Chapter 6 #3
She pulled her hand free from him and resisted the urge to pat him on the head like a little boy. “You are a day late and a dollar short, Rusty. See that tall guy over there behind the bar? That’s my boyfriend, and he doesn’t take too kindly to me dancing with other men.”
“The offer has no expiration date,” Rusty said. “But know that my heart is broken and might never mend.”
A slow two-stepping song made it easier for her to weave her way through the dancing couples back to the bar. She set the empty tray down and was loading it with margaritas to serve at a table with a bunch of ladies when Knox kissed her on the cheek.
“Do I need to go kick that guy out for flirting with my woman?” he asked.
Lottie smiled at him and said in an icy-cold tone. “I am not your woman. I am your…” She stopped herself before she let the cat out of the bag by saying fake.
Bo’s ponytail swung back and forth when she did a perfect head wiggle. “You tell him, girl. Calling us ‘woman’ is fighting words.”
“Well…par…don…me!” Knox’s eyes twinkled.
“I can take care of myself, no matter how tall or short a man is,” Lottie told him, and then patted his cheek. “That’s to convince Rusty that I’m taken.” She picked up the tray and headed to the table of women who were eyeballing the men in the corner.
“Y’all want me to introduce you?” she asked as she set the margaritas in front of them.
“No, but that little feller who was making passes at you sure is cute,” the one with brown hair and eyes answered.
“Stand up, please,” Lottie said, “and tell me your name.”
“Rosalita, and why would I stand up?” she answered. “If you are wanting to know how tall I am, it’s five feet on the dot, and I like short guys.”
“That’s all I need to know,” Lottie said and walked back to the corner table. She laid a hand on Rusty’s shoulder. “See that table of women over there? That pretty little brunette with the brown eyes thinks you are sexy.”
He was on his feet in a split second and hurried across the dance floor. In less than a minute, they were dancing to a slow country waltz. And surprisingly enough, the guy was smooth on his feet.
“Hmmph,” she muttered. “Bernie doesn’t have a thing on me. I can play matchmaker too.”
* * *
After framing the house for more than half a day, driving from the lake area to Nocona, and working at the bar until the last customer finally left, Knox felt like he had been dragged through a knothole backward.
He chuckled at the memory of his father saying that same thing when he came in tired from a long day in the office.
“How can you laugh?” Lottie asked. “My feet hurt. No, that’s not right. My whole body is in pain. Who would have thought waiting on tables was such hard work?”
“Get Knox to give you a foot massage when you get home,” Bo suggested and led the way outside. “Thanks for helping with the cleanup, and for offering to come back tomorrow night. Let’s all go home and get some sleep.”
“A foot massage sounds heavenly,” Lottie said.
“If you can keep me awake, I’ll be”—he covered a yawn with his hand—“glad to oblige.”
“I’ll take a rain check for a later date,” she said. “I just want to find a bathroom, take a shower, and fall into a bed.”
Knox looked over his shoulder at Bo and then back at Lottie. “Together?”
Lottie bumped him on the shoulder. “Not tonight, honey, and tomorrow night ain’t lookin’ too good either.”
Bo giggled and locked the door behind them.
“Great acting back there,” Knox said on the way across the parking lot.
“If we were for real dating, the answer would have been the same,” Lottie told him. “I could sleep standing up in a broom closet.”
Knox nodded in agreement, helped her into the truck, and hoped that he didn’t fall asleep on the way back to Spanish Fort.
You are getting old. You used to be able to work all day, party until two o’clock in the morning on Saturdays, and go to church on Sunday morning.
“Maybe I was just young and stupid,” he muttered on the way around the truck.
Lottie’s eyes were closed when he slid behind the steering wheel, but they popped open the second he closed the door. “I’ll stay awake and talk to you the whole way back. I know how hard it is to drive at night with no one to keep you from falling asleep.”
“I’m not so old that I can’t stay awake for fifteen miles,” he protested.
“Who said anything about being old?” she smarted off. “And I’m not doing this for you. It’s for me. I’d like to get there alive and in one piece, not end up lying half-dead in a ditch.”
“Are you saying that you don’t trust my driving?”
“I’m too tired to fight with you tonight.”
“Well, damn!” He grinned. “I thought we’d argue all the way to the Paradise and then have wild makeup sex.”
“In your dreams!” she snapped.
That bit of banter jacked up his adrenaline level enough to wake him up.
It had been a while since he’d been to the bar, and he had forgotten how eerie a small town was at that time of morning.
No vehicles on the street. Not a single store open.
No people out and around. Not even a patrolling police car.
“Kind of makes you wonder if the world came to an end, and we’re the only ones left,” Lottie whispered.
“Would you still be my fake girlfriend if that was the case?” he teased.
“Probably not.”
“But if we were the only ones on earth, and it was up to us to repopulate the place…”
He could feel her eyes sizing him up, even in the dimly lit cab of the truck. “Maybe if that were the case.”
“Maybe?”
“I’d have to think about it. We would make pretty babies, but there would be no doctors or midwives, and I don’t know if you could bring a child into the new, empty world.
And what would we do if the kids got sick?
We could raid a pharmacy, but would either of us know what to do in case of an emergency? ”
“Why are those thoughts going through your head?” Knox asked.
“Because if our only job is to repopulate the earth, we would have to consider all that before we had sex,” she answered.
“I’m close to thirty. If I had a child every year until I was mid-forty, that would mean about a dozen kids.
Then there’s no one for them to marry and have families with.
No thank you. I don’t want to be the only two left behind. ”
“With that nightmare, I don’t either.” He noticed the For Sale sign nailed to a fence post that he’d seen on the way to Nocona, and his mind jumped over to the idea of making a group of small houses like Jack was doing down near the lake.
He could start off small with only half a dozen spec places and grow from there.
“Hey!” Lottie reached across the console and touched him on the shoulder. “You missed the turn. Are you sleeping with your eyes open?”
“Almost,” he replied and turned the vehicle around in Tripp’s leather shop’s parking lot. “I was building houses in my mind.”
“Good Lord! Don’t you get enough of that on the job?”
He drove a few blocks and made a right turn into the lane. “Can you compartmentalize so well that you turn everything off in the evenings?”
“I give it my best shot,” she told him. “Right now, I’m thinking about a shower. Lumber, nail guns, and steel tapes aren’t anywhere in my mind.”
Knox parked the truck and pointed toward the huge, two-story house.
“It’s been a long time since someone left the porch light on for me.
But back to you taking a shower. You can have the bathroom first, but only if you promise that you won’t use all the hot water. I smell like spilled beer and sweat.”
She unfastened her seat belt and opened the door. “Same here, and thank you.”
“I am a good pretend boyfriend.” He chuckled.
“Ever think about taking an acting job?” she asked as they walked across the yard together.
He opened the door for her and followed her inside the foyer.
“Nope. Had enough of that by the time I finished high school. Your room is the first one on the left. Your garment bag is hanging in the closet, and your suitcase is at the foot of the bed. Bathroom is at the end of the hallway. Towels are stacked on a ladder-back chair.”
“Thank you,” she muttered and headed up the stairs.
She passed by him on the way to the bathroom by the time he reached the end of the hallway and opened the door into his old bedroom. He sat down in a rocking chair and dozed off while he waited for her to finish. A gentle knock on the door and her whisper woke him with a start.
“I’m all done. That is one big-ass bathroom.”
“It had to accommodate seven girls.” He groaned as he stood and picked up a pair of pajama bottoms. “See you in the morning. Don’t set an alarm. They won’t get started until almost noon.”
“Thank God,” she muttered and disappeared out of the doorway.
Knox adjusted the water in the shower and shucked out of his dirty clothes.
Any other time, he would have let the pulsating stream ease his tired muscles.
But not that night. There was no doubt in his mind that he could fall asleep standing there.
He could fall, hit his head, and drown before anyone could even find him.
Or worse yet, break an arm. Then his job working for Jack would be over.
He was back in his room, under the covers and fast asleep, within ten minutes. But his night was filled with dreams of building a small, gated estate project, and Lottie was there with him every step of the way.