A Husband of Her Own (Dundee, Idaho #2)(56)
Author: Brenda Novak

Her fingers didn’t relax their death-grip. “We’ve invested more than seven months in each other, Josh. That doesn’t disappear in a two-minute conversation.”

He looked uncomfortably at Ricky, who’d turned soulful eyes in his direction. “I realize that.”

“So you’ll think about it? You’ll think about it long and hard before you destroy something that was meant to be?”

“Mary, I’ve—” he started, but Ricky was beginning to frown and ask what they were talking about, and the waitress was hovering at the table next to them, removing dirty dishes, so Josh simply shrugged and said, “Sure.”

Mary smiled in relief. “I can make you change your mind,” she said. “Do you want me to come over tonight?”

More party favors. “No. I’ll call you though, okay?”

“Okay.” She glanced around and lowered her voice. “I know I can make you happy.”

Gathering her purse, she grabbed Ricky’s hand and dragged him out the door just as Judy brought the check.

“Would you like anything else?” she asked Josh, holding a coffee pot in one hand.

An escape from Mary without hurting her, Josh thought. But there wasn’t a thing anyone could do to arrange that, so he slid his cup toward her and doubled up on caffeine.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

JOSH DIDN’T KNOW what to do with himself. He’d tried to call Mary every evening since Wednesday, but her mother always said she wasn’t home. He suspected there’d been several times when she really was there, and refused to come to the phone for fear of what he might say. But he couldn’t exactly accuse her mother of lying….

Oh well, he wasn’t keen on speaking to Mary tonight, anyway. There was no reason to break things off in a hurry. If Mary needed a few more days to accept his decision, he could wait.

That didn’t solve the problem of what he should do with his night, however. He’d been busy the past couple of days catching up on paperwork in his office. His eyes were tired and his shoulders ached, but he wasn’t quite ready for bed. Not yet. It was only ten o’clock on Friday night, for crying out loud. He was freshly single—not that he’d ever really been attached—and felt like going out. But there weren’t a lot of places to go in Dundee. And he didn’t have a lot of single friends to hang out with anymore.

He considered his short list of possibilities before picking up the phone. Who said a man had to be single to go out for a drink?

“YOU’RE SMILING at Josh Hill again,” Delaney complained.

Rebecca shifted her attention to the couples moving on the dance floor. Delaney had called a few hours earlier and insisted, since Conner was visiting his grandfather in California for the weekend, that the two of them have a ladies’ night out. Rebecca highly doubted her friend had had the Honky Tonk in mind when she’d suggested getting together, but Rebecca had been thinking about Booker and his challenge to treat Josh nicely for a change. Part of her believed that Booker was wrong—Josh hated her as much as he ever had. The other part kept acting like a tape recorder, playing, rewinding and replaying her last conversation with Josh. Especially the bit where he admitted he hadn’t been drunk that night at his house.

They certainly had some unresolved issues. She felt it was time to give Josh a wink and a smile—to act as if they actually were friends. And maybe find out what that summer night was all about…

Fate seemed to second her opinion. He’d appeared tonight.

Of course, Delaney didn’t know she’d changed tactics where Josh was concerned. In case things worked out badly, Rebecca didn’t plan on telling her.

“I’m not smiling at Josh,” she said.

“You were. I saw you,” Delaney argued. “You’ve been glancing his way ever since he came in. And he keeps looking over here, too.”

“So? We’re just being friendly. We’ve called another truce.”

“This is more than friendly. This is flirting.”

Rebecca turned and dropped another quarter in the jukebox. “Will you stop? We’re not flirting.”

Delaney propped a hand on what was left of her hip, and motioned with her head toward the far wall, where Josh stood next to a couple of married friends and their wives. “He’s staring at you right now. See? Wait…he saw me watching and looked the other way.”

“He’s probably just wondering where Conner is,” Rebecca said.

“He’s probably wondering how you could set fire to his truck three weeks ago and be smiling so coyly at him now,” Delaney replied.

Rebecca adjusted the black leather miniskirt she’d worn for maximum impact. “I don’t think he’s holding a grudge,” she said and chose a song by Tammy Wynette.

“Am I missing something here?” Delaney asked. “What’s happened between the two of you since you killed his truck?”

“Nothing.” Rebecca widened her eyes and spread her hands palms up so she’d appear innocent. “Really. I apologized for…the accident, and he forgave me. That’s it.”

“So where’s Mary? She’s usually here when Josh is, but I haven’t seen her tonight.”

“How should I know?” Rebecca said. “Mary and I aren’t exactly friends.”

Delaney opened her mouth to say something else, but just then Billy Joe and Bobby squeezed through the crowd. “Hey, Laney,” Bobby said. “How’s that bun in the oven?”

“Doctor says the baby’s doing great,” Delaney said.

“Glad to hear it. How much longer?”

“Just another week or so.”

Bobby shook his head. “Jeez, that went quick.”

Billy Joe didn’t even acknowledge Delaney. He was too busy whistling at Rebecca’s outfit to pay any attention to a woman nearly nine months pregnant. “That’s some skirt, honey,” he said, his ruddy face creasing in an appreciative grin. “What do you say we give it a whirl?”

“Fine by me,” Rebecca said, and let him lead her onto the dance floor. Soon Bobby and Delaney were dancing next to them and, for a moment, it felt like old times. Good times.

Rebecca started to relax. Buddy might have dumped her, but she wasn’t without options. And right now, her options weren’t looking bad. Booker had driven Granny Hatfield to Boise for the day and probably hadn’t returned yet, so he wouldn’t even have to know she’d taken him up on his little challenge. Apparently, Mary had other plans for the evening, as well. And here was Josh, all by his lonesome….