Austin (New Horizon Ranch Book 8) (8 page)

“Deputy,” she gritted out, and did not like the breathless way her words sounded even gritted through clenched teeth.

Austin had removed his gray Stetson and held it in his hands. He cleared his throat. “Could I ask you to step outside with me for a moment, Jolene?”

Her jaw locked. “What?”

He looked uncomfortable and she was liking that. She narrowed her gaze and met his and had every intention of telling him to just find a table somewhere and leave her alone. “Fine. Sounds like a plan.” She stood. “I’ll be right back,” she told her friends, who watched with great enthusiasm.

Her knees were weak as she held her head up and headed toward the door.

Riley was coming in the door as she reached it. “Hey, Jolene,” he drawled. “May I say you are exceptionally lovely this evening.” He smiled a dazzling white smile and let his gaze sweep down her before he captured her gaze with his. “You okay? Is the deputy here manhandling you again?” He shot Austin a steady look over Jolene’s shoulder.

“No, it’s fine.” Her stomach was a twisted pretzel.
What was Riley doing anyway?

“If you need me, I’m right here.”

“She won’t need you, Riley.” Austin stepped up behind her.

If there was one thing she hated, it was a scene. She’d lived through them as a kid with her dad and she tried hard to avoid them. She had had two today: once in the parking lot, and now because she could feel every eye in the diner on her back. She glanced over her shoulder, careful to only look at Austin. “I sure won’t,” she enunciated and then sidestepped Riley and pushed the door open.

“I’m here if you need me,” Riley said, not giving up.

She’d made it onto the sidewalk just as three older ladies were walking to the door. One stood out with bright red hair, one had snow-white hair, and one had kinky gray curls.

“Hi Austin,” the robust woman with gray curls said.

“Evening, Norma Sue. Adela and Esther Mae, it’s good to see you too. Looks like it’s ladies’ night at Sam’s tonight. All the New Horizon Ranch ladies are here too.”

The redhead beamed. “Oh, it is. We’re finalizing dance preparations over some of Sam’s delicious catfish.”

“My husband does know how to fry catfish,” the white-haired lady said. She extended her hand to Jolene. “I’m Adela Ledbetter Green. Sam’s wife. I don’t believe we’ve met.”

Jolene shook her thin, elegant hand. “I’m Jolene Bartee. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Likewise. This is Esther Mae Wilcox.” She nodded at the redhead and then nodded at the other lady with the white Stetson sitting perkily on her gray curls. “This is Norma Sue Jenkins.”

“You’re the new ranch hand at the New Horizon,” Esther Mae gushed. “We were looking forward to meeting you. Maddie told us you were coming with her.”

“We’re running late,” Norma Sue chimed in. “Roy Don, my husband, called me at the last minute and I had to run out to the ranch and see if I could fix the hay baler.”

Jolene wasn’t sure what to say to that. And it must have shown in her expression because Esther Mae chuckled.

“Norma Sue can fix anything and hay season is not a happy time for her.”

“Aw, it’s not so bad but I swear that baler has limped along for too long. I told him not to call me another time on it because he could either get a new one or find a new wife.”

“I’m sure he believed you too,” Adela said, calmly.

Norma Sue shook her head. “That man knows I’m not going anywhere but he knows I’m serious. There will be a new John Deere in the pasture before next week.” She winked. “A woman has to put her foot down sometimes and remind a man not to take her talents for granted. Austin, you remember that when you find you a wife.”

“Yes, ma’am, I’ll do that. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I was just about to have a short word with Jolene and then she’ll be joining the group again.”

Jolene saw something flicker in the redhead’s gaze and her mouth quirked up on the edges. “Really?” Her interested gaze suddenly made Jolene a little uncomfortable. “You two go right on ahead. We’ll be inside.”

Austin stepped up and placed his hand at the base of her back to urge her forward. She was acutely aware of the warm touch and tingles radiated from it, sending warmth all through her.

She moved away, feeling relieved to be heading away from everyone at last.

“This way.” He walked beside her and led the way to the vacant lot on the far side of the diner. They were, for the moment, away from the large windows of the diner and any prying eyes.

She spun on him the moment they were hidden from everyone. “Why did you kiss me today? What were you thinking?”

“Jolene, that’s why I wanted to talk to you. I need to apologize for that. If my behavior caused you any embarrassment with the men you work with or anyone, then I’m sorry. I behaved badly.” He dipped his chin and hitched his brows up as he studied her intently.

Aw, man
. She saw the sincerity in his eyes and it diffused some of the anger she’d been using to mask other feelings. Now, with her anger waffling, she felt the fluttering butterflies in her stomach that the anger had disguised. And she noticed just how beautiful his vibrant green eyes were.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” she snapped, determined to not let him off easy. To not give in to the way she was drawn to him.

They stared at each other. She had no idea what to say. Then he smiled, just a little, and it sent the butterflies into freefall.

“Jolene, do you dislike me as much as I think or are you fighting this attraction that I’m feeling?”

She groaned and ripped her gaze off him to look away.

“This would never work. You obviously don’t like what I do. Why is that?” She had her reasons for avoiding the pull she felt more with every passing second and very much more since he’d kissed her.

“My brother-in-law was killed in a horse wreck seven months ago. He’d been bucked off plenty in his career and walked away. This time the horse tromped him good, busted his spleen and we lost him. He left behind my sister and my niece to mourn him.”

So that explained it. Some of it, anyway.
“I’m really sorry for your loss. For your sister and his little girl too. But,” she paused, giving in to sympathy for their loss, “but I’ve heard displeasure for my life choices before, from my mother and my step-dad. I had to fight them to do what I loved and to this day they still don’t get it. Our relationship is strained.” Her mother wanted her to be more like her sister, who’d become an executive in a high-rise in California.
No, thank you. And why am I telling him this?
“I could get in my truck and get killed quicker than I can get trampled. I like to drive and I like to break horses. I’m not giving up either just so other people are comfortable with my career choice. I don’t care if I’m attracted to you or not.” Darn it, she saw the flare in his gaze the moment she’d admitted that she was attracted to him.

“Fine. My turn to ask a question. Do you have something against all cops or just me?”

“I have people waiting on me inside.” She started to walk away.

“Jolene?”

She turned back. Her heart thundered and there was an almost overwhelming desire to stride up to him and kiss him like he’d kissed her that afternoon. Clearly she was losing her mind. “This, you and me, would not work.”

“Maybe but despite our differences of opinion, I’d like to give it a shot. Would you go to the dance with me Saturday night?”

She blinked and almost banged a hand to her ear, thinking she’d heard him wrong. But she knew she hadn’t. She just stood there…and then she nodded.

Yup. She had clearly lost her good sense.

An instant smile, devastating in its charm, spread jubilantly across his face. “Really?”

If she’d wanted to yank back the nod now, after that smile there was no way she could overpower the rush of anticipation that stormed through her as she watched that smile overtake his expression. “I nodded, didn’t I?” she snapped, feeling overwhelmed and uncertain. She hated feeling uncertain.

He laughed. “Yes, you did. I’ll pick you up at six.”

“Fine. I’ll be ready.” She turned to go, forcing herself to walk—not run—to the nearest entrance.

“Take care of yourself,” he called but she did not look back.

Austin watched Jolene disappear around the corner of the building and then he fell back against the rough wood. His mouth was dry and his stomach in knots; he’d just asked her to the dance. He felt like an adolescent asking his first crush to the eighth grade prom.

And she was not thrilled to be going with him. She, like him, felt the undercurrents of all the reasons this would not work between them.

But he could not help himself. He moved toward his SUV.
Time to get to work.
Second time today he’d gone to Sam’s and walked away without eating. But that was okay. He had Jolene on his mind…

He wanted to find out what made Jolene Bartee tick. Wanted to hold her in his arms during a slow dance.

And if he were lucky, he wanted to kiss her again. This time, long and slow…

Jolene reentered the diner with every muscle, molecule, and every speck of DNA in her system in turmoil. She paused in the doorway, feeling every eye on her, but she girded up her resolve and met it head on. She’d been in rodeos before and she could handle this.

Riley stood up quick, nearly knocking his chair over. “You okay, Jolene?”

She hadn’t yet figured out what to make of Riley but he seemed nice enough. “I’m fine, Riley.” She gave him a nod and headed to her table in the back of the diner.

It had grown while she’d been in the alley with Austin. The three ladies from outside had joined the group: Norma Sue with the white Stetson, Esther Mae—she was pretty sure she had the name right—with the red hair, and then Sam’s wife, the darling snow-white-haired pint of a woman with amazing blue eyes that seemed to see everything. And there were some other women, too. One of them was about Jolene’s size, with white-blonde hair that curled wildly all over her head as if she’d just been whipped around by a hurricane. She sat on the far end of the table from Jolene and jumped up and came to hold out her hand.

“Hi, I’m Lacy Matlock. I’m really glad to meet you.”

“You own the hair salon.”

“I do. And I help run the festivals and dances and anything that brings tourist and women to town to meet our cowboys. We’re glad you could join us for the meeting.”

“I am too.” Jolene looked around at the crowd of women.

“Lacy,” Maddie called from her seat. “Introduce her to everyone.”

And so she met the other four ladies who looked to be about her age or a little older: Lynn Molly, Rose, and Ashby.

After a moment of finding out the particulars of each, she sank into her seat and saw that everyone had their meal.

Sam appeared and grinned. “I didn’t know how long you’d be out there conversing with our deputy and so I kept it warm for you.”

“Thank you,” she said, still feeling a bit dazed. She was thinking one thought…
she’d accepted a date with Austin.

“You’re looking kind of flustered.”

She glanced at Amber. “Do I?”

Soft chuckles escaped around the table.

“What happened out there?” Maddie asked.

Amber leaned in close. “You didn’t get kissed again, did you?”

Jolene choked on the tea she’d just taken a sip of. “No,” she managed, “I did not.”
But you wanted it.

“Austin is a handsome man,” Esther Mae said from where she sat two seats away from Jolene. “He’s a nice man, too. Did Maddie tell you how he helped negotiate during the hostage situation we were all in last month!”

“He was a calming force,” Norma Sue added. “Wasn’t he, Maddie?”

She nodded. “He was. I was on the phone and his calming voice and calm manner helped me keep cool.”

“He and our entire law enforcement here are heroes.” Adela smiled. “They were getting the situation under control, but then Maddie and these two,” she looked at Adela and Norma Sue, “they took things into their own hands and you should have seen them. They took those two robbers down on their own.”

“It sounds like y’all were in a really bad situation.” Jolene thought of her different situations over the years, the times that she’d been in dire situations with her dad. The times that he was hauled to jail and the times he’d get released and come home. And all the times the cops had to haul him off. The cops had rescued her and her sister and mom. So why had she grown up with a feeling that she needed to stay as far away from them as possible? She knew it was because she tried not to think about her dad and the awful man he’d been, and officers just reminded her of those times.

And now she was going on a date with one. It was the last thing she ever expected to happen. She looked at the steaming plate of crispy fried, perfectly golden crusted catfish and wasn’t hungry. And she loved catfish.

“So,” Mia asked. “About that kiss. Did he ask you out?”

Every eye at the table was instantly glued on her.

“He did ask you out!” Esther Mae exclaimed. “Oh, please say you said yes. We have a special place in our heart for our Deputy Hero. And if he already kissed you…that says something big.”