Trouble In Dixie (11 page)

Tommy had wanted to jerk a knot in that
asshole's head...something he hadn't done since he was a teenager.
He needed to get away from Katie Upton, before he did something
he'd regret...like fall in love with her. She was not the kind of
woman he needed in his life. He didn't need a woman in his life, at
all. They were too much trouble, and he'd survived without one for
ten years now, he was fine.

When he reached his truck, Tommy unlocked
the door, then put Dixie in the back seat and belted her in, before
he shut the door. Katie caught up to him again, and grabbed his
arm. He shook her hand off of him, and turned toward her, "What the
hell do you want from me?"

"I want to talk to you..." she said and
folded her arms under her breasts, which pushed them over the white
tank top she had on, and his eyes traveled there of their own
volition, before he dragged them back up.

"I think I get exactly what you're trying to
say to me, Katie...I won't bother you again," he told her
gratingly, then shoved the key in his door lock and twisted.

"But I'll bother you," she said softly, then
added, "You'll think of
me
every minute of every day, just
like I've been thinking about you."

He snorted then tipped his hat back and said
sarcastically, "Yeah, looked like you were thinking about me in the
hallway, while you let that cowboy stick his tongue down your
throat."

"That was Jason, and he apologized earlier
today, so I agreed to have a drink with him. He evidently thought
that came with other benefits. He kissed
me
...I didn't
invite him to," she said flatly.

Sickness pushed up into Tommy's throat, as
he realized the man she'd been letting maul her in the arena was
none other than the infamous car sex god she used to date. "Sure
looked like you were enjoying it to me," he told her in a low
pained voice, then opened the door and said over his shoulder,
"I've got to get Dixie to the hotel, she's tired."

"Don't leave like this, Tommy...I'm still
angry and hurt by what happened, but I'm willing to listen, if you
want to talk."

He got up into the truck, then looked down
at her sadly, "I'm not willing to talk, Katie...this isn't going to
work out. I thought it might, but this isn't what I need in my
life...in Dixie's life."

"Aaah, so it circles back there...I see,"
she told him in a trembling voice, and her bright blue eyes filled
with tears.

"It will always circle back there, Katie.
She's my life, and my first consideration always," he said firmly,
then added, "I am truly sorry about the other night, and I hope one
day you'll believe that, but I can't do this. Goodbye, Katie." He
shut the door in her face and cranked it up, feeling like his heart
was tearing apart in his chest.

***

Katie looked up from the bag of Oreos by her
pillow when her sister opened the door of the guest bedroom, then
put her hands on her hips and looked around the darkened bedroom
with disapproval. "When are you gonna pull yourself together,
Katie...this is ridiculous," she said with disgust evident on her
face.

Stomping across the room, Karlie threw back
the curtains and yanked open the window. Bright light blinded
Katie, and she groaned, then she was assaulted by clean-smelling
fall air that wafted into the room, and burned her lungs. Her
chest, her throat and her body were raw and hyper-sensitive from
the major pity party she'd been indulging in for a week and a
half.

"Leave me alone," she told her sister, her
voice sounding just as raw as the rest of her. Katie grabbed a
cookie from the bag and shoved it in her mouth and chewed, then
felt sick at her stomach when she swallowed the overly rich treat.
Swallowing hard, she reached for the glass of now warm milk on the
night stand and took a big swallow, which made it even worse. She
got up and ran for the bathroom, knocking over the heaping trashcan
filled with three boxes of Kleenex that had absorbed her numerous
crying jags.

She got through the bathroom door, and
somehow made it to the toilet, before she sacrificed her Oreos to
the porcelain goddess. When she was done, she dry heaved a few
times then went to the sink and splashed water on her face, and
then brushed her teeth. Looking in the mirror, she saw someone she
didn't even recognize. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her complexion
was pasty white. With the blond hair that she now regretted, her
eyes stood out profoundly in her face. Pathetic, that's what she
was, and she didn't know how to fix it...but she had to figure out
something soon.

Karlie came into the bathroom behind her and
squeezed her shoulders. "You're going to make yourself sick,
sis...what can I do t help?" she asked kindly, her worried eyes
meeting Katie's in the mirror.

"Nothing can help it...I've totally screwed
up my life," Katie told her and her lower lip trembled.

"Is this about Tommy?" Karlie asked her with
pinched lips.

"Partly, yeah...but it's more. I have no
idea what to do with myself now, I've always had the rodeo, and
know that life...I don't have anything now. You're married, and I'm
h-h-happy for you, but I miss us," she stuttered and the tears
started again.

"I miss us too, Katie...we need to figure
this out together. What did Tommy do to you, sugar?" Karlie asked
her with protectiveness in her tone.

There was no way she was going to tell her
sister the whole story, because knowing Karlie, she probably would
go kick his ass, so she told her half of it. "Jason apologized to
me for what he did, and asked me out for a drink after the rodeo,
and I agreed. He came up and kissed me, when I was putting my stuff
in a locker. Tommy and Dixie walked up on us, and he got pissed,"
she related and fresh tears slipped out of the corner of her eyes.
"He doesn't want to have anything to do with me anymore."

"Did he tell you that?" Karlie asked
incredulously with anger lacing her tone.

"Yeah, pretty much...he thinks I'm loose, I
guess, and doesn't want me around Dixie," she said and sniffed then
reached over and pulled some toilet paper off the roll and wiped
her face, then blew her sore nose.

"Well, you don't need him then...because you
are a strong, beautiful and talented woman and you are worthy of a
man who thinks that too. Don't sell yourself short, or put up with
that crap," Karlie told her vehemently and squeezed her shoulder
again.

Katie thought she heard her sister whisper
'I'm gonna kick his ass' under her breath and cringed. If she knew
the whole of it, she probably would, Katie thought.

Karlie smiled at her in the mirror and
lifted her chin, "Here's what we're gonna do..." She'd heard those
same words with that look from her sister so many times before,
Katie fought back the urge to run. The last time she'd heard them,
Wade Roberts had wound up with a smiley face on a certain body
part.

Thank god, her sister's idea didn't wind up
being so bad this time. Katie was sitting in Betty Lou's chair at
the Cut Up Corral in Bowie, getting her hair returned to its
original color. The woman tsked and scolded her yet again for
screwing up her 'beautiful red hair', as she slapped on the third
coat of 'sealer' to her hair, so when she put the red color on, it
wouldn't turn pink, or some other godawful color, she told her. Her
sister was sitting in another stylist's chair getting her hair cut
and straightened like Katie's.

Three and a half hours later, she looked up
at Karlie and smiled. "Thanks, sis...we're twins again."

"Yeah, except for that damned tattoo,"
Karlie huffed looking down at the tail poking over the waistband of
her shorts.

"We can fix that, you know...you can get one
just like it," Katie suggested with a laugh.

"Now, that's an idea," Karlie said with a
chuckle, then added, "Gabe would probably kill me."

"He can only kill you once," she said
lightly.

Karlie groaned and told her, "You're a bad
influence on me, I think we swapped personalities or
something."

The blood drained from Katie's face and she
dropped her chin to her chest. Yet another person who thought she
was a bad influence...and her sister to boot. "I was just kidding,"
she said sadly.

Karlie punched her in the shoulder and said,
"Hey, I was just kidding too, lighten up sis," then added with a
big mischievous grin, "C'mon let's go to the tattoo parlor in
Henrietta."

Shock surged through Katie and she looked up
at her sister and said frantically, "No! I'm not going to have Gabe
hating me too!"

"He's not gonna hate you, Katie...he'll
think it's hot, trust me," she assured her and grabbed her arm,
pulling her from the chair. "Let's go before I change my mind."

Karlie paid Betty Lou and thanked her, then
led Katie outside to the truck. An hour later, they were both
laying on a table in the tattoo parlor, sans their shorts and
underwear, draped so the artist could see Katie's tattoo and
replicate it on paper, then ink it on Karlie's hip.

Katie thought her sister looked nervous, and
gave her a reassuring smile. "It doesn't hurt too bad, sis...just
be grateful I didn't get the lips on my ass like I thought about,"
she told her with a chuckle, and Karlie groaned.

"I'd have to draw the line there,
darlin'..." she said watching the artist drawing the she-devil that
would soon be a permanent part of her body. "I have to say though,
she's kinda cute, and pretty appropriate for me."

"I thought about you when I was getting
it...I was in the 'channel my inner Karlie' phase of my make over,"
Katie told her then closed her eyes.

That phase hadn't worked out so well for
her...Karlie was one of a kind...and she was just a poor imitation.
How the hell could she think she would be able to be like that?
Katie really was the mild child in their twin set. She had finally
admitted that after the third box of Kleenex she'd cried into at
the cabin.

From now on, Katie was going to be herself,
she didn't need motorcycles, or tattoos, or blond hair, or car sex,
to prove that she wasn't boring. She was who she was, and if
someone didn't like it, screw 'em...including Tommy Tucker.

Karlie flinched as the tattoo artist started
outlining the tattoo on her skin, then told her, "I had another
idea. You've saved all that damned money you won rodeoing, and
added a heap to it this weekend. Why don't we look for some
property, and train and sell cutters together? We could get a good
stud, and a couple of mares, and build from there."

"I was saving that money to live on when I
quit the rodeo, when I retired," Katie told her, but the idea
percolated in her brain, and then took root. With a smile, she told
her sister impulsively, "Let's do it."

Karlie let out a whoop, and the tattoo
artist jumped and almost dropped his gun, and they both apologized
and then giggled.

The tattoo took longer than expected, but it
was perfect, when they walked out of the shop, arm and arm, happy
and identical again. When they got back to Bowie, they went to the
Blue Bird to get some lunch. It was past lunch time, so they didn't
have any trouble finding a table. Katie ordered a BLT with fries
and Karlie got a chicken salad. Katie felt better than she had in a
week, and managed to eat the whole sandwich, and half the
fries.

"Glad you're eating, Kate," someone said
behind her, then Gabe walked past her and slid into the booth
beside his wife. "You feeling better?" he asked with his blue eyes
filled with concern.

"Yeah, Karlie dragged me out of my funk,"
she said with a chuckle.

"Bout damned time too," he said and huffed
out a breath.

"I'm sorry if I've been trouble, Gabe," she
said mildly, and stabbed a fry into the glob of ketchup on her
plate.

"You haven't been any trouble, Katie, we
were just worried about you," he said sincerely.

"Thanks for saying that, but I know I've
been a royal pain in the ass," she told him and pinned him with her
eyes, "Admit it."

He snorted, and said, "Well, not a roya--"
then his breath whooshed out of him when Karlie elbowed him in the
ribs. He chuckled and shoved her back playfully, then leaned in to
give her a tender kiss.

Katie looked down at her plate, as her heart
tweaked and sadness filled her again, but she fought it back, along
with the hopelessness that would never know that kind of love and
connection in her life.

"What the hell is that!" Gabe shouted then
stood up to look down at Karlie, pointing toward her hip. Katie's
heart surged up into her throat and she swallowed it back down
along with the french fry that had lodged in her throat.

"It's a tattoo...look," she said then pulled
down the waistband of her shorts, so he could see it.

"Holy, shit, sugar..." he said, then shook
his head and huffed out a breath, before he sat back down beside
her.

"If you be good, I might let you lick it,"
she said then leaned over to lick his earlobe.

"Mmm..." he murmured and turned his face to
find her lips again for a scorching kiss. "I'm always good, sugar,"
he said in a low sexy drawl.