Lost in You: Petal, Georgia, Book 2 (2 page)

She met Tate’s gaze in the mirror. “Up you think?”

Tate brushed it out and thought. “Hm. How about braided away from your face here, but loose in the back? You have gorgeous hair so you should use it.”

“Whatever you say. You’re the artist.”

“If only you were this easygoing about everything.”

“If I was I’d be boring.”

Tate made a little
hmpf
sound that always made Beth want to laugh, but she fell under the spell of having someone brush, pin and curl to get her all prettified.

Tate worked quickly and efficiently, braiding, twisting and securing. “So you know, William is going to break something internal when he finds out you’ve set your cap for Joe. Joe’s reputation is less than stellar.”

“Thank God no one judges what you were like at eighteen when it’s over ten years later and your life has changed.” She arched a brow at her sister, who just snorted and kept working.

Growing up in a household like theirs had conditioned them in some negative ways. But they were ways Beth was more than aware of. While she appreciated Tate’s concern, Beth wasn’t their mother.

“Look, if he’s like Dad, I’ll walk away. You know that. I like ’em bad, with a soft, gooey filling. I don’t want a lazy drunken lout who’ll knock me around when he gets bored. And he came back to help out his family. Jerks don’t do that. You know his parents don’t have any money or anything he’d be after. William says Joe’s changed a lot since he left Petal. I’m going to see for myself.”

Tate nodded, but said nothing further for a while until she stepped back, giving Beth’s hair a quick spray.

“Damn you’re pretty. Pulling your hair back only highlights that.”

Beth smoothed a hand over her hair with a smile. Another fucked-up thing from their childhood. Tate was clearly not their father’s child, a product of one of their mother’s multiple affairs. And their father had never let Tate forget it. He’d spent decades trying to crush Tate into nothing. He’d used the fact that she was short to her siblings’ tall, curvy to their lean, blonde to their brunette to try to hurt her. Not that their mother did a thing to stop it. But Tate had never let it break her, and she’d never made her siblings feel bad about it either.

Probably helped that Tate had herself a man so gorgeous he could walk into any magazine ad selling cologne in a heartbeat. And that the man practically worshipped her and their babies.

“Hopefully it’ll work.”

“If he can resist you in that red dress looking the way you do
and
carrying a big basket of cookies and brownies, he’s not worthy. He might even be kind of slow. Which, you know, given the way he lived all those years ago, he might be.”

Beth laughed then. He’d been quite the partier in those days.

“He sure looked like he was living better. Damn. He’s…” Beth fanned her face. “He’s ridiculous, that’s what he is. Tall. At least six and a half feet tall. And muscles too.”

Tate waggled her brows. “Hurry on up then and get over there. I want a complete recap when you’re finished.”

Beth took a deep breath, grabbed the basket and headed out. His auto-repair shop was only a few blocks down, and there was no time like the present.

Joe Harris had just about finished with the carburetor he’d been working on most of the morning when he heard the click of footsteps and came out to see who it was.

The jingle of Buck’s collar alerted Joe he wasn’t the only one attracted by the sound. He grinned down at his dog before glancing back toward the doorway.

He froze at the sight. Beth Murphy looking better than a body had a right to. He’d thought she’d been pretty amazing the first time he’d seen her a few weekends back. She’d worn cut-off shorts and a T-shirt then, but this Beth was gussied up in a pretty red dress, her hair shiny and reaching nearly to her waist.

He wondered what it would feel like against his bare skin and then mentally slapped himself.

“Hi, Joe!” She thrust a giant basket at him. “I just wanted to stop in and welcome you back to Petal. Officially I mean.” She shrugged and smiled prettily.

He took the basket and put it on the counter. “Beth Murphy, look at you, girl.”

She looked down at herself and back to him, a sparkle in her eye that he liked immensely.

“I’d give you a hug but—” She indicated his overalls, covered with grease and dust from crawling around under the truck he’d been working on.

“Sorry. Been a busy morning.”

Buck barked a few times, not a man to take being ignored lightly and she knelt. “Why hello there. Aren’t you handsome? I’m Beth. Who are you?”

Buck barked again, dancing around her, his tongue lolling as he checked her out. She laughed, scratching behind his ears.

“That’s Buck. Don’t get on her dress.”

Buck gave Joe a look that told him the dog had no intention of being on the outs with the woman.

“Did you come to work with him to keep him out of trouble?”

Buck barked again a few times, and laughing, Beth gave him one last scratch and stood. “Sounds like that’s exactly what he’s doing.”

“He likes to keep me company. I found him at a garage so he’s at home in one.”

“Someone abandoned him?”

Joe liked the outrage on her face.

“He was so tiny. I found him in the dumpster out back. Someone had thrown him away like trash. I wasn’t sure if he’d make it.” Hell, Joe had bottle-fed him for a while until he got stronger.

“Honestly! Some people aren’t fit to breathe air.”

Buck barked again and then plopped down, his head on her shoes. He gave a one-eyed glance Joe’s way, as if to tell him not to let her go. Joe would have to explain the meaning of best friend’s little sister to Buck later.

“Well you did the right thing and he looks like he’s got a good home now.” She leaned close and he caught her scent. Jasmine. On another woman it might have been too much, but on her it was rich and sensual.

She held up a cream envelope with his name on it. “This is an invitation to Nathan’s wedding. Lily—you might remember her though she’s a little younger—anyway Lily wanted me to drop this off for you while I was here.”

She had a lilt to her voice. A drawl that also seemed sort of breathless as she delivered her words at top speed. Joe had no idea how she managed both at once, but she did.

“William said he was engaged. Figured Nathan would never settle. He sure did love the ladies.”

She laughed. “He still does, but Lily’s all the lady he can handle. They’re good together.” She paused and that smile crept back over her mouth and his heart skipped a beat.

“You’re worrying me with that smile.”

It brightened, and he became fascinated with how glossy her bottom lip was. Plump and juicy. He wanted to lean in and lick over it.

“You’re awfully big and brawny to be askeerd of a girl like me.”

He laughed. It’d been a long time since he’d teased back and forth with a woman and it had felt this natural. “You forget I grew up around you Murphys. A girl like you is exactly who I’m scared of.” That and her big brothers.

She took his hand and squeezed. “So, Joe Harris, you should take me to lunch so we can catch up.”

“Should I now? What if I brought my lunch?”

“But you didn’t. The Sands is delightfully air conditioned and they have lunch specials. And pie. I may be able to sweeten that deal with some gossip. I’ll even let you pretend you don’t care about that sort of thing.”

How could he turn down pie and air conditioning? She was his friend’s sister after all. No need to be unfriendly after she’d come over to welcome him back so nicely. And Buck was going back home for the afternoon anyway because it was too damned hot in the shop.

“All right then. William sort of caught me up on all the Murphy stuff, but he’s a man of few words. I imagine you have more to say than he does, and you’ll give me all the information about who is up to what.”

She smiled again. “Good. I’m at the salon right up there.” She pointed. “Tate, Anne and I own it. Come by and collect me when you’re ready.” She turned and headed to the garage door before pausing and looking back over her shoulder. “Don’t make me wait too long, I get grumpy when I’m hungry.”

With a wave she was gone, but he sure as hell watched that delightful sway as she moved across the street and then to her salon.

“So I think Thunderbirds are go.” Beth gave double thumbs-up as she moved to her desk. Anne and Tate did most of the hair work while Beth did the books. She did the occasional shampoo if she was needed, ran errands, handled supply orders and pretty much everything else.

The sisters were all so close, so used to having to work together, that it was smooth and efficient when others may have had a struggle.

“Do tell.” Tate stood behind her client as she spoke.

“Delivered the goods. A man’d have to be blind to overlook a basket full of your baked goods.”

“And your boobs.” Anne grinned up from where she’d been mixing some color.

“Well, yes. I did wonder if it was too much a gamble to go with a dress that didn’t show any cleavage.”

“He has an imagination. They’re right there under the material, after all. Men are pretty good at remembering where your boobs are.”

Beth grinned at Tate. “Yeah. Good point. Anyway, I pretty much cornered him into going to lunch with me today.”

“Nicely played. He’s coming here to pick you up?”

“Yes.”

“Good. We can get a look.” Anne rubbed her hands together, making Beth laugh.

“Don’t scare him away.”

“He grew up surrounded by Murphys. There’s no hiding from that. Anyway, he’s got his own scary reputation to overcome. He’d best be a good guy or you know how many Murphy older brothers are going to come down hard on him.” Tate raised one brow as she kept working.

“It’s lunch. We’re not getting married, for crissake.” She waggled her brows.

She was still grinning when the bell over the door jingled and she looked up to find him there. He’d gotten rid of the coveralls and stood in jeans and a T-shirt with those sunglasses on.

“This place is crawling with Murphys.” He looked around, smiling.

“We’re notoriously hard to get rid of.” Beth grabbed her bag and headed to the door. “You remember Tate and Anne? Girls, of course we remember Joe.” She looked up at him. “We’ve been gossiping about you for two hours now.”

He blushed. “I’m not sure how to take that.”

“Good.” She looked over her shoulder and told her sisters she was off to lunch and would return in an hour or so.

He opened her door, a very good sign.

“Tate looks pretty much exactly the way she did back in the day. Anne used to have brown hair like yours, didn’t she?”

Currently Anne was rocking some auburn hair. “She did. Her specialty is color. You never know what color she’ll come in with on any given day. I was thinking about that shade of red too.”

He slowed down, frowning as he looked her over. “Don’t. I mean, it looks nice on her. But your hair is…” He shook his head.

“Well go on then. Is what? Ugly? Gross? Fabulous?”

He barked a laugh. “I keep forgetting how you all are. It’s pretty. I like all the gold in it. In the sun I mean. Brunette is underappreciated. But it works.”

“Nice answer.”

He opened the door for her at the Sands and they went in. Petal was a small town. Small enough that everyone looked up to see who was coming in. She waved to a few people.

Roni, the owner, waved back. “I’ll be with you two in a bit. Grab some menus. That booth over there is empty.”

She obeyed, pausing to peruse the pie selection, and she grinned when she saw the cake.

“Cake day. Score.”

He slid in across from her. “What?”

“They have cake today. Coconut frosting. My favorite. Do you like cake?”

He paused. “I feel like this is a test.”

“Well?”

“Pushy.”

She laughed as she watched him. The light coming in the windows seemed to glint off his hair. “You have great hair.”

“Um, thanks.” He slid his fingers through it. “Yes. Yes I like cake. Don’t know about the coconut part, though.”

“Well, you’re halfway there. The pie is awesome too. Have the peach. I have it under very good authority that it’s really good.”

“By good authority do you mean you had some?”

“Don’t tell anyone, but I have a baked-goods problem. Really don’t tell Tate, as she’s like the queen of baked goods and I had some here instead of at her house. She’s territorial.”

“What’ll you give me if I keep my mouth shut?”

She raised a brow and leaned in. At first he dug it and then got nervous. This was flirting, but they had chemistry. Like whoa.

She frowned. “Stop that.”

“You’re an incredibly random woman. Stop what?”

“Stop thinking of me as William’s little sister. You weren’t there for a bit. And then you remembered. How on Earth am I ever going to get you to kiss me if you keep that up?”