“I’m not going anywhere.” Poppy said stubbornly. “I’m a big girl who can handle her own issues.” She jerked her hat off, and then tugged out the elastic band, shaking her hair until it fell around her shoulders in caramel-colored waves before fluffing her bangs. “It just so happens I have a way with law officers. So watch and learn, big bros.”
She plastered on a smile as she turned to the sheriff’s car that had just pulled into the parking lot. The smile faded when she saw Tully sitting behind the wheel.
“Well, shit.”
Jaxon felt the same way.
After he’d almost kissed her at Time To Read, he didn’t want anything to do with Tallulah Gentry. And here she was, climbing out of her car in the ugly deputy uniform that on her curvy body didn’t look ugly at all. The khaki button down shirt with the pockets seemed to accentuate her tits rather than hide them and the swell of cleavage that peeked between the two unbuttoned buttons drew his attention like a moth to a flame. His degenerate brain pulled up an image of running his tongue along the shadowed spot in between as he slowly unbuttoned her shirt the rest of the way. Did she wear a standard sports bra or some sexy piece of lace that barely contained the abundant flesh? Were her nipples a mouthful or just a sip?
Jaxon’s X-rated musings were brought to a halt when Huck spoke under his breath.
“Not so cocky now, Pops, are you?” He took off his hat and finger tousled his hair. “Watch and learn, little sis.” He started for Tully, but Jaxon put out a hand and stopped him.
“I said I’d handle it.”
“He’s right,” Dawson said. “All we need is you jumping in bed with the town deputy and screwing the renovation timeline up for us. You piss her off and she can make getting permits impossible.”
Dawson’s warning was just what Jaxon needed. He shoved any sexual thoughts out of his head as he left his siblings and walked out to the parking lot to greet Tully.
“Why, Officer Gentry, what a surprise. To what do we owe this great honor?” He couldn’t see her eyes behind the lenses of her aviator sunglasses, but he could see her shoulders tighten at his sarcasm.
She ignored the question and looked at his siblings—who of course hadn’t followed his directions and gone inside. “I see Poppy came.” She lifted a hand in an awkward wave. Poppy didn’t return it, but Huck did. His little brother waved enthusiastically.
“Hey, Tully! You’re looking good, deputy.”
She smiled, her dimple flashing and those plump lips parting to reveal even teeth that had once worn braces. The same heat he’d felt yesterday at the bookstore when that mouth had been within kissing distance tugged at his belly.
He ignored it.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
She looked back at him and the dimple disappeared. “I remembered something and thought it might come in handy during renovations.” She leaned into the car, her shapely ass pointing at him for one cock-hardening second, before she straightened and held out a long rolled up tube of paper.
He squinted. “What’s that?”
“It’s some architectural blueprints I did for a class I took in college.” When he cocked his head in confusion, her cheeks blushed a pretty pink and she started to ramble. “I had this assignment to come up with plans for an imaginary business. Since I’ve never had much of an imagination and coming up with things out of thin air, I decided to do plans for Honky Tonk Heaven. It was right after the fire and I thought maybe they would come in handy for your mama. I even called her and she helped me with the assignment, making sure I got all the details right.” She looked at the burned out building. “Right before she passed, I asked her why she had never rebuilt. She just smiled and said, ‘There’s a time for everything and everything in its time.’”
He stared at her profile. “You spoke to Rosie before she died?”
She turned to him, his stunned expression reflected in the lenses of her sunglasses. “Of course I did, everyone in town checked on her after her first stroke. Every night I was out on patrol, I’d stop in and talk to her.”
Jaxon didn’t know why he felt a stab of guilt. He and his siblings hadn’t owed their mama anything. But there it was, wedged in between his ribs like a dull kitchen knife. It ticked him off he should feel guilty for not being there for his mama when she had never been there for him. He hadn’t even known she had a stroke until the second one killed her.
But a good son would have known. Of course, a good mother would have told him. Rosie had made as much effort to stay connected to her kids as they’d made to stay connected to her.
Which didn’t make it right.
He swallowed down the pain and said what needed to be said. “Thank you for checking on her.”
“It was no problem. I loved hearing her stories about the bar.”
“I’m sure she loved telling them. She loved talking about Honky Tonk Heaven to whoever would listen.” He took the blueprints. “And thanks for these. I’m sure they’ll come in handy.” He should have ended it there, but his curiosity wouldn’t let him. “So why architecture? That doesn’t seem to go with a degree in law enforcement.”
She shrugged. “Just a whim.”
But for some reason, he didn’t believe her. Maybe because Tallulah Gentry was not the whimsical type. Of course, he hadn’t thought she was the type to be infatuated with a rowdy country bar either. If she’d listened to his mama’s stories, she knew exactly how rowdy the bar had gotten.
Which meant little Tully had a hidden wild side . . . a wild side that included reading naughty books.
