Maybe Tell had turned into a player. Wouldn’t be much of a stretch, given his good looks and the wild reputations the McKay men had built up over the years.
“You know, he could solve a major problem for you.”
She glanced up. “What major problem? That I need to get laid?”
Stephanie laughed. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to hearing you talk like that, G. Anyway, maybe this will be a two-fer in the problem-solving department for you: you’ll get laid and score a date to our ten-year class reunion.”
“Uh. No. I’ll take the sex but I’m not going to the reunion.”
“Bullshit.”
Georgia started to retort but Stephanie cut her off.
“You are going. You cannot not show up at our class reunion, Georgia. Especially when people find out you live here. Especially not after you and Deck were voted class couple and prom king and queen.”
“Those titles worked out so well since we’ve been divorced for seven years,” she retorted.
“Which is why you have to go. Don’t let Deck have the upper hand. Plus, you know he’ll be there with Tara-Lee.”
She scowled. “All the more reason to skip the damn dog and pony show.”
“You really don’t care if Deck badmouths you?” Stephanie asked. “Because you know he will if you’re not around to defend yourself.”
“I dealt with the Deck drama a lifetime ago.”
“That’s why you have to show up at the reunion on the arm of a gorgeous cowboy. It’d give you cred. It’d give Tell cred because you’re still the hottest woman from our class. Add in the fact Deck and Tell were rivals in rodeo club? Sweet, sweet revenge.”
That would be a way to prove she’d moved on. That she no longer had that purity ring around her neck like a noose.
No. She could not possibly be considering the idea of attending that farce of a reunion. “Who are you taking to the reunion?” she asked Stephanie.
“No one. I’m going stag.” Stephanie held her hand up again. “And before you blow a gasket, let me remind you that you were in the thick of things during high school. I was very happily in the background, observing.”
“You’re still observing.”
“So make it interesting for me. Show up and show off. The introverted high school girl you were wouldn’t dare ask Tell to go to the reunion with her. That’s exactly why you should ask him.”
“What if he says no?”
“I think you’re more afraid that he’ll say yes.”
Chapter Two
Landon calmed down immediately when Tell walked through the door. The four-year-old crawled onto Tell’s lap with his dinosaur blanket and promptly fell asleep.
“He prefers you, even to Brandt.”
Tell glanced at his younger brother. “Only because Brandt hasn’t spent much time with him, Jessie bein’ pregnant and all.”
Dalton shook his head. “It’s more than that. I think Landon is drawn to you because you two look so much alike—like Luke.”
Total bullshit, in Tell’s opinion. His nephew had been born several months after their brother Luke’s death. No one had known about the kid’s existence until the boy was almost a year and a half old. Having a piece of Luke had been a catalyst for change in their family—some good, some bad. But it’d become important that Landon grow up around his family.
Tell was aware that he most closely resembled Luke—at least in physical appearance. In temperament he was light-years away from his hotheaded oldest brother. Every time he dealt with a frustrated Landon, Tell was reminded that he’d been the one to calm Luke down when his temper had gotten the best of him.
“I could use a beer, since my night of drinkin’ was cut short.”
Dalton brought back two bottles of Bud Light. He gulped down a mouthful before he said, “You’re probably gonna need more than one when I tell you that Dad called.”
“What’d he want?”
“To see Landon.”
“Bullshit. He just wants to see if Mom’s boyfriend will be along when she picks up Landon tomorrow.”
“Probably.”
“So what’d you tell him?”
“That you’d be at the park in Sundance tomorrow afternoon.” Dalton shrugged and took another drink. “He probably won’t show.”
“I can hope.” Tell let his head fall back on the couch cushion and closed his eyes. He did not want to think about the f**ked-up family shit now when he’d have to deal with it again tomorrow.
“So who did I pull you away from at the bar that’s put that crabby look on your face?” Dalton asked.
The thought of Georgia snapped him out of a potentially sour mood. He raised his head. “Georgia Hotchkiss. Remember her?”
Dalton whistled. “Of course I remember Hot Lips Hotchkiss. You had it bad for her.”
He felt his cheeks heat. “I did not.”
“No need to lie, bro. You let her run roughshod over you. But damn, I might’ve let her roll over me, too. She was all that and a bag of chips. A little stuck-up, though. She still that way?”
“No idea. You called right when I started talkin’ to her. I haven’t seen her since a week after graduation.”
Dalton gave him a considering look. “Weren’t you friends with her twin brother, RJ?”
“I knew him, pulled a couple pranks with him, but we weren’t friends since he ran with Deck.”
“You weren’t around the summer he was killed. Sad deal.”
Landon stirred.
Tell stood, carrying him to the spare bedroom and slipping the kid into bed. He pulled the blanket up and smoothed back the boy’s hair. Then he returned to the living room, plopped back on the couch and stretched out with a sigh.
“I take it you’re staying tonight?”
“Yep.”
“What if I had plans?”
Tell quirked a brow. “At ten o’clock when we gotta be up at five?”
Dalton sighed. “I wish I had plans. Been awful damn hard getting back into the swing of havin’ a social life after calving. Don’t know if I’ll ever catch up on sleep. Man. Was this year brutal or what?”
“We added an extra hundred head and Brandt is uptight and so, yeah, it was rough.”
“Glad it’s not just me bein’ a whiny pu**y.”
“That’d make me one too.”
“Now I feel better.” Dalton drummed his fingers on the chair arm. “I heard something that might interest you.”