Read Off Limits (Sparks in Texas Book 4) Online
Authors: Mari Carr
Off Limits (Sparks in Texas Book 4)
Sparks in Texas
, Book 4
Copyright 2016 Mari Carr
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According to the bro code, enacted by Evan Sparks and
Logan Grady years ago, sisters are out. However, Lacy Sparks isn’t
about to let a silly boyhood pact stand between her and the man
she’s wanted for nearly twenty years.
She’s waited long enough. Logan thinks she’s too
sweet to give him what he needs. He’s about to learn as far as
Lacy’s concerned, in bed or out, nothing is off-limits.
To Liz Berry and M.J. Rose
For their belief in me and my stories
Excerpts from the Sparks in Texas
series
One year earlier…
“Closing time,” Lacy Sparks said, gently
tapping on Logan’s shoulder. He’d been looking down at his beer so
long he had almost forgotten where he was.
“I thought maybe you’d found a way to sleep
with your eyes open,” she teased.
He glanced up at her, and then let his gaze
wander around the restaurant. He was surprised to find the place
empty. Where the hell did everyone go?
Her cousin, Macie was behind the bar, wiping
the counter and he could hear Sydney in the kitchen, washing
dishes. Lacy had already cleaned the dining area and he hadn’t
noticed them doing any of it.
“Sorry.”
“No problem. I’ll walk you home,” she
offered.
Logan wasn’t drunk. Not even close. After
all, he’d nursed the last still-full beer for over an hour. But he
wasn’t going to turn down the offer of company. Especially Lacy’s.
She was one of the reasons he’d returned to Sparks Barbeque
tonight. He’d been here earlier with her brother, Evan. His best
friend since first grade, Evan had picked him up after work and
declared they were going out for happy hour. His friend had been
hell-bent on cheering him up. After all, Logan had just gotten
dumped. For the first time.
Logan had dated lots of girls, but in the
end, he’d always been the heartbreaker because none of them had
captured his affections. Until he met Jane.
He should consider himself lucky. Not many
men made it too the ripe old age of thirty-three without ever
having their hearts ripped out. Of course, the more he thought
about it, the more he realized it wasn’t his heart Jane had just
tromped all over. It was his pride. His heart had walked out of the
relationship about six months ago.
He and Evan had eaten dinner, kicked back a
few beers and then Evan had dropped him off at his place. Logan had
taken one look around the quiet apartment and then walked the two
blocks back to the restaurant. He preferred noise to silence, and
there was something very soothing about Lacy’s Uncle TJ’s off-color
stories, Macie’s boisterous laughter, and the sweet way Lacy kept
stopping by to check on him. When you were with the Sparks family,
it was easy to forget what ailed you. The pressure that had taken
permanent residence on his chest since Jane moved out last week
lifted when he was here.
“Logan?”
God. He shouldn’t have bothered coming back.
He was shitty company. “Sorry,” he repeated.
Lacy reached out to clasp his hand, giving it
a quick, comforting squeeze. “You ready to go?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but shouldn’t I be offering
to walk you home?”
She grinned. “I live five blocks from here
and I walk myself home every night. Besides, your place is on my
way.”
Logan reached for his wallet, but she waved
off his money when he tried to pay for the beer. “It’s on me.”
“Lace.”
Rather than fight about it, she simply pulled
her jacket on and walked to the front door leaving him no choice
but to follow. “Night, Macie,” she called out.
“Night, y’all,” her cousin replied wearily.
It had been a busy night at the restaurant and they were obviously
pooped.
Once they stepped out onto the sidewalk, Lacy
obviously decided to take the bull by the horns. “I know you’re
upset about Jane. If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m a pretty
good listener.”
There was no debating that. While he’d been
Evan’s friend growing up, once they became adults, Lacy had stopped
being the kid sister and became a friend in her own right. She was
one of the most upbeat people he’d ever met. An eternal optimist.
Logan liked the humor and positive energy that seemed to surround
her all the time.
“I’m not sure there’s much to talk about. The
breakup had been coming for a while. Not like it was a total
shock.”
“Another man?”
He didn’t bother to lie. Logan nodded. “Yeah.
Some old boyfriend from back home. Apparently they’ve been chatting
on Facebook for nearly a year.”
“Fucking Facebook,” she said with a grin.
The joke worked. He laughed, but didn’t
bother to say Jane’s flirting over social media had very little to
do with what really broke up the relationship. And it certainly
wasn’t anything he could explain to Lacy. Not fully anyway. God
only knew what she’d say if he went into all the gory details.
“This is probably one of those things that’s
best left alone. Rehashing it won’t make it better. I just need to
figure out where to go from here.”
“So, I’ll change my offer. If you ever want
to hang out and
not
talk about it, you know where to find
me.”
“Thanks.”
He appreciated her kindness, but he didn’t
see himself taking her up on the offer. Logan was getting out of a
three-year relationship. He needed time to recover and to get his
shit together. Looking at Lacy tonight, Logan felt something he
didn’t want to put a word to, simply because it would be too
dangerous to acknowledge.
Once they reached the front of his apartment,
he paused. “I really don’t mind walking you home, Lacy.”
She smiled, and then reached up on tiptoe to
give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “It’s Maris, Logan. I’ll be
fine. Night.”
He watched as she walked away, not turning
toward his front door until she was completely out of sight.
The second Lacy was gone, the heavy feeling
he’d managed to keep at bay in the restaurant, returned, along with
a new one.
Fuck it. He called it by name. He felt
tempted. By Lacy Sparks. It was going to be a long night.
“This isn’t Vegas.”
Lacy rolled her eyes as Macie repeated the
same sentiment she’d been muttering all night. Damn woman had been
bemoaning the fact they were holding their cousin Sydney’s
bachelorette party in boring old Maris, Texas, instead of Las Vegas
for about six weeks now.
“Yeah. That’s totally not getting old, Mace,”
Lacy said with a sigh. “Besides, I think Sydney is handling the
disappointment just fine.” She lifted her chin toward the bar,
where Sydney was giggling her fool head off while sporting a short
white veil, jeans and a “Kiss Me, I’m the Bride” t-shirt covered
with guys’ signatures in Sharpie. She was drinking blowjob shots
with three sexy ranch hands who were only too happy to celebrate
with the tipsy bride-to-be.
“I bet she’d trade those three farm boys for
male strippers any day of the week.”
Lacy laughed. “This is Sydney’s party, not
yours. I suspect she’s perfectly happy right here. We’ll go to
Vegas when you get married.”
Macie tipped back her beer. “That’s small
comfort. I’ve done a thorough accounting of the stock around here
and I’m fairly certain I’m never getting married.”
Lacy found it difficult to argue with her
cousin. Macie had cut a wide swath through most of the available
men in Maris. Not that Macie was a slut. Quite the contrary. She
was very discerning when it came to her lovers. However, she was an
equal opportunity dater, which meant she didn’t turn down many
requests to go out. Only a handful had ever gotten a second date.
“Maybe you should widen the search, check out some neighboring
towns.”
Macie simply rolled her eyes. “Already done
that.” Then, as so often happened with her cousin, Macie spotted a
“squirrel” and changed topics. Shiny things constantly distracted
her, too. “It’s good to see Coop out tonight.”
Lacy glanced toward where the rancher was
sitting alone, nursing a beer. “Wonder how he’s doing.”
“Considering his wife died of breast cancer
three months ago, I’m going to go out on a limb and say shitty.”
Macie rose from her seat. “And since the pickings around here are
so slim, I’m going to give up on getting lucky and go buy that man
a beer. Looks like he could use some cheering up.”
Hank Cooper had always been a regular at
Sparks Barbeque, the restaurant Lacy and her cousins operated,
stopping in for lunch at least once a week. However, since his wife
Charlotte’s death, he’d become even more regular, sitting at the
bar with a sandwich, plate of fries and a beer nearly every single
night as Macie held court.
While Macie was a terrible cook, she was one
hell of a bartender. Lacy was pretty sure that, while people
originally came for the delicious food Sydney and Jeannette
prepared, they returned because of the fun Macie provided.
Lacy lifted her beer for a drink as her
cousin walked away and took the opportunity to survey the bar. It
was the first time she’d had five minutes to herself since they
began this crazy adventure. Her boisterous cousins and several of
their girlfriends had surrounded her all evening as they ran
through the typical checklist of bachelorette insanity, complete
with tequila shots and raunchy sex toy and negligee gifts. Then
they started playing some silly game that Paige had found online,
where Sydney had to find guys who fit certain characteristics to
sign her t-shirt. She’d found men with tattoos, piercings and
facial hair quickly, and had her pick of the litter on men wearing
cowboy hats and boots. So far, she’d had no luck on finding a male
prostitute or a transvestite—Macie’s additions to the list, items
she insisted Sydney would have found easily in Vegas.
With the exceptions of Sydney at the bar and
Macie sitting with Coop, most of their party was now out on the
dance floor, shaking their booties, completely oblivious to how
many cowboys currently stalked them. Lacy didn’t blame the guys.
She’d always thought her cousins were beautiful women—inside and
out. When they were out together in a pack, like they were now,
they tended to turn more than a few heads.
Several men got bold and attempted to break
into the circle, hoping to pick one of the women off and get her
away from the others. It looked like one guy had just about managed
to capture Adele’s attention before she shimmied back into the
fold. Obviously tonight’s unspoken theme was
chicks before
dicks
. Which suited Lacy fine, because there wasn’t anyone here
she was interested in hooking up with.
