Rescue Me

met the store’s suppliers and Luraleen’s two employees, Patty Schulz and George “Bug” Larson. Both seemed capable enough, but nether struck him as particularly having a fire in their bellies for anything. Except maybe jalapeno cheese dogs. If and when he took over the Gas and Go, Patty and Bug were going to do more for their ten bucks an hour than sit on stools and ring up cigarettes and beer. He was going to make other changes, too. First, he would take a sledgehammer to the place. As a member of the SEAL teams he’d been an insertion specialist, but he did love to demo. Second, when he reopened, the Gas and Go would close at twenty-four hundred hours. Not twenty-two-hundred or whenever the mood struck Luraleen.

His second week in Lovett, he took over his aunt’s night shifts and the responsibility of closing the place. And over the next few nights he discovered that the people of Lovett gossiped like it was a natural reflex. Like breathing and saying y’all.

One night over a Snickers and a cup of decaf, Deeann Gunderson told him that Jerome Leon was “skirtin’ around” behind his wife’s back with Tamara Perdue. Deeann owned Deeann’s Duds and was a pretty thirtysomething divorced mother of two. She let him know she was interested in more than a candy bar and gossip and that she was free every other weekend. As long as she wasn’t looking for a daddy for her kids, he might take her up on it. He didn’t have anything against kids. Just mamas who wanted a new husband.

He heard that someone ran over Velma Patterson’s little dog, and that Daisy and Jack Parrish were expecting a baby girl. He learned that Sadie Hollowell was in Laredo with her sick father. Everyone seemed to have an opinion about the Hollowells in general and Sadie in particular. Some, like Aunt Luraleen, thought she was an ungrateful daughter. Others that her father was neglectful, more concerned with his cattle and horses than his own child. Whatever the opinion, they all loved to talk.

Like Vince gave a shit.

Besides the average customers who just stopped when they needed a fill-up, the Gas and Go had regulars. People who stopped in every day or so at the same time for a fountain Coke or gas or beer.

One of those regular customers who stopped by for a nightly fountain Coke turned out to be Becca Ramsey. Which he did mind.

“Vince!” she’d shrieked as if they were old friends the first time she’d seen him in the Gas and Go. “Are you stayin’ in Lovett?”

He wondered if he could get away with lying to her. “For a while yet.” After that, she came in for a pack of gum, a candy bar, and a Rockstar on her way home from the Milan Institute in Amarillo. Apparently young Becca was going to beauty school, and for some reason thought Vince gave a flying fuck.

“If I have to give one more old lady a perm,” she said, her words drawn out, “I swear I’m goin’ to flip the freak out!”

“Uh-huh.” He rang up her energy drink.

“I saw Slade drivin’ around in that slut Lexa Jane’s truck. He’s so broke down he can’t even afford his own vehicle.”

He felt a sudden stabbing pain in his left eye. Like a nail driven into his iris. The next day, she stopped in to tell him she’d cut her first wedge. Apparently it was a type of woman’s hairstyle, and for the first time in six years, he could imagine an upside to his hearing loss. Maybe if he turned his bad ear toward her, he could block out her voice. Or maybe she’d run out of words and shut the hell up.

“And she didn’t look like she had dog ears when I was done.” She laughed. “You just can’t believe the number of girls who can’t cut a wedge.”

No such luck. Vince had been trained by the finest military in the world on how to escape and evade. He could get out of tight spots, but there was no way to E and E Becca without putting her in a sleeper hold.

“Next week I’m having a birthday party.”

“How old are you going to be?” he asked as he rang up her Big Hunk. Vince would guess, barely legal. Some men might find a young, attractive girl fair game. Vince wasn’t one of those guys. He liked mature women who didn’t weep all over him.

“Twenty-one.”

When he’d been twenty-one, he’d just finished SQT and was headed to the teams. He’d been full of himself and riding high on testosterone and invincibility. He’d been arrogant and tenacious with a full bag of skills to back it all up.

“You should come and take shots with me.” She dug in her wallet and handed him a five.

“I don’t think so.”

“Why not? We’re friends now.”

He made change, then looked at the silly girl in front of him. She actually thought they were friends. “Since when?”

“Since we talked at Tally Lynn’s wedding. You were there for me, Vince.”

Jesus, she thought he’d sat in that bride’s room because of her. He’d been there because he’d had a hard-on for Sadie Hollowell and he’d had to wait it out.

“You helped me see that Slade is shallow and that I’m better off without him.”

“I did?” He didn’t remember saying that.

She smiled. “I want more. I deserve more, and I’ve moved on.”

Suddenly he had a very uncomfortable feeling. Like someone had a bead between his eyes and he was caught completely unarmed.

The chime above the door rang and he looked from the big brown eyes in front of him to the woman strolling into the Gas and Go. Into the face of the woman who’d made his life uncomfortable in more ways than one. Her blond hair was pulled back into a loose, messy ponytail. She wore a rumpled dress and zip-up hoodie. She looked like shit, but for some reason, his body responded like he was in junior high and the prettiest girl in school just walked into sex ed class.

Chapter Eight

Sadie pushed open the door to the Gas and Go and hitched her bag onto her shoulder. She was beyond exhausted. She’d spent the past two weeks inside a hospital in Laredo, and she’d just deplaned about an hour ago in Amarillo. She’d had a four-hour layover in Dallas, and she was not only exhausted, she was cranky as hell. Her ponytail was falling to one side and her eyes were scratchy. She looked like crap and she just didn’t care.

She glanced up through her scratchy eyes at Becca and beyond to the man scowling like a black storm cloud was sitting above his dark head and big shoulders. Great. Vince was still in town. She didn’t have the energy to care or be embarrassed about what had happened at Tally Lynn’s wedding or how she looked. She’d be embarrassed tomorrow after her brain rested and she could recall every humiliating memory of his warm mouth and hot touch.

“Hi, Sadie,” Becca moved toward her and gave her a big hug like they were old friends. “I heard about your daddy. How’s he doing?”

She was a little surprised by how good Becca’s hug felt. “Cranky.” She pulled back and looked into the younger woman’s brown eyes. “Thanks for asking.” The doctors said it would be a few more weeks until he could be moved to a care facility in Amarillo, followed by months of rehabilitation. “He’s going to be moved to a rehab facility in Amarillo soon.” Which was why she was back home. To talk to the administrator and determine what care was best for him. Best for a cranky old rancher with anger issues.

“I know you were planning on going home. Are you in town for a while now?” Becca asked.

“Yeah, probably a few more months.” She was stuck in Lovett for months. Taking care of her father who didn’t want anyone taking care of him, it seemed, least of all her. Sadie dropped her arms to her sides and moved past Becca toward the coolers. Her mind might be too tired to retrieve every memory of that night in the bride’s room, but the testosterone rolling off Vince like a tsunami reminded her body in a crashing wave that created a bit of turbulence in her chest.

“The night of Tally Lynn’s wedding, everyone wondered why you ran off before the bouquet toss. Now we know why you were in such a hurry.”

Her tired feet stopped and she looked over her shoulder at Vince. “We do?” Had Vince told Becca, or had