Where There's Smoke (23 page)

The man's weight had tipped the table to a forty-five-degree angle.

He was bleeding from his nose.
 
Grunting curses, he struggled to his feet and charged the man who had punched him.

"Time to go."
 
Key calmly stood up and encircled Lara's upper arm.

"Your first time at Barbecue Bobby's ought not to be spoiled with a fight."

She was spellbound by the sudden outbreak of violence.
 
As the two young men continued to slug it out, a ring of onlookers formed an arena for them, shouting encouragement.
 
She watched and listened in horror as blood splattered and cartilage crunched.

"They're hurting each other!"
 
As Key ushered her toward the door, she tried to dig in her heels.
 
He ignored her attempts and moved inexorably toward the exit, pausing only long enough to hand Bobby a twenty-dollar bill.
 
"Still up to standard.
 
Thanks."

"Sure thing.
 
Y'all come back."

Bobby didn't take his eyes off the fight, which had intensified.

The fighters were throwing vicious punches and shockingly obscene insults at each other.

"I should stay," Lara protested.
 
"They'll need medical attention.

I could help."

Key gave the fighters an indifferent backward glance as he pushed her through the door.
 
"They wouldn't welcome your help, believe me.

Especially those two.
 
They don't appreciate others poking their noses into family affairs."

"They're related?"
 
Lara asked, aghast.

"Brothers-in-law."
 
By now they were in the car, pulling out of the parking lot onto the highway.
 
"Lem and Scoony have always been best friends.
 
A few years back, Scoony's little sister started looking real good to Lem.
 
They began dating.
 
That didn't set too well with Scoony, having seen Lem in action with other girls.
 
Scoony warned him that if he knocked up his sister he'd beat the shit out of him."

He concentrated on passing a loaded logging truck.

Impatiently Lara asked, "Well, what happened?"

"Lem knocked her up, and Scoony beat the shit out of him."

"And they've been enemies ever since?"

"No, they're still best friends.
 
Missy, that's Scoony's sister, heard that Scoony was out to throttle Lem.
 
She tracked them down at The Palm, l believe it was-and joined the fracas.
 
Kicked them both where they're most vulnerable.

"By the time the sheriff got there, both boys were in tears, cradling their privates, and blubbering like babies.
 
Missy told Lem he could either marry her or she'd permanently emasculate him and told Scoony that if he didn't like it he could .
 
. . Well, Missy never has been known for her ladylike language.
 
Anyway, Lem and Missy got married, had a little boy, and everybody was happy."

"Happy?"
 
Lara exclaimed.
 
"What about tonight?"

"Oh, hell, that was nothing.
 
They were just blowing off steam.

By now they're probably buying each other a drink."

Lara shook her head in dismay.
 
"This place.
 
These people.
 
l always thought tales of Texas were exaggerations to perpetuate the state 5 mystique.
 
Like Barbecue Bobby.
 
What you told me is really the way it happened, isn't it?
 
A bull rider named Little Pete Pauley set fire to his house, his hair got singed, and that's how he got his nickname."

He looked surprised.
 
"Did you think I was lying?"

"I don't know what to think."

She gazed through the windshield as if viewing the landscape of an alien planet.
 
Although she would never admit it to him, she felt bewildered and overwhelmed.
 
Would she ever fit in?
 
Had she been deluding herself that she could?
 
Eden Pass was as peculiar and at times as intimidating as a foreign country.

"It's so different here," she said lamely.

"True enough.
 
Different for you, anyway."
 
He pointed through the windshield at the approaching lights of town.
 
"For every person living in Eden Pass, there's a story.
 
I could spend all night with you and still not get around to all of them."

She reacted, turning her head quickly.
 
His choice of words had been calculated.
 
She could tell that by the way he was looking at her.

In a sexy voice he added, "But I don't guess we'll be spending any nights together, will we, Doc?"

"No, we "Because you and I don't have a damn thing in common, do we?"

"Only one thing.
 
Clark.
 
We have Clark in common."

At the mention of his brother's name, his sultry gaze instantly turned cold.
 
His expression changed completely.

"Well, he and I didn't have much in common except our two parents and a home address.
 
We loved each other, even liked each other.
 
But Clark obeyed all the rules.
 
I broke them.
 
I grudgingly respected him for being good all the time, and I think he harbored a secret envy for my ability not to give a damn.
 
We were as different as brothers could be and still be kin."
 
His eyes moved over her.

"Where we really differed was our taste in women."

"I doubt the two of you would appeal to the same woman," she said stiffly.

"Right.
 
It would either be one of us or the other.
 
For instance, if Clark had taken you to dinner tonight, you wouldn't have had the pleasure of Barbecue Bobby's.
 
You'd have dressed up fit to kill and gone to the country club.
 
You'd have rubbed elbows with the upper crust, the social climbers, pillars of the community.

"They're still drinkers, liars, cheaters, and fornicators, but they're less honest about their failings than the folks out at Bobby's."
 
He angled his head to one side.
 
"Come to think of it, you'd've fit in much better out there at the country club with all those other hypocrites."

Lara took the insult with equanimity.
 
"What is it about me that really bugs you, Mr. Tackett?"
 
Once today she had slipped and called him by his first name.
 
That had been at the height of the crisis with Letty Leonard.
 
Last names seemed more appropriate now.
 
It reestablished the breach.

He brought the Lincoln to a halt in her driveway, barely missing the Leonards' picnic paraphernalia still scattered about.

Laying his arm on the back of the seat, he turned to face her.

"What really bugs me is that the whole world knows you're a whore.

Your own husband caught you whoring.
 
But you don't own up to what you are.
 
You pretend to be another kind of woman entirely."

"What do you suggest I do, brand a letter A on my chest?"

"I'm sure many would pay for the pleasure.
 
Me, for one.

"How dare you judge me?
 
You don't know the first thing about me, and you know even less about my relationship with your brother."
 
She shoved open the car door.
 
"What do I owe you for today?"

"Forget it."

"I don't want to be obligated to you.

"You already are," he said.
 
"You cost Clark everything that was important to him.
 
He's no longer around to call in the marker, but I am.
 
And when I do, it's going to be "You've got it backward, Mr.

Tackett.
 
I'm the one who's holding the I.O.U, and you are the one who's going to pay.

"How do you figure?"

She gave him a level look.
 
"You're going to fly me to Montesangre.

His arrogant grin collapsed, and for a moment he stared blankly at her.

Then he cupped his hand around his ear.
 
"Come again?"

"You heard me.

"Yeah, I heard you, but I can't believe it."

"Believe it' He was incredulous.
 
"Does the expression not in this lifetime' mean anything to you?"

"You'll take me there, Mr. Tackett," she said confidently as she alighted.
 
"I'll see to it."

"Yeah, right, Doc."
 
He was laughing as he backed the Lincoln out of the driveway.
 
It fishtailed as he sped away.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

Heather Winston and her boyfriend, Tanner Hoskins, were entangled on the quilt they'd spread out in the tall grass.
 
Nearby the lazy waters of the lake slapped against the rocky beach.
 
The moon had risen and was reflected on the water.

Even on the hottest evenings there was always a cool breeze around the lake, which made it more comfortable for the young lovers who parked there.
 
In Eden Pass the lake was the most popular make-out spot.
 
If you went to the lake with someone, everyone assumed the relationship was serious.

Heather and Tanner had a serious relationship, now four months old.

Previously she'd gone out with Tanner's best friend, who, she came to find out, was fooling around with another girl.
 
Following the much-publicized breakup scene outside the chemistry lab, Tanner went to her house to console her.

He'd been very sweet, calling his friend a stupid jerk-off and taking Heather's side on all points.
 
Heather took a closer look at Tanner and decided that he was much more handsome than the creep who'd cheated on her.

After polling her best friends and discovering that they too thought Tanner was a good catch, she changed the tenor of the time they spent together.
 
Soon it was known around school that she was with" Tanner.

She couldn't have been happier with the way things had turned out.

Since Heather Winston was the most sought-after girl in the junior class, Tanner was also walking on air.
 
The first time he kissed her they'd frenched, and it nearly took the top of his head off.
 
All the guys agreed that she had a body-taking after her mama, who was indisputably the hottest-looking bitch in Eden Pass.
 
There was a lot of good-natured speculation in the locker room as to just how much of Heather's delights ol' Hoskins had sampled.

Tanner's responses to these teasing jeers were deliberately vague.

Most of the guys chose to think he was getting all he wanted but was protecting Heather's reputation with gallant silence.
 
Those more cynical figured he hadn't seen or touched anything that a swimsuit would cover.

The truth lay somewhere in between.

Tonight, he had unbuttoned her blouse and gotten his hand inside her brassiere.
 
Heather permitted him to fondle her anywhere above the waist.
 
Below it was where she customarily drew the line.

They were on the brink of a breakthrough, however.
 
The gentle feathering of his tongue across her nipples had pushed Heather to a sexual height she'd never achieved before.
 
Yearningly, she brushed her hand across the fly of his shorts.

He made a strangled, groaning sound.
 
"Please, Heather."

Tentatively she pressed her palm against the bulge in his crotch.

Her friends had warned her that "it" got huge and hard.
 
Even so she was timid of his erection.
 
Yet curious.
 
And desirous.
 
And her friends were going to start believing she was weird if she didn't move things farther along.