Wild Card: Boys of Fall (4 page)

Sadie jerked her head toward Glen. “A nice, hot, sexy cowboy has just been dumped in your front yard. Are you going to let Stacy get the jump on him?”

“Hell no. But I need a little time to work the situation. How long is he here for?” Lorelie asked Charlene.

“Just a few days, but I think that time could be extended. With the right enticement. According to Wade, he has a few weeks off. He’s planning to drive to Vegas from here at some point.”

“I see.” It had been too damn long since Lorelie had felt excited about something. And Glen would be a challenge. The man didn’t like small towns or staying put. She liked the idea of trying to change his mind, at least for a short while.

“Oooo, I know that look,” Sadie said. “You’re going for it, aren’t you?”

“I’ve been more than ready to shed this nun-like existence for months. My problem is there hasn’t been anyone around who interested me enough to bother.”

“He’d be worth getting hot
and
bothered about,” Lela said, joining them at the window to look at Glen.

Lorelie agreed. “Which leaves the issue of Stacy.”

Stacy leaned closer to Glen and slightly forward, obviously attempting to give him an ample view of what she was packing beneath her shirt. Which Lorelie had to begrudgingly admit was more than she possessed. Her damn B cups couldn’t compete with Miss DD.

“Don’t worry about that. We’ve got it well in hand,” Charlene said. “In fact…” She pointed toward the front of the house, where they could hear a car coming down the long driveway. As they all watched, Buck Davis pulled his car next to Tucker’s truck and hopped out.

“Buck?” Lorelie asked.

Sadie nodded as if Charlene was the smartest person on earth. “Well played, you clever puss. I’ve been watching him and Stacy make moon eyes at Pitchers for weeks now.”

If this was her friends’ idea of help, Lorelie suspected she’d be better off on her own. Buck was a math teacher who worked with Annabelle at Quinn High School. He was too tall and too skinny, with flaming red hair and freckles. He looked almost clownish standing next to Glen, whom he’d just been introduced to.

“Um…” Lorelie had her doubts this would work. No sane woman would walk away from Glen the God toward Howdy Doody.

However, from the moment Buck emerged from the car, Stacy’s entire stature changed. She took a step away from Glen and when Buck spoke to her, she blushed.

Hell, they
both
blushed.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Lorelie muttered. “Wade doesn’t look too happy to see Buck.”

It had been apparent from the second Buck arrived that their hostess for the evening hadn’t clued her husband in on the additional dinner guest.

Charlene grinned. “I asked Annabelle to invite Buck the second I found out Stacy was coming.”

They continued to watch the men in the yard, as well as Buck and Stacy’s bizarre mating dance, which seemed to consist of blushing furiously every time one of them spoke to the other.

If losing the girl bothered Glen, he gave absolutely no indication of it. In fact, Lorelie thought he looked just the slightest bit relieved. But that was probably wishful thinking on her part.

They were forced to change the subject from Lorelie’s intervention to more mundane things as the men headed toward the house.

Charlene pulled a tray of fresh-baked rolls from the oven as the other women began filling the serving bowls.

Lorelie hung back as Glen filed into the kitchen behind Tucker, Jackson and Wade, Joel and Oakley on his heels. Buck and Stacy remained in the yard.

She tried to fight down the butterflies in her stomach, as well as the fluttering in regions farther south. Sadie was right. Lorelie
did
need to get laid. Badly. She wondered briefly if Glen would even remember her.

Then she recalled what Sadie had said. He’d asked about her.

She was glad to know she’d at least been memorable. As for her, she had recalled her conversation with Glen countless times since October, and she’d listened to that damn Miley Cyrus song so many times, Dad finally put his hands over his ears and begged her to find something else to play.

Glen’s gaze landed on her the moment he entered. She feared for a second he’d take to heart the guys’ warnings to steer clear.

She should have known better. He smiled when he saw her, crossing the room until he stood right in front of her.

“Hey, Lori.”

“Lorelie,” she corrected, despite loving the way he said her name. She held out her hand for a handshake, but Glen used the grip to raise it to his mouth, where he kissed her knuckles. It was charming, old-fashioned and had her pussy clenching.

“That’s quite a move,” she teased.

“Yeah. I’ve had that in my back pocket for a while now.” He winked at her. “I was hoping you’d be here tonight.”

Lorelie grinned and fought down her own blush. God, she was as bad as Stacy and Buck. A fact that didn’t sit well with her. She was never shy or demurring or any of that silly crap around men. She really
had
lost sight of herself.

Glen still held on to her hand, his grip strong and warm.

“So you came back, huh? Despite how boring our small town is?”

“The town might be boring, but the people aren’t. You look pretty tonight. Still flitting around, Butterfly, or have you managed to settle down?”

“I’m doing just fine.”

“Still single?”

Oh yeah. She wanted this guy. “Yep. How about you?”

“Yep.”

“How’s life on the road?”

For the slightest second, she saw something sad flash in his eyes. But Glen was clearly better at hiding his problems than she was. Especially if the fact her dad and all her girlfriends were calling her out for them was anything to go on.

“It’s good. Just taking a vacation.”

“Charlene said you’re thinking of heading to Vegas when you leave here.”

“Yeah. Thought I’d try my hand at sitting in the audience at a couple of shows, as opposed to standing on stage. And I’m no stranger to the tables. Gambling can be good for the soul every once in a while.”

“But bad on the pocketbook.”

“Only if you lose. And I don’t lose.”

There it was. That certain something that set Glen apart from most of the men in Quinn. With the exception of the guys in this room, there were too many single men in town who were lacking that bravado, that self-confidence.

It was why Lorelie had been so damn bored. She preferred a guy with a backbone, not one with as much spine as a jellyfish.

“Still cocky, I see.”

Glen didn’t get a chance to respond as Wade stepped over to them. “Y’all ready to eat?”

Wade gave Glen what the fool obviously thought was a surreptitious warning glance.

Lorelie rolled her eyes.

Stacy and Buck walked into the kitchen, so the entire group grabbed serving bowls, platters, glasses and bottles of wine, carrying it all to the dining room.

It was a loud, fun gathering of old friends, which meant there was nothing formal or serious going on. Instead of mature adults, the group looked more like a gang of rambunctious siblings who’d grown up together. Which was essentially true.

Sadie had made some joke about Tucker buying the big truck to compensate for other things. Tucker’s reply was to toss a slice of cucumber from the salad at her, telling her a woman with two men in her bed had no business talking about overcompensating.

Jackson teased Joel about the dark purple shirt he’d chosen to wear, calling him Barney—until Oakley revealed it was a gift from Joel’s mom. Then the joke turned into one of those “So your mom is still dressing you” gags.

That whole conversation led to a discussion about the relationship between Joel’s mom and Sadie’s dad. Everyone always had fun giving them shit about the possibility of the lovers becoming stepsiblings as well. Apparently this was all news to Buck, who was slightly horrified by the prospect.

Glen took in all the banter, hopping in more than a few times to add some witty retort. The guy was seriously funny.

He’d claimed the seat next to Lorelie at the table, and every now and then he rested his arm on the back of her chair. Lorelie took great pleasure in leaning toward him whenever he did so, provoking her male friends to shoot them
both
annoying glances.

Then he ran his hand along her hair.

She gave him a quizzical look.

“Wanted to see if it’s as soft as it looks.”

“And?” she asked, leaning even closer.

“Like silk.”

Her heart started to beat a little faster. Lorelie had never felt such an instant and powerful attraction to a man.

Tucker broke them apart when he held the breadbasket out to Glen. “Want another roll?”

Glen grabbed one. “Thanks.” He tossed the bread on his plate, and then wrapped his arm around her chair once more, winking at her covertly.

Glen was baiting them on purpose. Lorelie giggled softly, only too pleased to play along.

Too many bottles of wine later, the dinner ended, everyone relaxed and full. Wade suggested they move to the front porch. “You bring your guitar, Glen?”

“Never go anywhere without it.”

Glen consented to grab his instrument from the truck and they took their dessert and coffee outside. The evening was crisp, but not too cool. One of the benefits of living in Texas was fairly mild winters, and this year’s had been unseasonably warm and dry.

As the men played everyone’s favorites, they all sang along. Whenever they couldn’t remember the words, Wade and Glen would make up really raunchy lines, something they’d clearly had quite a bit of practice with.

“You guys are really great,” Stacy said as she and Buck rocked on the porch swing. Sometime during the long meal, they’d overcome their shyness with each other, and Buck had even grown bold enough to hold Stacy’s hand the last half hour.

Once they’d sung themselves out, Wade and Glen put their guitars away. Glen walked over to sit next to Lorelie who was perched sideways on the top porch step, her back against a post. Glen claimed the other post, facing her. Lorelie stretched one of her legs toward him. Glen grasped her foot, pulling it into his lap and pointedly ignoring the exasperated scowls from Tucker and Jackson.

As so often happened when they all got together, the conversation turned to her dad.

“How’s Coach doing?” Tucker asked. “Didn’t he have a doctor’s appointment today?”

Lorelie nodded. “Yeah. It actually went really well. Or so I heard.”

“What do you mean?” Charlene asked.

Oakley answered for her, grinning. “Coach was being Coach this morning. Said he was tired of being treated like an invalid. Insisted on going to the doctor on his own, even though Lorelie usually drives him.”

“Good,” Lela said. “Just proves what we were saying earlier. He’s well on his way back to a complete recovery.”

Lorelie begrudgingly agreed. “Yeah. Doctor even cleared him to start doing more chores around the ranch. Within reason, of course.”

“I’ll be damn glad to have the guy back out there with us,” Oakley said. “Days go a lot faster with him working beside you.”

“What do
you
do on the ranch, Lori?” Glen asked.

“Same as the guys, I guess. We all have our chores. I take care of the house, cook the meals, tend the garden, feed the chickens, and spend a lot of time in the stable with the horses.”

“Lorelie was a state-champion roper,” Joel added.

“It was high school rodeo, Joel. Team competition.” She looked at Glen to explain, “I was the header. My friend, Allison, was the heeler.”

Glen nodded slowly.

“You don’t have a clue what that means, do you?”

He chuckled. “Not a bit. I’m a Philly boy. City kid through and through.”

That fact surprised her, given his love of country music. Of course, it was silly to think just because a person was from the north they wouldn’t like a genre of music.

“I roped the calf’s head. Allie roped the hind feet,” she explained.

“And you do all this while chasing the calf on the back of a galloping horse?”

“Yep.”

Glen’s expression was sheer amazement. “
That
is something I’d really like to see.”

“So much for a singing cowboy,” she teased.

Glen didn’t take offense. “I sing the songs. I don’t live the life.”

Lorelie spied an opening to advance her plans to seduce Glen. “Stop by the ranch this weekend. I’ll give you a tour and a demonstration.”

“We’re going fishing on Saturday,” Wade interjected.

“Don’t see any reason why I can’t do both. How about Sunday, Butterfly?”

“That’s perfect. Around three? And then you can stay for dinner if you’d like.”

Glen smiled. “I would like that a lot.”

“Then it’s a date.”

Before the guys could come up with reasons for Glen not to visit Lorelie on Sunday, Annabelle starting making plans with the women to get meals to the Phillips family. Georgette Phillips had taken a tumble a few days earlier and broken her leg. The mother of three boys, all under the age of six, Georgette’s tumble left her husband struggling to keep the rambunctious kids on his radar, so meals were hit or miss.

“I’ll make spaghetti and take it over tomorrow,” Annabelle added.

“Oh God,” Sadie said. “I suck at cooking. On my night, I’m picking up the phone, calling in a pizza order and having it delivered to their house.”

Lorelie laughed. “We appreciate your efforts, Martha Stewart. I’ll stop by their place on Saturday morning, clean the kitchen, and nag the boys into tidying their bedrooms. I can only imagine what sort of mess they’ve made. I’m sure Georgette is going nuts surrounded by the chaos, helpless to pick it all up. The woman’s house is usually so clean you can eat off the floors.”

“That’s awful nice of you ladies,” Buck remarked.

Even though it was a Thursday night and everyone had work in the morning, no one seemed anxious to leave. There was a cool breeze blowing and for a moment, Lorelie imagined how nice it would be to just close her eyes and sleep there in the fresh, clean air.

Buck and Stacy were the first to leave, followed by Jackson and Annabelle. Lela and Charlene had gone into the kitchen to clear away the dishes.