The Trouble with Tomboys (Tommy Creek #1)(45)

Rudy paused and scowled over his shoulder.

“Why the hell not?”

“What? Are you the only person in the county who hasn’t heard?” She rolled her eyes as she patted her belly. “I’ll be yakking all over you in the plane if I get one whiff of coffee.”

Her brother blinked. “Yeah, I heard about the baby. But...the smell of coffee really makes you sick jus ’cause you got a bun in the oven?”

“Apparently. I stocked the fridge with cola if you need a caffeine fix.”

“Yeah? Thanks.” He turned away and started

off. B.J. returned her attention to the NASCAR

race, thanking God Rudy hadn’t freaked out over her condition. Ever since yesterday when she and Grady had gone public with their news, she’d been treated like an alien with two heads. She suddenly understood why he’d withdrawn into himself after Amy had died. It sucked to have everyone staring 137



Linda Kage



and talking about you wherever you went.

The snap and fizz of an aluminum can opening behind her told her Rudy had returned. Without looking up from the screen, she said, “Twenty bucks says Gordon wipes out on that last turn there before the race is up.”

Rudy stopped at her side, took a five-second long chug, guzzling loudly as he swallowed. Then he wiped his mouth with the back of his free hand and burped. “You’re on.”

“Hell, I’ll give you twenty bucks just to tell me who really knocked you up. Rawlings or Smardo?”

B.J. growled and closed her eyes. “Leroy.” He’d been popping over every couple of hours to annoy her. “I swear to God, if you don’t shut up about that, I’m going to give you another bloody nose.”

Rudy snorted.

Leroy ignored her threat. “Twenty bucks,” he coaxed, waving a bill in front of her face. Though he tried to move it fast enough she couldn’t tell what denomination it was, she knew it was a single dollar.

Rolling her eyes, she shoved his hand out of her sight. “Get out of my face, *, and stop asking me stupid questions.”

“I thought it was a pretty good question myself.”

At the new voice, all three Gilmore siblings froze and then turned in unison. B.J. felt rather than saw her two brothers slink a respectful step back when they found themselves in the presence of Grady’s father, Mr. Rawlings Oil himself. B.J. had to admit her legs quivered a little with intimidation, but she made sure she didn’t change her stance any: cocked hip, arms crossed, and expression bored.

Giving Tucker Rawlings a single nod, she asked,

“Can we help you with something?”

He flickered a single, meaningful glance toward her brothers.

“Uh, I’ll just go start the pre-flight inspection 138



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before we take off,” Rudy said.

Leroy added, “Yeah, I’ll help.”

The two stumbled over each other in their haste to flee.

B.J. watched them go. Cowards. Thanks a lot, guys, she wanted to call after them. Abandon your own sister to the big bad wolf. But instead she stood her ground and faced off with Tucker Rawlings alone.

“Well, I guess I should’ve expected to see you sooner or later,” she said.

Instead of answering, Tucker glanced toward

the television just in time to catch Jeff Gordon nosedive into the very wall B.J. had predicted he would. She’d never felt so sick about winning twenty bucks in her life.

“You like to gamble, do you, B.J.?” Grady’s

father asked, letting her know he’d been standing behind her long enough to catch her wager with Rudy.

She didn’t answer. But he obviously didn’t

expect her to because he continued talking. His eyes met hers, so brilliantly blue, for a moment she felt like she was looking at his son. “What say the two of us make our own wager?”

Her tension was so great, she couldn’t even

sweat. “’Bout what?”

One corner of Rawlings’s mouth curved up as he sent her an amused look. “’Bout my son, of course.”

B.J. shuddered out a breath, knowing this

conversation was somehow going to leave her

damaged. Seriously damaged. “What about him?”

Instead of responding, he turned away to watch Rudy and Leroy walk around her Cessna. “That airplane’s yours, right?” he asked and glanced back over his shoulder at her.

She gave a brief nod, uneasy about his interest in her baby.

139



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“You owe, what, thirty-three grand on it, don’t you?”

B.J.’s stomach dropped. It felt like someone had just pushed her over the edge of the Grand Canyon, and she dangled there in space for a split second before falling. But what the— He’d nosed into her debts? Into her plane? What did he want with her plane? Why would he bring her plane into this?

Realizing this conversation had just taken a turn she knew was headed down a doomed path, she stood steady. Petrified, but steady. “It’s thirty-two and half,” she corrected, feigning all the courage and bravado she didn’t feel.

“Actually, it’s thirty-two thousand, six hundred twenty-three dollars and eighty-eight cents if I paid it off today.”