Trouble In Dixie (5 page)

"Her partner is with someone else, and she's
too far behind in points...she works too hard anyway, she needs to
take a break. She hasn't ever done that," Karlie told him with
concern in her tone.

"Yeah, she's wound pretty tight, isn't she?"
he said thinking of the way the gorgeous cowgirl had taken it upon
herself to organize everything at the ranch, including the ranch
hands, even though that wasn't part of her job responsibilities. He
also thought about Katie telling him at the barbecue he was a tight
ass, who only liked vanilla sex. Tommy wanted to laugh, because she
had no idea how close she was to the truth. He wouldn't know
vanilla from Rocky Road, because he'd been that damned
inexperienced when he got married, and Maggie had been a virgin
when they met.

Jud had told him that they were all a little
afraid of her, so they did exactly what she told them to do. He had
to admit his tack room had never looked better, and his ranch hands
had never been more inclined to be on time for their meetings.
She'd even reorganized the office and he could actually find stuff
now. On top of all that, she was one helluva horsewoman, and had
two of the cutter prospects she'd been working with coming along
well. The other one, just wasn't suited for it. Tommy was gonna
miss her at the Rockin' D, for more reasons than her work ethic,
though.

"You can say that again...she's always so
serious, she needs to loosen up and have some fun. She's like that,
because she's always had to keep up with me, and worry about what I
was gonna get into next," Karlie told him with a chuckle, then
sobered and added, "I'm not that woman anymore, things are a lot
better...so she needs to figure out what to do with all that spare
energy she wasted on me before."

Tommy could come up with a few uses for that
spare energy, he thought, then reminded himself that he didn't want
a relationship...but if he did want that, Katie Upton would be the
one to tempt him into it.

"I think I'm going to take you up on the
offer to keep Dixie for two weeks...she misses you a lot," he told
her, and it was true. Dixie talked about Karlie all the time, and
this time with her would probably do her a lot of good.

Karlie let out a whoop so loud he had to
hold the phone away from his ear. He grinned then told her, "I
guess you're as excited as I know she will be when I tell her."

"Hell yeah, I am...she's a baby doll. The
spittin' image of me when I was her age...that's why we get along
so well," she admitted.

"You're scaring the hell out of me, you know
that right?" he asked her with a chuckle.

"Be afraid, be very afraid," she laughed,
then added, "But in the meantime, take comfort in the fact that I'm
a settled woman now, and successful. She will be too, but it might
take some doing to get her there."

"And a lot of gray hair and whiskey?" he
teased her.

"My Uncle Jerry's hair was white by the time
he was forty, so that should tell you something...and I think he
owned stock in Jack Daniels."

***

Katie felt like the hairdresser who was
doing her hair, was actually trying to help her receive messages
from Mars, because her head was stacked with tin foil packets from
top to bottom. She'd never had highlights before, but she was up
for a lot of firsts, so when the woman suggested them, Katie was on
board. She was going to straighten it too and remove the loose
curls that had turned to frizz on rainy days all her life.

"We'll give you thirty minutes to process,
sugar, while we do your manicure. Your toes look fabulous, what
color is that?" the beautician asked her in a high-pitched cutesy
voice leaning a little closer to inspect her pedicure.

"I'm Not Really A Waitress red," Katie told
her with a grin. Some of names on the nail polish the pedicurist
had shown her made her laugh.

"Good choice, that's one of my favorites
too. Wanna do your fingernails the same color?"

"Yep, that'd be great," she agreed, then put
her hand in the bowl of warm soapy water on the table in front of
her. Maybe the calluses she'd accumulated over the last three
months would go away with the deluxe manicure she was getting.

That color would match her new red
motorcycle too, she thought with a wider grin. She'd bought the
sport bike yesterday, and had the guy she bought it from drive her
pick-up back to the RV Park for her. She'd been at the park for
three days now, but she found a nice stable nearby to board
Laramie, so he'd be more comfortable, and she wouldn't have to
worry about him. He was having a vacation too, his just didn't
include the hour long massage, she'd had earlier. Katie was so
relaxed, her tongue wanted to hang out the side of her mouth, and
her words were slurred.

After all the shopping she'd done yesterday,
she needed it. Katie hadn't realized how much fun she'd been
missing with her sole focus being on her career and watching out
for her sister. She felt like a balloon off its tether, and she was
just floating around going exactly where the wind carried her. It
was liberating, freeing, and she liked it, a lot.

She looked down at the totally un-Katie like
outfit she had on and grinned. Black leather jacket, super tight
and short ripped up jean shorts with fishnets and high-heeled black
boots, redefined her as a biker chick. Tomorrow, she'd be a rodeo
queen again, but today, she was enjoying her new persona. She also
had an appointment for her new tattoo later this afternoon...a
she-devil on her hip...she might even get a set of lips on her ass.
Katie wasn't going to be part of a matched set anymore, she was
going to be unique, an individual, she was tired of living in her
sister's shadow.

When Katie walked out of the salon two hours
later, she was grinning and her step was light, as she walked to
her new bike and pulled on the helmet, then straddled it to head to
the tattoo parlor. She almost didn't want to put the helmet over
her gorgeous new straight blondish hair. She'd had it cut right
above her shoulder blades in a wispy, layered cut that framed her
face. The make-up artist had shown her how to create a sexy, but
subdued smoky-eyed look that had her looking pretty damned good, if
she said so herself. Katie wasn't much on the red lipstick the
woman had used, but it went with her nail and toe polish, so she
went along with it.

Taking her shorts and panties off for the
tattoo was a little disconcerting, but she had a drape that only
exposed one hip, so the artist could work. He did a great job, even
put red hair on the little she-devil, and a whip tail that curled
toward her navel above the waistband of her shorts to tease. It had
been a little more painful than she expected, so she didn't get the
lip prints just yet. She'd come back to get that one.

Katie made it back to the RV Park and
whizzed her bike onto the gravel drive, and fishtailed a little,
because she'd cornered it a little too fast. She giggled then
straightened it out and gunned it toward the back of the park where
her trailer and truck were parked. After she parked, she pulled off
the helmet, then turned her head upside down and shook out her
hair, running her fingers through it, then tossed it back.

Tommy didn't know who the hell just pulled
up in front of Katie's trailer. The blond biker chick bore no
resemblance to the beautiful redheaded cowgirl that left his ranch
a few days ago, and he was stunned. He slid out of his truck then
walked across the narrow gravel road, and stopped waiting for her
to stand back up again. When she did, and his eyes met hers, he
felt all the blood in his body sink down to his toes.

It was Katie, but not. Her beautiful red
hair was almost blond now and was a lot shorter. She also had
enough makeup on to work as a clown at the rodeo. Although the
outfit she had on made his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth,
because she was sex on a stick, he didn't like it. His sweet Katie
had transformed herself into a vixen, a man-eater, someone who was
hard and savvy. Tommy felt sick at his stomach, and his mouth
worked, but no words came out.

"You feeling okay?" Katie asked him with a
smirk, then unzipped her leather jacket and slid it off her
shoulders, revealing a red halter top underneath that barely
covered her beautiful breasts.

His voice was little more than a breathless
squeak, as he asked, "What the hell did you do to yourself,
Katie?"

"Not so
boring
anymore, huh? And a
better question is what the hell are you doing here?" she asked
him, putting a hand on her hip, which was barely covered by the
miniscule shorts she had on.

"I came to apologize," he said then lifted
his hand, and shoved the bouquet of yellow roses he'd brought at
her.

Katie looked at them then back into his eyes
and snorted, "Even the flowers have to send the 'right' message,
huh?"

His eyebrows slammed together, and he looked
down at the flowers in confusion, then back up into her eyes. "Huh?
You don't like roses?"

"Yellow roses are for friends...thanks but
no thanks
, Tommy," she told him then turned her back on him
and walked toward the trailer. "I don't want to be your friend, and
I still haven't heard your apology..." she said over her
shoulder.

She hadn't heard it, because she hadn't
given him a chance to voice it. He was still stunned over her
transformation. He swallowed then told her shortly, "I'm sorry,
Katie."

"Okay, you've apologized, now you can go...I
have things to do," she told him coldly, then walked up the steps
to the door of her trailer.

Panic surged up inside of Tommy, because if
he didn't get her to forgive him now, most likely he'd never see
her again. It was obvious to him, she was far from forgiving him.
He hadn't gotten it right yet, even with the flowers,
evidently.

"Katie wait, I want to talk to
you...please," he said and took a few steps to stand beside the
trailer steps.

"We said all that needed saying in Amarillo,
Tommy. I'm sorry you've driven all this way, but we really have
nothing to talk about...you don't have room for anyone else in your
life, and I'm not into playing second fiddle...or being friends
with you."

Well she'd made her position pretty plain to
him, Tommy thought, and this was the moment of truth. Either he
made things right, and moved forward as more than friends with her,
or he walked away, and kept his peaceful life with his daughter.
Fear and guilt warred inside of him as he considered what he
wanted, fear that he would lose Katie in his life, and not have the
opportunity to find out what could be between them, and guilt that
he was even considering starting a relationship with her.

"If you have to think about it, you have
your answer...and I have mine. Goodbye, Tommy," she said and
sadness flickered in eyes, then anger, before she walked into the
trailer and shut the door, leaving him standing outside, holding
the rapidly wilting yellow roses, that went perfectly with his
wilting heart.

Emotion clogged his throat and Tommy huffed
out a breath trying to clear it away, then he turned and walked
back across the street where he'd parked his truck to wait for her
to get home. Sadness filled him because he'd failed, but
resignation too. This was for the best, Katie deserved better than
someone who couldn't commit to her, someone with as much baggage as
he toted around. He got back in his truck and just sat there for a
second trying to get some control over the sense of loss that
threatened to overwhelm him.

***

Katie was on her second row of Oreos in the
new bag, along with her second box of Kleenex, and still didn't
feel any better. She'd taken a break from her pity party a few
minutes ago, and washed off all the makeup she'd paid to be applied
earlier. That had been an ordeal of monumental proportions. It had
almost taken a full bottle of her new face cleaner, because the
mascara had been everywhere...and all because of Tommy Tucker.

It was all his fault. Yellow roses, that
said it all, she thought with a snort, then tears welled up in her
eyes again.

Her cell phone rang, and she sniffed, wiped
her nose, then answered it in a nasally voice, "Hullo?"

"Katie? What's wrong with you?" Karlie
questioned in a concerned voice.

"Nuffin..." she said then bit her fist, so
her sister didn't hear the telltale sob she was fighting back.
Jesus, she needed to get a grip. Crying over a damned man was just
plain stupid.

"Don't give me that shit--what the hell is
wrong?" her sister demanded and Katie held the phone away from her
ear, because her sister was loud.

"I'm fine...what's up?" Katie dodged. She
didn't want to go into it with anyone, especially her sister...she
was going to cry this out, and then be done with it.

"You're not fine, that's obvious. What hell
are you crying about?"

"Why are you calling, Karlie? I need to go
out in a few minutes, I'm getting ready," she lied trying to make
her sister get to the point.

"I wanted to tell you that we're on for the
rodeo, I got our registration done today. I entered the tie-down
too, and entered you in barrels. That okay?"

Her lip trembled and she put an Oreo-crumbed
finger to it to stop it. "That's perfect, thanks, sis."