Big Girls Don’t Cry (Dundee, Idaho #6)(53)
Author: Brenda Novak

“I’d dropped everything, so I stooped to pick it all up.”

“What’d she do?”

Liz clasped her hands in her lap and stared down at her cuticles, which were finally beginning to heal. “She could’ve gone merrily on her way, but….”

“What?”

“She didn’t. She helped me gather what I’d dropped.”

For a moment, Isaac seemed deep in his own thoughts. Then he said, “She’s a good person, Liz.”

“I know.” Leaning forward, she toyed with the handle of her empty cup and changed the subject. She knew her brother liked Reenie. She suspected he might be attracted to her in a romantic sense. But she couldn’t dwell on that. She couldn’t lose both Keith and Isaac to the same woman. “Have you already sent in your grant applications?”

He nodded and stood. “What are you going to do about the offer on the house?”

“I’d like to move back to L.A.” She couldn’t help thinking of Dave again. “But I can’t as long as Keith’s here. Maybe when the kids are older.”

“So you’re going to sell.”

“Yeah.”

“Mica and Christopher are very lucky they have a mother like you,” he said softly, and squeezed her shoulder as he passed by on his way to bed.

Liz knew she should retire, too. Instead, she slipped downstairs and picked up the phone.

WILEY DURANGO, the owner of The Honky Tonk had remodeled and expanded shortly after Conner Armstrong had opened the Running Y Resort. Now, in the spring and summer, young families, executives, nature lovers, even college students came to Dundee to sample the Western experience. To capitalize on the influx, Wiley had added an extra room to his bar, with a mechanical bull. On weekends, he hosted live bands, and on Saturday mornings he had his waitresses give line-dancing lessons.

Tonight, the bar was particularly busy, but Reenie couldn’t say she was having much fun.

“You look distracted,” Beth said, drawing her attention from the people on the dance floor.

Reenie took a sip of her Long Island Iced Tea so she wouldn’t have to bother gathering the willpower to smile. “Not really. I’m just listening to the music.”

Shania Twain’s latest played so loudly Reenie’s ears were ringing, but at least the volume made it difficult to talk. She didn’t feel inclined toward conversation tonight. At the last minute, Keith’s parents had decided to take the girls to Texas to see Keith’s brother, who was at Baylor, and although Reenie had never particularly liked this brother, she was feeling a little left out. Texas should’ve been a family trip. But her divorce had changed things all the way around.

It was good the kids were getting away with their grandparents, she told herself. Certainly she wouldn’t be able to provide the same experience. She wouldn’t be traveling anywhere in the near future, not alone with three children. For one thing, she didn’t have the money.

“Are you missing your girls?” Beth said.

“I’m trying not to think about the fact that they’re so far away,” Reenie replied.

“When did they leave?”

“This morning.”

“They missed school today?”

Reenie nodded. “But their grades are good. One day won’t hurt them.”

“So shake off the doldrums. Sunday will be here before you know it.”

“It’s not the girls,” Reenie insisted.

Beth stirred her gin and tonic with her straw. “Is it Isaac Russell?”

Remembering the picture of the adorable puppy Isaac had found, Reenie frowned.

“Reenie? Are you still upset that Liz’s brother will be teaching at the school with us?”

“No, I don’t care about that,” she lied.

“Are you going to assist him with the academic decathlon team?”

The arch Reenie put into her eyebrows probably answered that question clearly enough. But she didn’t stop there. “What do you think?”

“Right. Of course not.”

Alex Riley, one of the more handsome cowboys who worked at the Running Y, approached their table. Anticipation lit Beth’s eyes the moment she saw him. She’d had her heart set on Alex for months, so much so that Reenie could almost hear her chanting Pick me, pick me!

But Alex turned toward Reenie instead. “Would you like to dance?”

Sensing Beth’s disappointment, Reenie felt too guilty to accept. “Actually, I think I’m going to—”

The door opened and Keith stepped in, along with Jon Small. As recently as a year ago, Jon and Keith had barely known each other. Growing up, they’d never traveled in the same circles. Jon had liked cars and motorcycles; Keith had liked computers and sports. But times had changed. Now they were both divorced, and when Jon wasn’t with his older brother, Smalley, he was hanging out with Keith, even though he wasn’t half as smart, half as talented or half as handsome. He’d always reminded Reenie of a weasel.

“Reenie?” Alex prompted when she paused.

Reenie had been about to suggest he dance with Beth while she finished her drink. But seeing her ex-husband come into the bar changed her mind. She did not want Keith to find her alone at a table. She knew he’d spend the entire night trying to talk her into going home with him, especially since the girls were out of town. Although her feelings had definitely changed toward him, he was still the only man she’d ever slept with, and she was beginning to miss having a sex life. She didn’t want to do anything she’d regret in the morning.

“I’d love to dance,” she said, and took Alex’s hand.

“Boot Scootin’ Boogie” came on as Alex led her through the crowd. An old Dundee favorite, this song had people lining up to do a dance one of the waitresses had choreographed.

“You don’t think Keith minds that we’re dancing, do you?” Alex said as they started moving to the music.

Reenie opened her mouth to say he probably did, then realized Alex already knew that. Keith was standing at the edge of the dance floor, glaring at them both while shifting impatiently from foot to foot.

“He has no right to object,” she said indifferently.

They stomped and turned along with everyone else. “I’m not worried,” Alex said. “Give me a few more beers and I’ll be ready for a good barroom brawl.”

Just what she needed, Reenie thought sarcastically, the father of her kids getting busted up at The Honky Tonk.