Cowboy Sing Me Home (17 page)

            Dusty turned to him and cocked a brow, and
there was no mistaking the warning in her eye.  “You have another idea?”

            “Yeah.  Just a spur of the moment thing,
but I was just looking at you and was struck by inspiration.  Do you know that
old Bellamy Brothers song, ‘If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body, Would You Hold
It Against Me?’ ”

            The crowd laughed, and a guy in the back
yelled, “Yeah!”

            Dusty tucked her tongue in her cheek and
looked at Luke.  Luke lifted his brows innocently.

            “Sorry,” she said.  “Don’t know that
one.”  She turned back to count off the song from the list.

            “How about that newer one, ‘There Ain’t Nothing
About You That Don’t Do Something For Me.’ Do you know that one?”

            The crowd roared.  “Get her, Deputy!”
someone yelled.

            Dusty took a deep breath and remained
stone-faced, but he could see she was fighting back a smile.  “Don’t know that
one, either.  But you know, now that I take a little closer look at you, I’m
reminded of a song, myself.  Do you know that old Mel Tillis song, ‘You’re Just
a Coca-Cola Cowboy’?”

            This got the biggest laugh yet.  The same
voice that had yelled for him to get her, now yelled, “Oooh, burn!”

            Luke laughed, and leaned into the
microphone.  “How about that Mary Chapin Carpenter song, ‘I Feel Lucky.’ Know
that one?”

            “The only Mary Chapin Carpenter song I
know is called ‘Maybe Not Tonight’.”

            She was losing her fight with the smile
now, as glad as he was to be entertaining the crowd.  She’d probably still chew
him out during break, but that was okay.  It was worth it.

            “There’s another song I’d like to learn, I
think it’s called ‘Don’t Make Me Beg.’  Do you know who does that one, by any
chance?”

            The crowd ‘ahh’ed like he was a lost
puppy, and Dusty rolled her eyes.  “Don’t know that one, either.”

            Luke nodded.  “I didn’t think so.”  He
adjusted the strap on his guitar, and nodded for her to continue with the set
as planned.  But as she opened her mouth to count them down, he interrupted
again.  “Say, I know.  There’s a Shania Twain number I’ll bet you’d do a great
job on.  It’s called ‘I Lost My Heart When I Found You.’”

            Dusty nodded her head.  “I know that one. 
I never did like it.”

            Luke hung his head, acting crestfallen,
and the crowd ahhed again. 

            “I prefer that Eagles one, ‘Get Over It,’”
Dusty said, and the crowd laughed.

            Luke grinned and said, “Okay, if you don’t
know this one, I’m giving up.  It’s an old song from the Urban Cowboy
soundtrack by Johnny Lee. It’s called ‘Looking for Love.’”

            Dusty’s brows rose and she nodded.  “Hey,
I do know that one, actually.”

            “You do?”

            “Yeah, isn’t that the one about the guy
looking for love in all the
wrong
places?”

            The crowd whooped, and finally Dusty
counted them down to the song they were supposed to play.  Halfway through it,
she tilted her head and her eyes met his, twinkling with humor, and Luke got a
glimpse of what things were going to be like between them, later tonight.

            Life was good, he decided.  Life was just
pretty damned good.

            When the song ended, she lifted her guitar
strap over her head.  “We’re taking a fifteen minute break.  Keep dancing,
stick around for the next set, and don’t forget to take care of your bartender
and your waitress.”

            She made her way through the crowd,
accepting compliments and rebuffing advances with equal grace.  She reached the
bar just before Luke did. 

            He smiled like an idiot in love, taking in
the sweat on her brow, the tanned and toned arms, the silver bracelet that
circled her bicep.  He had stood in almost this same spot just a few days ago
and thought she was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen.  He’d thought then that
she had a face he could easily make a fool of himself over.  Now he was sure of
it, if the past ten minutes were any indication.

            “Give me a pitcher of water, Rodney,” she
said.

            “And a glass for me,” Luke said.

            Dusty cut a quick glance at him and fished
in her pocket, pulling out a pick.  “My high E string is about to break.  I’ll
have to restring before we go back on.”  She took the pitcher of water from
Rodney and poured a cup, then slid the pitcher over to him.

            Her eyes met his over the rim of her cup. 
“What?”

            He shrugged and poured his own cup. 
“Nothing.  I just…”

            “Expected me to chew you out for deviating
from the song list?”

            “Well… yeah.”

            She thrust her lower lip out in a fake
pout.  “And you’re disappointed, too.”

            “You could at least turn up your nose or
something.  Complete acceptance from you is kind of a let-down.”

            “Sorry, Ace.  The crowd liked it, and
that’s what counts.”

            “You enjoyed it, too.  Admit it.”

            She took another long drink of water and
lifted her shoulder.  “Like I said, the crowd enjoyed it, and that’s what
matters to me.  If I get to take you down a few notches in the process, so much
the better.”

            Luke laughed.  “Take me down a few
notches?  You don’t honestly think you won that match, do you?”

            “I think I wiped the floor with you,
frankly.”

            “You wish.  If I weren’t such a gentleman,
I would insist that I left you in my dust.”

            She took another drink.  “You poor,
ignorant soul, stuck in the throes of denial.”

            “Oh no.  Those laughs you got?  They were
pity laughs.”     

            “I don’t think so.  If anyone was pitiful,
it was you.”

            Luke laughed, and stepped aside when Becca
and Corinne came up. 

            “No wonder you two make such a great
couple.  You’re exactly alike.”  Corinne smiled and held out her hand.  “You
were incredible.”

            Dusty shook it, and raised an eyebrow at
Luke.  “See. I was incredible.”  She wiped perspiration from her forehead with
the back of her hand.  “Glad y’all are enjoying the show.  I have to restring.
You’re gonna stick around, aren’t you?”

            Corinne said, “I don’t think I could drag
Toby away if I had to.  Cade is spending the night with his grandparents, so
for the first time in six months we don’t have a curfew.  We’ll be here until
Rodney kicks us out.”

            Luke watched Dusty make her way back to
the stage, knowing that same idiot grin was plastered on his face.  He turned
to Becca and Corinne.  “Now, is that a woman or is that a woman?”

            “I always knew you had a knack for gender
identification,” Corinne said.  She turned to Becca.  “I like her.”

            “Me too.  I’m not sure she feels the same
about us, but I suppose that’s okay.”

            “The question is, does she like Luke,
since he’s apparently decided to fall in love with her.”         

            “I thought he was in love with the new
girl at the Laundromat.”

            “No, that was just a rumor.”

            “What rumor?” Luke asked, his smile
slipping.

            “Toby said that this morning Luke said,
Dusty was
the one
,” Corinne told Becca.

            “They’re all
the one
at the
moment.”

            “No, he said –”

            “Umm, girls, I’m right here,” Luke said
over Becca’s shoulder.

            “Just a sec,” Corinne said.  She turned
back to Becca. “He actually said, ‘I’ve met the girl I’m going to marry.’”

            Becca gasped and staggered back a step. 
“You’ve got to be kidding.  He actually said the ‘m’ word?”

            “Hello?” Luke said.  “Am I invisible or
something?”

            “That’s what Toby said.  He said Luke came
inside looking all dazed and said hell must have frozen over, because he’d met
the girl he was going to marry.”

            “I’m standing right here!”  Luke stepped
between them.

            Becca leaned to see around him.  “You
know, it’s really not surprising when you think about it, though.  What better
person for him to finally say he’s serious about, than someone he can’t
possibly have a long-term relationship with?  She’s here for, what, two weeks? 
Of course she’s the one he would pick to say that about.  She’s perfectly safe.”

            “You have a point.”  Corinne nodded.

            “This is ridiculous.”  Luke stepped back,
his hands up.  “Go ahead and peck over my personal life like a couple of old
hens.  I’ve got better things to do than stand here and be ignored.”  He
crossed his arms over his chest and glared at them.

            “Okay.”  Corinne said.

            Luke kept his feet planted.  “You have it
all wrong, you know.  That’s not the way it is, at all.”

            “Of course it is,” Becca said.  “You’re
allergic to commitment, so you pick the one girl who won’t ask for one.”

            “I’m not allergic to commitment.  I’m
just…”

            “Deathly afraid of it?” Becca offered.

            “Yeah.  No!”  He threw up his hands. 
“Never mind.  I’m going back on stage now.”

            “We’re sorry, Luke,” Corinne said, giving
him a quick hug.  “We care about you and want you to be happy. We’ve sat back
and watched you date girl after girl and always avoid getting serious, so when
you say something like that it really gets our attention.  Did you mean it,
when you said that to Toby?”

            “Of course not.”  Luke backed away,
stuffing his hands in his pockets.  “I was just joking around.  No need to make
a big deal of it.”  As he made his way back through the crowd, he had the
feeling he’d just backed down from an important challenge.

            Had a part of him been serious, when he’d
said that?  He remembered the first time he saw Dusty, the feeling of being hit
broadside – one minute his life had been perfectly ordinary, the next he’d seen
her at the side of the road and everything had changed.  The feeling of instant
connection, familiarity on a level he’d never known.  Then again just an hour
ago behind the bar, he’d felt it again. 

Until she’d mentally closed him off.

            He tried not to be obvious as he studied
her and retuned his guitar.  She gave Stevie a pep talk and checked cords and
switches.  She glanced at him, briefly nodded, and turned away.

            Luke gave a mental shrug, remembering this
morning when he finally couldn’t take her blasé attitude anymore.   Maybe this
‘connection’ he was so sure of
was
one-sided.  If so, he was going to
make a very big fool of himself by going around thinking – let alone saying out
loud – that she was someone he could get serious about.             

            He continued to study her as they went
into the second set and finished the night, waiting for that feeling again. 
Wondering if she would again close him off.

            Luke watched as Dusty told the band
goodnight and straightened up.  Her cheeks were flushed, and she hummed softly
as she wound cords and packed away her guitars.  His gut tightened as he thought
about the coming night. 

            He wanted to see her cheeks flushed for
him.  To see her eyes glaze over with passion, to see her lips red and swollen
with his kiss.  To see her breathless and moaning beneath him.  To hear her
crying out his name.

            He helped her push an amp up against the
wall.  “You were dynamite.”

            “We weren’t bad,” she said, but she
smiled.  That was probably as close as she would ever come to accepting a
compliment.  “We need to tighten up on the western swing numbers.  They were a
little sloppy.”

            Stevie had dropped one note in the three
swing songs they played, and the rest had been letter perfect.  But she had to
add a critique, he knew, when she’d come so perilously close to being nice. 

            He nodded solemnly.  “We’ll work on those
extra hard in rehearsal tomorrow.”

            She straightened and gave him a lopsided
smile.  “I’ve been called a taskmaster.  Among other things.”

            “You want the songs to be as good as
possible.  Nothing wrong with that.”

            “Yeah, well…” She shrugged, and then said
softly.  “You were great.  Really.  You know how to work a crowd.”

            He could be gracious and let it go,
considering how difficult it was for her to say something complimentary.