A Dark & Stormy Knight: A McKnight Romance (McKnight Romances) (13 page)

And the crowd went wild,
Georgia thought, adding her own color
commentary.

Maddie dug her elbow into Zach’s ribs
hard enough that he flinched. When he looked at her in surprise, she flicked
her eyes toward Daisy. Zach’s face flushed red. “Sorry, Daisy,” he said as his
brothers finally quieted. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Don’t you do that, Zach.” Daisy looked
around at all her brothers. “Don’t any of you curb your tongues around me. I’m
a McKnight just like the rest of you. Don’t you dare make me feel like an
outsider.”

“We don’t mean—” Gideon started to say.

“But you still do it. I’m not ten
anymore. I know all about sex.”

Several of her brothers made choking
noises as if they wanted to protest.

“She’s right,” Maddie said. “And I owe
you an apology, too. Zach was just a little cruder than he needed to be.” She
shot her husband a look that was part apology, part warning.

Georgia
could have told her she’d just thrown down a gauntlet. Someone, not Maddie’s
husband, was about to test her tolerance for crude.

“Okay, Maddie. Truth or dare?” Jake
asked. Without waiting for a response, he asked, “Spit or swallow?”

Maddie rolled her eyes but held her own. “Well
now, what do you think? He voted with me, didn’t he?”

The men whooped, Zach clearly winning
points for marrying her.

Daisy yelled Zach’s name over the noise,
and everyone quieted to hear the next challenge.

“Truth or dare?”

Zach’s eyes shifted to his brothers then
back to Daisy. Georgia could practically see him calculating the risk that
Daisy would ask anything truly embarrassing.

“Truth,” he said at last.

Daisy grinned. “How does breast milk
taste?”

“Sweeter than cow’s milk,” he answered
with a cat-ate-the-canary smirk and no trace of discomfort.

Everyone laughed. The McKnight men were
clearly having more fun than they’d expected to with this game.

More questions followed. A few were
borderline embarrassing, but mostly it was lighthearted fun. Only Daisy tried
to change her mind when she heard her question, but Maddie ruled that could be
done only if the asker agreed, which Gideon did so readily that Daisy decided
not to risk it and answered the question.

It was a good thing Maddie and Zach didn’t
have close neighbors, or someone would have complained about the noise. Georgia expected Maddie to hush them, but when she mentioned it, Zach said their kids could
sleep through an atomic explosion.

“That’s handy,” Jake said. “‘Coz I’ve
shared a motel room wall with y’all. Quiet, it wasn’t.”

The guys all grinned.

“Hey, Sol,” Zach called out. “Truth or
dare?”

“Truth,” Sol said without hesitation.

“You gonna keep riding bulls ‘til you
need a walker?”

Georgia
went still, her body instinctively knowing not to reveal her interest in the
answer. If she hadn’t been feigning indifference, she probably wouldn’t have
noticed that, across the room, Zach’s relaxed posture contradicted the sharp
interest in his eyes as he gazed as Sol.
What’s up with that?
she
wondered.

“I don’t need a walker to ride bulls,”
Sol said with a slight edge in his voice. “I only need to be able to sit.”

Georgia
’s
heart sank a little. That wasn’t the answer she’d hoped for.

“My turn.” Maddie leaned forward, bracing
her elbows on her knees. One of Zach’s hands rested on her back in a casual
display of affection, comfortably owning that they belonged together. Maddie
didn’t seem to notice. How would it feel, Georgia wondered, to have a
partnership you could so easily take for granted? But then she noticed how
intently Maddie was looking at her intended victim.
This is about to get
interesting.

“Truth or dare, Gideon?”

“Uh . . . Truth?”

“Good. When I was pregnant with Abbie,
you told Zach not to waste his time picking out boy’s names. How did you know
we were having a girl?”

Was this when she was supposed to leap up
and stop Maddie from saying something stupid? It was probably already too late,
but Georgia asked anyway. “Didn’t everybody know, Maddie? I mean, Sol told me
the ultrasound said it was a girl.”

“Yes,” Maddie said without taking her
eyes off Gideon. “Everyone knew
then.
But Gideon said this two months
before the ultrasound.”

“Oh.” Georgia looked at Gideon, her
curiosity piqued.

Gideon took a drink of his Coke. “I didn’t
know.”

“So you were guessing?” Maddie sounded
skeptical.

“Well . . .” Gideon
flicked the tab of his can with his thumbnail. “Not exactly.”

“Then how did you know?”

“Maddie, I don’t—” Zach started to say,
but Maddie lifted her hand to stall him. She wasn’t going to let go of this.

“How did you know I was having a girl?”

“I didn’t know you were having a girl.”
Gideon lifted his eyes from his Coke. “But I knew you weren’t having a boy.”

Sol made a noise in his throat. “Is there
a third option I don’t know about?”

“How, Gideon?” Maddie asked again. “How
did you know Abbie wasn’t a boy?”

Gideon took a breath, cleared his throat,
and said, “‘Coz I knew the baby clothes Mama was gathering together weren’t
going to do you any good.”

Maddie looked confused.

“They were pretty much all boys’ clothes,”
Ephram said. Which made sense since most of Ruth’s children were boys.

Maddie’s face cleared of the confusion.
Though she hadn’t moved an inch, she somehow managed to look like she was
closing in for the kill. “Gideon, are you psychic?”

He took a long pull off his Coke then let
a beat go by after he swallowed. Two beats. “I think you only get one question.”

Hmm.
Maybe Maddie got only one question, but Georgia hadn’t challenged anyone yet.

She opened her mouth, but Sol’s hand
landed on her back.

“Don’t,” he said in a voice pitched just
for her.

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t ask it. Gideon won’t make the same
mistake twice, so unless you have a burning need to see him in his underwear,
crowing like rooster, don’t do it.”

Rats.

“Hey, Ephram,” Zach said. “Truth or dare?”

Ephram was twenty-one and the quiet one
of the McKnight boys. Not shy exactly. Sol said Ephram liked to think things
through before committing to an opinion. He was slouched in the kitchen chair
next to Gideon, looking about as relaxed as anyone could without snoring. He
shrugged at Zach’s challenge. “Truth, I guess.”

Georgia
leaned into Sol. “No one’s taking the dares. What gives?”

“Are you kidding? Would you let any of
them tell you to do something you couldn’t say no to?”

Georgia
glanced around the room then shook her head. In this crowd, having to crow like
a rooster in your skivvies would be getting off easy.

While she and Sol were talking, Zach had
asked his question. Something about what Ephram had been doing the previous
weekend that made him an hour and a half late picking Zach up from the stock
auction.

A stillness settled over Ephram that
heightened everyone’s attention.

“Was it a girl?” Zach asked.

Ephram scratched an eyebrow. “Sorta.”

“Sorta?” Zach repeated. He leaned
forward. “What’s her name?”

Ephram’s answer was slow in coming. “Denise.”

“Denise Pettigrew?” Jake asked. “Wow. You’re
shooting high.”

Zach was grinning now. “Those older women
can teach a young buck a lot of good stuff.”

But Ephram shook his head. “No, not
Denise Pettigrew.”

“Not Denise Petti—” Jake sucked in a
breath. “Don’t tell me it’s Denise Langley. Please don’t tell me that.”

The Langley girls were known for being,
well, unattractive, to put it kindly.

Ephram shook his head again.

His brothers all leaned in, like piranha
about to attack. Georgia felt sorry for Ephram.

Ephram took a deep breath, held it for a
moment, then released it. “I wasn’t gonna say anything yet. Her name’s Denise
Montgomery.”

The name didn’t seem to ring any bells
for anyone.

“She’s an Army recruiter. I been talkin’
to her about enlisting.”

Ephram’s announcement met pin-drop
silence.

“Does Daddy know?” Zach finally asked.

“Hell with Daddy,” Sol said. “Does Mama
know?”

Ephram shook his head.

“You serious about this?” Jake asked.

“Yup.”

The game was forgotten. Everyone wanted
details. Georgia leaned back. Sol’s arm, which had been lying across the back
of the couch, dropped onto her shoulder. He tugged her up against him as they
listened to Ephram talk about basic training and where he might go after that. Georgia listened with interest. Before Sol had come up with the bright idea to get married,
she’d toyed with the idea of enlisting herself. The prospect of seeing the
world had appealed to her, but she’d worried she might end up someplace that
was seriously less than fun.

Ephram’s definition of a fun place
clearly didn’t match hers. He thought a war zone would be interesting. Since he
hoped to qualify as an airborne ranger, a war zone smacked of being more than
possible, but he wanted to do something with his life that had meaning. Georgia sympathized.

Sol’s fingers toyed with Georgia’s hair, curling a strand around his finger, letting it fall, then curling it again.
She turned her head to look at him. The soft smile on his lips pulled an
answering smile from her.

“Who needs another beer?” Maddie asked as
she came back into the room from checking on her children.

Georgia
pulled out her phone and saw it was after one o’clock. She hated to tear
herself away, but her parents wanted to go to church in the morning. She
apologized for not being able to stay longer and said her good-byes.

Sol stood up. “I’ll walk you out.”

She knew better than to argue. Their
mother had ingrained chivalrous behavior into all the McKnight boys.

Outside, before she could open the car
door, Sol wrapped his arms around her from behind. “I’m glad you came tonight.”

“So am I. It was fun.” She turned in his
arms. “I can’t believe Ephram’s joining the Army.”

Sol shook his head. “Mama’s going to have
a fit.”

Georgia
wasn’t so sure. She thought Ephram’s mama might burst with pride. In between
bouts of worrying herself sick. “And what about Gideon?” Georgia asked. “
Is
he psychic?”

“Beats me.” His fingers were drawing
distracting little circles on her lower back. “Maybe it depends on what you
mean by ‘psychic.’ He can’t read minds, but sometimes . . .” He
shrugged.

“Sometimes what?”

“He knows stuff. Like with Maddie and
Zach’s baby. He’s like Granny McKnight that way.”

“Your granny knew stuff like that?”

“Yeah. She called it second sight. She
actually saw things, though. I don’t think Gideon does. He just . . .
knows stuff. It creeps me out sometimes.”

Georgia
laughed. “Is he always right?”

“No.” Sol said firmly. He looked at her
through appraising eyes. “The other day, he said—” His lips abruptly clamped
shut.

“What? What did he say?”

Sol shook his head. “Never mind.” He
tugged her close. Being in his arms felt snug and comfortable. “So . . .
Truth or dare?” he said softly into her hair.

Georgia
pulled back to look up at him. It had been a fun evening, and she didn’t want
to end it on a sour note. “Dare.”

One of Sol’s eyebrows twitched as though
he was amused by her choice. “Kiss me good night.”

“What? You don’t want me to stand on one
foot in my underwear, clucking like a chicken?”

“Naw. If I get you down to your
underwear, it won’t be to have you doing any stupid bird imitations. Now stop
evading and kiss me good night.”

That she could do. With pleasure.

Georgia
actually looked forward to grocery shopping since she’d come home. It got her
out of the house and gave her an hour or so away from her family. She could let
her mind blank out everything but the can of green beans in her hand, her
toughest decision, which brand to buy. It was almost like a vacation. Except
when it wasn’t.

Today, it wasn’t.

Her mother had woken up more petulant
than usual. For whatever reason, she’d seemed intent on taking her ill temper
out on Grams. She hadn’t needed words to get her message across. The frowns,
the sharp movements, the throwing—okay, so it had only been a biscuit. Still,
the message that she was not a happy camper had come through loud and clear.

If one of her third graders had behaved
as badly as her mother, Georgia would have labeled it a temper tantrum and
called the child’s parents to discuss the offensive deportment. Since that wasn’t
an option, she decamped and headed for the grocery store, taking Grams with
her.

And discovered that grocery shopping with
Grams was an adventure all its own.

Her route home took them past The Lariat.
Missy was heading for the bar’s front door, walking like a pissed-off woman on
a mission.

Poor Tommy.

Georgia
cast a quick glance at her grandmother, whose nose was buried in the latest
issue of one of the newsstand tabloids, before jerking the steering wheel and
turning into the parking lot.
This is none of my business.
But she knew
too well what it was like to have your heart breaking and no moral support.

“Are we stopping for a drink?” Grams
sounded pleased by the prospect.

“No, Grams. I just need to talk to
someone real quick. It won’t take a minute. You wait here for me, okay?” Georgia got out of the car, knowing it was a long shot that Grams would stay put. She was
right. Grams dropped her magazine like it was last week’s news and followed Georgia into the bar.

The crowd was thin, but everyone had ceased
what they were doing to watch the drama play out. Georgia stopped before she
got too close, her sense of self-preservation warning her to keep some distance
in case glassware started flying. Whatever had Missy wound up, she’d wasted no
time tearing into Tommy.

“You are such a loser, Tommy Mulligan! I
can’t believe I stayed with you for so long.”

“C’mon, Missy. Be reasonable. I only—”

“I’m your
wife!
” Missy screeched. “How
could you embarrass me like that?”

Tommy’s eyes flashed and his jaw set. “Fine
time for you to remember that. If I got a wife, how come I’m sleeping alone?”

“Maybe you wouldn’t be if you weren’t
crap in bed!”

Georgia
winced. Geez, why didn’t Missy just get a knife and castrate him?

The muscles in Tommy’s jaw flexed. “You
best get outta here before I forget that I don’t hit women.”

“Fine. But you fix this, or you’ll be
talking to my lawyer.” She turned on her high-heeled, sling-back, slut shoes
and stalked out the door.

Tommy glared after her. When the front
door slammed behind her, he threw his bar towel down. “Burke, watch the bar for
me, wouldja?” He didn’t wait for an answer before heading out the back door.

Should she follow him or let him be? Georgia sighed. She had Tin Roof Sundae ice cream, Gram’s favorite, in the car, but if she
didn’t show him her support now, it might be days before she saw him again. She
started to follow him out. When she realized Grams was on her heels, she turned
around.

“Grams, why don’t you wait here?” Georgia turned toward Burke, who wasn’t on the bar’s payroll but who’d been a regular since
Moses was a pup. “Would you get my grams whatever she wants?”

“Not a problem,” Burke said. He ran a
hand over his head, smoothing hair that no longer existed. “Any chance she’s a
cougar? I been looking for a sexy older woman to keep me.” He winked boldly at
Grams, confirming what Georgia had always suspected: he was genetically
incapable of not flirting with any woman between twelve and a hundred and
twelve. “What’s you’re poison, darlin’?”

Grams smiled back and climbed on a
barstool. “Can you make me one of those fun-sounding drinks? Something like Sex
on the Beach or a Fuzzy Screw?”

Georgia
gaped. No one should ever have to hear those words from their grandmother’s
mouth.

Grams noticed Georgia still there and
waved a dismissive hand. “You go ahead, honey. I’ll be right here when you’re
ready to go.”

Georgia
shook her head, trying to shake loose the images her grandmother had planted in
there, and followed Tommy out the back door. She found him leaning against the
building, one leg cocked against the wall, a cigarette palmed in one hand.

“Hey, Tommy.”

The scowl on his face cleared a little
when he realized it was her. “Hey, Georgia.”

Now that she was there, she didn’t know
what to say, so she leaned back against the building beside him while he
smoked.

About halfway through the cigarette, he
flicked it away. “She wasn’t like that in the beginning. Or if she was, I didn’t
see it.”

“You were in love.”

“Yeah. Apparently, I was the only one.”

“What did you do that set her off?”

He grimaced. “I canceled our credit
cards.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Wait ‘til she sees tomorrow’s
classifieds.”

Georgia
cocked an eyebrow at him.

“My lawyer advised me to run a legal
announcement that I ain’t responsible for any of her bills.”

Georgia
winced. “That’s it, then. She’ll either come back home, or she’ll hire a hit
man.”

Tommy shook his head slowly. “I changed
the locks, too.”

“Oh.” They were silent for a while. “I’m
sorry, Tommy.”

“Me, too. I just wish I didn’t still want
her.” He tilted his head. “At least, I think I still want her.”

Georgia
understood only too well. “You’re lucky you don’t have kids.”

“Yeah. Lucky. That’s me.” He didn’t look
comforted. “Now if she’d only left me a little pride, I’d be set.” He sighed
and shook another cigarette out of the pack. “I blew it, didn’t I? I mean, this
whole chasing-around thing might have run its course. She might have come back
if I hadn’t cut off the money.”

Georgia
wanted to shake him and tell him not to be a chump, but she also understood.
The heart didn’t listen to reason.

“Damn.” He was silent a moment as he
stared at the Dumpster at the corner. “You remember that old song? The one that
goes ‘I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl that Married Dear Old Dad’? I wasn’t
looking for that, but I think I got her.”

Georgia
nodded but stayed silent. Tommy had been raised by his father because, when
they were in fourth grade, his mama had run off with a trucker from Tennessee. It looked like Tommy was another victim of repetition compulsion. It was all
around her. How had she never noticed it before?

“Georgia . . .” He flipped
the unlit cigarette in his fingers. “I know you already said no, but are you
sure you wouldn’t consider . . .”

She looked at him, but he wouldn’t meet
her eyes. “You still want revenge.”

“Yeah . . . Revenge.” He
stopped flipping the cigarette and lit it, taking a deep drag. “Ah, hell.” He
blew out a stream of smoke. “It was never about revenge. Well, maybe a little.
Mostly, it’s about jealousy. Or maybe ego. It’s about finding out if I meant
anything to her.” He laughed, but it sounded bitter. “If I
ever
meant
anything to her.”

She watched him in silence. It hurt her
heart, the way he was trying so hard to not care.

“If I knew for sure she’d cared once,
even a little, maybe I wouldn’t feel like such a goddamn loser. Maybe I could
let her go and get on with things.”

Georgia
put her hand on his shoulder. “You really think it would help?”

“I don’t know. But I can’t stand feeling
this way anymore. I gotta do somethin’, even if it’s wrong.” He took another
deep draw on his cigarette until the cherry glowed bright red. “Help me.
Please.”

Georgia
couldn’t suppress a wave of sympathy. If Sol had walked out on her and started
dating way back when, she’d have felt as bad as Tommy did. Even now, Sol never
rubbed her nose in it, not the way Missy did with Tommy. Georgia never knew who Sol dated unless someone else told her.

Maybe that was why knowing Sol had dated
Missy bothered her so much. She wasn’t proud that the knowledge gave Tommy’s
proposition extra appeal.

She watched him hot-box his cigarette
then flick away the stub. His slouched shoulders told her the conclusion he’d
drawn from her silence, and it made her feel like a pretty lousy friend.

She drew a deep breath. This was where
the rubber met the road. Maybe it was watching him go through all this crap
with Missy, but she felt a bond with Tommy, as though they shared a common
experience. She felt almost big sisterly toward him because she’d been, if not
exactly where he was, close enough to know how bad he was hurting. A real
friend would do whatever he needed to get past the pain. So was she his friend
or not?

“Okay,” she said before she could talk
herself out of it.

Tommy’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You’ll
do it? You mean it?” He didn’t give her the chance to answer before he grabbed
her and spun her around. When he set her back on her feet, he kissed her
forehead. “You ain’t got any idea how grateful I am.”

She grinned at him, his obvious joy
making her glad she’d agreed. “I’ve got to tell Sol, though. If we don’t, he’ll
come after you like a fire-breathing dragon.”

Tommy’s mouth quirked, but his eyes still
shone. “Ah, don’t do that. He might tell Missy it’s a sham.”

Georgia
hadn’t considered that.

“And if he comes after me, well, that’ll
just convince Missy it’s real.”

“Yeah, it’ll look real when Sol gives you
a black eye and knocks out some teeth.”

Tommy laughed. “I can handle Sol.”

“Maybe.” Tommy still had the linebacker
build, but Georgia didn’t need the added frustration. “I’m still going to tell
him. That’s my price for doing this.”

Tommy reluctantly agreed. He wanted to
start planning right there, but Georgia thought about the melting ice cream and
Grams sitting at the bar, drinking her sexy drink and—gak!—flirting with Burke.
She told Tommy to call her later.

“Just like a real date,” Tommy said,
looking almost happy.

###

Sol wiped the sweat from his forehead and
climbed off the bumper of the old ‘48 truck they used for hauling stock
locally. He’d finally found the hole in the radiator, but it was just his luck
that it was too big to fix. Finding a replacement was going to be a bitch, but
maybe he’d ask Daisy to look on the Internet. He headed for the house, but the
sound of pounding hooves and excited whoops drew him to the arena where Daisy
trained her horses.

By the time he got there, the action was
over. Daisy was holding the head of the horse as Eden dismounted. Even with her
latest growth spurt, Eden’s legs were still short of the ground, so she had to
kick her foot free from the stirrup and free-fall. She caught sight of her
daddy leaning against the rail fence and ran to him, her pigtails trailing
behind where the cowboy hat didn’t hold them down.

“Did you see, Daddy? Did you see?”

“I just got here, honey. You been riding
that old plug for Daisy?”

“Spitfire’s not a plug. She’s a great
horse. You should see her turn.” His daughter spun and raced back to Daisy. “Can
I do it again? Can I? Please. I want to show Daddy!”

He couldn’t help grinning at her. He didn’t
think he’d ever seen her so excited.

Daisy laughed, her eyes shining. “Sure.”
She led the horse to the mounting block near the gate. “Jump on.”

Sol moved down the fence, closer to
Daisy.

Eden
held the reins with a firm hand. When Daisy said, “Go!” Eden kicked the horse’s
flank. Spitfire jumped forward. They turned tight around the first barrel, his
daughter holding herself upright to counterbalance as the horse laid into the
turn then leaning forward to urge her on to the next barrel. He thought
Spitfire’s legs might go out from under her on the next barrel, but the mare’s
powerful hindquarters bunched and pushed her forward. The barrel rocked but
didn’t go over, and they were off like a bullet to the last one. Another tight,
fast turn and a burst of speed as they came out of it.

“Christ!” Sol breathed. “You clocked this
horse yet?”

Daisy shook her head as she stepped
forward to hold the horse while Eden dismounted. “I just threw the barrels up.
I need to get ‘em spaced right before time’ll mean anything.”