DUNDEE AT LAST. Thank God. Rebecca was so tired she could hardly keep her car on the road. She knew she should probably have gotten a hotel in Boise. But she hadn’t wanted to stay. It was her birthday. She’d arranged to have the day off work—and not so she could sleep in some hotel room by herself. She was hoping Booker might take her out for a late breakfast. And when she’d called to tell her mother about Delaney’s baby, Fiona had insisted she come for the traditional family dinner party, to take place in the late afternoon.
But Josh was the real draw. After everything that had happened, she was anxious to see him again. Being tortured by him, using the same techniques as last night, sounded like a pretty good birthday activity. Receiving some sort of birthday gift from him wouldn’t be bad, either.
Should she call him as soon as she got home? Or, better yet, simply go over and crawl into bed with him? Besides the—
The sight of Josh’s Suburban sitting in the parking lot of the Honky Tonk jerked Rebecca out of her daydreams and sent prickles down her spine. What was Josh doing at the Honky Tonk at two o’clock in the morning? she wondered, throwing on her brakes. It was closing time. He’d been up late last night. And from the looks of the parking lot, he was nearly alone.
Nearly alone? Nearly alone took on a whole new meaning when Rebecca spotted Mary Thornton’s car parked only a stone’s throw away.
Wheeling around, she gave her Firebird more than enough gas and pulled into the lot, spewing gravel as she slid to a sudden stop next to the Suburban. It was Josh’s vehicle, all right. She’d spent too many years being hyper-aware of anything to do with him to mistake the distinctive dents and dings.
She got out, tossing a baleful glance at Mary’s brown Camry, and marched into the Honky Tonk. She could scarcely breathe for the fear squeezing her chest, but anger pulsed through her like a tidal wave, overcoming everything else. She wasn’t about to walk away and pretend she hadn’t seen what she’d seen. Only a coward would refuse to face the truth. And she would never be that kind of coward.
“I go, you go, huh?” she muttered as her blood pressure soared.
The inside of the Honky Tonk looked almost like a different place without all the familiar faces crowding the bar. Bear, the weekend bartender, was busy drying glasses. He jerked his head up when she came in because she’d flung the door so hard it banged against the outside wall, drawing everyone’s attention.
Josh and Mary were on the dance floor, moving slowly to Faith Hill’s “There I’ll Be.” Judging from their delayed response, her presence took a moment to register. When it did, Josh released Mary. “There you are,” he said with a smile as he moved toward her.
“Don’t come near me,” she said, putting out both hands to ward him off. Her voice was higher and louder than she would have liked. If there’d been any chance that their audience might have gone back to whatever they were doing, that was no longer the case. But it was difficult to think about being discreet when she was so furious. “I believed you! I trusted you! I…I almost told you I love you!” she shouted.
Over in the dart area, Billy Joe and Bobby whooped, “Watch out, Josh. She’s not happy, and she’s going to make sure you know it.”
“She’ll be fine once I get her home,” he said calmly, then gave her that cocky grin of his. “You almost told me you love me?”
“No. And I won’t, either. I’m not going home with you. I’m never going home with you again,” she shot back. “I don’t even want you to forgive my debt. I’ll pay you for the stupid Excursion, every cent. Because I don’t want to owe you anything. I don’t even want—” Oof!
The sudden jolt of being tossed over Josh’s shoulder rendered Rebecca incapable of speech, effectively cutting off her recital of what she didn’t want. She’d expected him to argue with her—or apologize and offer some flimsy excuse. He did neither. He simply carried her toward the exit as though this sort of thing happened every day. “Careful, Beck. Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face,” he said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she cried. “Put me down!” She started banging on his back and kicking so he’d have to let her go, but he merely secured her feet so she couldn’t hit anything he cared about. Rebecca knew she wasn’t putting much effort into the fight, anyway. She wanted to be in Josh’s arms. She wanted him to convince her that what she’d seen wasn’t what she’d thought.
“Would you look at that,” Billy Joe said in obvious amazement. “I’ve never seen anyone get away with anything with Rebecca.”
Evidently he hadn’t been keeping close track, Rebecca thought. Josh had always gotten the best of her.
“Where are you taking her?” Bobby asked.
“I told you,” Josh responded without bothering to glance back. “Home.”
“Whose home?” Mary asked.
Rebecca managed to look up in time to see her watching them with her mouth agape, eyes round with disbelief.
“Our home,” Josh told her as he paused to shove a chair out of their path.
“Put me down,” Rebecca said again, but her initial anger was dwindling fast. Our home? Our home suggested a lot of earth-shattering possibilities….
“Wow,” she heard Mary murmur as Josh shouldered open the door, a note of envy in her voice. “He never treated me like that.”
“Like what?” Billy Joe asked.
“Like he loved me,” she replied and the door banged shut.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“YOU HUNGRY?” Josh asked.
Rebecca’s automatic response was no, but when she took a moment to consider, she realized she was actually famished. She’d been so caught up in the birth of Delaney’s little girl that she’d scarcely eaten all day.
“A little,” she admitted.
“What would you like?” Pocketing his keys, he led her through the front door and into his kitchen, where he paused to open the refrigerator.
“Anything.”
“An omelet?”
“Sure.” She sat at the kitchen table while he pulled out the eggs, cheese, onions and mushrooms and carried them to the counter.
“Are we going to talk about what happened tonight?” she asked. After depositing her in the passenger seat of his Suburban, he’d gone around and climbed into the driver’s side, started the engine and headed out of the lot. As an afterthought, she’d asked him to stop and let her out so she could get her car. She didn’t exactly want the entire town to see it sitting at the Honky Tonk in the morning. Past experience had taught her that wasn’t such a good thing.