Part 24 (1/2)

”Sure.”

Hand-in-hand, they found room at the edge of the dance floor and fell into an up-close dance. Logan and his band sang about how he'd need his lover until the sun didn't s.h.i.+ne and time stood still. Was his brother trying to tell him something?

Could he just walk away from her in a few weeks? Or was it too late?

Could he go back to endless days of work and trying to raise his daughter without a woman around? Would Amanda's bedtime prayers go from wanting her momma to come home from heaven to wanting Tracy back in her life?

The song ended and she looked up at him when he moved her into the next step after the last note. He sucked in a breath.

Before they could move off the floor, the next song started with fiddle and steel guitar in a cla.s.sic old Texas swing melody. Logan sang about finding love again and never learning to live without that one special woman. Where the h.e.l.l had the boy come up with the lyrics? As far as he could remember, his brother had never been in love.

His body responded to Tracy's closeness, and he was d.a.m.ned glad the tail of his Western s.h.i.+rt was tucked into his jeans, which fit well, but fortunately, weren't skin tight.

She laid her head on his shoulder and hummed along with the melody.

”How do you know this song?”

Tracy shrugged and looked up at him. ”The CD Logan cut a few months ago. He gave me one before he started selling them after his shows.”

He let the topic drop, but a memory wiggled its way to the surface of his mind while he danced with the woman he'd never learned to live without.

”Oh, maybe that's why she's back with Logan, then.” Fifteen minutes after Brent Parker had made that puzzling statement the day Zack had stopped him for speeding, he'd caught Tracy and Logan in a close hug. Had he missed the kiss, or had he interrupted before it could happen?

The song wound down, the band broke into a faster tune, and the line dancers took over the worn wood floor. He and Tracy headed back to their table, which they'd saved by leaving her Stetson and their drinks. Once they were seated again, she drank some of her sweet tea and swayed to the music, completely focused on the man on stage.

Zack took a sip of his c.o.ke. ”I didn't realize you and Logan were that close of friends.”

”What?” She looked at him with a puckered brow.

Her hand rested on his thigh, and his arm was around her chair. They appeared to be the perfect dating couple, but he knew better. He and Tracy had a gulf between them as big as the state of Texas, and he couldn't see any way for them to close it.

She'd still be the one who'd cheated on him, and his lack of love for his wife, because he'd never let Tracy go, had been the reason for Lisa's death.

Was Tracy now sneaking around behind his back with his own brother?

”I just find it surprising. I knew you and Logan were friends, but he hadn't given me one of his CDs until I asked for it.” He didn't give a s.h.i.+t he sounded like a jealous husband. But, d.a.m.n, he was p.i.s.sed that he was jealous.

If she was seeing Logan, wouldn't that be the perfect way to break it off and never see her again?

She looked at him, but he tilted his head under his hat brim to hide his face. ”I told you Logan became my best friend over the years.”

”No, you never told me.”

She sipped her drink. Without looking at him, she set the gla.s.s on the table, shrugging. ”Over the past few years he's filled some of the gap left when Dylan went off to the Army. Whenever I've needed a friend, he was always there.” She turned her attention back to his brother on stage. When the set was over, she clapped and whistled through her teeth. ”d.a.m.n, I just know he'll knock somebody's socks off in Nashville.”

”Yeah.”

”Well, well, if it's not the happy couple.” Jake grinned and bracketed his waist with his hands, elbows out.

The gauze wrapped around Jake's right hand looked fresh. How deep was the wound, to warrant such a bandage a week after the supposed accident with a broken winegla.s.s? Wearing a dinner-plate-sized silver belt buckle, the boots and hat, Jake looked like he'd finished the day punching cattle and cleaned up for a night on the town. New York City wasn't the only place with rhinestone cowboy-wannabes. Jake hated horses and grew up in the middle of town. At least Zack had earned the silver buckle he was wearing the old-fas.h.i.+oned wayby winning it. He'd bet Jake bought his at a p.a.w.nshop in Waco.

”What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?” Tracy asked before Zack had the chance to.

Jake shrugged. ”Decided to have a few beers. Question should be what the h.e.l.l are you doing here? And where's my son?”

”My business is my business. And my son is spending the evening visiting with his best friend.” Tracy stiffened in her chair.

”I wonder what Judge Delaney would think about you p.a.w.ning our boy off to your friends so you can cat around town with your latest fling?”

Zack stood and glowered at the other man. ”I think you should move along, Parker.”

Jake dropped his hands to his sides and sneered. ”Or you'll what? Arrest me on some other trumped up charge? I wonder if that dog and pony show yesterday in the courtroom was just so you and my whorin' ex-wife could drag my reputation down and make me look bad in front of the judge? My lawyer thinks that might be enough to get another judge on the case.”

Zack didn't want a bar brawl, and he sure as h.e.l.l didn't want to be the one to throw the first punch, but he didn't take to Jake calling Tracy a wh.o.r.e, despite his own concern over her relations.h.i.+p with his brother. He bunched up his fists and leaned toward Jake.

Tracy stood and touched his arm. ”Zack, don't. He's not worth it.”

Jake snarled and his face turned red. As he stepped closer to Zack, he shook his left fist at him. ”You f.u.c.kin' Cartwrights and Fergusons think you own this county.”

Zack caught sight of Sam Larson moving from around the bar, billy club in hand. The Longhorn didn't have a bouncer at the door. It didn't need one. Sam could smell a fight and have the instigators out the door before the first punch was thrownusually. If he couldn't handle it, Julie pulled a sawed-off shotgun from behind the bar and backed up her brother with enough redneck grit to stop a freight train.

Zack felt every eye in the place on him, Tracy and Jake. Most of the patrons were quieter watching them than they had been watching Logan gyrate over the stage in the front, singing a cover of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. The music abruptly stopped, but Zack didn't take his eyes off Parker to see what his brother was doing. ”Before you decide to throw any punches, Parker, just remember I'm still the sheriff. I'll arrest you and throw the book at you.”

Jake grabbed the end of the table and sent it flying. Tracy screamed as she jumped out of the way. Zack blocked the punch and spun away, grabbing hold of Parker's wrist. Jake landed with a thunk and a grunt face-first against the back wall of the bar. The memorabilia of old signed photographs of country singers and rodeo riders of long past rattled. Zack held Jake's wrists behind his back. Too d.a.m.ned bad he didn't have a pair of handcuffs.

Tracy stood back, glaring at Jake, and Logan moved in beside her. He slipped his arm around her shoulders, and she didn't push him off.

”Zack, don't do anything you'll regret,” Logan said.

”Tell me, Zack.” Jake's voice was m.u.f.fled from being pressed against the wall. ”Has Tracy told you just who she left me for, yet?”

”It's a lie!”

Zack glanced over his shoulder at Tracy. Her face flushed, and her hands clenched into tight fists on her hips. Logan still had his arm on her shoulders, but he looked mad enough to eat his guitar.

”Why don't you ask your little brother?” Jake asked. ”They'd been goin' at like jackrabbits for years. I bet she's still f.u.c.kin' him when you aren't around. One man has never been enough for heras you should know, old buddy.”

Zack didn't want to react, but the stab in his heart was too much. He spun Jake around.

Sam Larson brandished his billy club. ”d.a.m.n it, you boys take this outside, or I'll bash both your fool heads in, and I don't give a tinker's d.a.m.n that one of you's the sheriff.”

Zack fisted his hand, determined to pound the smirk off Jake Parker's smug face. Logan grabbed his arm before he could let the punch fly. ”If you believe that pile of s.h.i.+t, Zack, you're a fool.”

”Go on, ask him who paid the rent for her and got her a job in Waco when she filed for divorce. h.e.l.l, he even paid for the divorce!” Jake snickered.

Zack glared at his brother, shook him off, then looked at Tracy. Despite his best intentions, he'd fallen in love with her again, and she'd lied to him. Again.

She shook her head and tears ran from her gray eyes. ”Zack...I never...”