Heartstrings (11 page)

He seemed to switch on the charm with a blazing smile.

“Can you sign my shirt?” the woman yelled.

Before Seth even requested it, the woman produced a Sharpie. The band ended their song. For a moment, the place was quiet. He took the marker and asked, “Thanks. What’s your name, darlin’?”

“Mindy Lou Watson. Put it here.” She pointed across the tank top over the swell of her left breast. “Right over my heart.”

He glanced around, and when his gaze snagged Abby’s, smiled. He signed his name as Mindy had requested. “There you go.”

“Oh...Oh! This is amazing. I absolutely love you! I want to have your babies!”

Before she could throw herself at him, Earle came forward. “Mindy Lou, that’s enough.” Then he waved his hands to the horde, motioning them to move out of the way. “Let’s give Mr. Kendall some room.”

“Oh, Earle, you ain’t no fun,” Mindy Lou whined, but she and the rest moved out of the way.

With the mountainous Earle leading him, Seth headed toward their table.

“Sweet mercy!” Jenny Lynn looked at her with her mouth hanging open. “He’s headed our way.”

He stopped at their table and grinned at Abby for a long moment before glancing at Jenny Lynn. “Hello, ladies. This seat taken?”

Jenny Lynn gestured to the chair. “Uh... No, it’s not. Please join us.”

Abby’s heart stopped before starting again. He removed his hat and set it on the edge of the table as he pulled out the chair. Once seated, he ran his hand through his hair. Her fingers suddenly itched with the forbidden desire to do it again. Talking about Jenny Lynn’s sex life reminded her exactly how non-existent hers was.

She needed another drink. Her mouth was as dry as West Texas during a drought. She waved down a waitress and ordered another round for them.

Jenny Lynn picked up a peanut from the bowl in the center of the table, but put it back as if she decided eating peanuts was forbidden in his presence. “Is it always like that?”

Seth laughed and waved at a few more people around them. “In another half hour, this place will be a fire hazard.”

“I’d hate that. You can’t go anywhere, can you?”

He brushed his thigh against Abby’s knee when she shifted in her seat. The action sent a jolt through her. And from the way his pupils dilated when he looked at her, he felt it, too. She stilled and willed her body not to respond to the naked heat in his eyes. It didn’t work any better now than it had Sunday when he stood in the doorway of the barn, as sexy as a cowgirl’s wet dream, and blatantly undressed her with his gaze.

“It does get tiresome, but really it’s not crazy all the time. I’m a local boy who’s famous. I expected it to be like this if I came in here.”

The nervous server brought their beers. Jenny Lynn leaned on her elbows and grinned. “Just think, you missed out on a marvelous opportunity with Mindy Lou.”

“What’s that?” He picked up his beer.

“She wanted to have your babies.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I think I’m good.” He laughed, but it sounded hollow.

The darkening of his eyes caused quivers to dance over Abby’s skin and settle low in her belly. Her hand shook as she lifted her beer to her lips and gulped.

Jenny Lynn looked from her to Seth and pushed back her chair. She stood and picked up her first beer, leaving the new one Abby had ordered. “I’ll see y’all around. The band’s finishing this set, and I’d like to see Wayne before he has to go back on stage.

For a moment after Jenny Lynn left, Seth sipped his beer and stared at Abby. The last notes of the old George Jones hit seemed to hang in the air between them.

“The band’s good.”

She nodded and rubbed her sweaty free hand on her jeans and gripped the frosty bottle of beer with the other. “Yeah. They play here just about every Friday night. The lead singer is Christy Gatlin’s husband, Clint Grier. He’s one of Mike’s deputies. The other two playing guitar also work for the sheriff’s department, and the drummer is a Texas Ranger out of Amarillo. The keyboardist is a volunteer firefighter and the female backup singer works in the DA’s office. The band goes by the name Lawman. They’re really popular around here.”

Before she rambled off anything else he hadn’t asked for, she finished her beer and reached for the one meant for Jenny Lynn. No use letting it get warm. Wayne could buy Jenny’s next drink.

“I guess I better not cause any more trouble tonight. I wonder how many times they’ve arrested the audience.”

She set the bottle down. Seth had always had the ability to make her smile no matter how worked up she was. “I don’t know. But I’m sure it has happened a time or two.”

“So, where’s Emily tonight?”

She sighed and looked around. Most of the patrons were still watching them. It was like being in a dream in which she’d left the house naked and hadn’t realized it until too late. Her palms were clammy and her throat was dry.

Because telling him Emily’s whereabouts were none of his business would only make a scene, she sighed. “Sleeping over with a friend. Birthday party.”

He took another slow drink from his bottle. “Seems to me she’s with other people more than she’s with you.”

She straightened her spine and clenched her beer bottle. “Emily is fourteen and is one of the most popular girls in school. She’s a junior officer in 4-H and has recently started barrel racing. She’s in the marching band, school orchestra and sings every chance she gets–school, church, fairs. Not to mention, she plays softball and is on the track team. No, she isn’t home much, but what would you know about her life? I doubt you even remember her birthday.”

The flame in his eyes dimmed, and he lowered his head. His voice dipped so low she had to strain to hear it over the din. “March twenty-third. I’ve given her a gift every year.”

“What?”

Regret clouded his green eyes. “I’ve given her something every year. For her first birthday, I bought her this big old teddy bear.” He held out his hands to demonstrate the enormity of the thing. “But I chickened out and never sent it to you. I still have it back in Nashville.”

He took a swig of his beer and swallowed much harder than the liquid required, if the movement of his throat was indication. “Since her second birthday, I’ve deposited ten thousand dollars in a savings account for her. I put in another ten grand every Christmas and five at Easter.”

She leaned back in the chair and stared at him. “That’s twenty-five thousand dollars every year?” she managed to squeak out after she got her mouth to work.

“Not to mention the trust fund I’ve already set up for her.” He smiled and lifted his beer in the air. “With the millions she’ll get out of the sale of the Double K and my contribution, Emily will be quite a wealthy woman when she turns eighteen.”

She must have heard him wrong. “What do you mean by the sale of–”

“Hello, Seth. It’s been forever and a day.” A very pregnant woman dressed in a maternity version of the honky-tonk uniform took that moment to approach their table.

“Christy Gatlin?”

She grinned and nodded.

He stood and gave Christy a long hug. “You’re all grown up. And pregnant!”

Christy patted his arm. “I couldn’t wait to grow up and marry you. I had such a shameless crush on you when you’d sing here. I still do. But don’t tell my husband.”

“Don’t tell me what?” Clint Grier came up behind his wife.

Christy looked over her shoulder and shrugged. “Nothing, honey. My favorite superstar and I were just catching up.”

“Trust me, sugar, he’d return you. I’m the only one dumb–I mean–in love enough to put up with you.” She glared at him while the rest of the rest of the group gathering laughed. With a broad smile, Clint held out his hand to Seth. “Seth Kendall, it’s a real pleasure to finally meet you.”

“Thanks. You’re pretty good up there.”

“Thank you.” Clint actually blushed. “Christy’s dad never stops talking about you.”

Abby heard the voices and watched their interaction, but her mind was stuck on Seth’s last words. What did he mean by the sale of the Double K?

Seth turned as Jimmy Gatlin rushed through the staring crowd. The large man laughed, cuffed him on the shoulders and wrapped him in a bear hug. “By God, boy! You sure as hell did it up right. I knew you would. I just knew it! It’s so good to see you.”

Seth pursed his lips. “You always had faith in me.”

A hush fell over the barroom as everyone hung on the exchange between Seth and the man who had given the superstar his first singing gig. Even Abby watched the exchange, forgetting her questions about what he’d meant.

“Thanks, Jimmy. I’ll never be able to repay you.”

“Well, I know talent when I see it.” Jimmy huffed and jerked a thumb toward his son-in-law. “With this fool behind me, I mostly take pity on him and his band of scalawags. Maybe, you’d be willin’ to show ’em how it’s done...”

Jenny Lynn gasped from where she stood beside her boyfriend as the question hung in the air.

Seth grinned and looked around at the band. “Oh, I think they do fairly well on their own. But I wouldn’t mind sharing the stage with them, if y’all are agreeable.”

Clint’s mouth fell open, and when he closed it, he nodded. “That would be the opportunity and the honor of a lifetime.”

For a little while, they all chatted and caught up on Seth’s success and Jimmy talked about how talent was harder to come by these days.

“I’m sorry about your daddy.” Jimmy patted Seth on the shoulder again.

Seth nodded and that brought the conversation to a stop.

“Christy, make sure they get a round of beers and a basket of wings on the house.” Jimmy smiled at them as he nodded and moved away.

Jenny Lynn went off with the band. Abby knew what her friend was doing, but didn’t say anything; doing so would make things worse. Jenny Lynn wouldn’t understand why she was fighting the sparks between them.

Once they were alone, she asked, “What did you mean about Emily being a wealthy woman?”

He tapped his fingers on the table. “Dad’s will reading was Wednesday. He wants the ranch sold.”

Her heart started beating faster. If the ranch was sold, he wouldn’t have a reason to stick around.

Why didn’t that prospect make her happier? That was what she wanted, wasn’t it?

He met her gaze. “The money from the sale is to go into a trust fund. Although the kid wasn’t named in the will, Johanna and I are fairly sure it’s Emily. She’ll get the money when she turns eighteen. Which is how I have my fund for her set up.”

“Wait, Johanna knows about us? About Emily?”

“Yes. She actually figured out Emily was mine a long time ago. Probably Dad did too.”

“How?” The word came out choked on her dry tongue. The rushing blood in her ears suddenly drowned out the noise around them.

He finished his first beer and shrugged. A smugness filled his eyes. “She looks like my grandmother–with a lot of you mixed in.”

“Dear God,” she breathed and looked down at the table.

Christy brought them the round of beers and the basket of buffalo wings Jimmy had ordered.

Abby pasted a smile on and thanked Christy, then picked up her latest beer and drained over half of it.

“Whoa. You should probably go a little easy.”

She sat the bottle on the table with a thunk. “Right.”

The buzz hit her like a punch in the head. She wasn’t used to drinking and that was her fourth beer in less than an hour. She closed her eyes to keep the room from spinning.

She blinked and met his gaze. “What do I have to do to make you go away?”

A corner of his very kissable mouth curved up. “Go out with me?”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. C’mon, Abby. What would one date hurt? You and me. No talk of who betrayed whom. There was a time we may have had something special going on.”

She shook her head. Big mistake. She blinked and willed her vision to clear. “That was a long time ago.”

“Yes, it was. I’m not going to be in town long. But I can promise you I’m not staying away this time. I’ll be back.”