Personal Assets (Texas Nights) (27 page)

But their practice had drawn a small group of spectators, including Beck, Roxanne and his brother.

The boys rushed the dugout to argue over the cooler of ice cream Allie had brought.

She smiled, half-watt, but still. “The Fudgsicle’s for Tiny.”

The kid whooped and did a backflip off the fence.

Allie strolled over to the adults, exchanged a cryptic look with Jamie and then turned to Beck. “Scouting my players?”

“Just assessing the competition before Sunday.” He pointed at Cameron. “Who foisted that slug off on you?”

Now, her smile broadened. “I took pity on him when he came moping around the field begging to play.”

Cameron put his arm around her shoulders and drew her close, like they were a normal dating couple. He said to Beck, “Seems to me you were the one who used to pick Missy Beloit a bouquet out in left field during our Little League games.”

“Missy was hot for a nine-year-old.”

“Especially to a seven-year-old,” Jamie added. He shrugged. “She liked younger men, and you jocks were busy on the field.”

Cameron laughed. Even when Jamie was a geeky little runt, women had fawned over him.

“I was in the mood for a margarita,” Roxanne said. “When I ran into these two, they decided to tag along.”

“Los Cerditos?” Allie asked.

“I haven’t been to Harry’s in years,” Jamie said. “Why don’t we go there?”

Everyone else groaned.

“Do you have any idea how filthy that place is?” Beck nodded toward Jamie’s pristine gray suit pants. “Hope you have insurance on those, man.”

Jamie cut a quick glance toward where Cameron and Allie stood together. “What’s life if you don’t take a big risk once in a while?”

Chapter Twenty-Three

After softball practice, they split up like middle schoolers, guys in one car and girls in another. So far, Jamie hadn’t seen either Roxanne or Allie in Dirty Harry’s Friday night crowd. Cameron had immediately pushed through to the back, making the excuse he needed to wash his hands and giving Jamie his order for a Bud Light.

Dirty Harry’s was aptly named. The floors were sticky, the chairs cheap and the tables blemished with knife marks and cigarette burns.

Jamie juggled three beers and weaved through people boot-scooting around the dance floor slick with sawdust. He found his brother on the back deck where the nicotine smog was a couple levels lower than inside the bar. Cameron sat at a table jammed into a corner, but Beck wasn’t with him.

“Where’s Beck?” Jamie distributed the beers and fluidly popped the tops with a church key.

“Around the side. We both decided washing up with the hose was a better bet than the sink.”

Since they were alone, Jamie took a swallow of beer, letting it slide down cold and smooth, before he pried into his brother’s life. God, it made him feel like a teenage girl. “Done any work on my car yet?”

“No, still trying to bring Charlie’s GTO back from its near-death experience.” Cameron stretched his legs, slouching against the plastic chair back. “The day I started work on it some of Allie’s boys came by. They thought it was a piece of crap.”

“Kids these days. They have no taste.”

“That’s what I told them.”

“Have they seen my ’Vette yet?”

“No, they’ll go apeshit over that one.”

“Maybe they’re redeemable then.” Jamie tried to sound casual when he asked, “How are things with Allie?”

Cameron eyed him over his beer. “Why do you want to know?”

“Just wondered how all that—” Jamie made a vague gesture with his beer, “—was working out.”

“Hell if I know.” Cameron sighed and ran his palms over the top of his head, causing the whorls and spikes to rearrange themselves.

In all the years they’d lived together, Jamie had never seen his brother agitated over a woman. “Not knowing with a woman is a dangerous place to be.”

Cameron laughed but the humor was missing. “Tell me something else I don’t know.”

“You serious about her?” He could invest spare cash into Allie’s and Roxanne’s businesses whether or not his brother was in love with Allie, but the money he’d earmarked would affect Cameron. Which meant Jamie would have to come clean with him about why he had all that extra cash lying around.

“Why do I feel like we should be grabbing our purses and lipsticks and following one another to the ladies’ room?”

Jamie couldn’t help but laugh at that image. “Hey, it’s a legitimate question. You moved back here to the edge of nowhere, so I figured you might be getting the urge to settle down and manufacture a half dozen rug rats.”

Cameron lunged from his chair and stalked back and forth along the deck railing. “I’m not ashamed to admit the thought crossed my mind. With you and Mom squared away, I can finally...”

“Have your own life?” He’d forfeited plenty in the past and worked long and hard to open this body shop. This time, Jamie would solve the problem.

“That’s not what I was going to say.”

“Hey, but when you go, you go big,” Jamie said. “Allie Shelby of all women.”

“At the beginning, we agreed to keep messy crap out of it. Sex only.”

Jamie tossed his empty bottle into a nearby metal trash can with a
clang
that reverberated across the deck. “How’s that working out for you?”

“How am I supposed to keep it only physical when I like her, dammit? And her dad’s gunning for her business. And Mom’s Allie’s client. And it’s so convoluted I can’t see straight. So, how do you think it’s going?”

“I think most men would give their left nut to have something carnal and casual going with Allie Shelby.” What Jamie didn’t say aloud was he’d bet his new Beemer that what his brother felt for her was way more than casual.

* * *

Jamie headed back to the bar for the second round and found Roxanne trying to catch the bartender’s eye while ignoring every other man’s eye in a six-county radius. She braced her hands against the bar, which accentuated a high, toned butt he’d love to see without those jeans. But if he invested in her and Allie’s businesses, that was off the table.

Or, sadder still, out of the bed.

He nudged aside a guy whose hand was inching toward Roxanne’s breasts and blocked the prick’s view of her. “Have you seen Allie around?”

“No, have you checked outside?”

“Just left Cameron out there by himself.”

“I’d bet my Promise Keeper she’s found him by now.”

Her Promise Keeper? “I’m not brave or stupid enough to interrupt whatever’s happening out there then.”

“Smart man.”

The bartender finally sauntered their way. He ignored Jamie but sidled up to Roxanne like
he
might want to have
her
babies. “How you doin’?”

“I’ll be much better after you bring me two tequila shots and a couple beers.”

“Draft?”

Not if she valued her life. “Bottle, tops on.”

The guy hustled off and Jamie said, “But you’ll risk drinking tequila out of their shot glasses?”

“I figure it’ll kill anything on the glass.”

The drinks were back a hell of a lot quicker than Jamie’d been served earlier. He handed the guy a twenty, grabbed everything and herded Roxanne away from her would-be baby daddy. He found a tiny cocktail table that someone had swiped the stools from. He handed Roxanne a shooter, clinked the other against hers and tossed back the tequila. His throat and stomach blazed as though he’d poured a line of gasoline in his mouth and swallowed a match.

“That was for Allie.” Roxanne shot hers and chased it with a chug of beer.

“If she really wants that isopropyl alcohol, I’ll buy her another.”

“Why’re you so hot to find her anyway?” She took a smaller sip this time. “You’re not stupid enough to poach on your brother, are you?”

“Not in this lifetime.” He leaned on the table, caught her gaze. “Allie asked me to invest in Personal Assets—”

“I’m not the person you need to have this discussion with.”

He pitched his voice over the blaring country music. “And in Red Light.”

“Dammit, I’m already in debt to her and now you want me to owe you too? I don’t think so.” She grabbed her beer and turned to stalk away.

“Were you or were you not in Houston yesterday, negotiating to sell your fall pre-orders and liquidate your current inventory?”

She jerked around to glare at him. “How the hell did you know that?”

He lifted a shoulder. “I know some people who know some people.”

“Allie doesn’t even know.”

“And you don’t want her to, do you?”

She bowed up like a cobra ready to strike. “Are you threatening me?” As quickly as she puffed up, she deflated and dropped her bottle back to the table. “It’s my fault. Allie could’ve taken out a smaller loan, but she wanted me to stock the store.”

He wanted to reach across the table, grab her and kiss those downturned lips. “It’s really Robert Shelby’s fault. I’m not surprised he’s jerking his daughter around like this. Not after what he did to my family.”

“So your plan to keep us both in business is about revenge?”

“No, it’s about squaring a debt I owe. One that made me the man I am today.” It would be impossible to fully repay Cameron for putting him through school, but this would be a start.

She glanced down at his shoes. What was it with this woman checking out his clothes? “You want to sell pantyhose and push-up bras?”

Jamie laughed. He hadn’t thought of it in quite that way. He’d just seen it as an opportunity to help Allie, get the best of Shelby and solve a sticky situation with his brother. “You don’t have to worry about me skimming inventory. I’m envisioning more of a silent partner role.”

Her lips tipped down at the corners. “I thought you were a lawyer.”

What did that have to do with any damn thing? “So?”

“So I have my doubts about any lawyer’s ability to stay silent.” She walked away, leaving him to watch her smooth, long-legged stride.

* * *

Allie had searched all over Dirty Harry’s without a Cameron sighting. She needed him tonight, needed the distraction he could provide, because every time she thought about losing Personal Assets, she wondered if she would lose Cameron too. After all, she’d no longer be able to make a living in Shelbyville if Jamie didn’t come through as their angel investor.

“Hey, sugar pie, you look kinda lost,” said an older man wearing a
Duck Dynasty
beard and a camo ball cap. “You wanna dance?”

“No, thank you. I’m looking for someone.” Looking for the man who’d somehow become essential in her life. And in her heart. Now if she could get him to let go of his need to make things right for her.

She headed for the back door because the deck was the only place she’d missed.

Cameron sat at a rickety table with Jamie, Beck and Roxanne, laughing at something Roxanne said. God, how had she thought she could keep it physical with this man? Granted, his body was killer, but there was so much more to him. Love and commitment toward his family. Dedication to his customers. Loyalty to his community. Generosity toward his lover.

Allie’s heart fell from her chest, rolled across the boards and rocked to a stop at Cameron’s feet.

He glanced up, caught her standing in the doorway. His smile said everything. “We wondered where you were.”

“Dancing with all my admirers.”

Cameron lifted a brow. “Surprised you made it out of there.” He left his beer on the table and took her hand. “Since you’ve already danced with every other man at Harry’s, now it’s my turn.”

“For the record, I didn’t get a dance,” Beck piped in.

“Me neither,” Jamie said. Allie glanced at him, hopeful she’d see an answer to her problems on his face, but his headshake was a subtle side-to-side movement. Her rib cage squeezed her heart. Did that mean he’d decided not to invest in the businesses or this simply wasn’t the place to discuss it?

Cameron made a rude gesture and pulled Allie back inside the bar. He didn’t need to squeeze between the other dancers. He simply strolled up and they parted to make room for him.

He turned Allie in his arms and led her into a slow two-step to a song talking about how a woman could stop a man’s world from turning or turn his world around. Had she done either of those to Cameron’s world? They touched from hip to chest. His leg worked its way between hers and created heated friction with every step he took. She shivered from her toes up.

“Come home with me tonight.” He leaned down to rest his lips close to her ear. “I’ve been thinking about making love with you for days.” Then he added, “I’ve had trouble concentrating on even simple repairs, and I have to finish Charlie’s car.”

“Wow. That’s romantic.” She laughed. “I need you, baby, because otherwise I can’t clean out my carburetor.”

“That’s just a side benefit.” He tasted her jaw, moving his lips closer to hers. “I’m dying here. Help me.”

She pushed at his chest, opening a two-centimeter span between them. “We’re not making out on Dirty Harry’s dance floor.”

“Bet I could change your mind.”

Heck of it was, he probably could.

His semi-erection rested against the curve of her stomach, and an ache spread through her. God, she wanted to climb his body. She craved that mindless place they were able to create together. A place where money, family and business had no power.

She kissed the base of his throat, and his chest rumbled against her breasts. He two-stepped them right off the dance floor and into a dark hallway. He gripped her hips in rough hands and lifted her, her thin bodice rubbing his chest, aligning their lips. He backed her against the wall and, within a single heartbeat, the kiss became a symphony of tangled tongues and mingled breaths. His arms tightened around her so she could barely inhale.

This was exactly what she needed. But not at Dirty Harry’s. She tugged his hair and he reluctantly broke the kiss. Returned twice for shorter, softer touches.

“I’ve been thinking about getting inside you for days.” His breath heaved, matching hers. “Be glad I didn’t strip you and lay you down on the pitcher’s mound.”

The thought of making love with him out in the open pumped a shock of heat through her already stimulated system.