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  “Yeah, I don’t know what happened there, she won’t talk about it, but I think it’s over,” Karlie told him, then added with a shake of her red head, “Hell, it never even really got started, I don’t think.”

  Wade grinned then said, “Now, that is interesting, sugar. I think me and Miss Katie will have a fine time tonight, then…guess I’d better go get that shower.”

  Karlie might have broken his heart by marrying Gabe Kelley, the Chief Deputy of Bowie, but her identical twin sister was still available. Not that that mattered to him really, because, although the two beautiful redheads looked exactly alike, inside they were as different as night and day. Karlie was sass and brass, and Katie was sugar and spice. He’d almost fallen for Karlie, because she was his kind of woman, but sweet Katie wasn’t, although she would do for a distraction tonight, one he sorely needed.

  Wade glanced at the clock on the wall and blew off getting a sandwich, he didn’t have time now, so he headed back out the front door, and then hurried to the bunkhouse.

  ***

  Swiping a hand over her forehead, Jess grabbed her bottled water off the stool and downed it, letting the cool liquid soothe her throat. The band had finished setting up and done a sound check, but still had an hour or so before people would start showing up, so Jess told everyone to hit the food tent, and she went too, although there was no way she’d be able to eat. Seeing the handsome cowboy she’d had the fling with last year on her birthday again had her stomach churning with a mixture of emotions, fear and lust topped the list, but she was determined to overcome both.

  That cowboy, Wade Roberts as he’d told her earlier, didn’t know it, but he’d given her more than a good time for her birthday present. He’d given her something precious that she has no intention of sharing with him. Wade was a complication that neither she, nor her daughter Angel, needed in their lives. They were doing fine without him, and would continue to do fine.

  Jess wondered what the hell he was doing here anyway, she’d thought he was a wandering rodeo cowboy, and a random guest at the wedding last year. Evidently, she’d been mistaken, in more ways than one. Lifting the silver cover on a warming plate, the barbecue pork smell hit her wrong and she gagged. It wasn’t that it didn’t smell and look delicious, her nerves were just humming like a ten-thousand volt electric line and her stomach felt like someone was stomping grapes in there.

  Quickly, she put the cover back on the chaffing dish, then turned toward the bar instead. Maybe a beer would help settle her down. Before she could move though, her brother Travis came up behind her and put his hand on her back and rubbed, then he asked, “You okay, sis? You look pale, did that guy up at the house upset you that much? You know him?”

  Boy did she know him, in the biblical sense even, but there was no way Jess was going there with her brother. He didn’t know who Angel’s father was, and she wasn’t telling him. Only she and Jazzie knew, and they were pinkie sworn to secrecy. “Nobody special, just some guy who gave me a hard time the last time I played here,” she told him with a nonchalant shrug.

  “Well, let me know if he does it again, because I’ll have Denver, um, talk to him,” her brother told her, speaking of the brick wall that was their drummer. The guy looked like a professional wrestler, but was like a big teddy bear. Den had been with her since they started the band, and thought he was her personal body guard. Although it gave her a measure of comfort to have him watching her back, sometimes he went a little overboard with it.

  “You need to head back to Henrietta, Trav, so Jazzie can get here, or she won’t be here for the opening number. It’s an hour drive there and back.” Jess had picked a low budget hotel in the nearby town, because she couldn’t make herself stay at the bed and breakfast again, the place where Angel had been conceived.

  “Yeah, I was just about to go…I was just worried about you,” he said with a frown. “You sure you’re going to be okay?”

  “Stop worrying, as long as you’re taking care of Angel while we’re here, I’ll be just fine, I promise,” she told him with a wide smile, then leaned over to kiss his cheek. “I don’t know what’d I’d do without you…”

  “You won’t ever have to find out, sugar,” he said then pulled her into a hug.

  Someone bumped into them, then lifted the cover on the pork again, and the smell wafted over to her and she covered her nose, then pulled out of Travis’s embrace. She looked and saw it was Wade Roberts who’d pushed them, his face was flushed and his eyes glittered angrily.

  “Excuse me for interrupting, but I’d like to get some food,” he grated and jerked a bun off of the platter next to the chafing dish, then spooned a glob of the barbecue pork on the bun, before slamming the lid down again.

  Jess might not be hungry for food, but her eyes were hungry for the sight of the good looking cowboy, evidently. Involuntarily they moved from his square jaw, over his broad shoulders and down the muscular expanse of his back to his firm ass, then back up. Memories of the night they shared flashed through her mind like snapshots, and heat zinged through her body, causing her mouth to dry up as all the moisture in her body flooded south.

  “You done gawking?” he asked harshly, pinning her with his eyes, then he added, “If so, I need to go eat before this thing kicks off.”

  Jess felt her cheeks flush, and swallowed then said, “I wasn’t gawking.”

  “I beg to differ, darlin’…if you’d have been staring any harder, my ass would have a brand on it from your eyes,” he said with a smug smile, then he turned and walked off.

  Travis stiffened beside her, and said with disgust, “God, that guy is such an asshole…I’m definitely having Denver keep an eye on him.”

  “No! Travis, just leave it alone…” she said and put her hand on his shoulder. All she needed was to cause a brawl here. It was hard enough trying to recover her career, without wrecking it before it even got off the ground again, by pissing off a client…ruining their event.

  He huffed out a short breath, then shoved a hand through his spiky blond hair, “Alright, Jess…but be careful with that guy,” he said then kissed her cheek again. “I’m going to the hotel, break a leg, and I’ll see you after the show.”

  “Thanks, Travis…give Angel a kiss for me,” she said with a soft smile, already missing her precious three-month-old little daughter.

  Although she usually stuck to water when she worked, because beer tightened up her vocal chords, Jess decided she would get that beer to settle her nerves, before she took the stage. Quickly, she headed over to the bar and then downed a cold beer, before heading toward the stage to get ready. She still needed to change her shirt, before show time, so she headed backstage and stepped behind a curtain, then lifted the wet t-shirt over her head. The cool air on her skin felt so good, she almost didn’t want to put another shirt on.

  She stood there for a moment cooling off, then reached down into her duffle for the shirt she’d brought for the show, a fire engine red halter with a rhinestone buckle between her breasts. Jess was thankful for the Goodwill store in Dallas, because she’d found a lot of show clothes there…if not for them, she’d probably be wearing t-shirts for all her shows. Jess had better use for her money these days, other than flashy show clothes…diapers, formula and cute little dresses for Angel were her priority now.

  They wouldn’t have to worry about money soon though, because Jess was determined to restart her career, and her brother was helping. She’d already had some interest from a couple of labels, he’d contacted. Travis was acting as her manager right now, since she couldn’t afford a real one, and was doing a good job of stirring up interest.

  Feeling a breeze as the curtain was suddenly flung back, Jess sucked in a breath and stood up. Her eyes latched onto the last person she wanted or expected to see standing there. “Get out…” she gasped then her gaze followed Wade’s to her chest and she realized she was standing there naked from the waist up, and jerked the shirt up to cover her breasts.

  His eyes s
izzled over her, then met hers, before he said in a gravelly voice, “No need to cover up on my account, I’ve seen the goods, remember?”

  How could she forget? And how could he make her feel so trashy for what she’d done.

  She’d told him a year ago, that coming on to cowboys at a show wasn’t typical for her, but obviously he didn’t believe it. His words and his insolent stare made her feel…dirty.

  Well, he’d participated too, so he could kiss her ass…how dare him judge her. Let the bastard think what he wanted, his opinion of her didn’t matter, she just wanted to get this show over with and hit the road.

  “Just get the hell out of here, Wade…I need to get dressed,” she hissed then turned her back and pulled the shirt over her head.

  “I just wanted to tell you that people are starting to get here, so you probably have ten minutes or so to finish getting set up.”

  “I don’t need you to tell me how to do my job. I assume you have one here, so why don’t you go do that instead?” she told him snappily, then turned around to face him, hoping she was sending out ‘back off’ signals. There was no way she was rehashing anything with him, if that was what thinking.

  He ignored, or didn’t pick up her warning signals, because he grinned then said, “And I wanted to tell you happy birthday…” before he pulled his hand from behind his back and shoved a handful of red garden roses at her. They were wrapped at the bottom in tin foil, and he’d evidently picked them himself. The sweet aroma drifted up to her nostrils and wrapped itself around her heart.

  Nobody, nobody, had ever given her flowers before, or remembered that today was her birthday, not even her brother, or her best friend, and she didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t prepared for him to be thoughtful, especially after how she’d treated him earlier, and just now. Oh god, don’t do this to me, she prayed silently then took them from him.

  “Thank you,” she said in an emotion clogged voice, then put her nose to them and inhaled deeply, feeling tears burn her eyes. Walking up to him she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. The smell of his skin mixed with the citrusy cologne she remembered so well, warred with the smell of the roses and caused all kinds of confusion inside of her.

  Wade put his hand to her cheek then turned his mouth to give her a lingering tender kiss, then he pulled back and fingered her hair. “I loved your blond hair, but this could grow on me too, I think,” he said in a low sensual voice, then winked at her.

  Jess wasn’t going to tell him it was a wig, something she was trying out for fun, because Angel had black hair, just like his. The more she didn’t appeal to him, the better off she’d be…maybe she would cut off her hair and dye it black.

  “Wade, we can’t go back there…it was a one shot deal, sugar, you know that,” she said breathlessly staring into his deep brown eyes. “Thank you for the flowers and for remembering it was my birthday, though,” she told him then stepped back and smiled. He nodded then gave her a pinched smile, and an intense stare before he turned his back and walked out of her life for a second time.

  One day, she knew Angel would ask about her daddy, and when that day came, she’d tell her the truth about Wade Roberts, but not until she had to. For now, Angel was hers, and Jess wasn’t taking the chance that someone would try to take her away from her, or control the decisions she made regarding her little girl.

  The thought caused shivers of horror to dance along her spine. Jess had enough of letting men control the direction of her life. Why would she take that chance? She barely knew Wade Roberts, and didn’t trust men in general thanks to Ray, and her daddy.

  Even though Wade had been an equal participant in Angel’s creation, their time together had been a one shot deal, they both understood that, and since Wade Roberts had done the responsible thing and used a condom every time, all four times, he didn’t deserve to have his life upended like hers had been anyway.

  It wasn’t his fault that he had just been unlucky enough to be in the two percent that the label on the box warned about. Jess felt lucky though, she hit the lottery…she got Angel, her baby girl…and she wasn’t sharing.

  Jess shook herself to clear her head and walked outside of the curtain and up the stairs to the stage. Jazzie wasn’t here yet, and people were standing around talking under the tent. They’d probably have to start without her, which wasn’t a big deal, they had songs they could do without a fiddler.

  She walked back to the drum set and smiled at her big, brawny and multi-tattooed drummer, Denver. “Hey Den…let’s start off with the Bonnie Raitt list, until Jazzie gets here, whatcha think?”

  “Sounds good, babe—let’s give em something to talk about?” he said and grinned.

  “Yup…I’ll let everyone know,” she said with a wink, then told the guitar players, before she walked back to the mike, then said, “Hi, everybody, I’m Jess Sparks and this is my band, she stepped aside and said, “That’s Denver on the drums,” and waited while he did a little solo, then said “And that’s Big Mike on the bass guitar,” and he pounded out some heavy beats, then she said, “And last but not least, our ever so talented lead guitarist, Tony…” and after he shredded like he was lead in a heavy metal band, he switched to some country swing then nodded.

  Jess stepped back to the mike and looked around the room and then purred, “Let’s Give ‘Em Something to Talk About, guys,” then Denver started the slow sexy beat and she hummed then growled out the song, like her idol, Bonnie Raitt, but with a Jess Sparks twist.

  Although there weren’t many people there yet, the couples who were there migrated to the dance floor, and started belly-rubbing to the tune. Her eyes moved over the dancers and they stopped as did her heart, when she saw Wade Roberts, dancing with a tall leggy redhead. She swallowed down the spurt of jealousy that clutched her heart, because they looked like they knew each other well. Wade had his hands on her ass and she was stuck to him like glue. It looked like he was singing the damned song to her. When he gave the woman that sexy grin of his and that dimple dented his cheek, Jess missed a note, then turned aside and coughed, before picking back up at the melody.

  Yeah, she’d told him to get lost, but she didn’t want to have to see him practically making out with another woman in front of her. Now, she was sorry she’d picked the Bonnie Raitt run, because those were slow sexy songs, and she’d have to sing them and watch him.

  When she finished the last note, tears stung her eyes as the band started the opening notes for ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’, so she closed her eyes and pretended to be into the song, so she didn’t have to see what was going on. It was the longest three minutes of her life, but she knew the torture wasn’t over…because next on the playlist was ‘Love Sneaking Up on You’.

  Jess sucked in a deep breath and let it go, she had to get over herself, and give these people the show her client was paying for, whether or not the sight of Wade Roberts with the redhead was tearing her heart out. She was a professional, and this is what she did for a living.

  She stiffened her spine, and jerked the mike off the stand, then when the band finished the intro, she worked the stage and teased the few cowboys at the table lining the stage as she sang, and they whistled.

  When she looked up, her eyes met Wade’s glittering gaze, and he gave her a smug grin, then pulled the redhead against him and ground his hips against her. That’s when Jess realized what he was doing…he was playing games with her…purposely trying to get her goat, because she’d rejected him earlier.

  Well, two could play his game, and she was afraid he’d come out the loser here, because Jess always played to win. And her luck was running, because the next song in the line up was ‘Love Me Like a Man’, a bluesy guitar solo that was intended to heat things up, and he better put on his asbestos underwear, because the song was one of Jess’s favorites.

  The band finished playing, and rested, because they knew this was a solo for her. She grabbed her electric guitar, and plugged it in then put the strap over her head and s
hot Wade a cocky grin, before she strutted to the edge of the stage and took a wide spread stance in front of a good looking cowboy in a black Stetson, probably in his early twenties, and winked at him. He tipped his hat back and fanned himself, then grinned up at her dreamily. She started strumming the strings, making love to her guitar, because that’s what this song called for.

  Rotating her hips in time with the sexy rhythm, she crooned to the man, then when she got to the instrumental part, she sank to her knees in front of him and played. When she got to the last line of the song, she leaned forward giving him a good look at her new and improved baby boobage, then licked her lips and sang, “I want a lover I won’t have to work to understand…don’t put yourself above me, baby…just love me like a man.” The guy looked shell-shocked, his face was frozen in a smile, and Jess wanted to laugh, but she just stood back up then smiled and blew him a kiss.