Page 59 of Heaven, Texas (Chicago Stars 2)

As he watched Johnny pull Gracie closer, he felt a stab of irritation. She was an engaged lady, and they shouldn’t be dancing so intimately, but Bobby Tom couldn’t see that she was putting up the slightest bit of resistance. Matter of fact, she had her face turned up like a sunflower taking in Johnny’s every word. For someone who should be feeling embarrassed and out of place, she certainly seemed to be having a good time.

He remembered Gracie’s problem with sexual frustration and scowled. What if she couldn’t control those hormones of hers now that her make-over had given her a little bit of male attention? The idea bothered the hell out of him. He couldn’t blame her for wanting to do what came naturally, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to do it while she was engaged to him. There weren’t any secrets in Telarosa, and he didn’t care to think what he’d go through if the town found out that a woman like Gracie Snow was cheating on him.

He suppressed a groan as Connie Cameron sauntered over. “Hey, B.T., want to dance again?”

She rested her arm on the lavender silk shirt he wore with his jeans and charcoal Stetson, then brushed her breasts against him. Unfortunately, their mutual engagements hadn’t discouraged her one bit.

“I’d love to, Connie, but the fact is, Gracie gets real ornery if I dance more than once with a beautiful woman, so I have to mend my ways.”

She pushed away several strands of dark hair that had gotten tangled in one of her long silver earrings. “I never thought I’d see the day you let a woman pussy-whip you.”

“I never did, either, but that was before I met Gracie.”

“If you’re worried about what Jim will think, he’s on duty tonight. He won’t ever find out we’ve been dancing.” She emphasized the last word with a little mouth pucker so he’d know dancing wasn’t all she was offering.

Bobby Tom imagined Jimbo kept close track of Connie, but that wasn’t why he backed off. He simply found it difficult anymore to conceal his impatience when he was around women like her. “I don’t worry too much about Jimbo. It’s Gracie I’m concerned about. She’s real sensitive.

Connie glanced over at the dancers and regarded her critically. “Gracie looks better since you let her get fixed up. Even so, she doesn’t seem like your type. People around here figured you’d marry a model or a movie star.”

“There’s just no accounting for the mysterious ways of the human heart.”

“I s’pose. Would you mind doing me a favor, B.T.?”

A wave of weariness swept over him. More favors. He was on the set at least twelve hours a day, and the past few days had been grueling. Normally, he enjoyed the action scenes, but not when they involved beating up a woman. He’d dreaded the fight scene with Natalie that occurred at the beginning of the movie, and he was so unconvincing they’d had to bring in a small male stuntman to double for her.

When he wasn’t on the set, there were incessant phone calls, drop-in visitors, and fund-raisers. With all that, he hadn’t had more than four hours of sleep at a stretch all week. Last night after he finished work, he’d flown his plane down to Corpus Christi to make an appearance at a charity banquet and the night before that he’d made radio spots advertising Heavenfest, but the only charity activity he’d really enjoyed was sneaking in to visit the kids in the pediatric wing at the county hospital.

“What do you need?”

“Could you stop by my house some evening and autograph a couple of footballs I bought for my nephews?”

“Be glad to.” He’d stop by all right. With Gracie at his side.

The song was coming to an end, and he excused himself so he could retrieve Gracie from Johnny Pettibone. Len Brown got there first, but he didn’t let that deter him.

“Hi, boys. You think I could claim a dance with my little sweetheart here?”

“Well, sure, Bobby Tom.” The reluctance in Len’s voice annoyed him. Gracie, in the meantime, was giving him a glare that was licensed to kill over the “little sweetheart” remark. The fact that he’d managed to irritate her helped restore his spirits.

Both of them had been so busy these past few weeks that they hadn’t spent much free time together, which was why he’d insisted they show up at the Wagon Wheel tonight, since nobody was going to believe they were engaged if they weren’t ever seen out socially. She was so damned efficient that he couldn’t think up enough things to keep her occupied. Since she hated being idle, she was turning herself into the company’s all-around errand girl and Natalie’s part-time baby-sitter.

He looked down into her flushed face and couldn’t help but smile. She had about the prettiest skin he’d ever seen on a woman, and he liked her eyes, too. There was something about the way they sparkled that always seemed to lift his mood.

“They’ve got a new line dance going, Gracie. Let’s give it a try.”

She looked doubtfully toward the dancers, who were performing a series of fast, intricate steps. “I never quite caught on to the last dance. Maybe we should sit this one out.”

“And miss all the fun?” He drew her into place, studying the dancers in front of them at the same time. The pattern was complicated, but he’d built a career out of counting steps and making cuts at precisely the right moment, and it didn’t take him more than thirty seconds to catch on. Gracie, on the other hand, was having trouble.

Halfway into the song, she still wasn’t going the same direction as everybody else. He decided he’d been a real heel to bring her out here when he knew she couldn’t keep up, but some immature part of him had wanted to remind her this was his turf, not hers, and she shouldn’t be flirting with men she wasn’t engaged to. His twinge of guilt changed to irritation as he watched her tossing her hair and laughing at her mistakes, just as if she didn’t care that she was the worst dancer on the floor.

Damp, coppery tendrils clung to her cheeks and the nape of her neck. She turned to face him when she should have turned away, and he saw that the top button of her vest had popped open revealing the inner curves of those cute little cupcakes of hers, which were rosy and glowing from the heat. One more button, and the rest of her would be on display. The idea filled him with indignation. She was a Sunday School teacher, for chrissake. She should know better!

She was too busy flirting with everybody in pants to notice his irritation, which only increased as he heard people he hadn’t even realized she knew calling out encouragement to her.

“The other way, Gracie. You can do it!”

“That’s the way, Gracie!”

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