A Dark & Stormy Knight: A McKnight Romance (McKnight Romances) (17 page)

Sol followed Gideon. Maybe he really was
too dumb to breathe on his own. Only a week ago, he’d had Georgia in his bed; now she was out with Tommy. And not just out, but at a drive-in. Like he didn’t
know why a man took a woman to a drive-in instead of a real theater.

Thank God Eden was there. Georgia wouldn’t be steaming up any windows with her daughter wandering around.

The four youngest McKnight kids, ages
thirteen through fifteen, waited with Eden at the car. When Sol and Gideon had
passed out the food and Cokes, Sol pulled Eden aside. “Your mama’s here. She’s
parked somewhere over there in a black Ford Ranger.”

“Yeah, she called me and told me she’d be
here with a friend.” She helped herself to a chili cheese dog.

A friend. Yeah, right. Friends had a beer
together, maybe shot a little pool. They didn’t go to drive-ins.

“So you knew about this,” Sol said as his
daughter took way too big a bite of her hot dog.

She tried to answer around a mouthful of
food, but he couldn’t pick out a single intelligible syllable.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

Eden
nodded and chewed vigorously then swallowed hard. She laid her hand on his
forearm. “It’s okay, Daddy. She says he’s a good guy.”

It was most certainly not okay. But he
couldn’t tell his daughter that. Instead, Sol handed her his Coke. She drew on
the straw, washing down the hot dog, then handed it back to him.

What was Georgia doing with Tommy of all
people? He was nothing but a broken-down jock who bartended. He probably
thought he was trading up from Missy. Probably thought he’d made a real smart
move—Sol tightened his lips—but Tommy wasn’t as devious as Sol.

Sol’d had a lot of practice.

Time to send in the cavalry. “I told your
mama you’d find her and say hi.”

She started to bounce away from him, but
he caught her by the braid. “Eat first.” No sense letting Georgia think he’d sent Eden off immediately. Let her wait and wonder. “You leave your chili dog
with this bunch, it won’t be here when you get back.”

Sol left the kids clambering around
inside the car and slid into the shotgun seat of the old Ford pickup parked in
the next slot. Bringing a second rig was a tactic the older McKnight boys had
developed to save their sanity when they took a fistful of the younger kids
someplace, and Sol was grateful for it now. Worrying about Georgia tended to make him foul tempered. If he had to ride herd on a bunch of spirited kids with
sugar highs at the same time, someone would end up dead.

###

Eden
had gone and come back from seeing her mama when Sol saw Tommy head for the men’s
room in the back of the concession stand.

He was standing at a urinal when Sol
walked in. A pack of teenage boys were elbowing each other for the chance to
preen in front of the speckled mirror over the sinks.

Sol whistled tunelessly between his teeth
as he unzipped at the urinal next to Tommy.

“So you’re seeing Georgia.” Sol tried to keep his tone light. He wasn’t particularly successful.

At first, he didn’t think Tommy was going
to acknowledge him, but a moment later, Tommy shifted his weight, and Sol had a
sense that his hackles had risen.

“You figure that out by yourself, did
you? I guess you’re smarter than you look.”

Sol tried not to keep the surprise off
his face. Georgia didn’t usually pick men who came out of the gate swinging.
The ones he’d met had all been go-along-to-get-along sort of guys. If Tommy
thought Sol was going to back down because he showed a little bit of temper,
Sol would be happy to convince him to reevaluate that game plan.

“Enjoy her company while you can,” Sol
said. “You won’t last.”

Tommy zipped up and faced Sol. “You
should know. You didn’t either.”

That stung. “Hey, I’ve been in her life
for twelve years. You won’t last twelve days.”

“You’re only in her life because of Eden. If you didn’t have a kid with her, you’d be a faint memory.”

Tommy’s assessment contained enough truth
to kick Sol in the gut. That Tommy saw the thing he hated most about his relationship
with Georgia was intolerable.
Time to take this has-been jock down a peg.
It was something he had to do. A requirement if he wanted to keep his man card.

“Coulda fooled me.” Sol said as he zipped
up. “Eden wasn’t the reason she was in my bed this week.” As soon as the words
were out of his mouth, he knew they were a mistake. What was between him and Georgia was meant to stay between them. He shouldn’t use it to score points off the
competition. He couldn’t pull the words back, but he’d be damned if he was
going to let Tommy see his regret. He shot a smug look Tommy’s way, though smug
wasn’t even in the neighborhood of what he felt. But he was a bull rider.
Bravado came as natural to him as breathing.

Tommy’s dropped jaw soothed Sol’s ego.
Then Tommy’s eyes narrowed. Sol didn’t need Gideon’s second sight to tell him
what that look meant; old Tommy wanted to kick his ass. Too bad he didn’t have
the
conjones
to try it. Sol turned his back and walked out the door.

###

Not thirty seconds after Tommy got out of
the car to go to the men’s room, the driver’s door opened and Sol’s brother got
in.

Georgia
’s
eyebrows rose. Gideon had only been eleven when she’d married Sol. The number
of years between their ages meant she had never gotten to know him well.

“Hey, Georgia.” Gideon settled into the
seat, reached into the bucket on her lap, and helped himself to a handful of
popcorn.

“Hey, yourself.”

She watched him chew the kernels he
tossed into his mouth, wondering why he’d decided to visit her. She didn’t
believe it was a coincidence that he’d popped in practically the moment Tommy
left.

“You liking the movie?” Gideon asked when
his mouth was empty.

“I’ve always liked this mo—”

“Oh, watch this!” Gideon said, his eyes
on the screen, his fist plunging back into the popcorn. “This is one of the
best scenes ever.”

Georgia
glanced at the screen. Paul Newman was trying to convince Robert Redford to
leap off a cliff to escape a shootout they couldn’t win. At first, Redford refused to go, then, in a true buddy moment, they jumped together into the raging
river below.

It was a great male bonding moment.
Except for the final, desperate shootout, it was probably the most remembered
scene of the movie.

When Georgia turned back to Gideon, she
caught him looking at her. Had he distracted her so he could watch her while
her attention was elsewhere? A tremor ran up her spine.

She dug into the popcorn, popped a
handful into her mouth, and turned her attention back to the screen. Sol said
Gideon had the patience of Job. Georgia didn’t know if she could outwait him,
but she was determined to try. It wasn’t easy; she could feel him watching her.
It was unnerving. What the hell was he looking for?

“What?” The word came out of her mouth
razor sharp.

“You know you’re driving Sol crazy.”

“That’s not a very long trip.”

Gideon smiled, his eyes alight with
amusement. “Nope.”

She had expected him to defend Sol. To
make excuses for him. Gideon’s succinct agreement surprised her. Maybe she had
an ally in the enemy camp.

“You know, you could talk him around to
just about anything.”

Georgia
looked at him more sharply, but he might as well have been talking about the
weather for all the emotion his face showed. She’d figured he’d come to try to
manipulate her, but it sounded more like he wanted her to manipulate Sol. But
to do what? What could she get Sol to do that Gideon couldn’t?

“Like what?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Gideon shrugged. “Pretty
near anything you want if you bait the hook right.” His eyes tracked the path
of his fingers as he slid them around the arch of the steering wheel. “He might
roar about it some, but that don’t mean nothing.”

Georgia
felt her brow furrow. Did Gideon know they were fighting about Eden? Georgia already knew winning that fight was going to take more than a “pretty please.”
“What are you trying to tell me, Gideon?”

“Nothin’.” He shrugged again, his gaze
wandering to the mirror on the driver’s door. “I’m just sayin’—” He stiffened
and stared into the mirror. “Son of a bitch!” He jerked on the door handle and
exploded out of the truck to race back toward the concession stand.

Georgia
twisted in her seat then was out of the pickup herself, following at a dead
run.

By the time she got to the concession
stand, a crowd of teenagers had gathered to watch the two men rolling around on
the ground. Gideon had his hands on Tommy’s shoulders, trying to pull him off
Sol.

Sol’s fist came up from the ground. A
blow obviously meant for Tommy, but Tommy plunged forward, and the blow caught
Gideon under the cheekbone. It had lost most of its force by then, but Gideon
still lost his grip on Tommy and staggered back.

Tommy and Sol grappled and rolled, their
grunts rising with the dust they stirred up. Two teenage girls jumped back,
narrowly avoiding being flattened as the men rolled through her space. Sol was
on top when Georgia screamed his name. His head snapped up. Beneath him, Tommy
twisted, got his legs to the side out from under Sol. A flurry of movement
followed, raising a cloud of dust and grit that blurred their movements. One
moment, Sol was balanced on his hands and the toes of his cowboy boots, ready
to fling himself back onto Tommy; in the next, Tommy had Sol’s torso between
his scissored legs, and Georgia had no idea how it had happened.

Except, she belatedly recalled, Tommy had
been on the wrestling team after football season ended.

Sol grimaced, his neck muscles bulging as
he tried to push Tommy’s legs away. Tommy tightened his grip. Sol growled but
Tommy had him pinned. Tommy wisely didn’t let go.

She stepped in. Squatting down beside
Sol, she said, “It’s over, Sol.”

One cheek was skinned raw from contact
with the ground. His clothes, face, and hair were grimy with dirt. The ruddy
flush of exertion underlaid his tanned face, but his eyes glittered with anger
as he glared up at her.

“Give it up before Eden shows up to see
what the fuss is about.”

Sol’s head fell back, his eyes closing,
but his face remained rigid as his chest rose and fell with deep, angry
breaths.

Georgia
turned toward Tommy. Blood trickled from his nose. She’d tend to his wounds
later, when they were safely away from her ex-husband’s volatile temper. “You
can let him go now.”

Tommy lifted his eyebrows. When she
nodded, he unlocked his ankles and scooted away from Sol.

In a low voice, she said, “I can’t
believe it’s come to this. You, starting fights. Scuffling in the dirt. Did you
think I’d go all girly on you if you won? Beating up the competition doesn’t
impress me.”

Sol didn’t try to rise. Instead he stared
up at the star-studded sky, the muscle in his jaw clenching and unclenching.
His refusal to look at her, to even try to understand what she was saying,
pissed her off.

She slapped his shoulder. “I’m not a
prize you can win that way. If you had any idea—”

A hand on her arm exerted upward
pressure. “Stop poking the bear, Georgia.” Gideon sounded the same way she did
when she had to tell her third graders to mind their manners.

She let him pull her to her feet.

“C’mon, babe,” Tommy said, and together
they walked away.

Tommy’s shirt was stained with blood. It
had mostly dried, but his nose must have gushed at first. A tiny trickle under
his left nostril was still fresh, but dried blood stained his chin and one
cheek. When Georgia stood close to him, the copper-penny smell permeated the
air.

“Are you okay?”

“I always knew Sol had a hard head.”
Tommy flexed his right hand.

“You don’t have to tell me.” She tugged
on his arm to get him to face front.

“He fights dirty, too.”

She would have laughed if she hadn’t been
so damned mad. “Again, old news.”

“What did you ever see in him?” he asked
as they reached the car. He didn’t sound mad, only curious.

“God knows.” She opened the driver’s door
for him. He reached in, grabbed his Coke, sucked up a mouthful, then spit it on
the ground. It was too dark to tell how much blood he’d washed out. The Coke
would have camouflaged it anyway. He did it one more time before getting in.

When they were both in the truck, she
spit on one of the napkins from the concession stand and started to clean his
face as she’d done with Eden when she was little.

“I’m really sorry,” she murmured as she
tried to wipe the blood from his upper lip, but Tommy was a moving target. “I’m
sorry I was married to a caveman and that you got caught in the middle of it.”

Tommy closed his eyes, a goofy grin
stretching his lips. “God, that felt so good, hitting Sol.”

Were all men idiots? What was it with
them and fighting? She was surprised at how gleeful Tommy was, but she shouldn’t
have been. He was a man, after all. She certainly wouldn’t expect him to let
Sol pound on him without defending himself.

Tommy was nearly bouncing with the
residual adrenaline high. “I’ve wanted to do that since he showed up at the bar
with Missy after we broke up.”

She’d almost forgotten that he had his
own ax to grind with Sol.

“And he’ll say anything to drive off the
competition. Do you know what he said tonight? You’re not going to believe
this.”

She went cold.
Shut up. I don’t want
to know what he said.
She grabbed Tommy’s chin to pull his face around and
hold him steady, hoping he’d lose his train of thought. He talked around her
hand as she dabbed at the blood on his chin.

“He said you’d slept with him just this
week. Can you believe that? He must really feel threatened.”

Sol and his big mouth. I’m going to kill
him.
She scrubbed
harder. She didn’t notice that Tommy had fallen silent until he said her name. “Georgia?”

“What?”

His eyes were locked on her face. “Did
you hear what I said?”

Her hand fluttered. “Yeah, Sol’s making
stuff up again.”

“You don’t seem very upset.”

“Well, of course I’m upset.” She had to
force herself to meet his gaze. “But it’s just . . . It’s what
he does. I told you about the time he told a guy I was dating that I was born a
man.”

“Yeah, you did. George.” Tommy grinned.

She fought off a scowl. “I’m much more
upset about him hitting you.” The blood on his face was pretty much gone. Georgia wiped at a last smudge near the corner of his mouth, so she had someplace to look
beside his eyes. “He has no right to act like Attila the Hun.”

He caught her wrist and forced her to
stop fussing. “O-o-oh,” he said, his voice rising and falling melodically as
though he’d just had a sudden and surprising insight.

“Oh, what?” Georgia asked.

“He wasn’t lying.” He nodded his head as
though he’d solved a mystery.

“What?” she snapped.

“I just realized why you keep going ‘round
and ‘round with ol’ Sol.”

“I go ‘‘round and ‘round’ with him
because he’s a blockhead.”

Tommy shook his head. “Nope. That ain’t
it.”

“Well then, why don’t you enlighten me?”
She twisted her wrist out of his grip.

“You sure you want me to?”

“Oh, please, do.”

“It ain’t about your daughter at all or
about the way he interferes in your life. You’re still in love with him.”

“Oh, please.” That was the most
ridiculous thing she had ever heard.

“You don’t love Sol?”

“Look, I care about Sol. I always will.
We have a daughter together, so he’ll always be part of my life. And yes, on
some level, maybe I love him. In an exasperated sisterly sort of way.” She
scrunched the napkin in her hand and threw it at the dashboard. “But I’m not
in
love with him.”

“Horse shit.”

“I’m not.”

“If you say so.”

“Would you stop that?”

“Stop what?”

“Humoring me. I know how I feel better
than you do.”

“Yes, ma’am.” His grin said he didn’t
believe her.

Georgia
rolled her eyes heavenward.
Men! You’d think the world would come to an end
if they couldn’t “prove” they were right.
“Whatever. Just promise me that
you won’t trade any more blows with Sol.”

“I can’t promise that, Georgia.”

She almost demanded to know why not but
then realized that Tommy’s male ego was on the line. “Okay. If Sol hits you
first, you have my blessings to hit back.” Thank heaven Eden wasn’t there to
hear her. “But you have to promise you’ll do everything you can to avoid that
scenario.”

Tommy grimaced in mock disappointment. “Can’t
do that either.”

Her exasperation put an edge in Georgia’s voice. “Why the hell not?”

“It’s not always about who throws the
first punch. Some things require a response.”

“Does the response have to be physical?”
she asked. “Can’t you just be the bigger man?” Was expecting civilized behavior
asking too much?

Tommy laughed. “Spoken like a true woman.”
He leaned toward her. “And I’m always the bigger man,” he said suggestively.

Georgia
doubted that but she let him keep his illusions. She narrowed her eyes at him. “Wait
a minute. Exactly how did this fight start?”

Innocence shone from Tommy’s eyes, but it
was too late. He’d squirmed in his seat for a second before he met her gaze.

She threw up her hands. “Oh for pity’s
sake. And here I’ve been blaming Sol for being a caveman.”

“He’s really more like an old west
outlaw. And I’m the sheriff. Like Gary Cooper in
High Noon.
I—”

“Spare me. Tell me instead what Sol did
that started this.”

“Well, except for what he said, he was
actually pretty civil.”

Her gaze jumped to meet his. “He was
civil?”

“Well, he ain’t someone who’s going to
let someone else come out a strike ahead if he can help it. I mean, he
is
a bull rider.”

She gaped at him. “Are you telling me you
threw the first punch?”

“It was really more of a tackle.”
Something on her face must have changed because his next words came out in a
rush. “Hey, I had no choice. After what he said about you, he turned his back
on me. It was insulting. Like I’m not man enough to take him down.”

“Oh. So this fight was about your pride?”

“No. Of course not.” Tommy grimaced
again. “Well, not entirely, that was just the last straw.”

Georgia
bent forward and buried her face in her hands. She tried to convince herself
that Tommy starting the fight was a small thing next to everything Sol had
done, but it didn’t seem to matter to her sense of right and wrong. She’d
jumped to a conclusion. Blaming Sol for starting the fight wasn’t an
unreasonable assumption, but that only made it worse because if she was going
to condemn Sol for something he didn’t do . . . well, she couldn’t
blame him for thinking he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. That
left him with no incentive at all not to misbehave.

Obviously, she’d been teaching third
grade too long if she was applying this standard to Sol.

God help her, she was going to have to
apologize to him. But not tonight. She couldn’t face that humiliation so soon.

She sat up. “Take off your shirt.”

Tommy grinned. “Finally. I’ve waited a
long time to get naked with you.” He grabbed the plackets near his throat and
pulled. The snaps popped in quick succession, and he shrugged out of it.

Georgia
snorted, took the shirt from him, and opened her door.

“Hey! Where you goin’?” He leaned across
the seat as though to pull her back.

“To the ladies’ room to wash the blood
out.”

“You’re a cruel woman, Georgia Carsten
McKnight.”

Georgia
smiled sweetly as she closed the passenger door.

The blood was still fresh enough that
running water washed most of it away. She tapped the soap dispenser in the
ladies’ room and lathered it into the faint stains that remained then let the
running water wash it all away.

She was rinsing the shirt out one last
time when Missy walked in. Missy’s step stuttered as though she hadn’t expected
to see Georgia. Maybe she hadn’t but the way her mouth twisted said she wasn’t
going to let the opportunity to make some nasty remark pass unheralded.

She knew Georgia was there with Tommy. Georgia had seen her at the back of the line as she and Tommy had left the concession stand.
Her first thought even then had been, “Who wears four-inch platform shoes to a
drive-in?”

Georgia
watched in the mirror as Missy walked around her to the next sink. She pumped
the soap dispenser then focused on her hands, washing off bits of gooey, nacho
cheese. Georgia started to hope they wouldn’t have a big scene.

“You know,” Missy said without looking
up, “everyone always says that, in spite of the big boobs you shove in everyone’s
face, you’re a class act.” She looked up and met Georgia’s eyes in the mirror
as she shook water from her hands. “Clearly they were wrong. I guess you think
it’s okay to go out with a married man.”

Crap.
She’d known she wasn’t going to be able to walk away
gracefully. “Oh?” Georgia put on her most innocent expression. “Who’s Tommy
married to?”

Missy eyes narrowed into a hard,
unforgiving gaze. She turned to face Georgia head-on. “You know damn good and
well he’s married to me.”

Georgia
pulled out the same sweet smile she’d used on Tommy. “And who are you here
with?”

Missy’s lips thinned. “You are such a
bitch.”

Tommy’s shirt was sopping wet when it
slapped Missy in the face. Now how had that happened? Georgia looked at it, hanging from her hand. The shirt couldn’t have attacked Missy of its own
volition, could it?

Missy’s eyes were wide but blinking
rapidly. Her mouth hung open as if she couldn’t believe it either. The water
dripping from the side of her head attested to the reality, however.

Oh, shit.

Georgia
had just finished washing Tommy’s blood from his shirt. She didn’t want to have
to wash her own blood out, too, so she took a step back.

Missy’s eyes narrowed into tiny slits.

Georgia
took another step.

Missy clenched her hands.

Georgia
ran.

She expected to feel Missy’s hands on her
back with each step. Halfway to Tommy’s truck, she found the nerve to look
behind her.

Missy stood outside the ladies’ room
door, her fists planted on her hips, glaring at Georgia.

Those shoes, Georgia thought. She owed
her life to Missy’s slutty footwear.

Georgia
stumbled to a stop. She hadn’t run far enough to justify the way her heart was
beating or the gulps of air her lungs insisted she needed.

With a sharp motion that promised she
wouldn’t forget she owed Georgia, Missy raised a fist, her middle finger
pointing skyward.

Georgia
took refuge behind the bed of someone’s full-size pickup with monster-sized
tires. She swallowed and tried to calm her breathing. Then she wrung out Tommy’s
shirt with shaking hands.

Get a grip.
She couldn’t get into Tommy’s pickup
shaking like she was or he’d know something had happened.

What in the world had possessed her to
slap Missy with Tommy’s shirt? Good grief. She was no better at keeping hold of
her temper than a man.

And it was all Sol’s fault. Missy calling
her a bitch was only the spark that ignited the dynamite that had been
smoldering since she’d learned Sol had gone out with Missy. She’d deserved way
worse than a slap in the face with a soggy shirt.

Giggles bubbled to the surface. Oh, God.
The look on Missy’s face. The total disbelief. Georgia leaned against the truck
bed and snorted in helpless laughter. What she wouldn’t give for a picture of
that. Her own expression had probably been just as funny, but she doubted Missy
saw any humor in it.