Blame It on the Cowboy (4 page)

Logan slipped on his cowboy hat, grabbed his phone and headed out. “Don't make a big deal about this,” he warned Lucky, and then gave the same warning to Greg when they walked past his desk.

The lanky assistant jumped to his feet as if trying to contain his excitement. Maybe because it was the first time Logan had left the building in more than a week. Easy to stay under the roof of the converted Victorian house when he had a studio apartment on the third floor. It was even easier now that he was having his groceries delivered. The only time he left was for a business meeting out of town.

“Not a word,” Logan added to Greg because Logan thought he needed to say something to wipe that gleeful look off his face. And Logan tried not to look too displeased that the guy was wearing a purple suit. Yes, purple. “And do the paperwork to finalize the sale of those cows I just bought from Jason Murdock.”

Greg nodded, too eagerly, and Logan was sure he was still eager-ing when Lucky and he walked out the front door.

Logan immediately had to pull down the brim of his cowboy hat to shield his eyes. He'd gone too long without sunshine, and it would continue. The less contact he had with people right now, the better. In a couple more months when the gossip died down, he'd try to get back to normal.

After he learned what normal would be for him, that is.

“Two things,” Lucky said as they walked. “How are you? And before you blast me, Della put me up to it. She and Stella are worried about you. I'm not. Because I know if your head was still messed up, you'd tell me.”

No, he wouldn't. Logan wouldn't tell anyone, but he was semipleased that Lucky would think that. Or maybe Lucky knew it and was playing a mind game to get him to talk.

“I'm fine,” Logan assured him.

That wasn't even close to the truth. He'd had two migraines in six days, and it felt as if another one might be tapping on his shoulder. He wasn't sleeping well, and when he did, he kept dreaming about what he'd seen in Helene's office. Part of him wished he'd asked her for an explanation.
Any
explanation. But then again, what was she going to say? Nothing that would have helped Logan understand, that's for sure.

“By the way, I've never told you this, but before we walked in on Helene, I didn't know what she was up to,” Logan said to Lucky. “I had no idea she could, or would, cheat on me.”

“Yeah, I figured that out. I read somewhere that repressed people do all sorts of weird sexual things.”

Logan waved off anything else Lucky might have added because two women were walking toward them. Misty Reagan and Sandra Morrelli. He definitely didn't want them to hear anything he had to say about Helene so Logan put on his best smile, tipped his hat in greeting and then proceeded to talk to Lucky about those cows he'd just bought. Lucky cooperated, of course, but the conversation must have looked intense enough for the ladies not to issue more than smiles and greetings of their own.

Two bullets dodged.

“What'd you want to talk to me about?” Logan asked.

When Lucky hesitated, Logan thought he knew where this was going. “You want to make things official with Cassie and ask her to marry you, and you're hoping I'm okay with it. I am. You two should be together.”

“Thanks for that.”

It wasn't a grand gesture. Logan had never believed in the misery-loves-company notion. Besides, he was getting daily calls from Stella about how she didn't think it was a good idea for Cassie and Lucky to be
living in sin
, that it wasn't setting a good example for Mia and Mackenzie.

“When will you pop the question?” Logan asked.

“As soon as I get the ring.”

Logan thought of the one in his drawer, the one that no one in his family had seen, and he considered offering it to Lucky. But then maybe it was jinxed or something.

Hell, maybe
he
was jinxed.

“Along with marrying Cassie,” Lucky continued, “we've started paperwork to adopt the girls. Surprised?”

“Not in the least.” But just three months ago, he would have been. However, Logan had no doubts now. None. Because his brother was in love, and Logan was completely happy for him.

They were still a few yards away from the Fork and Spoon when Logan got a whiff of the burger that brought in lunchtime diners. Today was no different. Because of the glass front on the café, it was easy to see that the place was packed.

Crap.

He nearly turned around, but Lucky took hold of his arm and maneuvered him inside. The chatter stopped immediately, and the place went silent as a tomb. He should have just ordered takeout and had Greg pick it up.

“They need to see you out and about,” Lucky whispered to him. “And it won't be long before they'll have something else to gossip about.”

Logan wasn't betting on that. Despite three months passing, Helene was still the most tongue-wagging topic with Logan coming in a close second. The speculation about what he'd seen in Helene's office had probably reached levels of absurdity times ten.

“Hey, maybe I can start a rumor that I knocked up Cassie?” Lucky suggested.

Logan appreciated that, but he thought the offer might have something to do with Sissy Lee Culpepper, who was sauntering over to them. The busty blonde in the skintight Pepto Bismol–pink uniform eyed Lucky. Then she eyed his crotch. She then did the same to Logan and smiled, maybe because she remembered he was the lone McCord male left on the market.

“The only thing open is the counter,” she said, “but I can shoo away someone from a booth if you like.”

“The counter's fine,” Logan insisted. “Could you get us two burger plates and make it fast? We're in a hurry.”

“I want a root beer float with mine,” Lucky added.

“Sure thing, sweetie.”

Sissy Lee called everyone sweetie, honey or darling so it wasn't exactly a term of endearment. More like a ploy to get a bigger tip.

“And for what it's worth,” Sissy Lee said, “I think Helene is lower than hoof grit.”

That got some mumbled agreements from the other diners. Logan hoped that the conversation would end if he gave a noncommittal nod.

It didn't.

“I got a name for a woman like that,” Sissy Lee added in a whisper. “Hick-dead.”

Logan wasn't sure if she was attempting pig Latin and was really calling Helene a dickhead. And he wasn't interested in trying to figure it out. He gave Sissy Lee another noncommittal nod. But it was Lucky's wink and smile that got the waitress moving. She added a wink of her own, and using her best femme fatale hip swish, she walked away.

Logan took the stool at the far end of the counter. Not ideal since the grill was just on the other side of a partial wall, and the smoke from the sizzling burgers came right at them.

“Other than a knocking-up rumor,” Lucky continued, “you could give them something new to talk about by going on a date.”

Logan gave him a blank stare. “There are no eligible women in town that you haven't slept with already. I don't need that kind of gossip. Or that kind of woman.”

Lucky shrugged, made a sound as if that were possibly true. “There are always those dating sites.”

He'd rather personally shovel every bit of bullshit from the pasture, one cow patty at a time. “No thanks.”

“Then what about—”

“No. Thanks,” Logan said a little louder than he intended.

It got people's attention. Not that their attention had strayed too far from him, anyway. He could practically feel the sympathy pouring over him.

“Suit yourself, but I was going to say you should ask her out.” Lucky tipped his head to the fry cook. “She's new in town, and I haven't slept with her.”

Logan looked up, at the veil of greasy-scented gray smoke that was between them and the cook. And his stomach dropped to his kneecaps.

Maybe Lucky hadn't slept with her, but Logan sure had.

Julia Child was in the process of flipping a burger.

CHAPTER FOUR

O
H
, G
OD
.
T
HERE
wasn't just one cowboy but two. And they didn't just look alike. They were identical.

Now what?

Reese tried not to react, tried not to give in to the gasp that was inching its way from her throat toward her mouth. But mercy, this was gasp-worthy.

She'd come to Spring Hill hoping to find the hot cowboy she had slept with and get her grandfather's watch back. And she'd wanted to do it without attracting any attention to herself—or to him. Especially since he might be engaged or even married by now. She definitely hadn't wanted to intrude on his life, not after that promise she'd given him.

What happens in San Antonio stays in San Antonio. I'll take this to the grave.

Reese had made that promise when she thought the grave was imminent, and she'd wanted to finish that idiotic bucket list. Well, she had finished it, but now she was in the process of undoing it.

But how did she undo this without admitting that she didn't even know which one she'd bedded? And here she had thought this might be the easiest thing left on her undoing quest.

She had finally lost the weight that she'd put on from her carb and sugar binges and had gotten her money back from the canceled cremation. She'd gone through with the charity donations, though, because it hadn't seemed fair to screw them over just because Myrtle the tumor had turned out to be all just a computer glitch.

That left the cowboy and the watch.

“Uh, you're sorta burning those burgers, sweetie,” Sissy Lee said, giving Reese a nudge with her elbow.

Reese forced herself out of her panicking trance and looked down at what had been two one-third of a pound patties of prime Angus beef. They now resembled squashed cow dung.

“Sorry,” Reese mumbled, and she pushed those aside, scraped down the grill and added two fresh burgers.

She didn't know the owner, Bert Starkley, that well, but it was possible he'd take them out of her pay. That was minor now compared to the fact that everyone in the café was looking at her and the stenchy smoke she'd created.

“No worries,” Sissy Lee assured her. The woman got busy making an ice cream float. “Bert'll just give them to his dogs. But you should make the next ones medium rare since that's how Logan and Lucky like 'em.”

Logan and Lucky.

So, those were their names, and since it was obvious that Sissy Lee knew them, Reese would be able to pump her for information.

The only other thing Reese knew was what she'd learned from the hotel clerk after she'd hurried back there to find the cowboy. The clerk couldn't give her the cowboy's name, but he'd said that he saw him driving a truck with a business sign on the side, and the only thing he could remember about the sign was that it had Spring “something or other,” Texas, on it.

There were a lot of Spring “something or others” in Texas, Reese had learned, and that's why it had taken her all this time to track him down. Her search had left her a little low on money so she'd stayed around and started the job at the café.

While keeping a close eye on the burgers, Reese risked glancing up at the pair. The one at the far end of the counter glanced at her at the same time. Or maybe he, too, was just looking at the smoke because he gave no indication whatsoever that he knew her. It was possible he couldn't even see her, though. Added to that, her hair was back to its natural color now—dark brown. And the final factor affecting this? He could have been too drunk to remember much of anything.

“Lucky and Logan?” Reese said to Sissy Lee. “Twins, obviously.”

Sissy Lee chuckled. Not just any ordinary chuckle. “Yeah, all the women in Spring Hill have fantasies about a threesome with those two.”

Reese didn't know about a threesome, but her twosome had been pretty amazing.

“You know them well?” Reese asked, fishing while frying. She added some sliced onion to the grill, swirled it around in the grease runoff from the burger—an artery-clogging topping that Bert had told her his customers loved.

“Of course. Everybody does. They're the McCords. And they've got a brother, Riley. He's taken, though. Actually, Lucky, the one on the left, is maybe taken, too. Everybody in town figures he'll be popping the question to his girlfriend soon.”

“Oh?” Reese had hoped her noncommittal response would keep Sissy Lee talking, but when it didn't work, Reese had to come out and ask. “What about Logan? Is he involved with anyone?”

“Was,” Sissy Lee said, lowering her voice and speaking behind her hand. “I'll tell you all about it later,” she added just as another customer came in.

“Carry those burgers out to Lucky and Logan when you're done, will you?” Sissy Lee scooped up some fresh fries and put them on the sides of the plates. “I'll give Lucky his float and take care of Daniel.”

Judging from the dreamy way Sissy Lee said Daniel's name, he was a juicy catch. But then Sissy Lee seemed to feel that way about every single guy who came into the café.

Reese finished the burgers, drowning them in the fried onions and thick slabs of American cheese—again as Bert had instructed. Her waitressing skills were a little rusty, but she balanced the plates, along with two glasses of ice water, and made her way to the counter. She set down the food and drinks, thinking it might be a good idea to make a quick exit and watch the McCords from the kitchen.

That didn't happen.

“You're new here,” the one on the left said. He flashed her a smile that could have melted heavy-duty aluminum foil. He still didn't show any signs of recognition. “I'm Lucky McCord.” He hitched his thumb to his brother. “This is Logan.”

No melting smile from him. No sign of recognition, either. She should have asked Sissy Lee if the third brother was their triplet.

“And you are?” Lucky asked.

“Reese Stephens,” she said.

Still no signs that they knew who she was, but then she'd used an alias for the hotel. Julia Child. She looked to see if either of them had caught onto the lame joke of her using a superchef's name when she was nothing but a glorified fry cook. But nada.

Logan checked his watch. “I just remembered a meeting I have in Bulverde,” he said, standing.

Lucky had just taken a big sip of the float, and he had to swallow first before he could respond. “What meeting?”

“With that seller. Could you please box this up?” he asked Reese after sparing her a glance. “I'll have my assistant come by and pick it up later.” Logan dropped two twenties on the counter and walked out. Not in a hurry exactly but not a man who was dawdling, either.

“It's not you,” Lucky said, watching his brother leave. “Logan's had it rough lately. I'm sure you've heard.” His gaze drifted to Sissy Lee, who had practically put herself body to body with Daniel.

“I only arrived in town yesterday,” Reese said. “I haven't had a chance to hear any gossip.”

“Trust me, that's plenty of time. Six seconds is enough time.” He paused, tilted his head to the side and looked at her. “Say, do I know you from somewhere?”

Reese pretended to study him, too, though she knew every detail because she'd studied the selfie on her phone. Often. Dark brown hair, cool blue eyes, a face not too chiseled. But it was also a face that was a lot more relaxed than the one on her phone.

“I think I saw you driving around town,” she finally said. “Were you in a truck with some kind of sign on the side?”

He nodded, tackled a couple of his fries after he dragged them through some ketchup. “McCord Cattle Brokers, the family business.”

Reese needed a bit more than that. “And it had Spring Hill, Texas, on the sign?”

Another nod just as he took a bite of the burger.

So, it was Lucky she'd slept with, and since Sissy Lee had already said he would likely get engaged soon, then Reese needed to figure out how to get the watch without messing things up for him. She definitely wouldn't ask about it here. There were at least six customers seemingly hanging on their every word.

“The trucks were Logan's idea,” Lucky added a moment later. “Good advertising, he said. That's why we all drive one. Even our housekeepers do.”

All? Well, heck. That put her back to square one.

“Man, this burger's good. I think you're the best cook Bert's ever hired.”

“Thanks,” she mumbled.

Since it was obvious he was interested in eating his lunch and because she didn't want to pique his attention, Reese took Logan's plate back to the kitchen to box it. She'd barely gotten started, though, when Sissy Lee put in another hamburger order.

“Daniel likes his burger still mooing,” Sissy Lee added.

Sissy Lee took over the boxing duties while Reese got started. “I didn't figure Logan would stay too long.” She shook her head. “It's the first time he's come over for lunch since Helene, that hick-dead girlfriend of his, messed him up.”

As gossip went, that was fairly lacking. “How'd she mess him up?”

“Well, that's just it. We're not really sure. The only person who got a glimpse of it was Walter Meekins, the taxi driver. Logan had called him to drive Riley, Claire, Lucky and Cassie back home after Logan proposed to his girlfriend.”

Reese didn't have a clue who Claire and Cassie were, but she didn't want to interrupt Sissy Lee. It wouldn't take that long to cook a rare burger, and then Sissy Lee would go back out to flirt with the customers.

“Anyway, Walter didn't see exactly what happened when Logan and the others went into Helene's office,” Sissy Lee explained, “but he said he saw this clown running out the back.”

“A clown. You mean like something in a circus? Or a horror novel?” Because Reese wasn't sure if Sissy Lee meant that word in a general sense.

“Circus or rodeo kind of clown,” Sissy Lee verified. “Walter said when Logan came out he looked like he'd seen a ghost. He's never been the same since.”

Lucky had been so sure that the gossips had filled Reese in by now, but obviously the townsfolk didn't know as much as the McCords thought they did.

“Of course, we don't know who the clown was,” Sissy Lee went on. “I thought it was Brian, the guy who worked for Helene, but it turns out that he's gay. Of course, I guess he could actually be bi or else—”

“How long ago did that clown stuff happen to Logan?” Reese interrupted.

Sissy Lee shrugged. “This past summer.”

That fit with Reese's timeline of her one-night stand three months ago. Maybe.

Sissy Lee put Logan's boxed burger meal aside, and while Reese dished up Daniel's plate, she got an idea. “Where do the McCords live? Because I'll have a break soon, and I can drop that off to him.”

“It's that big house on the edge of town. Can't miss it. Except Logan doesn't spend much time there anymore. You know that Victorian building just up the street? Well, that's his office, and he has a loft apartment there.”

Reese had noticed the house. In fact, she was in the Bluebonnet Inn on the same block. She checked the time—still an hour before her break, but maybe Logan's assistant wouldn't come for the burger before then.

Because Reese wanted to get inside that building. She had some spying to do.

* * *

“R
EESE
S
TEPHENS
.” Logan repeated her name under his breath as he read the initial report the private investigator had just sent him.

There wasn't much info yet, but then when Logan had called the PI the day before, the man had said it might take a while, that the woman wasn't showing up in his usual search engines.

There had to be a reason for that.

Logan didn't know what game she was playing, but she was up to something. No doubt about it. After all, she had that photo of him on her phone, so even if she'd been too drunk to remember, she would have seen it later and then recognized him at the café. Of course, there was the possibility that she hadn't known whether it was Lucky or him who'd gotten into that hotel bed with her, but there was still no reason for her not to fess up.

No good reason, anyway.

So, why was she here in Spring Hill? The private investigator's initial report certainly didn't help with that. Her name was Reese Violet Stephens. She was twenty-nine, single. She'd attended culinary school in New Orleans and worked as a cook or chef at various restaurants all over the US. However, she'd never stayed at any of them for more than a couple of months. No criminal record—under that name, anyway.

And that was it.

She had no social media accounts, no driver's license, no paper trail that people usually left. That only made Logan even more suspicious. The PI, too, and that's why he was digging deeper. Hopefully, that digging wouldn't take too long.

Logan parked in the circular drive in front of his family's home, and he hadn't even stepped from his truck before he got a whiff of what Lucky and he had discussed the day before.

The manure.

Yeah, it was a problem all right. The bulls had already been moved, but it might take a while for the stench to clear out.

He was about to head up the steps to the porch when his phone buzzed, and after Logan saw the name on the screen, he knew it was a call he had to take.

Bert Starkley, the owner of the Fork and Spoon Café.

Logan had called him the night before, but Bert hadn't answered so Logan had left him a voice mail. Nothing specific and Logan had to make sure he didn't say anything to Reese's employer that would make the man suspicious. Or make Bert think Logan was interested in her. The last thing Logan needed was more gossip about him and a woman. Especially a woman who was almost certainly bad news.

Later, he'd curse himself again for that one-night stand, but now he needed to find out anything he could about her.