Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“Just what,” Pike repeated softly.
“I can’t help it,” she said, her longing so thick it felt like she was choking on it. “I’m sorry, but I j-just c-can’t.”
Pike’s gaze softened as he lifted one hand, brushing his knuckles lightly from her cheekbone to the point of her chin, stealing her breath away. “Relax, okay? It’s just me. You know I would never hurt you.”
Her lips parted to say that he’d already hurt her, hurt her so badly that she’d done something unforgivable, but before she could speak, Clint set the drinks down on the bar beside her with a loud thunk thunk thunk.
“Two whiskey shots and a pale ale,” he said, an edge in his usually friendly voice. “You want me to start a tab, Mr. Sherman?”
“No, I’ll pay now.” Pike shifted to pull his wallet from his jeans pocket, putting some much-needed distance between them and giving Tulsi a chance to pull herself together.
She couldn’t afford the luxury of easing her conscience. She couldn’t let her mouth run without thinking or give Pike any reason to suspect the truth.
“That’ll be fifteen dollars even,” Clint said, but he didn’t reach for the credit card when Pike laid it on the bar. “You okay, Tulsi? You seem a little shook up.”
“Oh no, I’m fine.” Tulsi turned on her stool, forcing a smile for the forty-something bartender who had always gone out of his way to look after her and her girlfriends when they came into the saloon.
“Are you sure?” Clint smiled, but the warmth in his eyes faded as his gaze shifted to Pike. “I can call someone for you if you need me to.”
Tulsi shook her head. “Everything is fine, but thank you, Clint. You’re one of the good ones.”
“You too, sweetheart,” he said gruffly, his skin flushing beneath his whiskered cheeks. “Just let me know if you need anything else. Anything at all.”
Tulsi nodded but kept her gaze on the bar, as he moved away, and Pike claimed the stool beside hers. She had to get a grip. She couldn’t give away her secrets or make a scene with Pike in a bar in the middle of the day. Someone would see and go tattling to her dad the way they had the night she went line dancing with Bubba’s fiancée, Marisol. Daddy was still making jabs at dinner about the spectacle Tulsi had made of herself, his attitude making it clear he equated dancing in public with working a pole down at the seedy strip club near the border.
She knew he was being ridiculous, but she hated the way he’d looked at her the day he found out about the dancing. She didn’t know if her heart could take another bruising like that one, at least not until her mom got back into town to counter Daddy’s disapproval with a hug and a whisper to “ignore it, honey,” in the kitchen after supper.
“Looks like you’ve got no shortage of protectors,” Pike said, lifting his whiskey shot and downing it with a twist of his wrist. “You’re good at the damsel in distress routine.”
“What do you mean by that?” she asked, frowning up at him.
Pike pushed the second shot her way with two long, slender fingers. “The quiver in your voice and those big, sad eyes. I mean, how could a man resist doing whatever it takes to make you feel better?”
Tulsi sat up straighter, anger cooling her lust. “You make it sound like I’m manipulating people. I’m not. I’m upset, that’s all.”
Pike seemed to chew on that, his jaw working back and forth as he fought to keep from saying something awful. But she knew Pike and his faces too well for him to hide behind a clenched jaw.
“What?” she prodded after a moment. “Go ahead, speak your mind.”
“I don’t think you’d like it,” he said, taking a long swig of the pale ale sweating on the bar. “Might hurt your feelings.”
“So?” she snapped. “It’s not like you could hurt me any more than you have already.”
Pike’s eyebrows lifted toward the brim of his hat. “Excuse me?”
Tulsi mentally cursed her inability to hold her tongue as she snatched her whiskey shot off the bar and tipped it back in one gulp, hoping Pike would let it go if she refused to answer. She hadn’t meant to start this conversation and there wasn’t enough liquid courage in the world to get her through it without falling apart.
“You’re the one who ended it,” Pike said, proving this wasn’t her day, not by a long shot. “You’re the one who was with someone else while we were supposed to be together. Or have you forgotten that inconvenient fact?”
Tulsi lifted her chin, fighting the urge to cry. “Yeah, well, you hadn’t returned my calls in three weeks. What else was I supposed to do?”