Trouble In Dixie (4 page)

Katie decided to spend the night in Dallas
somewhere, before she headed to Bowie. She needed to rest. Her eyes
felt like they were lined with sandpaper, and they'd tried to close
on her a couple of times after the adrenaline had worn off. There
were a few RV parks she knew of in town that weren't shady, where
some of the cowboys parked when they were in the Big D. She'd go to
one of those, and sort out her options, then make a decision in the
morning.

When her cell phone rang in her pocket, she
leaned up to dig it out, and swerved a little. Yeah, she definitely
needed to get some sleep, she thought, because if she didn't she
was going to wind up in a ditch somewhere.

"Hello?" Katie said groggily, cradling the
phone at her shoulder.

"Where are you, sis?" Karlie asked with
concern in her tone. "Tommy called and said you'd left the Rockin'
D, and he was worried about you."

Katie snorted then said, "Fuck, Tommy Tucker
and the horse he rode in on...he's not concerned about me, Karlie,
he's worried about himself." She knew he'd be in a bind now for a
cutting horse trainer. At least for a little while. That fact was
probably just sinking in with him.

"What happened, Kate?" her sister asked then
huffed a frustrated breath.

"I'm not talking about it...I'm done there,"
Katie told her firmly.

Karlie chuckled then told her, "Fine, be
hardheaded, I guess it's your turn."

With a sigh, Katie told her twin, "I'm
sorry, Karlie, I'm just fricking exhausted, and at the end of my
rope. I need some sleep, I've been driving all night."

"Why the hell didn't you stop somewhere? You
in Dallas?"

"Yeah, I'm headed for that RV park we stayed
at by the arena, I just wanted to get as far away from the Rockin
D' and Tommy Tucker, as I could, as fast as this truck would take
me," she told Karlie then turned on her blinker to turn onto the
surface street that would take her to the RV Park. "I called the
rodeo to see about getting back in the rounds, and they said it was
too late this year, and my new partner has another partner already,
so it looks like I've got to take some time off."

"Bout damned time too, you work too much,
and don't play enough, Katie."

Katie laughed, because her twin certainly
didn't have a problem with the playing part. She'd always taken
time for that, except when she'd been hooked up with that mean ass
bull rider, Jake Johnson. That man had about sucked the life out of
her sister, literally.

"You know, that's just what I was thinking.
I'm gonna go find a place to light for tonight, and unhook the
trailer, then I'm going to do a little shopping," Katie told
her.

"Shopping? You?" Karlie snorted then said,
"You never shop."

"There's a lot of things I never do, that
I'm about to start doing, Karlie, so put on your seatbelt, sugar.
You're right, it's time for me to have some fun, if I can remember
how to do that."

"We've got a spare bedroom here, if you want
to come stay for a while," Karlie offered, then suggested, "Or
there's probably room out at the Double B, but there's drama going
on out there with Wade and Jess right now, so you probably wouldn't
want to step off into that."

"Oh, yeah? What's up with them?" Katie
asked.

Katie had gone to Cole and Sabrina's
anniversary party a month ago alone, because Tommy said he wasn't
going. Wade had used Katie that night to make Jess jealous, which
didn't make Katie happy at all when she found out, and she told him
so.

"He's building them a house at the back of
the Double B, and you know how Wade is...he can be a little
overbearing sometimes, and Jess isn't having it, they're still in
the figuring things out stage, but he's trying, and that baby is so
damned cute."

"Hard to believe he's a daddy," Katie
snorted then said, "He never held back on sowing his wild oats, did
he? Looks like one of 'em took root."

"Heck no, that man's middle name is trouble,
but believe it or not, he's settled down...seems to like being a
daddy...well except for the bar fight, that is."

"He got in another one? In Bowie?" Katie
groaned. It had been a long while since Wade had gotten into a
fight, she'd kind of hoped he'd grown up some.

"Yeah, I know right, it's been what four,
five years, since he's done that...but this is different. Jess's
ex-boyfriend came to town and egged him into it, now he's in
trouble, and she's trying to get him out of it. And even though his
damned back is shot, he's entering a Charity Rodeo event in Dallas
to try and get her out of the record contract she signed to get him
out of jail. It's a long story...come to Bowie, and I'll give you
the rundown."

"Charity Rodeo? When?" Katie asked with
interest.

"Two weeks, the entry deadline is tomorrow,"
Karlie told her.

"You wanna do it?" Katie asked her
hopefully. She'd love to ride with her sister again, even if it was
only for one event. "I haven't gotten my
ProRodeo
in a
while, because I didn't forward my mail to Amarillo, so I hadn't
heard about it. I'm gonna call and have my mail forwarded to you,
is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine, just send it here--and
hell yeah, I'd like to enter with you! It's a good event, and the
money is spectacular...it would be fun. JoJo would probably love
the workout, he's become a hothouse flower out at the Double B,"
she told her with a chuckle.

"Good, I'll just stay here then, get some
rest and do some retail therapy, until then. I'm excited, we're
gonna kick butt and take names, sis," Katie said with a smile in
her voice.

"Always do...I'll get us registered, and you
take care of yourself. Go to a spa, do some girly stuff and get
your mind right," Karlie told her seriously.

"I'm gonna be so girly, and so relaxed by
the time the event comes around, you won't even recognize me," she
told her with a chuckle.

"I better recognize you, I look at your face
in the mirror every morning...don't do anything crazy, Katie."

"Pssht,
me
? Crazy? That's
your
middle name, not mine, remember?" But it would be hers too soon,
Katie thought with a smile.

CHAPTER TWO

Tommy Tucker didn't know what he was going
to do with his daughter, Dixie. Katie Upton was right, she was a
spoiled princess, and she was out of control. He just didn't know
what the hell to do to fix it. He needed help, and the help he had
hoped for just had hopped in her dually truck and hauled ass away
from him and the Rockin' D, and she'd taken the best damned horse
trainer he'd ever had with her. It was all his fault she was gone
too, he'd been an ass to her for the last three months, and more so
in the last twenty-four hours. He'd said all the wrong things to
her, he knew it, and an apology wasn't going to fix this.

After having been married for three years,
he knew how to talk to a woman, or should have. That had all flown
out the window when Katie had gone off on him, and started in on
Dixie. Although, Tommy knew everything she said had been right on
the mark, he'd reacted instinctively, defensively, because Dixie
was all he'd had for the last ten years.

Since Maggie died giving birth to her, his
life's mission had been to protect Dixie, and make it up to her for
killing her mother. He hadn't meant to kill Maggie, but in the end
it was his fault that trailer had flipped their truck into that
ditch, and his fault he'd chosen Dixie's life over Maggie's. He'd
been going too fast in the rain, because he wanted to get that
horse delivered, and get her back home for the baby shower her
friends had planned that evening.

They were running late, because he'd had a
problem he had to deal with before they left. He shouldn't have
even let her go with him, had tried to make her stay home, but
Maggie insisted she wanted to go, because it was
her
horse
they had sold. The gelding had been a casualty of the horrific
accident too.

Instead of attending the baby shower, they'd
wound up at the Emergency Room, with her and Dixie fighting for
their lives. One of them made it, the other one didn't. When it
came down to a choice, he had to save Dixie, because that's what
Maggie would have wanted. Now, he had lived with the consequences
of that decision for ten years, he'd lost his wife at twenty-four
years old, his mother-in-law hated him, and raising his daughter
alone had become his life.

Obviously, devoting his full attention to
his daughter, and letting his guilt drive him to pamper her, hadn't
done her any favors. But what did he know? He was faking it until
he made it as a dad, there weren't any instruction manuals.

When Katie had left earlier with that huge
trailer hooked to the back of her dually, he'd had flashbacks of
the accident, and he was damned worried about her, so he'd called
her sister, Karlie. Karlie hadn't heard from her, but told him
she'd try to call her, then let him know what she found out.

Tommy could fully understand why Katie had
left. Not only had he been an ass, he'd been a world class jerk.
He'd left Katie to deal with Dixie all week, without letting her
know he was leaving, or even saying goodbye. It was in keeping with
the self-preservation mode he'd been in since their mind blowing
kiss at the barbecue, he was running like a scared rabbit, but it
wasn't fair to her. His avoidance was cowardly, that's all there
was to it.

Katie wasn't chasing him either, she was
just doing her job, and trying to help him with things around the
ranch, including his daughter. She didn't even have an attitude.
Most women would have cornered him, demanded answers, and reamed
him out, but not Kate. That made his avoidance easier, but it also
made him think that maybe their kiss hadn't turned her inside out
like it had him. Every time he got within ten feet of her now, his
body caught fire, his heart ping-ponged around in his chest, and
his palms itched to touch her, so he'd made a point to say outside
of her orbit for the last three months.

When they got back from that barbecue in
Bowie, Tommy knew the best thing he could do was just stay away
from her, find some space to get his head right, so he found all
kinds of excuses to do just that. The latest was the trip to New
Mexico to talk to a man about a stud he had his eye on. Tommy could
have waited, he'd been waiting to go see the man for six months,
but it had given him another reason to get away from Katie Upton,
her beautiful knee-melting smile, and the feelings she stirred
up.

Now, he'd run her off, and he was worried
sick about her. He hoped her sister would call him back soon and
let him know where she was, and if she was okay. Karlie had also
invited him to bring Dixie to Bowie to stay with her and her
husband for these last two weeks of summer, before school started
again. She wanted to give her riding lessons at the Double B and
teach her to rope, which would make Dixie pleased as punch...him
not so much.

If he had his druthers, her sister would be
the one to teach Dixie those things, he'd feel safer. Katie was his
kind of woman, responsible, sedate and down to earth, where her
sister was wild as a mustang, and as free-spirited as his daughter,
which is why Dixie thought Katie was boring. Beggars couldn't be
choosers though, and he was going to take Karlie up on her offer,
because he needed a break...and Dixie probably did too.

Tommy couldn't wait for school to start
again, almost as much as Dixie didn't want it to start. He kept the
hope, like had every year since she started school, that this year
would be better than last, and he'd only have to make fifty trips
to meet with her teacher, instead of the typical one hundred. Every
time Tommy was called there, he knew he was going to hear the same
thing. Dixie is beyond smart, picks up on things quickly, but her
attention span and classroom behavior needed improvement, along
with her social skills with her classmates on the playground. How
the hell he was supposed to fix that while she was at school, and
he was working the ranch was beyond him. The teacher would just
have to deal with it at school, because him trying to deal with it
after the fact at home, wasn't working.

Tommy was out in the field exercising a
pregnant mare and checking fences, when his phone rang in his
pocket. He quickly fished it out, then glanced at the caller ID and
answered it, "Did you find Katie?"

"Yeah, she drove all night, she's in Dallas
at an RV park," Karlie told him.

He huffed out a relieved breath, then anger
surged up inside of him, because she should never have driven all
that way without stopping, as tired as she'd been when she left the
ranch. That was just asking for an accident from falling asleep
behind the wheel.

"What the hell was she thinking driving all
that way, without stopping?" he grated and accidentally squeezed
the mare with his legs and she bolted a little, then settled when
he pulled back on the reins gently.

"I asked her the same thing...it wasn't
smart for sure, but she's there now, and taking a break, because
she can't get back on the circuit this year."

"Why can't she go back?" Tommy asked,
worried now about how she was going to support herself if she
couldn't go back.