Trouble In Dixie

By

Becky McGraw

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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* * *
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PUBLISHED BY:

Becky
McGraw on Smashwords

TROUBLE IN DIXIE
,
Copyright @ August, 2012 by Becky
McGraw. All rights reserved under International and Pan American
Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have
been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and
read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be
reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled,
reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information
storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether
electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented,
without the express written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the
author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be
construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

A Special Thank You

I'd like to thank Kellie for her
help proofreading and editing this book, as well as working with me
on edits to the others in the series. I'd also like to thank my new
BETA readers and friends, who have volunteered to help me with the
new books in the series to make sure the Texas Trouble series is
the best it can be. You guys are the best, and I appreciate your
help.

Finally, I'd especially like to
thank you, the reader, for purchasing and reading my books. I hope
you enjoy reading them, as much as I enjoyed writing
them.

PROLOGUE

"How do you fucking
sort
of have sex
with someone, babe? That was a yes or no question I asked. Did you
and Katie have sex with Wade Roberts?" Gabe roared then grabbed
Karlie's shoulders.

Katie walked up on the porch beside Tommy
Tucker and gasped at Gabe's question to her sister, then felt blood
rush to her face. Looking down at Dixie, Tommy's ten-year-old
daughter, who had her bulldog puppy Snuggles wiggling in her arms,
Katie covered Dixie's ears, then glanced up at Tommy. His eyes were
narrowed and his body tense, as he stared at Gabe and Karlie.

Katie leaned down and lifted a hand to
whisper into Dixie's ear, "Go inside the house and introduce
Snuggles to Sarge. I bet they both could use a walk too." Dixie
looked up at her and nodded, then went inside the house.

Taking a step away from Tommy, who was
radiating anger in hot waves, Katie asked her sister, "What's going
on, Karlie?"

"Wade Roberts is here..." Karlie told her
with a groan.

Katie frowned, Wade Roberts was the
last
person on this Earth she wanted or expected to see
here, the cowboy she and her sister had seduced, then left tied to
the bed in a hotel room to teach him a lesson about harassing them
to have twin sex with him. Her sister, of course, had taken the
lesson to another level, by drawing a smiley face on his member
with a magic marker, after they'd gotten him worked up and tied
up.

Karlie always took things to another level,
her impulsive sister wasn't known as the 'Wild Child' of the pro
rodeo circuit for nothing. Katie on the other hand had gotten stuck
with the 'Mild Child' label, in comparison, and she resented
it.

Yeah she was a lot more responsible than her
sister, she took care of Karlie, cleaned up after her when she
stepped off into a mess, which was quite often, but Katie was far
from mild. Her temper equaled her sister's in most instances, and
she'd had her share of letting her hair down.

As proof, the night Gabe was grilling her
sister about now was a prime example of a time she'd been far from
mild. It had taken ten tequila shooters to get her brave enough to
do it, but she had been an equal participant in her sister's
mischief that night.

Katie glanced at Tommy, who was standing
beside her with his hands on his hips. His angry hazel eyes burned
holes in her, before he dragged his gaze to Gabe and demanded, "Who
the hell is Wade Roberts?"

Gabe clenched his jaw then grated to Karlie,
"Answer my question, Karlie...and Tommy's, while you're at it."

Karlie threw her chin up and answered, "I
think this is a private matter between you and me, Gabe, and I'm
not talking about it, until you calm down, and we're alone." She
folded her arms over her chest, and Katie knew her sister meant
what she said.

Huffing out a relieved breath that her
sister was actually keeping her mouth closed for a change, Katie
relaxed a little. She had no intention of discussing what happened
in that hotel room either, or explaining who Wade was to Tommy, it
just wasn't his business.

Karlie stood up then looked down at Gabe and
told him, "If Tommy wants to know, he'll need to ask my
sister...and it's up to her whether she tells him or not," before
she turned and stomped across the porch and down the steps, then
hurried toward the barn.

Katie swallowed hard, when she felt Tommy's
heated gaze on her again, and told him, "I'm going get something to
eat," then started toward the porch to the steps.

Before she reached the steps though, he
grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him, and grated, "Tell
me who Wade Roberts is, and if you and your sister had a threesome
with him. I need to know what kind of person is around my
daughter," he told her firmly with his eyes glittering
dangerously.

"What kind of per--" she started then
changed her mind, and yelled instead, "How dare you judge me, Tommy
Tucker! If I want to have group sex with the whole fucking rodeo
circuit, that's none of your business!" Katie realized she had
shouted a little too loudly, because a few people who were in the
yard, between the house and the barn, looked their way
curiously.

Although Tommy Tucker was damned good
looking, and he had set her motor running since she first laid eyes
on him, the truth of the matter was, they
didn't
have a
personal relationship, she was an employee and nothing more. She'd
been working for him for two weeks, had known him for three, and
he'd never indicated he was interested in her at all. In fact, he
avoided her mostly, so her personal life was none of this arrogant
man's business.

Even if he was interested in her, it had
become obvious to Katie there was no room in his life, or in his
heart, for another female anyway. His whole world revolved around
his daughter, Dixie, she could do no wrong in his eyes. His
overindulgence had created a child with a princess complex, and her
daddy, the King, was twisted around her pinkie tighter than strung
barbed wire.

Whatever Dixie wanted, she got in short
order...like that bulldog puppy that Katie was having to help take
care of.

"I beg to differ with you, Katie...I don't
want someone who'd do something like that around my daughter," he
told her angrily.

Katie's heart twisted in her chest and anger
flowed hot and heavy through her veins. He had just insulted her,
basically called her a pervert, not worthy of being around his
precious daughter.

Going for the jugular to hurt him like he'd
just hurt her, Katie smirked, then said with a sarcastic laugh, "I
bet you haven't had sex in ten years, and then only vanilla
missionary sex." Looking him up and down, she finished with a
smirk, "No wonder you're so uptight you couldn't drag a needle out
of your ass with a tractor."

His eyebrows lifted, then his face turned
red and he said defensively, "I've had sex, I just don't flaunt it
in front of my daughter, and I'm not going to put up with that from
my employees either."

"I'm not flaunting a damned thing, I didn't
bring this up, you just overheard a
private
conversation
between my sister and Gabe," she told him, then took a step
forward, before she put a finger in his chest, then spat, "I don't
plan on having sex, or talking about it, while I'm at the Rockin'
D, so you don't have a thing to worry about."

Spinning away from him, Katie quickly went
down the three porch steps, then hurried across the yard toward the
food tent, leaving him standing there.

Katie was wrong, he had a helluva lot to
worry about, because his concern wasn't solely about Dixie. Tommy
recognized the knot in his stomach and the anger pouring through
him for what it was, jealousy...an emotion he hadn't felt in a lot
of years, and one he didn't like feeling now.

Even if he wouldn't allow himself to touch
Katie Upton, because she had relationship written all over her, it
didn't mean he didn't want her, badly, and it didn't mean he was
okay with hearing about another man touching her.

Grinding his teeth, Tommy sat down on the
swing a minute and rocked, trying to calm himself down again. A
second later the front door was flung open, then Dixie came running
toward the swing, her face glowing with excitement. "Imelda said
they had a bounce house set up for the kids. Can I go jump, daddy?
She's gonna watch Snuggles for me."

"Sure pumpkin, just don't forget to check
back on Snuggles now and then," he said with a tight smile.

"I will...Daddy why is your face so red?"
Dixie asked then tilted her head to study him. "You feeling
okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, honey...just hot," he lied.
He was hot, but not from the blazing sun overhead...this fire was
all inside of him. If his kid was noticing he was upset, so would
everyone else. Tommy knew he needed to get a grip on himself fast.
"You go have fun and play with the other kids, I'll catch up with
you in a little bit."

"Okay, bye!" she said then threw her arms
around his neck and kissed his cheek, before she darted down the
porch steps and headed for the big red bounce house behind one of
the tents.

Maybe a beer and listening to some music
would cool him off and help him relax, Tommy thought, then pushed
up off of the swing and headed for the tent where he heard music
playing. He'd worked damned hard to make a peaceful life at his
ranch, and a good life for his daughter. He'd be damned if he was
going to let that redheaded wildcat change that.

Tommy thought about letting her go, but he
couldn't make himself do that, he'd sunk just about everything he
had into starting that cutter line, and he needed her. She was the
best trainer he could find, even better than her scattered sister,
so he couldn't afford to lose her. It was just too damned bad she
wasn't a crotchety hunchback old man.

Tommy walked under the tent, and went
straight to one of the bar stations and got a beer. When he turned
back toward the crowd, he saw a flash of red hair on the wooden
dance floor, as a cowboy spun Katie around in three quick circles,
before he jerked her to his body and they started dancing around
the floor again.

She threw her head back and laughed at
something the cowboy said, and Tommy's hand tightened around the
beer bottle, and he swallowed down the red hot anger that reignited
inside of him.

His grip on the bottle tightened even more
when he noticed the guy's hand was on Katie's ass. Tommy resisted
the urge to go over there and yank her away from him. But she
wasn't his, he reminded himself. What she did with other men really
wasn't his business. A weird pain tweaked his heart and he rubbed
there, then took a long swig of his beer. Walking over to the
stage, he found a post to lean on, so he could torture himself by
watching.

Maggie had loved to dance, and seeing people
dancing always sent him into a funk, it was doubly so, watching
Katie dance with that guy. Tommy loved to dance too, but hadn't
done much of it since Maggie died. The only reason he'd learned to
dance in the first place was for Maggie. Emotion punched him in the
gut, and he lost his breath for a second, then he took another
drink of his beer. He missed her so fucking much sometimes, even
now after she'd been dead for ten years.