going to back out of a promise.”

Lizzie hugged her hard. “All I can say is the boys couldn’t have a better godmother.”

• • •

Two hours later, Barb had the first batch of marble devil’s food cupcakes in the oven at her mom’s house. She’d bake them tonight, then frost them first thing in the morning. She could drop them off at the school by ten and still have some left to take to her mother for her daily visit. Barb hadn’t done this much baking since the summer before she’d left Shawnee for college. No matter what big dreams she’d told Lizzie, inside, she’d been scared to death that summer. Scared to move from the little town where she’d always lived to a big city where she’d be stuck in a dorm room with three other girls she’d never even met.

Lorraine, on the other hand, had seen going to college as a big adventure. And she’d wanted to follow Barb on the adventure. More than once that summer, her mom had laid down a not-so-subtle plan to move with Barb. They could rent a house near the college. Go to football games together. Barb could even invite her friends over. It would be like their own sorority. The woman had been crushed when Barb had told her no, she was staying in a dorm. Now, she wondered if she’d done the right thing. If she’d known her mother would leave so soon, maybe she would have made a different choice.

But Barb hadn’t known. And after college, she’d bought the condo in San Francisco, started her new business with the money her grandmother had left her and sent cards and flowers to her mother for holidays. Dutiful daughter duties through a good florist and the U.S. Postal Service.

Barb glanced around the kitchen, suddenly worn out. The clock on the stove read ten
P.M.
It would be close to eleven by the time she got both batches baked. She wished she were baking in Hunter’s kitchen. A glass of wine on the table, and Hunter there, making her laugh. Maybe licking the beaters from the blender.

Barb shook her head. No use crying over spilt milk or vodka, as Lorraine used to say. At least Barb had had a family for a week. A week she’d always remember.

She started cleaning up the mess she’d made. By the time the last of the cupcakes were out of the oven, Mom’s kitchen was clean and shiny. Barb turned off the lights and headed to the guest room. Two days more, then she could return to her real life. The life on the road chasing after bull riders who liked to pretend they were more child than man. Smiling pretty for the sponsors like Adam, hoping for the big score. And forgetting she even knew how to bake.

And Kati.

And Hunter.

The schoolyard was quiet when Hunter pulled his truck into the last long parking spot way at the end of the lot. He’d had to go to five different bakeries to find thirty cupcakes in chocolate with chocolate frosting. Most of the clerks just stared when he asked. Or given him the standard, “Large orders like that need a minimum of forty-eight hours prior notice.”

So sorry
, he wanted to scream.
My niece didn’t tell me until this morning that my fake wife had promised to bring cupcakes for morning treat.
Finally, he’d found a bakery that had had a no-show on an order, and they’d cobbled together twenty-eight chocolate and two vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Maybe, he’d be lucky and no one would point out that small discrepancy to Kati.

The kid had been withdrawn and quiet since Sunday. This morning, she’d seemed almost giddy to get to school. When Hunter had finally gotten her to tell him why, his heart had seized. What if Barb didn’t remember her promise to Kati? What if she did remember and just decided not to keep it? Hunter hadn’t tried to call her, hadn’t tried to get her side of the Kevin story, hadn’t even tried to keep her from leaving with Jesse Sullivan. He’d been stupid. And he hadn’t told her that, either.

Now he was carrying five boxes of cupcakes into school so Kati wouldn’t be disappointed. Again.

He fumbled for the door handle, his fingertips just reaching the metal when he felt it open against him. “Thanks,” he muttered to the unseen assistant. He made his way down the hall to the office window where he put the stacked boxes down and looked up at the clerk. “I’m here to visit Kati Martin, she’s in second grade.”

“Mrs. Hannon’s class. Yes, I know.” The clerk nodded to her left. “This woman was just about to go that way, do you want to follow her?”

He turned. Barb stood next to him, a box of cupcakes in her hand.

“Bakery? Hunter, I’m shocked. Kati specifically said she wanted homemade cupcakes.” Barb laughed, the sound tinny in his ears.

“Why are you here? I thought, well, I thought you’d be back in Shawnee.”
With Jesse
, he wanted to add. Instead, he added, “With Lizzie and the boys.”

Barb searched his face, but he wasn’t sure what she was looking for. Finally, she broke eye contact. “Kati asked me for cupcakes. I don’t break my word.”

Hunter wanted to say,
since when?
But he knew he was just poking the bear. And, as his mama had always said, a wounded bear was dangerous. Instead he held up the white bakery boxes. “What am I going to do with thirty cupcakes?”

Barb laughed again, this time the laugh more solid, more Barb sounding. “You’re at a school full of kids. I’m sure some class would like a morning treat.”

The office clerk glanced at the boxes on the counter. “Actually, we can’t just give food out to the students, they all have special instructions, but I could put them in the teachers’ lounge. I’m sure they’ll get eaten. We don’t usually have many leftovers around here.”

“Happy Teachers’ day then.” Hunter pushed the boxes toward the woman. Looking at Barb, he nodded. “Can I help you deliver? Or do you want to do this by yourself?”

Barb seemed to consider the offer, then her shoulder’s sagged. “Sure, why not.”

Not exactly the response he’d hoped for, but he’d take it. “Look, we need to talk.”

“Not here. And definitely not now.” Barb didn’t even turn to look at him.

A few minutes later when they got to the classroom door, he saw her paste on a smile. This was hard for her, he could tell.

Kati was out of her chair as soon as they walked in. Hugging Barb around the legs, she whispered loud enough for Hunter to hear, “I knew you’d come.”