Chapter 32
BODIE
I gestured for Lacey to enter the kitchen first. “After you, sugarplum.”
She shot me a thinly veiled glare—the kind that might have leveled me if I hadn’t been in on her deceitful little game. “Thanks, snuggybug.”
“Have you always had nicknames for each other?” Samantha sat on a stool at the kitchen counter, pen in hand.
“Not always,” I said. “She didn’t like me for the longest time.”
“Oooh, an enemies-to-lovers tale? Do tell.” Samantha scooted closer to the counter, where her blank notepad waited to be filled with stories detailing my and Lacey’s love affair.
Lies, all of them. But I’d always been a big fan of the advice to go big or go home.
Since I was already at home, I didn’t have a choice but to come up with the biggest, most ridiculous background story I could.
If Lacey wanted to play with fire, I would make sure she got a little singed around the edges.
“Yeah, she always had the hots for me but . . .”
“Unrequited love?” Samantha’s pen flew over the paper.
“Not exactly.” Lacey leaned her elbows onto the counter. “I didn’t want to catch anything, if you know what I mean. He’s been clean for a few years now, isn’t that right, honey bear?”
Samantha’s eyes widened.
“I don’t think you should put anything about that in the story.” Lacey brought a finger to her lips. “Let’s keep that just between us.”
Score one to Lacey. If that’s how she wanted to handle things, I’d be willing to take a stab or two at creating a history for her that was just as colorful as the one she seemed to want to make up for me.
“Yeah, that was nothing though compared to what poor Lacey went through as a teen.” I picked up a plate and forked a nice piece of juicy brisket.
“Did she tell you about her IBS issues? I’m surprised she made brisket tonight.
” I held a hand up to my mouth like I was about to share a big secret.
“Gives her horrible runs, red meat always has.”
“Oh.” Samantha glanced at her plate of half-eaten brisket.
“Crazy what true love will make you do, isn’t it?” Lacey asked. “I know how much he loves it so even though I can’t enjoy it like I used to, I still want him to be able to experience it.”
“That’s such a great story,” Samantha said.
Yes, it was. I would have to up the ante if I wanted to cast Lacey in a bad light. Before I had a chance to come up with something equal parts ridiculous and embarrassing, Samantha tapped her pen to her lip.
“I notice you’re not wearing a ring. Did he give you one? I’m sure our readers will want to know how he popped the question.”
Lacey glanced down at her ring finger. “Of course he gave me a ring. I was just out working with the horses today so I didn’t want to risk losing it. I’ll make sure to wear it next time you come to town.”
Next time? My heart stuttered to a stop. What exactly had I committed to? Temporarily distracted from my goal of throwing Lacey under the bus, I cleared my throat. “When exactly is the next time?”
Lacey twined her fingers with mine and rested our joined hands on the counter. “We’re going to be featured in the magazine. Samantha is going to want to follow our journey from proposal to happily ever after.”
“That’s right. So tell me, how did you propose?”
I glanced to Lacey. “You sure do tell it better, honey pie.”
Her eyelashes fluttered. “Well, if you insist . . .”
I insisted, all right. What fictional tale would Lacey feed to the reporter? I sat down on a barstool and picked up my fork. It would be a shame to let all of that home-cooked brisket go to waste.
“He’s always been so romantic,” Lacey started. “In fact, he used to write me love poems while we were growing up but was too shy to give them to me.”
I almost choked on a piece of brisket. Love poems? The only poem I’d ever memorized was my dad’s version of grace: Good bread, good meat, good Lord, let’s eat.
“How sweet. Do you remember any of them off the top of your head?” Samantha glanced to me.
I shoved a bite of beans in my mouth and shook my head.
“He’s too embarrassed to say.” Lacey leaned over and squeezed my shoulder. “How did that one go? Grass is green, sunflowers are yellow, I wish so bad that I was your fellow?”
I sucked in a breath, sending the bite of beans down the wrong pipe. Coughing, I tried to catch my breath.
“Are you okay, angel love?” Lacey’s mock concern made me want to abandon the project right then and there. If I had to put up with crap like this until May I’d rather risk facing the town. She handed me my water and I took a nice, slow sip.
“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting you to share something so personal.” The way I glared at her should have shut her down. Should have turned her knees the consistency of my grandma’s rhubarb jelly.
But instead she tapped me on the shoulder and leaned toward Samantha. “What did I say? He’s so sensitive.”
“And the proposal?”
“It was incredibly romantic.” Lacey smiled as she dipped her head.
“All day he kept leaving me little poems. I won’t repeat any of the others since they’re so personal.
” She glanced at me, one side of her mouth quirking into a smirk.
“But we had dinner plans that night so I figured it was just a lead-up to our date. He picked me up that afternoon and we drove to Houston. Nice restaurant, gorgeous view of the city. Then the waiter brought a special dessert to the table next to ours.”
I wondered where she was going with the storyline. But I waited, ready to intervene if necessary.
“The gal squealed because there was a diamond ring sitting on top of her flan. Just resting there. Poor Bodie kept craning his neck, and I wondered why in the world he was so interested in their dessert. I mean, the man does love his flan, but it was ridiculous. And then he gets up from the table and walks over there and I almost died. He stuck his finger in the flan and grabbed the ring.”
“No.” Samantha gasped.
I could see where she was going with this so I decided to ad-lib a bit. “It was my ring. The waiter took it to the wrong table. Like hell some other guy was going to get credit for my proposal.”
“Not to mention that two-carat yellow diamond.” Lacey laughed as she skimmed her hand over my arm. “That poor woman was so sad. The other couple left the restaurant with her in tears.”
“After you stomped on her foot,” I added. Lacey squeezed my arm. “She really thought the schmuck she was with was proposing. She told everyone they’d been dating for seven years. So she tried to take the ring back from me.”
“But you held on tight, right?” Samantha asked.
“No.” I shrugged. “She caught me off guard. Grabbed it right out of my hand as I went down on one knee. It fell on the floor and Lacey got down on her hands and knees to find it. You should have seen her crawling around in that miniskirt she had on. I think one of the busboys got some video of it.”
“I’m assuming you captured the moment as well.”
“Of course,” I said.
At the same time Lacey blurted, “Sadly, no.”
“So which is it?” Samantha asked.
Lacey glanced to me, her hand to her temple, a question in her eyes.
What was the big deal? “I’m pretty sure we got at least one good one.”
“I’d love to include it in the article. I’m thinking this could be bigger. Maybe we’ll do a small piece in the issue ahead of the big one. Can you get that to me by the end of the month?” Samantha reached into her bag.
While she rummaged in her purse, Lacey elbowed me in the gut. So maybe I’d taken it a tad far in my effort to one-up her. I’d find someone at the station to fudge a pic of us together. No big deal.
“I’d love to. I can probably even send one or two of our early dates if you’d like.” I glanced at Lacey. Her eyes just about bugged out of her head. This was fun.
“The two of you are so right together. I’m sure our readers would love that.”
“So right.” I wanted to belly laugh at that remark. If Lacey and I were so right together then how come everything had gone down so wrong?
“Tell me what it’s like working so closely together?” Samantha changed the subject. “Have you ever had any conflict of interest seeing as how Lacey’s the mayor and you’re the sheriff?”
“Sheriff’s deputy,” Lacey corrected. “Although rumor has it my main squeeze has some pretty big career aspirations.” The glint in her eye could have sparked a fire.
“It’s good to have dreams,” I said.
“Have you clashed over city issues? Where’s the conflict?”
“We have plenty of sparks, if you get my drift.” I lifted a brow, trying to make light of the gray area we were wading through.
“Yes, we’ve had conflicts,” Lacey answered. “His family closed down their business recently, causing half the town to lose their jobs. As mayor, that put a giant wrench in my plans to keep our economy going.”
“Bodie, how’s that possible? How involved are you in the family business?”
“My dad and grandfather handle everything. They don’t run their decisions past me. It’s unfortunate but you’d have to ask them for their reasons.”
“You said you wanted to talk about how the wedding plans are going,” Lacey said, changing the subject.
Grateful for a bit of a reprieve, I kept quiet while she and Samantha talked about all the upcoming decisions we’d have to make.
What kind of flowers did we want? Were we going with a theme?
How about a groom’s cake? Would there be a bachelor and bachelorette party?
Hell no to that. I’d seen the kind of damage Lacey could do when let loose with the girls for an evening.
I finished my brisket and went back for another helping. Lacey might be a hot mess when it came to some things, but the woman sure could cook.
“So Bodie, you’ll get that photo to me? And one with the ring?” Samantha asked as she slid her notebook into her bag.
“Sure. I’ll get right on that.” And by “get right on that” I meant I’d try to figure out a way to manipulate something that would pass.
“It would be great if you could include the name of the restaurant. Couples are always looking for places to pop the question.”
“It was the Cattleman,” I offered.
“Oooh, I’ve heard that place is nice.” Samantha turned to Lacey. “You’re a lucky woman.”
“Don’t I know it.” Lacey blew me a kiss then stuck out her tongue as Samantha reached back to put on her jacket.
Why was she giving me the stink eye? I’d gone along with her crazy talk. For now. Someone would have to set the record straight though before this got out of hand.
“Thanks again for sharing your story. I’ll be in touch with some potential dates for the camera crew to come down.”
Lacey held the door open, the casual grin on her face not giving any outward sign of what was going on inside that gorgeous head of hers.
“That sounds great. I’ll talk to you soon.” She shut the door gently, letting it barely click closed before she spun around and glared at me.