Courting Trouble (15 page)

“To Pilot’s Bluff?”

“Exactly,” Cade said and slammed shut the passenger door.

Tulsa’s heart squeezed in her chest. She didn’t want some adolescent boy pawing her niece. Ash. Alone. In a car with an older boy? This was all her fault—she’d convinced Savannah to let Ash go to the game, to ride home with Dylan, to… to… Tulsa didn’t even want to think about what
might
be going on right this very minute. Her stomach burbled with the pizza and beer. A tiny burp escaped over her lips.

Cade opened his door and slid behind the wheel. “It’s eleven fifteen. How much could happen in forty-five minutes?”

“A whole lot,” Tulsa mumbled.

Cade started his truck and cranked up the heat, which blasted cold air on Tulsa’s legs. “We’ll check Pilot’s Bluff first?” he asked.

“You’ll recognize his car?” Powder Springs was a small town, but didn’t Cade have more important facts to keep track of than the type of car a football player drove?

“The license plate says Pilot 24.”

“Of course it does.” The longstanding Powder High tradition had started at some point in the eighties. Every varsity football player put their number on the license plate of their car.

“Makes them easy to find,” Cade said.

“Or easy for the police to ignore.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny that local law enforcement is more lenient with our varsity team, especially in the midst of a winning season.”

Cade turned right off Yampa Valley Road and pulled over a low hill to a flat, open area surrounded by a stand of pine trees. Between the trees Tulsa saw the outline of darkened cars parked far from prying parental eyes.

These bedrooms on wheels were the perfect place for the grunts, moans, and fumbling hands of teenaged exploration. Cade killed the lights and slowly pulled behind the cars parked between the trees. Tulsa rolled down her window and examined the license plates of the assorted trucks and SUVs. Teenage hormones raged in all those vehicles. She leaned her head farther out the car window, trying to spot a plate that read Pilot 24.

“Your nephew’s here,” Tulsa said. Cade’s truck came to an abrupt halt. He leaned across Tulsa to look at the black Durango with the plate Pilot 6 parked in the pines. The activities within the vehicle were so hot and heavy even the back window was fogged.

“He wears your number.”

“And dates a cheerleader. History repeats itself.”

Cade slowly pulled his truck forward, going past the final car: an Impala without a pilot plate.

“Not here. Where else wou—” Tulsa’s phone rang in her purse and she tossed around the contents until she finally clutched her phone.

Tulsa recognized the number. “Savannah?” What would she tell her sister? That she’d lost Ash. That she had no idea where her niece was, that Ash left Charlie’s alone, in a car with a sixteen-year-old boy.

“Tulsa,” Savannah whispered. “They got here about ten minutes ago.”

A wave of relief crashed through Tulsa. Her breath evened out and the tightened muscles in her back finally unclenched.

“Ash said she saw you at Charlie’s.”

“We were there—”

“We?”

“I…” Tulsa stumbled around her words, her brain foggy from too many mugs of cold beer. “
I
was at Charlie’s.”

“Uh-huh.” Savannah’s tone was colder than the night air. Tulsa could feel her sister’s judgment through the phone. “I thought you’d want to know that Ash is safe.”

“Thanks, Savannah.” Tulsa barely got out her sister’s name before the line went dead. That flash McGrath temper. Tulsa slipped her phone back into her bag.

“They’re at Savannah’s,” Cade said.

“Ten minutes ago.”

“He took her straight home. Good boy.” Cade let his foot off the brake and coasted the truck out of the open area into a spot beside a tree. He put the truck in park.

“What are you doing?”

“You know, there’s this star I wanted to show you.” Cade leaned forward and looked out of his windshield. “Here, come a little closer.”

*

Tulsa leaned forward to look out the front window and Cade felt her breath on his cheek. Like metal to a magnet, his hands wanted to grab her, his lips wanted to kiss her, his cock wanted to—

“Where?” Tulsa asked.

The full moon cast a pale glow over her alabaster skin. The beauty of her profile clutched at his heart: a tiny bit of an upturned nose, her full moist lips. He placed the palm of his hand on the flat of her back and her dark curls brushed over his fingers. Her green eyes locked onto his.

Cade’s breath cut sharp through his chest. Solid and hot desire pulsed through his veins. His hand on her back, her wide-eyed look, her very scent—just Tulsa—a tightening in his legs.

“Over here,” Cade whispered.

Her lips were warm on his. With the softness of her lips, the heat that simmered in his gut spread hot and fast through his arms and legs, and he throbbed. His cock pressed against his jeans. A moan escaped her lips. And the throb pulsed harder. She opened her mouth to him and his tongue pressed into her mouth—he deepened their kiss, wanting all of her.

He plunged his fingers into her hair and wrapped the curls around his hand. Through his shirt he felt the press of her breasts against him. He pressed two buttons on her seat. One moved her back and the other flipped down the seatback. She surrendered and he found his way on top of her.

Her mouth pulled at his tongue. Fire lit through his body. His hands finally found her hot skin and traveled up her ribcage to her breasts, where his fingertips outlined the lace of her bra. He ripped his lips from hers and looked at her.

“Take it off.”

Tulsa leaned forward and Cade pulled the red turtleneck over her head. In the moonlight her skin glowed. Her pink nipples peeked out from her white lace bra. His mouth wanted the tight little bud. To tease with tiny little curls of his tongue, tracing around and around the pert bead until Tulsa’s hips arched and he heard his name on her lips. Until she surrendered and came and gave everything to him.

He wanted her. He wanted her with a deep hunger. A need that had never left—never ended—never been satisfied.

His lips pressed against her belly and his fingertips found her nipple. Tulsa gasped with his touch and his cock responded with a hard tug. He reached his other hand around her back and unsnapped her bra. Her fingers worked their way through his hair. He leaned forward, reaching toward her nipples that were pert and tight. He gently caressed her right breast and he leaned over her left. He pulled her into his mouth, his tongue curving around her nipple—tight and hot.

He gave the other nipple a light pinch and Tulsa’s hips rocked upward. His cock was so hard. He pressed back into her hips. She rubbed against him. Cade pulled his hand away from her breast and in one tug unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them down. His fingertips brushed the triangle of lace barely covering the patch of curls between her legs. Again her hips rocked forward.

Desire surged through him. Her hand grabbed at his jeans and tugged them open. He felt her work down into his pants. She wrapped her fingers around his cock.

His breath stalled in his chest. His belly hollowed and he froze with the wave of pleasure that jolted through his body. A deep breath as she worked her hand up and down—long deep strokes on the shaft of his cock. His fingers slid beneath the lace of Tulsa’s panties and his fingertip danced along the wet furrow between her legs. Tulsa’s body tensed with his touch.

“Yes,” Tulsa whispered, her voice thick.

Cade found her engorged nub and gently pressed. That sweet little spot between her legs. His fingers circled and pressed. Her hips rocked and arched.

“Please, oh, please,” she panted.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

She grabbed Cade. “What was that?”

A beam of light, diffused by the fog they’d created on the windows, bounced across the interior of the truck. They had company.

“Cade!” Tulsa whispered and pushed him away from her. “Cade, stop! Someone is here!”

She yanked her sweater over her head. Could anyone have worse timing? Cade sat up, buttoned his jeans, and wiped the condensation off the driver-side window.

“Cade,” Wayne’s muffled voice called through the window. The beam from his flashlight bounced from Cade and landed on Tulsa. “Hey, Tulsa,” Wayne said with nonchalance as if she’d just arrived to a summer barbecue. “Cade, you wanna roll this window down?”

Did he want to? What choice did he have? Cade waited until Tulsa pulled her hair out from the neck of her sweater. He turned the ignition and rolled down the driver-side window.

“What is it?” His jaw clenched and he looked up into Wayne’s face with the irritated look of a man denied.

“It’s Hudd,” Wayne said. “He’s in the hospital.”

*

Cade followed Wayne into the blinding-white light of the Powder Springs Hospital. The sharp smells of antiseptic and urine were a stark contrast to the fresh mountain air and the scent of Tulsa’s skin.

“Get that damn thing away from me!” Hudd bellowed from an emergency bay halfway across the room.

“He sounds okay,” Cade said.

Wayne pulled back the curtain surrounding an ER bay and there, seated on the hospital bed, was Hudd.

“Well, looky who decided to show up. My son and the sheriff.” An open gash ran along Hudd’s forehead from his hairline to the top of his left eyebrow. He wore pajamas and tufts of his white hair stuck up at odd angles around his head. Dr. Bob sat on a rolling stool in front of Hudd with a nurse by his side.

“I stopped to check on him before I headed home and he was semi-conscious at the bottom of the stairs,” Wayne said.

“You okay, Dad?” Cade asked. From where he stood Dr. Bob and the nurse were far worse off than his dad.

“Just a little bump on the head,” Hudd said. “But this damn wackadoo doctor wants to give me a shot.”

“Mr. Montgomery, I’m giving you the shot to relieve the pain before I stitch up your wound,” Dr. Bob said. His tone indicated this explanation had been presented and deemed unacceptable to Hudd multiple times.

“Trying to bill me for one more thing, that’s what you’re doing.” Hudd pointed his finger at Dr. Bob as if he’d found out the culprit’s plan. “Get the damn catgut and the needle and get started. I don’t need your shot.”

“Dad—” Cade started to speak but his father waved him off.

“I don’t need a sissy shot!” Hudd shouted. “Now get this damn gash stitched up or I leaveI’m leaving.”

“You want me to cuff him?” Wayne asked Dr. Bob with the tiniest of smiles on his face.

“You’d like that wouldn’t you, you ungrateful whelp?” Hudd started to rise but then swayed and clutched the bedside. The nurse, Dr. Bob, Cade, and even Wayne lunged for Hudd. The man didn’t have much strength in his legs and if he went down his hip might shatter.

“Mr. Montgomery, I will restrain you if you fail to adhere to my instructions,” Dr. Bob said. “Are we clear?”

Hudd’s gaze slid from Dr. Bob to Cade and finally to Wayne. His mouth pressed tight, he looked as though he figured the odds for his escape were nonexistent. He was outnumbered and outweighed. Finally he nodded; his shoulders relaxed but his face remained tight and eyes hard. Hudd settled onto the bed. “Fine, get the damn thing done so I can get home.”

The nurse handed the needle back to Dr. Bob.

Dr. Bob positioned the needle next to the wound. “I’m afraid that home is out of the question for tonight.”

“You’re not billing me for a night in this damn place.” Hudd flinched at the needle’s prick.

“No, we’re billing your insurance company. I want you to spend the night in the hospital for observation before you’re released, so settle in. You’re staying the night.”

“Like hell I am,” Hudd mumbled under his breath.

“Like hell you are,” Dr. Bob said and pulled the stitch through Hudd’s numb skin. “You’re a man with serious medical conditions; it would be
malpractice
for me to release you tonight. And I know you understand
that
word.”

“I know what malpractice is, all right,” Hudd continued. “Malpractice is overcharging an old man just because you think he hasn’t got it all upstairs anymore.”

“Anymore?” Wayne muttered under his breath.

“I heard that, Sheriff,” Hudd said.

Hudd slid his eyes to the right to get a better look at Wayne. His eyes passed Wayne and Hudd’s tight jaw went slack. The color in his face grew pale and waxy. His eyes widened and he slowly pulled back—his hands lifting from his thighs as if fending off something behind Wayne.

Cade and Wayne both turned. Tulsa stood behind them, just past the curtains. She clenched the strap of her purse.

Cade turned back toward his dad. “We were at the game and—”

Hudd’s face contorted and a perplexed expression took over his face. He covered his mouth with one hand.

“Oh mighty God in heaven,” Hudd whispered. “Where in the hell did you find Connie McGrath?”

Chapter Sixteen

“Bobby’s record is clean,” Jo said. “Or pretty much so. He has some outstanding parking tickets and a couple of speeding tickets. One from two years ago and one last summer. But aside from those—there’s nothing.”

Tulsa sat back in the kitchen chair. The news of Bobby’s clean living wasn’t what she wanted to hear. She didn’t wish ill on Bobby, nor did she want him to
never
see Ash, it’s just she wanted a safety net—something, anything—to know that Bobby didn’t have the tiniest possibility of getting full custody of Ash. But now there was nothing—Bobby wasn’t an unfit parent, merely an absentee one. If Savannah and Bobby didn’t reach some sort of agreement with custody and visitation at the custody conference, there would be a hearing. Ash would testify and since she was fourteen, in some ways, Ash would get to decide with which parent she spent the next four years.

“Custody hearing’s next week?” Jo asked.

Tulsa nodded. “There’s a supervised visit today.” She tilted her head to the side and sighed. As small a town as Powder Springs was, she’d managed to avoid Cade. She wanted to chalk up her debauched night with him in his pickup truck to too many beers, but Tulsa was old enough to understand that drunk simply wasn’t an excuse.