Riding for Love (A Western Romance) (5 page)

Snook glared down his pointed nose at Eve and snorted. “I guess she is. Her daddy’s the family drunk, and they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” He jabbed one of his buddies in the ribs at his lame joke.

“Yeah, well, your daddy sleeps with whores, so what does that make your mother?”

Snook came at Denton, but the timely arrival of a teacher stopped the altercation. The bell for the first period rang, and the group moved on. Denton reached down to help Eve, but she was busy trying to collect her books strewn across the hallway.

“Here, let me,” he offered.

She shook her head as tears ran down her face.

“We’ll be late for band. Let me help,” he said again as he bent over to pick up her flute case.

At the same time Eve grabbed the case, stood, and smacked Denton in the chin with the top of her head. They fell to the floor, Denton hitting his head on a locker.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m such a klutz. Everyone says so,” she cried after a few dazed seconds.

“Eve, stop. It’s not your fault. Those idiots are such jerks.” He grabbed her hand and helped her stand. “C’mon, we can’t go to band looking like this,” he said, rubbing a newly forming lump on the back of his head. “You’re crying, and I have a headache. Let’s go talk to the principal.” For the first time in his high school career, Denton Johanson missed a class, or two.

Denton took a drink and shook his head at the bartender’s question about another beer. He grinned at the memories flowing around his brain. With a few exceptions, the next year had been one of the happiest in his life.

After leaving the principal’s office, they sat in his car and talked. By the end of the missed second period, he found her to be an intelligent, sad young woman. By the end of the third period, with the first shock and his headache worn off, they laughed at the incident. By the time lunch hour rolled around, he was just a little bit in love.

It had taken a while to convince her to go out with him. She always had an excuse. She had to take care of chores, make supper, do homework. He didn’t realize until much later the differences in their backgrounds made her uncomfortable. He only knew the connection between them made him smile at the oddest times and the need to be with her grew strong. Even the hassles from his so-called friends didn’t stop him from going out with Eve; not their taunts, threats to stop being friends with him, nor their sexual innuendos about his relationship with her. He couldn’t believe his friends were so narrow-minded, especially her jerk cousin, Snook. They all thought because of her background, he had free rein with her.

Of course, he wanted to. His teenage hormones ran as rampant as any other male in school. His dreams about what he would like to do woke him up with such a hard-on, he was surprised the damn thing didn’t snap off like a frozen branch during an ice storm. But he respected Eve too much to do anything more than kiss her and do some petting, so his hand had become his favorite nighttime friend.

Denton glanced at his watch. Ten minutes late. Would she stand him up? A shadow crossed the door. His pulse jumped, and his breath caught in the back of his throat as she came toward him. He resisted the urge to wipe his sweating palms on his slacks.

Although she looked classy in off-white dress slacks and a light green high-collared sweater, it wasn’t lost on him she hadn’t dressed like that for her date with the vet. Instead of heels showing off her fantastic legs, she wore black flats. Instead of her long hair sweeping down her spine, it was swept back in a simple bun at the base of her neck. She looked sexy as hell.

Eve had been a nervous wreck ever since Denton’s phone call yesterday. She stood in the vestibule of the restaurant, letting her eyes adjust to the dim interior. Walking up to him would be one of the hardest things she’d done in a long time. She clenched her fists to keep from wiping sweaty hands on her slacks and hoped her eyes didn’t reflect the long night and copious amounts of wine Josie and she had imbibed.

After tossing, turning, and worrying about what story he would have to tell and how she would react, Eve finally fell asleep as the sun came up with a rosy hue. In her dreams she greeted him as a cool, sophisticated woman, who didn’t give a fig about the past or him. More likely it was fear of throwing herself in his arms and giving him a kiss that would make up for their years apart.

She’d left Josie sleeping in the spare room and dragged herself up at six for morning chores. Tom finally told her to go back to bed and sleep off her grumpies. Wanting to be refreshed and have a clear head for her confrontation, she took him up on his suggestion and managed to get in a few extra hours of sleep.

Later, she found a note in the kitchen from Josie saying she had to get home to make sure her husband had the kids off to Saturday morning activities. She thanked her for the hangover, and admonished Eve to wear the short sundress with bolero jacket they picked. “You look like a model. Knock his socks off, sweetie. And try to have some fun.”

Eve chuckled. She didn’t want to be sexy for Denton. She didn’t want to have fun. Hell, she didn’t want to be here. After Tom shooed her from the barn mid-afternoon and said he’d handle evening chores, time had crawled. She’d decided to splurge on a bubble bath in her whirlpool tub.

After a quick snack to ease her queasy stomach, Eve dressed for the evening hoping Josie never found out she opted for casual not sexy. With dismay, she still had an hour to kill.

She knew what to do—clean her disastrous room. Clothes were strewn across the bed and tossed on the antique fainting couch under the large window overlooking a row of pine trees running along the driveway. Several pairs of shoes lay on the corner fireplace hearth; a pair of nylons she’d poked a fingernail through flung on her dresser. Three empty bottles of wine lay on their sides at the foot of the bed and empty bags of chips and chocolate bar wrappers mingled with discarded clothing.

Eve smiled. She needed more evenings like this, headache and all.

With the chaos and mess of her childhood, she’d become rather a neat freak. Leaving it until later would drive her crazy and right now she didn’t need to add to her craziness for agreeing to meet with Denton.

She straightened up the bedroom and went into the adjoining bathroom. The bubbles in the tub had died. She flipped the plug, and while the water drained, put away her make-up and hairdryer, wiped off the counter, and tossed wine corks in the garbage. The ring around the tub would have to wait until tomorrow.

After eyeing the clock, she sighed. There was still too much time left.

She fussed with her hair, re-applied the lipstick chewed off from biting her bottom lip, and considered changing her clothes. Shrugging in the mirror, Eve finally gave up and went downstairs. She checked the garage door lock, clicked off the light in the laundry room across from the stairway, and tidied her office desk. Finally she couldn’t stand it anymore.

“What the hell, I may as well leave early and get this over with. Maybe I’ll calm down on the drive into town.” Grabbing her purse and keys, she walked out the door, across the covered porch, and out to her car. Tom came toward her from the barn.

“Well, girl, let’s see what you decided to wear.”

Eve performed a pirouette.

He affected a thoughtful pose. “Mmm . . . Let’s see,” he said in an effeminate voice. “Understated, yet elegant. Powerful, yet feminine.” He frowned. “And a bit too sexy.”

Eve laughed at his impersonation of the gay hairdresser in town, who happened to be a good friend of theirs. “I don’t know about sexy, Tom. At least I hope not ‘sexy.’”

Tom draped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze. “You’ll knock his socks off, Eve.”

“It’s not his socks I want to knock off,” she commented dryly. “I’m thinking more along the lines of knocking his block off. The big, fat jerk.”

Tom laughed. “He didn’t seem big or fat. A jerk, yes, but not big or fat.”

Eve frowned. “When on earth did you see Denton?”

Tom blushed and slapped his battered hat against his leg. “Rose invited me over for supper the other night. Denton arrived before I left. He’s been putting in some long hours trying to figure out the company’s financial situation.”

“Did you talk to him?”

“Nothing more than hello and good-bye,” Tom answered. “Hey, you’d better get going. You don’t want to keep him waiting too long, or he might leave.”

Eve glanced at her watch and gasped. Now, instead of being too early, she was going to be at least ten minutes late, which might be a good thing. She certainly didn’t want Denton to think she was anxious to see him.

As she drove to the restaurant, Eve nearly convinced herself she wasn’t excited. When he left for college, she’d been a naïve seventeen-year-old high school senior, head-over-heels in love. Now, as an adult, years older and hopefully wiser, there was no reason to worry about being with him. Right?

As nervous as a mother sending her first child off to the wilds of kindergarten, she approached the restaurant. Her sweating palms, racing heart, and flip-flopping stomach were a sure sign she was in deep trouble.

Taking a deep breath and clutching her purse, she strode across the room to the bar, the soft background music and muted voices of diners doing little to ease her nerves. Her heart picked up speed when Denton stood and attempted to take her hands. Not ready to make their greeting physical, she ignored him, sat down, and ordered a glass of wine.

“You look lovely, Eve,” he commented softly, picking up his beer.

“You look pretty good yourself,” Eve answered, mentally kicking herself for letting him know she thought he was still hot stuff. She requested a glass of wine. He kept his eyes on her while he ordered.

“Brings back memories, doesn’t it?”

“Not really,” she replied. “I’ve been here many times since you left. I’ve made plenty of new memories.”

“Ouch,” he murmured and turned to face her. “Round One to Eve. Why forget? Why not cherish the memories we made together?”

She rejected his comments. “Need you ask?” Before she could say anything more, the hostess came to take them to their table.

Denton placed his hand on the small of her back as they followed the hostess. Heat from his fingers seared through her sweater, up her arm, and settled around her skipping heart. She was over him, damn it, so his simple touch shouldn’t be attacking her body like fire ants on new prey.

His choice of restaurant pleased her—far enough from town to be free of nosy neighbors. Unfortunately, they passed two couples she recognized. So much for privacy. Would it be too much to hope they hadn’t seen her and Denton? Could they possibly keep their noses out of her business? Her heart fell as they raised their eyebrows and whispered to each other.

Ignoring their stares, Eve sat down in the chair Denton pulled out for her. She placed a dark green napkin on her lap and hid behind her menu, trying not to peek at him over the top.

He looked absolutely wonderful. A pair of dark dress pants showcased his slim hips, while a light blue sweater set off the color of his intriguing blue eyes. Depending on what he wore or his mood, they could be brownish green, gray, or light blue. She remembered a story his mother once told her.

When Rose first realized Denton’s eyes changed color, she’d purposely dressed him in different colored clothes to confuse her mother-in-law. She also changed his clothes several times a day to get “the old bat’s goat.” Rose finally had to fess up when her mother-in-law demanded to see an eye doctor.

“What’s wrong?” Denton interrupted Eve’s thoughts.

She certainly couldn’t admit to thoughts about his unique eyes, so decided to get to the point. She placed her menu on the table. “Why did you ask me here, Dent?”

“To explain things and catch up on our lives,” he answered.

Her self-confidence slipped a notch. “I suppose after bumping into me, you figured life was pretty much the same as ten years ago. Right?” He didn’t say anything, so she continued. “Answer me honestly. Do I look like ‘poor old Evie’ to you?”

Denton set his glass down so hard, beer sloshed over the edge. “I never, ever, thought of you as ‘poor old Evie.’”

Eve raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”

“Yes. I thought of you as pretty Eve, the girl I fell in love with. One who had the misfortune to be in a family with problems, but who survived despite them. Your family never changed those feelings.”

Controlling the tears swimming in her eyes was not easy. “You say you loved me. If that was true, why dump me? Why did I have to learn through the town’s nasty grapevine you married Marie?”

Dent ran his hand through his thick, dark hair, reached across the table and took Eve’s hand in a grip she couldn’t pull from. He ran his thumb across her palm.

“Despite what you might think, I never, ever, lost my feelings for you.” He released her hand. “I never meant to hurt you. Do you remember how Marie chased me in high school, even after we started dating?”

Eve gave a cheerless laugh. “Of course I remember. How could I forget? She was forever telling me I didn’t belong with you or your kind, that I reached above my station and belonged in our pigsty.”

He sat back in his chair. “Oh, come on, she wasn’t that bad, was she?”

The waitress appeared to take their orders stopping Eve from letting Denton know Marie had said those things and worse. The longer Eve and Denton dated, the more unpleasant Marie’s taunts became until she finally suggested Eve lay down, pull up her skirts, and spread her legs so Dent could go at her. After all, that’s all any boy would want her for—a quick and easy lay. Poor girls were for quickies, and girls like Marie were for men to fall in love with and marry.

Only Eve’s lack of self-esteem kept her from asking Marie if that were the case, why was Dent with her and not with Marie?

Eve watched the waitress return to the kitchen. Denton played with his beer glass, twirling the contents around and around, making the amber liquid swirl from side-to-side, much like the emotions inside her.

“So, what happened?”

Denton sighed and picked at the tablecloth. “I guess I didn’t pay any attention to my other classmates my senior year, being busy with my best girl and all. I had no idea which schools they might head to. So you can imagine my surprise when, after I arrived at the university in Madison, I bumped into Marie in my dorm and found out she lived on the next floor.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I’m still not sure how on earth she managed to get into the same dorm.