When he was just a kid, he remembered thinking that he might grow up to be a jailbird or a monk, an astronaut or a post-hole digger, a zookeeper or a big game hunter, but one thing he was not going to be was a drunk. They already had one of those in the family, and that was one too many.
“Hiya, Reede.”
The sound of the breathy, feminine voice interrupted his contemplation of the amber contents of his glass. He raised his head and immediately saw a plump set of tits.
She was wearing a skin-tight black T-shirt with BORN BAD spelled out in glittering red letters. Her jeans were so tight she had difficulty climbing onto the bar stool. She managed, but not without jiggling her breasts and pressing Reede’s thigh in the process. Her smile was as brilliant as a zirconium ring, and not nearly as genuine. Her name was Gloria, Reede remembered, just in time to be courteous.
“Hi, Gloria.”
“Buy me a beer?”
“Sure.” He called out the order to the bartender. Glancing pointedly over his shoulder, Reede called her attention to the group of friends she’d left sitting in the booth across the dim tavern.
“Don’t mind them,” she said, flirtatiously tapping his arm where it rested on the bar. “It’s every girl for herself after ten o’clock.”
“Ladies night out?”
“Hmm.” She tipped the long-neck to her glossy lips and drank. “We were headed for Abilene to see the new Richard Gere movie, but the weather turned so bad, we said what the hell, and decided to stay in town. Wha’chu been up to tonight? You on duty?”
“For a while. I’m off now.” Reluctant to be drawn into conversation, he returned to his drink.
Gloria wasn’t going to be dismissed that easily. She scooted as close to him as the bar stool would allow and threw her arm across his shoulders. “Poor Reede. It must get awful lonesome riding around by yourself all the time.”
“I’m working when I’m riding around.”
“I know, but still…” Her breath fanned his ear. It smelled like beer. “It’s no wonder you frown so much.” A sharp fingernail plowed the deep furrow between his eyebrows. He jerked his head back, away from her touch. She snatched her hand back and uttered a soft, wounded sound.
“Look, I’m sorry,” he muttered. “My mood’s as bad as the weather. It’s been a long day. Guess I’m just tired.”
Rather than putting her off, that encouraged her. “Maybe I could cheer you up, Reede,” she said with a timorous smile. “Anyway, I’d sure like to try.” Again she moved close, sandwiching his upper arm between her cushiony breasts. “I’ve had the wildest crush on you since I was in seventh grade. Don’t make out like you didn’t know,” she said with a scolding pout.
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“Well, I did. But you were taken then. What was that girl’s name? The one that loony killed in the stable?”
“Celina.”
“Yeah. You were real gone on her, weren’t you? By the time I got to high school, you were at Texas Tech. Then I got married and started having kids.” She didn’t notice that he wasn’t interested in her chatter. “ ’Course, the husband’s long gone, and the kids are old enough now to take care of themselves. I guess there never was much chance for you to know I had a crush on you, was there?”
“I guess not.”
She leaned so far forward, her perch on the stool became precarious. “Maybe it’s time you did, Reede.”
He glanced down at her breasts, which were making teasing, brushing contact with his arm. As a result, her nipples made hard, distinct impressions against her T-shirt. Somehow, the blatancy wasn’t as enticing as Alex’s innocent, bare toes peeking out from beneath her terry-cloth bathrobe. Knowing that there was nothing but Gloria under the black T-shirt didn’t excite him as much as wondering what, if anything, was under Alex’s white robe.
He wasn’t aroused, not even a little. He wondered why.
Gloria was pretty enough. Black hair curled around her face and emphasized dark eyes that were now lambent with invitation and promise. Her lips were parted and wet, but he wasn’t sure he could kiss them without sliding off. They were coated with cherry-red lipstick. Involuntarily, he compared them to lips free of makeup, but still pink and moist, kissable and sexy, without making any attempt to be.
“I gotta be going,” he said suddenly. He unhooked his boot heels from the rungs of the stool and came to his feet, fishing in the pocket of his jeans for enough bills to cover the price of his drinks and her beer.
“But, I thought—”
“Better get back to your group, or you’re liable to miss the party.”
The wild well control boys had ventured toward the women, who were making no secret of being on the prowl and out for a good time. The merging of the two groups had been as inevitable as a hard freeze by morning. The delay had been calculated to build the anticipation. Now, however, sexual innuendos were being swapped at a rate to match the stock exchange on a busy day.
“Nice seeing you, Gloria.”