Page 29 of Snow in Texas

He’d been sitting and sipping about two minutes when he heard a door open and close, somewhere deep in the clubhouse. A moment later, Jenny entered the common room, and his pulse tripped and went wild.

She’d tied her hair back and traded her usual cowgirl work getup for black yoga pants, a tank top, and flip-flops. The tank top was dark, but he noticed with a little thrill that she wasn’t wearing a bra beneath it, the natural shapes of her breasts drawing his eyes.

She paused in the doorway like she hadn’t been expecting to see him. Her eyes widened just before she shielded them with a careful blankness. “So the Armadillo,” she said, stepping behind the bar and going for a bottle of red wine.

“The Armadillo,” he repeated, watching her fill a glass nearly to the top.

“Did you enjoy the T&A parade?”

“Not really.”

She snorted.

“Would you care if I did?”

“No.” Which meanthell yes.

He suppressed a sudden laugh. “Jenny.”

“I wouldn’t,” she insisted, one hand on her hip, the other tipping back her glass. She swallowed the wine down like it was water. Three long gulps and then she fixed him with a hard stare over the glass.

Smiling, he said, “I think you’d care a whole lot after what happened today.”

She swallowed, muscles in her throat rippling. “Remember what I said about it being a mistake?” she asked, but there was no bite to her voice.

“Remember how bad you wanted it?”

Her eyes flicked away, but she didn’t deny the accusation. Yes, she’d wanted it. Hopefully, she still did. But with a bar between them, he didn’t see the moment transforming to something heated anytime soon.

So he said, “What’s going on with your ex-husband?”

Her eyes came back to him, full of hurt, of betrayal. “Candy told you?” No doubt there was going to a nasty brother-sister argument to follow.

He nodded. “Yeah. He was asking some guys about him tonight.” Softly, he added, “I didn’t know you used to be married.”

“Wish I hadn’t been,” she said bitterly, and drained her glass. She gave him a challenging look. “Does that change your opinion of me?”

“Not even a little. But I’ve got questions. What happened?” In his mind, he added,How badly did he hurt you?

“Why do you think you’re entitled to know that, as a prospect?”

“I’m not asking as a prospect,” he returned. “Just as a man.”

“A man who wants to get me naked,” she said, but without aggression. The hunger had come back into her eyes.

“You can’t tell me you got any use for a man who looks at you and doesn’t wanna get you naked.”

A slow smile transformed her face, made her look younger and less tired. “Well…I can’t argue with that.” She took a deep breath and let it back out again. Her expression told him she’d decided something. “Fix yourself another drink, prospect, and come with me.”

He tipped the Macallan bottle over his glass and nodded. “Alright. But only if you stop calling me ‘prospect.’”

“Fine. Colin.”

Thirteen

Jenny

Her therapist, the one Candy had muscled her into visiting after she was released from the hospital seven years ago, had insisted that reliving the events of her abuse was the only way to move beyond it. Mrs. Briggs, her name had been. Jean Briggs. She’d wanted Jenny to use her first name, for comfort’s sake. Jean.“You have to take the power away from your memories,”she’d said.“You have to revisit them in order to learn from them and move forward in a new direction.”

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