Trouble in Dixie Read online

  TROUBLE IN DIXIE

  By

  Becky McGraw

  SMASHWORDS EDITION

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  * * * * *

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Becky McGraw on Smashwords

  TROUBLE IN DIXIE, Copyright @ August, 2012 by Becky McGraw. All rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A Special Thank You

  I’d like to thank Kellie for her help proofreading and editing this book, as well as working with me on edits to the others in the series. I’d also like to thank my new BETA readers and friends, who have volunteered to help me with the new books in the series to make sure the Texas Trouble series is the best it can be. You guys are the best, and I appreciate your help.

  Finally, I’d especially like to thank you, the reader, for purchasing and reading my books. I hope you enjoy reading them, as much as I enjoyed writing them.

  PROLOGUE

  “How do you fucking sort of have sex with someone, babe? That was a yes or no question I asked. Did you and Katie have sex with Wade Roberts?” Gabe roared then grabbed Karlie’s shoulders.

  Katie walked up on the porch beside Tommy Tucker and gasped at Gabe’s question to her sister, then felt blood rush to her face. Looking down at Dixie, Tommy’s ten-year-old daughter, who had her bulldog puppy Snuggles wiggling in her arms, Katie covered Dixie’s ears, then glanced up at Tommy. His eyes were narrowed and his body tense, as he stared at Gabe and Karlie.

  Katie leaned down and lifted a hand to whisper into Dixie’s ear, “Go inside the house and introduce Snuggles to Sarge. I bet they both could use a walk too.” Dixie looked up at her and nodded, then went inside the house.

  Taking a step away from Tommy, who was radiating anger in hot waves, Katie asked her sister, “What’s going on, Karlie?”

  “Wade Roberts is here…” Karlie told her with a groan.

  Katie frowned, Wade Roberts was the last person on this Earth she wanted or expected to see here, the cowboy she and her sister had seduced, then left tied to the bed in a hotel room to teach him a lesson about harassing them to have twin sex with him. Her sister, of course, had taken the lesson to another level, by drawing a smiley face on his member with a magic marker, after they’d gotten him worked up and tied up.

  Karlie always took things to another level, her impulsive sister wasn’t known as the ‘Wild Child’ of the pro rodeo circuit for nothing. Katie on the other hand had gotten stuck with the ‘Mild Child’ label, in comparison, and she resented it.

  Yeah she was a lot more responsible than her sister, she took care of Karlie, cleaned up after her when she stepped off into a mess, which was quite often, but Katie was far from mild. Her temper equaled her sister’s in most instances, and she’d had her share of letting her hair down.

  As proof, the night Gabe was grilling her sister about now was a prime example of a time she’d been far from mild. It had taken ten tequila shooters to get her brave enough to do it, but she had been an equal participant in her sister’s mischief that night.

  Katie glanced at Tommy, who was standing beside her with his hands on his hips. His angry hazel eyes burned holes in her, before he dragged his gaze to Gabe and demanded, “Who the hell is Wade Roberts?”

  Gabe clenched his jaw then grated to Karlie, “Answer my question, Karlie…and Tommy’s, while you’re at it.”

  Karlie threw her chin up and answered, “I think this is a private matter between you and me, Gabe, and I’m not talking about it, until you calm down, and we’re alone.” She folded her arms over her chest, and Katie knew her sister meant what she said.

  Huffing out a relieved breath that her sister was actually keeping her mouth closed for a change, Katie relaxed a little. She had no intention of discussing what happened in that hotel room either, or explaining who Wade was to Tommy, it just wasn’t his business.

  Karlie stood up then looked down at Gabe and told him, “If Tommy wants to know, he’ll need to ask my sister…and it’s up to her whether she tells him or not,” before she turned and stomped across the porch and down the steps, then hurried toward the barn.

  Katie swallowed hard, when she felt Tommy’s heated gaze on her again, and told him, “I’m going get something to eat,” then started toward the porch to the steps.

  Before she reached the steps though, he grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him, and grated, “Tell me who Wade Roberts is, and if you and your sister had a threesome with him. I need to know what kind of person is around my daughter,” he told her firmly with his eyes glittering dangerously.

  “What kind of per—” she started then changed her mind, and yelled instead, “How dare you judge me, Tommy Tucker! If I want to have group sex with the whole fucking rodeo circuit, that’s none of your business!” Katie realized she had shouted a little too loudly, because a few people who were in the yard, between the house and the barn, looked their way curiously.

  Although Tommy Tucker was damned good looking, and he had set her motor running since she first laid eyes on him, the truth of the matter was, they didn’t have a personal relationship, she was an employee and nothing more. She’d been working for him for two weeks, had known him for three, and he’d never indicated he was interested in her at all. In fact, he avoided her mostly, so her personal life was none of this arrogant man’s business.

  Even if he was interested in her, it had become obvious to Katie there was no room in his life, or in his heart, for another female anyway. His whole world revolved around his daughter, Dixie, she could do no wrong in his eyes. His overindulgence had created a child with a princess complex, and her daddy, the King, was twisted around her pinkie tighter than strung barbed wire.

  Whatever Dixie wanted, she got in short order…like that bulldog puppy that Katie was having to help take care of.

  “I beg to differ with you, Katie…I don’t want someone who’d do something like that around my daughter,” he told her angrily.

  Katie’s heart twisted in her chest and anger flowed hot and heavy through her veins. He had just insulted her, basically called her a pervert, not worthy of being around his precious daughter.

  Going for the jugular to hurt him like he’d just hurt her, Katie smirked, then said with a sarcastic laugh, “I bet you haven’t had sex in ten years, and then only vanilla missionary sex.” Looking him up and down, she finished with a smirk, “No wonder you’re so uptight you couldn’t drag a needle out of your ass with a tractor.”

  His eyebrows lifted, then his face turned red and he said defensively, “I’ve had sex, I just don’t flaunt it in front of my daughter, and
I’m not going to put up with that from my employees either.”

  “I’m not flaunting a damned thing, I didn’t bring this up, you just overheard a private conversation between my sister and Gabe,” she told him, then took a step forward, before she put a finger in his chest, then spat, “I don’t plan on having sex, or talking about it, while I’m at the Rockin’ D, so you don’t have a thing to worry about.”

  Spinning away from him, Katie quickly went down the three porch steps, then hurried across the yard toward the food tent, leaving him standing there.

  Katie was wrong, he had a helluva lot to worry about, because his concern wasn’t solely about Dixie. Tommy recognized the knot in his stomach and the anger pouring through him for what it was, jealousy…an emotion he hadn’t felt in a lot of years, and one he didn’t like feeling now.

  Even if he wouldn’t allow himself to touch Katie Upton, because she had relationship written all over her, it didn’t mean he didn’t want her, badly, and it didn’t mean he was okay with hearing about another man touching her.

  Grinding his teeth, Tommy sat down on the swing a minute and rocked, trying to calm himself down again. A second later the front door was flung open, then Dixie came running toward the swing, her face glowing with excitement. “Imelda said they had a bounce house set up for the kids. Can I go jump, daddy? She’s gonna watch Snuggles for me.”

  “Sure pumpkin, just don’t forget to check back on Snuggles now and then,” he said with a tight smile.

  “I will…Daddy why is your face so red?” Dixie asked then tilted her head to study him. “You feeling okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine, honey…just hot,” he lied. He was hot, but not from the blazing sun overhead…this fire was all inside of him. If his kid was noticing he was upset, so would everyone else. Tommy knew he needed to get a grip on himself fast. “You go have fun and play with the other kids, I’ll catch up with you in a little bit.”

  “Okay, bye!” she said then threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek, before she darted down the porch steps and headed for the big red bounce house behind one of the tents.

  Maybe a beer and listening to some music would cool him off and help him relax, Tommy thought, then pushed up off of the swing and headed for the tent where he heard music playing. He’d worked damned hard to make a peaceful life at his ranch, and a good life for his daughter. He’d be damned if he was going to let that redheaded wildcat change that.

  Tommy thought about letting her go, but he couldn’t make himself do that, he’d sunk just about everything he had into starting that cutter line, and he needed her. She was the best trainer he could find, even better than her scattered sister, so he couldn’t afford to lose her. It was just too damned bad she wasn’t a crotchety hunchback old man.

  Tommy walked under the tent, and went straight to one of the bar stations and got a beer. When he turned back toward the crowd, he saw a flash of red hair on the wooden dance floor, as a cowboy spun Katie around in three quick circles, before he jerked her to his body and they started dancing around the floor again.

  She threw her head back and laughed at something the cowboy said, and Tommy’s hand tightened around the beer bottle, and he swallowed down the red hot anger that reignited inside of him.

  His grip on the bottle tightened even more when he noticed the guy’s hand was on Katie’s ass. Tommy resisted the urge to go over there and yank her away from him. But she wasn’t his, he reminded himself. What she did with other men really wasn’t his business. A weird pain tweaked his heart and he rubbed there, then took a long swig of his beer. Walking over to the stage, he found a post to lean on, so he could torture himself by watching.

  Maggie had loved to dance, and seeing people dancing always sent him into a funk, it was doubly so, watching Katie dance with that guy. Tommy loved to dance too, but hadn’t done much of it since Maggie died. The only reason he’d learned to dance in the first place was for Maggie. Emotion punched him in the gut, and he lost his breath for a second, then he took another drink of his beer. He missed her so fucking much sometimes, even now after she’d been dead for ten years.

  Mostly, he missed being part of a couple, having someone to talk to, be with, to trust that she’d love him no matter what. Maggie had not only been his lover and wife, she’d been his friend. They’d met in college, and had dated for two years, before they got married. Who’d have thought three years later, she’d be gone, and he’d have a daughter to raise alone.

  After he finished his beer, Tommy threw the bottle in the garbage then went back to lean on the post. He pulled his hat down low over his eyes, and crossed his arms over his chest, hoping that sent the message to leave him the fuck alone.

  Katie was still on the dance floor with the same man, but now she was suctioned to his body like plastic wrap on banana pudding. They rubbed together to the slow sexy rhythm of the song the band was playing, and the longer he watched the more agitated Tommy got, but he knew there wasn’t a damned thing he could, or would, do about it.

  After the slow song finished, the band started playing another two step, then he jumped when someone walked up to his left and said, “Hey good looking, wanna dance?” He looked down into Karlie Upton’s bright blue eyes, the same blue eyes as those of her twin sister, the ones that haunted him when he closed his own at night.

  Tommy studied the wilder of the beautiful twins, and noticed mischief and purpose sparkling in her gaze. She’d evidently seen what her sister was up to, and that prompted her to ask him to dance. With a glance back at Katie on the dance floor, still two-stepping with the cowboy, he thought, what the hell, and grabbed her hand. “Sure,” he said shortly, then dragged her toward the dance floor.

  Tommy spun her in two quick circles then moved right into a two step, not missing a beat. Resting his hand on her lower back, he guided her around the floor, looking deeply into her eyes, with a pasted smile on his face. At every corner, he spun Karlie, then pulled her back to his chest.

  She leaned toward him and shouted, “Whew, you sure do dance well, sugar. This is fun…where’d you learn to dance?”

  He pulled her a little closer and leaned next to her ear and said, “My wife liked to dance, so I learned,” he told her, then stood back up with hollowness filling his chest. The pity in Karlie’s eyes was almost his undoing, but she pulled her gaze away from his and looked to the left.

  Most women had the same reaction when he mentioned his deceased wife, and it irritated him, because he didn’t want or deserve their pity. Maggie was dead because of him. That’s not something he told anyone though…ever.

  When the song ended, Tommy dipped Karlie, and gave her a kiss on the cheek, then said near her ear, “Thanks, darlin’…it’s been a long time, and that was fun.”

  A slow song came on and Karlie grabbed his hand and pulled him to the middle of the floor then wrapped her arms around his neck. “If we’re going to do this, let’s do it right. Can’t stop with a two-step, we need to really give her a show,” she told him and tiptoed to give him a light, but lingering kiss on his lips, then laid her head on his chest.

  He knew that she was putting on a show for her sister, and he appreciated the effort, but Tommy wasn’t one to play games with women, this time though, he might make an exception.

  “You’re a mess, you know that?” Tommy told her with a chuckle, then put his hands on her ass and pulled her closer to him. “You and your sister are nothing but trouble, sugar.”

  “But the kind of trouble you like, right?” she asked with a saucy grin.

  “It’s starting to grow on me,” he told her then added, “I never realized how boring my life was until ya’ll came along.”

  It wasn’t quite the truth, Tommy knew how boring it was, there just wasn’t anything he could do about it. This was his penance for his part in Maggie’s death, his former mother-in-law had told him so at the hospital the night he made the decision to save Dixie, instead of her daughter…being alone for the rest of his life, raisi
ng his daughter alone.

  She looked up into his eyes and smiled. “If there’s one thing that can be said about the Upton twins, we’re never boring, sugar,” she said with a waggle of her eyebrows.

  Suddenly, he had to know about that threesome thing, because thinking about it was driving him crazy. These twins were driving him crazy. If Katie wouldn’t tell him, maybe Karlie would, so he asked, “Tell me about Wade Roberts and what happened…”