Victoria Dahl - So Tough To Tame

Her phone vibrated just in time, providing a reason to escape. “Excuse me. I’d better get this. It might have something to do with work.”

Before she was out of earshot, she heard Dawn saying, “I just don’t know what happened to her. She had so much promise.”

Charlie closed her eyes, took a deep breath and answered her phone. It was her knight in shining armor, otherwise known as her cousin Nate, calling with exactly the news she needed.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered. “You really did it? I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Don’t move!”

This time when she turned back to the party, it wasn’t hard to smile. Not at all.

“Sandra!” she called out, hurrying back for one last fake hug. “I have to run, but congratulations again. You’re going to make a great mom.”

She was. Sandra seemed great at everything. Unlike Charlie, she’d actually lived up to her promise.

Before Dawn could ask where she was going, Charlie made her escape and rushed out to the valet to get her car. She pulled away with a groan of relief. Freedom. For a few hours, at least.

When she’d moved back to Jackson, she’d thought reconnecting with old friends would be good for her. After all, she really was trying to get back on the right track. At first, she’d been so beaten up, she’d thought that track had started back with high school and the girl she’d been then. Hardworking, studious and so worried about becoming her mother that she’d never even gone out on a date.

She’d obviously gone wrong somewhere, so why not start where everything had been good?

But she was realizing now that everything hadn’t been good. In fact, she’d spent all of high school scared to be herself.

Muttering a few choice curses, Charlie struggled out of the cardigan, holding the steering wheel with her knees as she yanked off the sweater and tossed it into the backseat.

“Screw this shit,” she said triumphantly as she pulled up to the resort.

Five minutes later she was back in the car in the clothes she’d worn back in Nevada. Tight jeans and heeled boots and a pretty little striped T-shirt.

Today she was going to get her groove back, damn it, and the clothes were only the first tiny step.

Charlie turned on some music and drove into town with the windows down. The breeze was too cold, but she didn’t mind. It was the first time her nipples had been hard in months. She had to take her thrills where she could get them.

When she pulled up to the address Nate had given her, she saw that the apartment building was right next to the Crooked R Saloon. Her cousin greeted her from the sidewalk with a wave.

Thank God for Nate. Charlie had a brother in town, but he never offered any help unless it could benefit him, too. Nate, on the other hand...

Charlie jumped out of her car and threw her arms around his neck to squeeze him tight. “Thank you, thank you!”

“Hey, calm down. It’s no big deal. I’m sorry the place at the resort fell through.”

“Well, you know...” She let him go and crossed her arms to hide the nervous flutter of her hands. She didn’t want to lie to him, but she didn’t know how to explain. “Construction on the hotel is behind schedule. Naturally, the last big push goes into the rooms people are actually paying for. Hopefully my apartment will be ready in a few months.”

“I think Rayleen wants to rent this place out through the winter. Six months, Jenny said.”

“Sure, I understand. Of course. I have no problem with that. It was so great of you to arrange this for me.”

“Walker was actually the one who pulled it off.”

Charlie shook her head in shock. “Walker Pearce?”

“Yeah, you remember him?”

“Of course I remember him! He’s still around?”

“Living right here at the Stud Farm, actually.”

Well, that made sense. Walker had been a hell of a stud in high school. She’d had a serious crush on him, though she’d been careful not to let him know. Half the girls in the school had had a crush on him. Any time she’d tutored him in the library during lunch, girls had made a point of sauntering by like a rotating show of blondes and brunettes and redheads. All the prettiest girls in the school. The cheerleaders and the rodeo queens. And Walker had made a point of smiling at each and every one.

Charlie followed Nate into the apartment building and up the stairs to the second floor. The two-story entryway was clean and bright, sunlight shining through the old farmhouse windows that flanked the front door.

“Here’s your key. You’ll need to go by the saloon to pick up the lease agreement.”

“Cool.”

“Just a warning. If Rayleen Kisler is there, you might want to lay low. You know Rayleen?”

“I know of her.”

“Walker talked her into letting you rent the place, but she’d much rather have had someone...” He stopped at the door to apartment C and shook his head. “Bigger and hairier.”

Charlie grinned. “She hasn’t given up her hobby, then, I guess?”

“Nope. She still likes to ogle. But she made an exception for you. Although there’s another woman living in the apartment below yours. Merry Kade. So it was a damn miracle that Walker managed to get you in here.”

“I’ll have to find a way to thank him.”

“Won’t be hard. He lives right there.” Nate tilted his head toward the apartment on the other side of the small upstairs landing.

She shot a surprised look at the other door before unlocking her own. Walker lived right there? That would be interesting. Or just irritating, if the parade of beautiful women was still marching after all these years. Maybe she could sit on the landing with a book and wave to each one. Recapture some of the fun of her youth.

Charlie let herself into the apartment and took in the simple white walls and the gorgeous shine on the wood floors. It was nothing like her studio at the resort. There were no fancy appliances in the kitchen or stained timber details. There was no hand-hewn rock fireplace. It was modest and empty and it was private.

She breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ve got a few things in storage. I’ll pull them out as soon as I’ve signed the lease.”

“Let me know,” Nate said. “I’ll help you move what you need.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Come on. I know you’re a kick-ass security specialist, but you’re not that strong.”

She punched him solidly on the shoulder, but he didn’t even wince. Yeah, she wasn’t that strong. Or kick-ass. Her specialty was really observation. Surveillance. Intelligence. Or it had been. Before.

Feeling her smile go stiff and strange, Charlie turned away from her cousin, pretending to check out the apartment a little more closely. “Okay, I’ll call you when I need a hand.”

“Perfect. You’ve got the key. Don’t forget to go see Jenny for the lease.”

“Oh, the new girlfriend, huh?”

Her cousin’s cheeks actually went a little pink. “Not so new, actually. We’ve been together since February.”

Charlie grinned. “Wow. Your mother must be over the moon. I can’t wait to meet this woman.”

“Want to come over to the saloon with me right now?”

Aw, he was so cute. It must be nice to be one of those people who believed in love. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll meet you there.”

As soon as Nate left, Charlie let her smile vanish and moved purposefully through the apartment. Though their entrances were separated by the landing, she noticed that she and Walker would be sharing a wall along the living room, bathroom and bedroom. She hoped the walls were thick. The Walker she’d known hadn’t looked like a boy who’d inspired silence in the bedroom.

Chuckling at the thought, Charlie checked off a mental list of things she’d need to make this place comfortable. Her boots knocked against the wood floors and echoed off the ceiling, reminding her of exactly how empty the rooms were.