One Texas Cowboy Too Many (Burnt Boot, Texas #3)(43)

*

Rhett’s finger burned and then it tingled. Hell, it might never be the same.

“Share this with me. I didn’t even realize I was hungry until I smelled the chocolate.” She pinched off a bite and held it close to his mouth. “And speaking of sharing, tell me the story of the horns on the cycle and the tat while we drive.”

“No, ma’am. This is our second date. That’s a third-date story, remember?” He opened up wide enough that she had no excuse to put her fingers in his mouth again. “Good,” he said, chewing.

“It’s not good. It’s excellent. It will hold me until we get out of the traffic, but then I’m buying supper for us to repay you for all this,” she said.

“No, ma’am, you are not. I’d love to take you to supper at the restaurant of your choice, but my mama would come after me with a switch if I let a lady pay on a date,” he said.

“You’re afraid of your mama? I wouldn’t think you’d be afraid of a hungry grizzly bear.” She polished off the last of the cupcake.

“Honey, my mama puts fear in the hungry grizzly bear,” he told her.

“No wonder you’re still single at nearly thirty.”

“You got it.” He grinned. “So what do you have a hankering for?”

“Are we still talking about food?”

He slid a long look toward her, and their eyes locked. “That’s up to you, Leah.”

She sighed. “I want a big, fat hamburger with double meat, an order of fries to dip in ketchup, and a tall glass of sweet tea.”

“Then I know the place to go.” He blinked and looked back at the highway stretching ahead of him.

“You said you had something to tell me about Burnt Boot or the feud when we talked this morning.” She looked out the side window.

He nodded. “It can’t be proven, but last night, for the sake of the story we’ll say the Brennans intercepted a bit of information saying that Naomi Gallagher was afraid the Brennans might blow up the septic tank to her house, so she’d called a company to have it pumped. I’m thinking she let the news out on purpose, so that Mavis would know it was empty, and therefore, she wouldn’t blow it up in retaliation.”

“That sounds like the two of them,” Leah said.

“Your family must have paid someone to do the dirty—and I do mean dirty—deed. Instead of putting what was in the septic tank into the truck’s holding tank, they let it flow out all around the main house, trapping Naomi, Betsy, Tanner, and Tyrell in the house. Story has it that the company called Naomi and said they’d had some kind of trouble, and it would be real late when they got there. So it was after everyone had gone to bed when it all happened.”

“Why didn’t they call out for help?”

“I guess their computers, cell phones, and even the landline was down until right after church.”

“Quaid.” She smiled.

“What about Quaid?”

“He’s a computer genius. When he finished college, he was recruited to work for one of those alphabet sections of the government, but he turned them down. This serves them right for blowing up our school the way they did. It’s a stroke of genius. I’m glad Betsy was stuck in there. She’s such a bitch.”

“The claws have come out,” Rhett said.

“When it comes to Betsy, they stay out.”

“Oh, and the Gallaghers made a donation to the church sizable enough that they’ve hired Angelina’s fiancé as the new youth director. They gave him a three-year contract. Mavis looked pretty upset about it when we were leaving church this morning,” Rhett said.

“Granny will be so worked up, she won’t even know I’m home for a week. My cousin Quaid should have been given that position years ago,” she said.

“That’s what I heard from Sawyer and Jill. I overheard one of the Brennan cowboys saying that now the Gallaghers have the law and God both in their pockets.” Rhett chuckled.

Leah’s eyes widened as big as silver dollars. “Granny is meaner than the law or God.”

“And yet you’ve cut your vacation short to come home to face off with her when she’s in this mood. You sure you don’t want to come live in the bunkhouse on Fiddle Creek until she gets in a better mood?” Rhett asked.

“I don’t move in with a man after only knowing him eleven days and before I’ve been on a third date with him,” she said.

He tapped the clock on the dash. “Eleven days, one hour, and eleven minutes. That extra time should make a difference.”

The glorious beauty of her laughter filled the truck and put a smile on his face.

“So you think that’s funny?”

“You make me laugh, Rhett. I like that.”

“And no one else makes you laugh?”

“Not like you do. Why do things have to be so complicated when it comes to families?” She wiped her eyes with the napkin that had come with the cupcake.

He turned off an exit ramp into Gainesville. “Some things can’t be explained. Ever eaten at Five Guys?”

She clapped her hands together. “I love their burgers. There’s one not far from the condo in Florida where I stayed with Honey and Kinsey last year. This is perfect, Rhett.” A frown suddenly covered her face.