Delores Fossen - No Getting Over A Cowboy

Gina leaned in. “So, how’s it going with the ex-lover boy? Is he helping the women get settled in?”

Nicky was thankful for the question. It got her mind off those secrets, even though the new topic wasn’t an especially happy one. “No. He’s probably staying as far away as possible.” Nicky sighed. “I told him he wouldn’t notice we were here, but he definitely noticed.”

“Poor baby.” There was plenty enough sarcasm in Gina’s voice. “Serves him right after the way he treated you. A teenage girl’s heart is a fragile thing, and breaking it requires some getting even.”

Nicky sighed again, something she’d likely be doing a lot. In hindsight, it hadn’t been a good idea to tell Gina about the deflowering/breakup incident with Garrett. But there’d been margaritas involved, and Nicky usually got blabbery after a couple of those. Of course, Gina had taken her side on this. That’s what friends did, but now that Garrett and Gina would be in each other’s company, Nicky hoped her friend didn’t dig up those old bones with Garrett.

“I think I made a mistake, trying to put all of this together,” Nicky confessed.

She’d wanted a place of respite for women who’d lost their partners. Women who were trying to piece their lives back together. Something Nicky had been trying to do since her husband had died almost eighteen months earlier. Of course, her piecing together wasn’t solely from grief. She’d had plenty of other things to deal with because of Patrick. By giving back to the women, Nicky had hoped she would work things out for herself, too.

“The Widows’ House looked good on paper, but maybe I need to throw in the towel.”

Gina dismissed that with a pshaw. Whatever that meant. “You’re just tired and maybe still a little queasy. Did you throw up when you saw the dead body?”

Nicky nodded. “Three times. But it’s more than the dead body.” Something she thought she’d never hear herself say. “It’s, well, being here around Garrett. I didn’t think it would bother me this much.”

“Again, that’s fatigue.” Gina shrugged. “And maybe leftover lust,” she added in a whisper. “If he looks anything like his cousin, then he’s lust-worthy. But you also know lust leads to crushed hearts.”

Yes, she did know that. But knowing it didn’t make her feel any better. She needed to heal, and it was best not to get broken again while she was trying to do that.

Gina put her arm around her. “Tell you what. Let’s wake up Kaylee, get some pizza in both of you and then Kaylee can sleep with me in the camper. That’ll give you that itty bitty sofa all to yourself.” She paused. “That is where you planned to sleep, right?”

“Yes.” And that wasn’t exactly ESP on Gina’s part. Gina just knew her well enough to know that Nicky wouldn’t take one of the beds. Not when she felt personally responsible for this situation.

“Let me get that doll baby.” Gina hurried in to scoop up Kaylee. The little girl protested, whined, yawned and then smiled when she saw Gina. Lots of hugs ensued as if they hadn’t seen each other for days instead of just hours.

Nicky followed Gina and Kaylee to the kitchen, but before she made it there, her phone dinged with a text message.

Call me soon, the text read, and it wasn’t from just any ol’ somebody.

It was from Meredith, Garrett’s ex-wife.

Nicky frowned. Then frowned some more. Meredith could be another complication that she didn’t need, but sooner or later she was going to have to call the woman back. And tell Garrett all about this.

After another frown and sigh, Nicky opted for later.

* * *

GARRETT HAD FIGURED since it was four in the morning that there’d be no one in the house up and about. He’d figured wrong.

Mrs. Batson, heart attack, was on the back porch steps, and she was smoking a cigarette. She quickly snuffed it out, and as she’d done at Z.T.’s place, she skittered back inside. Well, at least she hadn’t gotten in his way.

Garrett slipped inside, glancing around the kitchen. No one. But there were some pizza boxes on the counter so he helped himself to a cold slice and a Coke before he went up the hall toward his office.

He passed the family room along the way and spotted two women on the sleeper sofa. Heaven knew how many of them were scattered throughout the house by now. Or how long they would be there. But in a couple of hours he could start bugging Clay about getting Z.T.’s place cleared so the women could return to it. It had only been a day since they’d discovered the body, but maybe Clay could work extra fast on this.

By the time Garrett got to his office, he’d nearly finished the pizza, but he clamped the remainder between his teeth so he’d have a free hand to grab some files from his desk drawer. He opened the door.

And froze.

There was enough moonlight coming through the window that he had no trouble seeing the woman lying on his desk. She was curled up in a fetal position and was using a book for a pillow.

What the hell?

It was Nicky.

She lifted her head. In the same motion, she gasped, grabbed a pen and jabbed it at him the way a person would wield a knife. She missed, but a strange garbled sound left her mouth. Maybe trying to choke back a scream.

“Garrett?” Nicky said on a rise of breath. “You scared the bejeebers out of me.”

He didn’t know what a bejeebers was, but she’d given him a scare of sorts, too, because he sure as hell hadn’t expected anyone to be sleeping in his office, let alone on his desk.

“Sorry,” she added. “I’m still on edge.” No doubt because of the body that’d been found.

Groaning and wincing, Nicky climbed off the desk, got to her feet and turned on the reading light. Her gaze met his, and she looked at him funny. Only then did he remember he had what was left of a pizza slice sticking out of his mouth.

Garrett yanked away the pizza so he could talk. “Why are you on my desk?”

“Because the sofa was too small, and I kept falling off.” She made it seem as if that answered his question. It didn’t.

“There wasn’t a bed?” he pressed.

She shook her head and pushed her hands through her hair to move it off her face. He’d seen her face before, of course. Had seen most of her entire body actually. But there was something, well, intimate about having a sleepy-eyed woman just a few inches away.

One who smelled like sex.

That was probably his imagination though.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

“I need some files.” And he went to his desk drawer to get those. To do that, he had to walk right past her, and that’s when he noticed what she was wearing. Pj’s. Specifically, his pj’s.

“Oh,” Nicky said, following his gaze. “My luggage seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle. I didn’t have any clean clothes, and your mom checked Sophie’s room for some, but your sister’s already moved her things to Clay’s. She got these for me instead. She said you don’t ever use them, that you usually sleep in your boxers.”

Well, Nicky had gotten in his pants after all. Which was a stupid thought, of course. Something a teenage boy would think, but that seemed to be the way his mind was going right now. That meant it was time to get out of there.

Garrett finished off the last bite of pizza, grabbed the files and was ready to leave. But Nicky stopped him.

“Uh, can I ask you a question?” She didn’t wait for him to agree, though. “Are you and your ex-wife on good terms these days?”

Garrett was certain he looked surprised. Because he was. “No. We’re not on any kind of terms because I haven’t spoken to her in months.” And he’d like to keep it that way. “You know about the video that ended up all over the internet?”