Run To You

mumbled.
    The brothers sat and Blake picked up his coffee. “That Luraleen is a pistol.”
    Beau reached for his fork. “A crazy pistol with a loose trigger.”
    “She’s okay. I got to know her a bit when I was helping Vince.” He picked up his fork and shoveled a few bites of eggs into his mouth. Did Beau look like that when he ate? What had Stella called him? A healthy eater? “What did you and Sadie’s little sister do?” Blake asked, and gave a deep amused chuckle. “All those days alone in a car. Just you and her?”
    In the car? “Nothing much. I got some business done and she listened to music.”
    “What kind of business? Are you still on the wagon?”
    This was Blake. Beau had to be careful. What he and Stella had done was no one’s business. “Why do you care?”
    “It’s not natural.” He paused for the waitress to refill their coffee and move away before he added, “It makes a man crazy and mean.”
    “What’s your excuse?”
    “Forgot my brain bucket a time or two in Afghanistan.” He looked up and was only half kidding. “Don’t tell Mom,” he said.
    Beau seriously doubted his brother forgot his helmet. He would no more leave the wire without his brain bucket than without an ample supply of water. “Mom’s Facebook friending my old girlfriends.” Beau took a drink of his coffee, relieved that Blake had dropped the subject of Stella. “Which means she’s contacting your old girlfriends, too.”
    Blake nodded. “Mimi Van Hinkle gave Mom her phone number and wanted me to call.”
    “I don’t remember Mimi Van Hinkle.”
    “Tenth grade. Long blond hair and huge boobs for a sixteen-year-old.”
    “Oh yeah. Her brother had that Kawasaki you stole—”
    “Borrowed.”
    “—borrowed and caught on fire.”
    Blake grinned. “The tailpipe got too hot and set the nonregulation seat on fire.” He chuckled. “I bailed just before it blew to Jesus. Kawasaki down.”
    “Frag out.”
    They looked at each other and laughed like they were sixteen again. Like the only two in on a private joke that no one could possibly understand. Like they were best friends.
    And it felt good.
    M orning sun splashed across the hardwood floors and area rugs, and bathed Stella in white. She stood in front of the window, robe wrapped around her body and sunglasses protecting her eyes from the stabbing light. She held a cell phone in her hand, her thumb skimming for messages, voice mails, and missed calls. There were three but none from Beau.
    Why hadn’t he called? He’d said he had her back. Where was he? She looked in her contact list for his number and paused with her thumb over his name. Maybe he’d gotten really busy with his brother. Or maybe he thought she was busy with Sadie and was waiting for her to call him. She wanted to talk to him about her night and his. She wanted to call him, even if it was just to hear his voice.
    She pressed end instead. She didn’t want to chase him. She’d already coerced him into a physical relationship with her. Okay, yeah, he’d kissed her twice, but he wouldn’t have taken it further if she hadn’t talked him into it. If she hadn’t had to get practically naked in front of him on the balcony above Bourbon Street, they wouldn’t have ended up in bed that night. Or last night, either. She’d never had to talk a man into fooling around. Never seduced him into it. Why Beau?
    Beyond his obvious good looks and six-pack abs, she didn’t know. She hadn’t really liked him at first. She wasn’t quite sure when that had changed. Maybe somewhere between Tampa and Biloxi. It didn’t matter now. Because now she liked him a whole lot.
    She pressed the phone against her lips and pushed aside a panel of the sheer curtains. Several horses roamed around in a corral and barn across the yard while cows in the distance . . . Well, did whatever it was that cows did.
    Now that she’d met Sadie, what next? She didn’t have a job or an apartment. She felt like she’d just cleared the last hurdle in a race that had started a week ago. What was she going to do now? Texas had always been the goal, the finish line. Where was she going next? She thought of Beau, but of course he wasn’t the answer to her problems. For a woman who’d taken care of herself for ten years now, it was surprising how fast she’d come to rely on him.
    She heard steps behind her and turned to see her sister looking a bit haggard in blue boxers and a “Lovett or Leave It” T-shirt.
    Sadie