A Family of Her Own (Dundee, Idaho #3)(36)
Author: Brenda Novak

HOLDING A COLD BEER, Booker leaned an elbow on the bar as he studied the crowd. The music pouring from the jukebox was loud, patriotic and definitely country, but it had a good beat. He found himself enjoying it, even though he’d always been more of a classic rock fan. He supposed, given a few more years in Dundee, he’d be wearing a hat and a pair of cowboy boots, too.

Billy Joe and Bobby Westin were playing a game of darts with a couple of girls who looked too young to be drinking, let alone hanging out with men in their thirties. Mike Hill sat in the corner with a couple of business types. Folks came from all over to check out the Hill brothers’ breeding enterprise. And since the Running Y Resort, Conner Armstrong’s golf course and dude ranch, had opened up last spring, there were more strangers in town than ever before, even during the winter, thanks to the discounted rates through the cold months.

The constant influx of fresh faces created some interesting possibilities and was certainly good for Dundee’s economy. For the first time in twenty years, the Honky Tonk had built on and they’d added a mechanical bull. A few preppy types were trying to ride the bull now. Booker usually enjoyed seeing them get thrown, but nothing seemed to hold his interest tonight. He couldn’t forget Katie. He wondered what she was doing, if she was finished yet, if she might be ready for a game of chess. Bored and angry with himself that he’d prefer a quiet night with her to drinking and dancing and mingling, he forced himself to stay longer.

But he regretted that decision the moment he heard someone yell, “Hey, Andy, how was San Francisco?”

Andy? Booker’s blood ran cold as he turned and saw Andy Bray standing with his cousins at the end of the bar. How he’d missed spotting him earlier, Booker wasn’t sure. Except that Andy had changed quite a bit. He’d pierced his nose and wore large silver hoops in his ears. His dark hair, which was very short in the back, had a blond streak in front that fell almost to his chin, effectively covering most of his face. Dressed in a wrinkled white shirt, black pants and black platform dress shoes, he looked like something out of The Matrix Reloaded.

So the great pretender was back. Booker should have expected it.

Torn between the prospect of breaking Andy’s jaw and simply walking out, he pushed his beer away. Then he pulled his drink toward him again, downed the rest and ordered another. He wasn’t going to get involved. He didn’t care if Andy was in town. Why should he? He’d been trying to help Katie, as a friend. That was all. He had no emotional stake in her situation beyond that. Which meant he had nothing to lose, right?

Right. Booker was just finishing his second beer when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“There you are,” Ashleigh said. “I guess a girl’s got to beg to get you to come to the Honky Tonk these days, huh?” She smiled coyly, batting her eyelashes at him, and he decided he’d been crazy to closet himself away at the farmhouse for the past few weeks. What had he been thinking—that his life had somehow changed?

“Did you want me to come out tonight for a reason?” he asked.

She blinked at his sudden frankness, probably because he’d been so careful not to let her corner him in the past. But she recovered quickly. Striking a sexy pose, she slid her tongue along her top lip as she looked him up and down. “I think you know what I want,” she said.

Booker finished off his beer and tossed some money on the bar to pay for it. “Why don’t you spell it out for me?” He wasn’t in the mood for games. Seeing Andy again had created a sense of déja` vu that made him inexplicably angry. He kept hearing Katie say, “Andy tells me I’ll feel differently in a few months,” kept seeing her door close in his face, kept feeling as if a horse had just kicked him in the gut.

Ashleigh leaned closer, giving him an ample view of cle**age. “I want to know if you’re really as good as your reputation.”

That spelled things out, all right. “And tomorrow?” he said, wondering what kind of price tag came with the offer.

“No strings attached. But if we have a good time, I suppose anything can happen….”

Booker could hear Andy boasting about the splash he’d made in the big city. “You’re sure?” he said to Ashleigh, wanting to give her one last chance to change the rules.

“I’m positive.”

“Then I say we dance.” Taking her by the arm, he shut out the father of Katie’s baby, forced Katie herself out of his mind and led Ashleigh onto the dance floor.

BOOKER WOKE UP IN Ashleigh’s bed early the next morning and groaned as memories of the night before assailed him. For the first time since Hatty died, he’d gotten terribly drunk and gone back to his old behavior. But it hadn’t felt any more meaningful, despite his long sabbatical. And in the end, he hadn’t been able to go through with it, anyway.

God, now he knew just how far gone he really was….

Sitting up, he winced against a raging headache and squinted at Ashleigh, who rolled over and flung her arm toward him. When she didn’t encounter anything but empty space, she turned onto her stomach and propped herself up on one elbow. “Hi,” she said with a sleepy grin.

Booker pictured Katie at the farmhouse with her round, pregnant belly, and tried to convince himself that Ashleigh was more appealing. But Ashleigh couldn’t replace Katie now any more than she could last night.

Inhaling a deep breath, he scrubbed a hand over his face. “Hi.”

She raked her fingers through her long tousled hair. “What are you doing up so early?”

“I have to work.”

“What?” She sat up without bothering to pull the sheet with her, but even the sight of her bare br**sts did little to kick-start Booker’s flagging libido. “You can’t leave yet,” she said with a whine. “You were too drunk to do anything last night. You passed out the second I got your clothes off.”

Actually, he hadn’t passed out quite that quickly. He’d closed his eyes while trying to talk his body into cooperating—and had slipped away only after meeting with complete and utter failure.

“Come here.” She slid closer and tried to wrap her arms around his waist, but Booker had no intention of letting her pull him back into bed. He hadn’t been with a woman in almost two years, but that didn’t seem to make any difference. He still wanted only Katie.

Standing, he said, “Sorry, I’ve got to go.”

When Ashleigh saw that he was serious, she gave him a grin designed to tempt him and let her gaze wander over his body. “You’re gorgeous, you know that?”