Larkspur Road (17 page)

She started toward them, back toward the table, hoping to head them off, but before she’d gone more than two steps Hatcher grabbed her arm roughly and hauled her back to face him. Anger glittered from his eyes.

“You little bitch, what the hell did you do that for?” he bellowed.

She yanked her arm free and nearly stumbled backward and that was when everything seemed to happen at once. Travis must have just come in, because he caught her from behind, strong arms steadying her. Then he moved around her fast, shoving Boyd away from her, slamming him up against the wall. An instant later Travis’s muscled arm was wedged against the other man’s throat.

“Now, that’s a hell of a way to treat a lady, Hatcher. I think you’d better leave before I decide to break your face. And that would be just for starters.”

Travis’s tone was deadly calm but Mia could see the tightness in his jaw, the controlled fury in his eyes. She was terrified he really might hurt Boyd if the other man dared to open his mouth.

He was a good three inches taller and far stronger than Hatcher, and he looked like he might easily snap the red-haired wrangler in two at the slightest provocation.

“Travis. No.” Quickly, she touched his arm. “It’s all right, let him go.”

“You should head back to the party and have a seat, Mia.” He spoke quietly, without taking his eyes off Hatcher’s reddening face. “I’ll join you in a minute.”

“Not until you let him go.”

“Did he hurt you? Are you all right?”

“No, he didn’t, and I’m fine.” She swallowed, remembering it was Travis who had taught her that defensive move back in high school. He’d told her that if she ever needed to get away from any guy, kick or knee him hard in the balls. Made her practice ramming her knee upward until she dissolved in laughter.

“It was nothing, honestly. Let him go. I don’t want anything to ruin Tommy’s party.”

Hatcher was struggling futilely, and he looked scared. Mia feared he’d pass out any second for lack of oxygen.

Frank Custer rushed over. He was one of the older Lazy Q ranch hands, and a nephew of Sheriff Hodge. “What the hell’s wrong with you, Hatcher? Getting rough with Mia that way. Sorry, Mia.” He threw her an agitated glance.

“He’s just been drinkin’, that’s all,” Frank told Travis. “He don’t think sometimes. He keeps that up, he’ll lose his job for sure. But I’ll get him outta here, Travis, and drive him home.”

“That’s a good idea, Frank,” Mia said swiftly.

Travis said nothing, just increased the pressure on Hatcher and watched him squirm. Then Deputy Zeke Mueller came ambling up. He’d left Deanna at their table and now eyed Hatcher with a frown. He might be off duty but he was still deputy sheriff of Lonesome Way and it was his job to keep the peace.

And he’d seen Hatcher grab Mia.

He planted himself right beside Travis as Frank stepped back a pace, then Zeke studied the man wriggling on the wall like a pinned bug.

“Evening, Mia, Travis, Frank.”

“Evening, Zeke,” Travis returned calmly, never taking his eyes off Boyd’s face.

“You okay, Mia?”

“Zeke, I’m fine. Tell him to let Boyd go,” Mia demanded.

“You h-heard her. Let me…go,” Hatcher choked out desperately.

“You know, he’s not looking too good, Travis,” Zeke commented thoughtfully, his voice slow and calm, as if they were talking about the chances of rain on Tuesday. He shrugged. “I guess it’s best if you do let him go.”

“I’m taking it under consideration.” Impassively, Travis surveyed the man caught in his grasp, who was no longer even bothering to struggle.

“You hear that, Hatcher?” Travis’s tone was low and even. “Mia’s worried about you. So’s Frank. Deputy Mueller here thinks I should let you leave without a broken jaw or a black eye. So I’m going to respect that. Consider yourself lucky. I’m going to give you a break because they all asked me to. But that only holds if you walk out of here without saying another word. Not one word. Got it?”

Hatcher, red faced and struggling to breathe, managed a nod.

Travis waited another ten seconds before dropping his arm from Hatcher’s throat. He stepped back, making sure he was positioned between Mia and the other man just in case.

He needn’t have worried. Hatcher didn’t have any fight left in him. He slumped toward the floor, coughing, but the deputy caught him by the arm and hauled him up.

“You shouldn’t be driving in your condition.” Zeke eyed him with a frown.

“I’ll get him home.” Frank rushed forward to grip Hatcher’s arm. He practically dragged the other man toward the door.

“Much obliged, Frank. Drive careful, now.” The deputy watched until the older wrangler had guided Hatcher outside.

“You have a nice night, Mia,” her ex-fiancé said softly; then he met Travis’s gaze in a brief silent look, lawman to lawman, before turning on his heel and returning to the table where his pregnant wife waited.

Mia hadn’t noticed how quiet it had grown in the Double Cross until that moment. She’d been too focused on Travis’s hold on Hatcher.

But suddenly everyone in the place started talking at once and it was bedlam as she stood there beside Travis in the midst of all the hubbub.

“Are you sure you’re all right? He really didn’t hurt you?”

There was something like fear in his face.

She shook her head, her emotions tumbling.

“I’m fine. I told you. I’d handled it.”

Their eyes met and for a moment the rest of the room faded away. She saw only Travis. Not the eighteen-year-old boyfriend who had left her behind so many years ago, but the man he had become during that intervening time. The man who loved his son and stood up for him. The man who’d just stood up for her even when she didn’t want him to get involved.

Electric sparks streaked again down her spine. They might have been back in the front yard of her house again, beneath the night sky, alone except for Samson, and she could almost feel those strong arms around her, holding her close and tight. Safe.

She could taste the deep kisses they’d shared, feel the solid warmth, drink in the scent of him as he’d held her, touched her….

It had felt so natural, that instant fire between them, neither of them holding back….

And then Tommy and Rafe bounded up, along with Big Billy, the Double Cross’s giant, tattooed bartender-owner, marching right behind them.

“Everything okay out here?” Big Billy demanded gruffly. “We had a problem in the kitchen and all of a sudden, all hell started breaking loose out here.”

“Everyone’s all right, Big Billy,” Lissie assured him as she and Sophie breezed right around him and everyone else to stand on either side of Mia.

“Come on, let’s go sit down.” Sophie tucked Mia’s arm in hers. “We saved you some nachos.”

“Yeah, I think there’s been enough fun-filled drama for one night,” Lissie added.

“Only for one night?” Mia glanced back and forth between them. “For the year, is more like it.”

As Big Billy lumbered back to the bar, Lissie turned to Travis and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Good job, bro. Wish
you’d cleaned his clock, though. I always knew that spitball thrower was nothing but trouble.”

A half hour later, Mia sat at one end of the table, finishing off a slice of pizza, and Travis was seated far at the other end, calmly eating a burger. He was seated beside Will Brady, Rafe’s foreman, and across from Tommy’s parents, who had driven in from Bozeman and were spending the night with Lissie, Tommy, and Molly.

“Was that an actual conversation taking place for a minute between you and my brother back there?” Lissie wanted to know.

“Not really.”

“I could have sworn I saw a few sparks there.”

“Lissie!”

“Okay, okay. But I know what I saw. “

Thankfully Sophie set the massive birthday cake, twinkling with candles, in front of Tommy just then and everyone joined in singing “Happy Birthday.”

Travis bided his time.

While the birthday cake was sliced and served and eaten, while coffee and more wine and beer were served, he listened to Tommy’s father’s account of his childhood in Cody, Wyoming, and to Will Brady telling him how his brand-new Chevy truck got rear-ended in Billings a few weeks back by a pretty, red-haired woman in a Prius, and how he’d taken the truck-smashing woman to dinner two days later.

Travis nodded and made the appropriate comments. He joked and talked and watched and waited. His sister and Tommy headed to the crowded dance floor. They were laughing and talking, dancing with abandon beneath the Happy Birthday banners.

Rafe and Sophie were already out there in the thick of the crowd, arms around each other’s waists, lost in each other’s eyes.

Travis studied Mia, stunning with that knockout classic beauty as she leaned forward, deep in conversation with his cousin Decker and Deck’s wife, Leigh. Then Decker and Leigh moved off to dance and he knew he didn’t want to wait a moment longer.

He stood and started toward her with long strides. At that exact moment Mia happened to set down her coffee cup, lean back in her chair, and glance his way.

Her gaze widened ever so slightly as he approached, and he saw her entire body tense and straighten.

“May I have this dance?”

Brilliant amber eyes seared him. “Are you crazy?” she asked in an undervoice, glancing wildly around her. “People are already talking about us after what happened before.”

“Good. Let ’em talk.” Travis’s grin was unconcerned. He held out his big hand. “Since when are you afraid of a little talk?”

“I’m not afraid of anything,” she said sharply. But she shivered as she put her hand in his and rose from her chair. “We’re both going to live to regret this,” she warned him as he led her onto the dance floor, forging a path through the crowd.

“Speak for yourself. I won’t regret one minute of it.” Gently, he swung her into his arms.

Oh, God. What was she doing? It was one thing to kiss Travis in the dark privacy of her own front yard, with the entire block asleep and no one the wiser. It was quite another to dance with him in the Double Cross, with all of their friends and family around.

Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” streamed from the jukebox. The song—and Travis’s nearness—soaked into every inch of her soul.

His muscled arms felt so right around her. Strong and gentle and…arousing. His very touch, every glance made
her feel like she’d been infused with fire. His big frame moved easily to the music, his eyes gazing straight into hers. The sad truth was she burned with wanting him.
Again. Still
.

Whatever. It was all insanity. And he’d started it when he’d come to Larkspur Road to plead with her to tutor Grady.

“What in the world are we doing?” She tipped her head back, narrowing her eyes.

“We’re dancing. Getting to know each other again.”

“And setting every tongue in this town wagging again.”

“The only tongue I care about right now is yours,” he teased. “And if we weren’t surrounded by everyone we know—”

“Stop right there,” she murmured, though she felt a flush rushing through her cheeks and a laugh rising in her throat. She couldn’t choke it back in time and it burst out. Suddenly she couldn’t
stop
laughing.

Travis’s grin widened.

“Careful, people might think you’re having a good time.”

“I need to go home,” she said, just at the moment the music ended. “It’s late.”

“I’ll walk you out.”

“That isn’t necessar—”

“How do I know Hatcher didn’t come back here and isn’t waiting outside for you?” he interrupted.

“More likely if he
is
waiting outside, it’s for
you
,” she countered.

“I should be so lucky.”

He looked like he actually wished Hatcher would come back for him. Mia sighed and shook her head.

Another song came on the jukebox and somehow they were still dancing. Despite her words, now that they were on the dance floor, hand in hand, their bodies touching, swaying, she wasn’t certain she wanted to stop.

“You didn’t bring me those textbooks,” she reminded him, trying to steer the conversation back to neutral ground
as his big hand pressed warmly at her waist and she resisted the urge to close her eyes and lean her head on his shoulder like some lovesick fool.