Sugar Creek (5 page)

Hell, he was looking at her again—so he turned around to face the bar. “The last thing I was doing is undressing Rachel Farris with my eyes,” he lied.

Logan raised his eyebrows. “Oh, that’s Rachel? Amy
mentioned she was coming home for a while. Damn, she grew up nice.”

“Nice to look at, maybe—that’s about it.”

Logan tilted his dark blond head accusingly. “What’s wrong with her—did she speed or something?”

Yep, Logan knew him too well. “Sixty-five in a forty-five,” he replied, tipping his bottle for another drink.

And Logan just chuckled. “Shit, bud—doesn’t take much to get on your bad side.”

“She’s got a smart mouth, too, and she’s reckless as hell—and as far as I can tell, she thinks she’s too good for this town and everybody in it.” With that, he set his beer aside again, remembering he hadn’t meant to drink any more. “I don’t think much of her.”

“Except that she’s nice to look at. And you were
so
undressing her with your eyes. Practically having sex with her on the bar.”

Mike drew back and flashed a doubtful expression. “With a Farris? Not likely.”

Logan just let out another light laugh, lifting his beer to his mouth.

And Mike looked at her again.

He didn’t mean to.

But once his eyes went there, it was hard to pull them away.

R
achel tried like hell to focus on her conversation with Tessa and Amy, especially since she was the one talking, but Officer Romeo was ogling her. More specifically, he was making the juncture of her thighs tingle with his gaze.

So she just kept talking, trying to distract herself from the sensation, and from those eyes. “Anyway, then I handed Edna her cane and she got this happy look on her face and said how nice it was to have me here. And the truth is, as worried as I am about my job, in that moment, making Edna happy kind of…made it all worthwhile.”

“See,” Amy said, smiling. “Being in Destiny isn’t so bad.”

Whereas Tessa just slanted Rachel a look of disbelief. “And ya think ya know somebody.”

“I can be nice,” Rachel insisted. Then she gave her head a playful tilt, realizing she kind of
dug
having Mike Romo’s eyes on her—in a way she felt at her very core,
like it or not. She found herself wanting to look gorgeous and like she was having a fabulous time.

“Yes, but not usually when you’re being duped,” Tessa pointed out, drawing Rachel’s thoughts back to Edna.

“True,” Rachel agreed. “But there’s a part of me that’s starting to wonder…if maybe Edna’s actually telling the truth. Maybe her knees really
do
hurt.”

“Why do you think that?” Tessa asked, looking surprised.

And Rachel hesitated, weighing it. “I’m not sure. It’s just…something in her eyes.” Even if she was loathe to admit that—since it might just mean she was the only Farris gullible enough to believe Edna’s tall tales, and Rachel liked to think she was far too sharp for something like that. Besides, maybe she was wrong—maybe Edna just had her feeling sentimental or something. So she changed the subject. “Um, where’s Sue Ann? You said she’d be here.”

Amy let out a sigh. “Sophie got sick.”

“Bummer,” Rachel said. Sue Ann was another old friend, one she hadn’t seen since high school. But she knew from having other mom friends that a sick kid trumped a night out.

“Jenny and Mick might stop by, though,” Tessa added.

According to Tessa and Amy, another girlfriend from their youth had come home last year and ended up marrying one of the baddest bad boys the town had ever known, Mick Brody. “I still can’t get over that—Jenny with a Brody.” Jenny had been a fellow cheerleader for the Destiny Bulldogs and the ultimate good girl, never letting Rachel lead her into trouble no matter how hard she’d tried.

“Sometimes opposites attract,” Amy said.

Then Tessa leaned closer, lowering her voice. “And from what Sue Ann lets slip, Jenny says the sex is amazing.”

Rachel popped a peanut in her mouth from the bowl on the table just as their drinks arrived. “Sue Ann’s still got a big mouth, huh? Well, tell me this—how does Mick
Brody
look
? Because…I never said anything, but in high school I secretly thought he was hot.”

Both her friends erupted into loud laughter and Rachel wasn’t sure why, until Amy said, “Us, too! And Jenny and Sue Ann, too!”

“And he still is,” Tessa assured her.

“So, what’s her dad think about all this?” Jenny was Police Chief Tolliver’s only child and he’d always been over-protective.

“Well, in the beginning,” Amy said, reaching for her amaretto sour, “there was lots of sneaking around and secret-keeping. But it eventually worked out—because Chief Tolliver couldn’t be too judgmental of Mick after
he
started dating Anita Garey.”

“Who’s Anita Garey?”

Tessa answered over her glass of white wine. “The woman behind the bar talking to Mike Romo.”

“Whoa,” Rachel said when she looked. The lady bar-keep was built and not afraid to show it, wearing a sparkly, low-cut top. “Edna was right—times
do
change.”

Of course, her glance toward the bar had also informed her Officer Romeo was still staring at her. And despite herself, she was glad she’d bothered to change clothes before coming out—she wore a silky, slinky top that showed off
her
shape nicely, too. She only hoped he didn’t think she’d been looking at him, since she hadn’t.

“So,” she said, focusing squarely on her friends—and
not
on the hot cop, “you never told me what happened to Mike Romo. His tragic past and all that.”

As Rachel took the first sip of her margarita, Amy looked aghast. “Well, I’m not going to do it
here
, with him right across the
room
. I wouldn’t want anyone hearing and telling him we’re gossiping about him. It’s just bad form.”

“Yes,” Tessa said, “it’s much nicer when we gossip about him behind his back.”

Amy made a face, and despite herself, Rachel supposed she was right—even as she continued to tingle under the table.

And that tingling was beginning to become a concern—at the moment, a bigger concern than whatever had happened in Mike Romo’s past. Because a reaction to a guy’s attention was one thing, but this particular sensation was on the verge of becoming…nagging. Sheesh.

Stop it, stop it, stop it. You cannot keep having the hots for a mean, nasty Romo.

Then, as Amy chatted about how she and Logan were working the concession stand at some ballgame next Wednesday night, Rachel ventured a subtle look back across the room at Officer Romeo, and thought—
Oh, hell. Who am I kidding? I seriously have the hots for a mean, nasty Romo.

But she’d just have to keep trying to ignore it, that was all.

And how does a girl ignore her lust for a guy? Find another one to lust for! It seemed the perfect solution—and suddenly spurred her to announce, “I just thought of a bright spot if I get fired!”

“You can stay in Destiny?” Amy suggested.

Rachel scowled. “Bite your tongue. I love you girls, but small town life is not for me.” Then she perked up again. “No, the bright spot is that there’s always been a mild flirtation between me and my very debonair boss, Chase Alexander, and if I’m no longer employed by him, we can finally explore that. And frankly, I could use some good sex right about now.”

At which Tessa laughed and Amy pursed her lips. “
Rachel
,” she scolded.

And Tessa said, “Ignore her. All that Jane Austen has brainwashed her into thinking women must remain prim and proper at all times.” All their lives, Amy had been a huge Jane Austen devotee.

“Well, thank God this is the twenty-first century,” Rachel muttered, “since I’ve never been very good at prim and proper.”
And if you knew what I was feeling right now, because of Mike Romo’s eyes, you’d know just how prim and proper I’m
not.

Just then, the chick who’d been hanging on Romo came back and resumed the same position—which kind of brought Rachel down. She’d thought
Yuck and good riddance
when she’d first seen them together, but when the girl had disappeared, she’d decided maybe it had been only a momentary flirtation. And now that she’d admitted to herself, straight out, that she was attracted to him, it made her heart pinch up a little.
Think of Chase, think of Chase.
Chase really
was
handsome. And much better suited to her than any small town guy like Mike Romo could
ever
be. And she really
had
always been attracted to him.

But then—the clinker. The clingy girl with Romo giggled and said, loud enough to be heard across the room between songs on the jukebox, “I bet I know a way to cheer you up,” and then she whispered in his ear.

Although it was pretty easy to figure out what she was offering. Especially when she and Mike stood up from their bar stools a minute later.

Oh Lord. They were leaving together. To go have sex. For some reason, it hit Rachel like a brick. Her gut clenched and she prayed her emotions weren’t as apparent to everyone else as they always were to Edna.

Amy motioned in the direction of Mike and his “date”—as if they weren’t already being completely obvious and noticeable. “Guess it’s true. And apparently not just in Crestview.”

“Who cares?” Rachel said, then bent over her margarita for long, cool drink. She’d just decided it was a good time to get drunk. So she wouldn’t have to think about what Officer Romeo was doing with his too-tan girlfriend.
Which was a ridiculous worry anyway.
You barely know him! And he’s been nothing but mean to you! So who cares what he does with who? Not me. No way, no how.
She punctuated the thought with another lengthy sip.

Just then, the guy who’d been with Mike at the bar picked up his beer bottle to head their way, and Rachel was sure they were about to be hit on until he looked down at Amy and said, “Hey, Freckles, what’s up?”

And then she knew it was Logan—since she also knew that was his lifelong nickname for Amy. And wow, they were right—he’d grown into a very good looking guy. Greetings were passed all around, as well as re-introductions between him and Rachel, and he pulled up a chair, turned it around backward, and took a seat.

Rachel was on her seventh or eighth big sip of margarita, just starting to make small talk with Logan—when the bar door suddenly jerked open and everyone looked up to see Mike Romo come storming back in.

Storming…toward
her
!

As he brusquely approached, she instinctively drew back, peering up at him. What the
hell
?

“Farris, you’ve blocked my damn truck in! I’ve never met a Farris who drives less responsibly than you!”

Was he seriously
that
upset about
this
? “Turn it down a notch, Officer Romeo,” she said.

And Logan said, “Romeo?”

“She doesn’t read very well, either,” Romo griped.

And as usual—though he might be sizzling hot in his faded jeans and casual blue button-down shirt, even hotter than when in uniform—he was really pissing her off. “Not with the sun glaring in my eyes, no.” She glanced from him to Logan. “I couldn’t read his stupid badge when he gave me an outrageous ticket the other day.”

“Keep it up, Farris,” Romo growled, “and I’ll show you outrageous.”

“I’d like to see you try.” And she wasn’t even sure what
she meant by that, or what he’d meant either, but she was just arguing now, because it was better than lusting and being jealous.

“Are you gonna move your car, or do I need to have it towed?”

“Damn, bud,” Logan said, “give the girl a chance to find her keys.”

“Thank you, Logan,” she said emphatically, reaching for her purse and digging inside. “It’s hard to believe you’re friends with Officer Snotty here.”

“He’s had a bad day,” Logan said.

“Don’t make excuses for me, dude.”

“Whatever,” Logan replied, throwing up his hands, then pushing to his feet. “I’m gonna shoot some pool. You girls wanna join me?”

Amy hopped up and Tessa went, too, which left Rachel with Mike Romo and the keys that seemed to have sunk to some secret, hidden corner of her purse. Next to her, he stood looking irritated, fists clenched at his sides, and she wondered what the hell he was so upset about. Sheesh.

“Got ’em,” she finally said, and hoped she hadn’t sounded
too
relieved. As if she was worried about keeping him waiting. She kind of
was
, because he seemed so angry, but she’d be damned if she’d let him know that.

Marching outside, she sensed the heat of his body just inches away behind her—and appreciated the fresh evening air, because she’d smelled that musky, masculine scent again when they were inside. Maybe it wasn’t just sweat. Whatever it was, it had just increased everything she was suffering—she’d just become very aware of her own breasts; in fact, they ached with desire. Oh brother. This sucked.

Approaching her car, she realized Mike’s truck was the big pickup in front of it—the tan girl leaning against the bumper in a ridiculously short skirt tipped her off.

“Just so you know,” she said to Romo, “I didn’t realize
the parking lot actually
ended
in front of your truck—I thought I was making a second row of cars and that you’d be able to pull out in front and circle around.”

“Whatever, Farris,” he snarled.

And as was usually the case, she kind of wanted to slug him, but instead she just went to her car, her insides burning up as she watched Mike load the tan girl into the passenger side of his truck.
This is so stupid. How can I be jealous? The guy’s an incredible asshole, no matter what Edna and Amy say.

Still, as she started the car and backed it up in the gravel lot, she endured the physical pang of wanting to be the one in that truck, the one he was about to start kissing, touching. How did Mike Romo kiss? Probably not softly—probably really intensely and passionately. And she thought she could get into that, darn it.

Pulling the BMW into another spot she hoped wouldn’t block anyone, she got out, clicked the lock button on her keychain—and was surprised to see Mike still in the parking lot, standing by his driver’s side door. It was too late to choose another path between other cars without looking like she was afraid to face him, so she resolved to simply trudge past—until he grabbed onto her arm.

Oh God. More tingling. Not only where he was touching her, but shooting up her arm and out into her breasts, too.

She peered up at his face and nearly melted because of how close they stood, their bodies almost touching. Every part of her pulsed.

“Listen, Farris—what Logan said, he was right. I’ve had a shitty day.”

She blinked, not sure how to respond. “Is that your way of apologizing?”

He appeared irritated again, uncertain. She’d never met a man who could look so damn
sexy
being irritated. “Just explaining,” he replied, clearly too proud to simply say he was sorry.

In no mood to cut him any slack, she responded coldly. “Well, you should get going. Your girlfriend is starting to look impatient.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

Oh,
that
makes it better. Like I’m so relieved to hear she’s just a one-nighter.
“Whatever,” she said, then yanked her arm away and started marching back toward the Dew Drop Inn.