Zoe & Dylan: The Sons of Dusty Walker (3 page)

CHAPTER THREE

Two months later.

“Girl, when are you going to set a fucking date?”

Zoe winced, both at the question and Callie’s favorite F word. “I swear it’s a miracle you don’t scare off your clients with that vocabulary of yours.”

Her grin unrepentant, Callie Rogers spritzed a finishing gloss over Zoe’s newly applied lavender streaks. “Still here, aren’t ya?”

“Only because you give me a discount.”

“Aw, you know you love me.” Callie fluffed Zoe’s hair, admiring her handiwork. “
Rawr
. If I was a lesbian I would do the hell out of you.”

Zoe rolled her eyes. “I’m asking Santa to bring you a boyfriend this year.”

“Just make sure he’s packing some serious meat downstairs. No wimpy frankfurter either. Anything less than a bratwurst and he’s gettin’ sent back to the North Pole.”

Zoe slid a look sideways and caught Rori’s grin. “We’re never letting her loose in Santa’s workshop. Could you imagine the toys she’d cook up?”

“Only the best kind.” Her laugh wicked, Callie freed the Velcro on the barber drape and whisked it off of Zoe. She twitched her nose. “Some of us have a standing daily date with our battery operated boyfriends instead of hunky Walker men. We need world-class equipment.”

“
Daily
?” Zoe blinked.

“Hey, I cut back.”

“From
what
?” Zoe held up her hand. “Never mind. Forget I asked.”

Callie tossed the drape over the neighboring stylist chair before going to check on Rori’s nails. She clicked off the UV light with a hum of approval. “That color is
hot
.”

Zoe sent Rori a warning look. “Careful, she’s two seconds away from making an indecent proposition.”

Waggling her eyebrows, Callie uncapped the bottle of Opi polish and added a few artistic daisies to Rori’s manicure. “But getting back to my original question. You need to set that date soon so that we can start plannin’ your shower.”

“You guys don’t have to go to that trouble.”

Callie and Rori gave her twin looks of disbelief. Rori was the first to respond. “Why in the world would we
not
plan one?”

“And let’s not forget the bachelorette party,” Callie added.

Zoe gave her friend the stink eye. “You are definitely not doing that.”

“Lord, girl. You are the biggest wet blanket.” Callie pursed her lips into a pout. “Great, now what am I gonna do with that Pin the Dick on the Hunk game I bought for your party?”

“Please tell me you didn’t.” Zoe groaned as she grabbed her purse and fetched her wallet.

“Yes. And I already have dibs on the ten incher.” Callie returned the polish to her caddy. Once Rori’s nails were dry, Callie lifted from her seat and made change for them. Pointless, considering that both Zoe and Rori immediately stuffed it in the tip jar.

Zoe led their small entourage upstairs to the main living space in Callie’s colonial in the Creek View subdivision. Hunter raced toward her the second they stopped outside the kiddie playroom. She took one look at the bundle of fluff in his arms and shook her head adamantly. “Not happening, Boo Bear.”

“But, mama, she tolds me she wants to come live with Tigger.”

Tigger being the Tabby kitten that Zoe had been sweet talked into adopting from Callie’s mom.

“Did you hear that? Your child is the next cat whisperer. Best to take Smoky home with ya since the boy clearly knows what he’s talkin’ about.” Callie returned Zoe’s glare with an innocent smile.

Like the evil woman knew the first thing about being innocent. If she even owned a halo it was only to provide dressing for her horns. Zoe dropped onto her haunches and petted the kitten. The puff ball rumbled the loudest purr in existence, its big blue eyes full of sweetness. Aw, damn. This is why she avoided pet stores and animal shelters. Unfortunately there wasn’t much she could do when it came to avoiding Callie’s halfway house for cats, dogs, and pretty much every creature that took passage on Noah’s Ark. “Boo, we wouldn’t want Josh to be sad if we take Smoky.”

Right on cue, Callie’s six-year-old son looked up from his video game. “Nah, it’s okay. I’ve already got like eight of ‘em.”

Zoe sighed and lifted her attention to Callie. “You need a twelve step program.”

“No, what I need is for my mom to move out on a hundred acres somewhere so she doesn’t have to keep unloading her fur baby army on me.”

A rough kitten tongue swiped across Zoe’s finger. Hunter giggled. “See, mama? She loves you.”

Callie’s gaze sparkled, confirming that Zoe was screwed.

Five minutes later, Zoe hustled Hunter out to her truck, his beloved new kitten hugged tight to his chest. Best to get out of there before Callie foisted anymore puff balls on her. She buckled Hunter into his car seat and slammed the door shut just as a black Range Rover pulled into the neighboring driveway. A muscular behemoth of a man climbed from the vehicle, his eyes shaded by a pair of mirrored sunglasses. He nodded to them. “Ladies.”

They all stared after him as he made his way inside the single-story ranch. As soon as he’d shut the door behind him, Zoe and Rori shot their focus to Callie and simultaneously demanded, “Who’s that?”

“Do I look like I know everything in this town?” Callie sighed at the pair of raised eyebrows her response elicited. “Okay. The only intel I have is his name. Quinn Lafferty. He moved in last week and I haven’t had a chance to dig for more information.”

“He’s certainly a big un,” Rori provided.

“Easily a ten incher, I’d bet.” Callie’s expression turned sheepish. “Not that I’ve been obsessively checking out his package every chance I get.”

“That wasn’t what I was referring to.” Chuckling, Rori tossed her bag inside her vehicle. “Though you’ll have to give us the scoop if you somehow work the question into your next round of intel gathering.”

“Lordy, you know she will. Let’s not encourage her further.”

“Mom,” Josh called from the front porch. “Snowball just barfed in your shoe again.”

“Oh joy. Sure you don’t want a matching set of kittens?” Chuckling at the look Zoe gave her, Callie offered her and Rori a departing hug before rushing toward the house.

Zoe turned her attention to Rori. “Want to grab lunch?”

“Wish I could but I’m due to meet a client at Cyber Wise in about fifteen minutes.”

“Next time then. Maybe we can get all the girls together before the hectic holiday craziness takes over our lives.”

Rori’s expression turned shrewd. “You could give us a good excuse by setting that wedding date.”

Zoe averted her gaze. “I’m working on it.”

“Honey, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”

Rori lifted her shoulder in a half shrug. “I don’t know. It just seems like you’ve been pensive lately.” Worry flashed in her eyes. “You’re not having second thoughts about Dylan, are you? Because I can guarantee the man is crazy about you.”

“No, I know he loves me. And Hunter.” Then why did she break into a cold sweat whenever the wedding was mentioned? It made no sense. Most women looked forward to that special day and even dreamed about it from the time they were little girls. Heck, who hadn’t played out a wedding ceremony for Ken and Barbie at some point during their youth?

Me, for starters.
Just further proof that she was completely abnormal. Pushing aside that troubling thought, she squeezed Rori tight. “Thank you for being concerned about me, but it’s absolutely unnecessary. I’ve just had a lot on my mind with work.”

“If you’re sure...”

“I am.” She offered Rori her best attempt at a reassuring smile. “And I’m sorry if I came across weird about the bridal shower. I hope you don’t think I don’t appreciate it, because I do. So much.”

Rori’s eyes lit up with excitement. “It’ll be so much fun. And classy. I’ll inspect Callie’s bags beforehand to make sure she doesn’t try to sneak in any penis party favors.”

Laughing, she escorted Rori to her car and waved as her friend took off. She crossed to her own vehicle and slid behind the wheel. Her earlier doubts chose that moment to crawl out of the shadowed corners of her psyche.

She should be eagerly counting down the days until she and Dylan were legally hitched. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be married to him, or didn’t love him with every ounce of her being. Because she did. God, did she ever. There was no other man on earth for her. Her heart had always belonged to him, even before that fated run-in with him at that Nashville gas station four years ago. For a woman who’d gone out of her way to avoid musicians and keep them off limits, she’d done a piss poor job of cutting off her emotions where Dylan was concerned. She’d never forget the first time she saw him. Didn’t matter that it hadn’t been in the flesh. It’d still rocked her world completely off its axis. It’d been shortly before Truckstop Pickup started burning up the charts. One of the popular entertainment magazines had did an article on up and coming rock country bands and Truckstop had been number one on the list. Although it’d always been a gut punch to see her dad’s picture anywhere, the sensation she’d felt that time had been an entirely different jolt to her system. One that’d left her dizzy and sweating buckets. Because she’d taken one look at her father’s handsome, sexier-than-sin lead guitarist and known she was majorly fucked. Dylan Mitchell Walker was about to disrupt her life in every way possible.

Lord, did she ever hit the nail on the head with that prediction.

Only she was grateful beyond reason that he had shaken her up. Not only did he give her Hunter and more love than she knew what to do with, he was the balm to her soul. If not for Dylan, she and her dad wouldn’t even be speaking to each other. And while she and Luke certainly still had miles to go in repairing their relationship, things were better between them than they’d ever been. Luke had even surprised everyone by making a concentrated effort to spend time with his grandson. That was a miracle in and of itself.

Everything was so much better than she could have dreamed possible.

Which made it even more difficult to understand where her head was at. Why she couldn’t make that next step to sealing her happiness with Dylan.

You know why. You’re a fucked up mess and sooner or later he’s going to wake up and see the reality staring him straight in the face. 
Swallowing past the lump of misery lodged in her throat, she gunned the engine and backed out of the drive.

***

Twenty-five minutes later she pulled in behind a familiar cherry red Miata parked in front of the farmhouse. Equal parts happiness and dread cycled through her.

“Grammy!” Hunter squealed, kicking the back of the passenger seat with gleeful abandon.

Zoe rubbed her temples. There wasn’t enough Extra Strength Tylenol in the world for dealing with her son’s rambunctiousness at times. Or visits from her mom.

Sighing, she tossed her keys in her purse and climbed from the truck. Somehow she managed to get Hunter freed from his car seat without getting nailed by his flailing foot. Cuddling the kitten to her left side, she swiveled and dropped Hunter to his feet. He took off running toward the porch. “Grammy, Grammy, Grammy!”

Samantha Pendergrass snubbed out the cigarette in her hand and jumped up from her perch on the glider. “There’s my favorite boy!” She rushed down the steps and swung Hunter up into her arms before smothering him in kisses. Giggling like crazy, Hunter wiggled, trying to escape.

Zoe bit back a smile. Much as her mother drove her crazy, there was no denying that the woman adored her grandson. Samantha paused in her smooching to offer an only slightly less enthusiastic kiss to Zoe. Her mom’s eyebrows lifted as soon as she spotted the kitten. “You won’t let him have that puppy I was going to buy him, but you’ll get him another cat.”

“I didn’t have much choice with the kitten. And that
puppy
was going to grow into a small horse.”

“Great Danes are great family dogs. Just look at Marmaduke.”

“A—he’s a cartoon. And B—wasn’t he the one always getting into some kind of trouble?”

Her mom settled Hunter on his feet and waved her hand dismissively. She glanced around the yard. “Where’s that man of yours?”

“Still in Smithsville. He should be home any time now.”

“How is the band camp going?” Samantha lifted her hand to her mouth before recalling that she no longer held a cigarette. Grimacing, she dropped her arm. “Has he killed your father yet? God willing we should be so fucking lucky.”

“Mom.” After giving Samantha a warning look, Zoe led the way to the porch and unlocked the house. She handed Smoky to Hunter. “Boo Bear, go show our little friend where the kitty box is.”

“Then I can make her kiss Tigger?”

“Err, only if she wants to.”

Excitement shining on his face, Hunter dashed toward the mud room.

“That boy is too precious for words.”

“Yes, he is.” Zoe squinted at her mom. “So I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about killing his grandfather in front of him. Might be a tad awkward if he ever spilled that to his friends.”