Halloween at the Corral Read online

  Ah. Big surprise. Tricia was a card-carrying member of the DJ Fan Club.

  “That would be great. I’ll let y’all know.”

  “Super.” She glanced over at Kelly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt your dinner. I just wanted to say hello.”

  Kelly waved a ketchup-laden fry. “No worries.” It’s not like they were on a real date. He could flirt with whomever he damn well pleased. She bit the fry in half. Maybe a bit more forcefully than necessary.

  After another dimpled smile at Dan, Tricia sauntered away, her hips swaying in ass-hugging denim. Ten bucks said no way could she sit down in those jeans.

  Small talk accompanied the rest of their meal and left Kelly feeling like she’d missed out on something. For a moment there, they’d been communicating on a deeper level. Dan seemed much more real and down to earth than the good ol’ boy caricature of a personality he usually showed to the world.

  Despite her protests, Dan insisted on paying for the meal. He was quiet as they headed down the short hallway leading to the doors to the exit.

  At the doors, he paused. He studied her, his eyes seeming to ask a question she couldn’t begin to understand. Finally, he spoke. “It was really nice talking to you tonight. Thanks for having dinner with me.” He smiled. Not flashy and over-the-top, but sweet. Sincere.

  “You’re welcome.” For some reason Kelly’s heart beat faster.

  “So can we—”

  “Oh no. It spilled all over.”

  Kelly turned toward the tear-clogged voice. Emily Thompson, dressed as a Dalmatian, stood holding a torn paper bag and looking at the floor in dismay. Candy was scattered in a wide arc around her.

  Was every sentence Dan uttered doomed to be interrupted? Despite her frustration, Kelly knelt next to the little girl. “It’s okay, sweetie.” She gathered the candy. “Where’s your mom?”

  “She had to go to the bathroom and told me to wait here. I was looking at my candy and the bag broke and now it’s all over.” Her lower lip trembled.

  Dan squatted. “No need for tears, little lady.” He took off his hat and turned it upside down. “We’ll put the candy in here until we find another bag.”

  Emily sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Okay.”

  Together they made fast work of collecting the candy. Soon the hat was full.

  “What happened?” Candice Thompson came around the corner.

  “My bag broke, but Mr. Dan and Miss Kelly helped me. Now it’s all in Mr. Dan’s hat.”

  “Did you say thank you?”

  “Thanks, Mr. Dan.” Emily looked up at him with big, adoring eyes.

  Kelly shook her head. Even the smallest of the female species wasn’t immune to his charm.

  Dan ruffled Emily’s hair. “Glad we were here to help.”

  “Don’t forget Miss Kelly.”

  “Thanks Miss Kelly.”

  “You’re welcome. I’ll go grab a bag from the hostess stand.”

  A few minutes later the Thompsons were on their way.

  In the parking lot, Dan ran his fingers through his dark blond hair, then readjusted the hat back on his head. “She’s a cute kid.” He looked over at Kelly. “You ever plan on having any of your own?”

  “What?”

  “You’re really good with kids. You’ll make a great mom someday.”

  Like his smile earlier, the compliment rang true and caused heat to flame in her cheeks. “Thanks. Yeah, someday I’d like a house full.” When the right man to be Daddy came along. “How about you?” He’d been pretty good with Emily himself.

  “A house full would be nice.”

  Despite autumn’s chill in the air, warmth stole through Kelly. The intense look in Dan’s eyes made her catch her breath. Even with a wide star-filled sky above, intimacy wove around them, as if they were the only two people on the planet.

  “I wanted to ask you something before.”

  With a throat as dry as the Mojave, she could only nod to encourage him to continue. And pray there would be no interruption this time.

  “I had a nice time with you tonight. Can we do it again sometime?”

  A fault line of indecision held her mute as emotion battled with common sense. Part of her wanted to say yes. The other part, the jaded already-learned-her-lesson part urged caution.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Oh.” Dan’s face reflected his disappointment.

  Impulse made her touch his arm. “I had a really good time tonight, too, but I don’t want to be the newest member of the Dan Jenkins Fan Club.”

  His head jerked back. “Is that how you see me?”

  “Isn’t that who you are?” She’d never been one to mince words. Why start now?

  He chuckled, but the sound held no humor. “Maybe. Sometimes I don’t know who I am.”

  Later, Dan’s words marched through Kelly’s head in an endless loop as she tried to sleep. For a guy who she’d barely given a second thought to in all the years she’d known him, he sure was taking up a lot of space in her brain tonight.

  She hadn’t meant to hurt him, but she wanted him to know where she stood. She didn’t have any intention of being one of his groupies. The part that sucked was, deep down, she knew that wasn’t what he’d been asking. The Dan Jenkins who flirted with and charmed every girl in sight hadn’t been the one asking her out.

  No, the one who’d asked her out had been the sincere Dan she’d caught glimpses of earlier. The Dan who volunteered to help haul pumpkins from her Bronco. The Dan who opened up and gave her a small peek into his past. The Dan who helped a sad little girl.

  Who was the real Dan?

  Now there was a question to ponder for the ages, and she had no idea how to begin answering it. Accepting a date and getting to know him would be a start. But if superficial, Mr. Popular was the real Dan, she didn’t want any part of that. Was she willing to risk her heart to find out if sincere Dan was the real deal?

  Answers and sleep continued to elude her long into the night. However, she did know one thing for sure. Multiple personalities or not, no one should miss out on one of Halloween’s most classic traditions.

  Chapter Three

  Dan opened the door to the biggest pumpkin he’d ever seen. From behind the massive gourd came Kelly’s voice. “Want to give me a hand here?”

  He took a brief moment to appreciate her long, slim legs covered in faded denim before taking the pumpkin from her arms.

  “Thanks. Take that inside. The kitchen table should work. I’ll be right back with the rest.”

  “The rest?” But she was already halfway down the sidewalk.

  A heavy weight, present since he’d walked away from her in The Corral’s parking lot last night, lifted from his chest. He placed the enormous pumpkin on the kitchen table. Finding her on his doorstep was a pleasant, if unexpected, surprise.

  The front door opened, then closed. Booted footsteps thunked on the hardwood in the hall. Kelly appeared in the doorway with a cardboard carton in her arms. She set the box down. “Whew. I’m glad you have a ranch.” She nodded toward the pumpkin. “Good. You have a table. I wasn’t sure if you had a galley kitchen. That would have made things tricky.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, because I’m glad to see you, but what are you doing here?”

  She flashed him a grin that was at once impish and sexy. “We’re going to carve a pumpkin.” She brandished a wicked looking knife from the box.

  His breath caught. His light-as-air heart beat faster. She’d listened. He swallowed the lump in his throat. “That sounds like fun.”

  Kelly nodded. She tore off the plastic from a party store black tablecloth and snapped it open with a flick of her wrists. “This needs to go on the floor under the table. If you lift the legs one side at a time, I can slide it under there.”

  She crawled on hands and knees to complete the task. Skinny jeans stretched tight over a delectable derriere. The oxygen was sucked from his lungs.

 
On her feet again, she pushed a long tress of dark brown-almost black hair over her shoulder. She tore open another plastic cloth, this one orange, and eased it under the pumpkin to cover the surface of the table. Over that, she spread a layer of newspapers. After placing a metal bowl, a slotted spoon, and the knife on the table, she rubbed her hands together. “There. We should be set now.”

  The childlike glee in her deep brown eyes touched a tender place in his heart, while the subtle sway of her breasts with the motion elicited a baser instinct a foot or so lower than his heart. Thank God for boxer briefs, which helped compress things a bit.

  “You ready?”

  For whatever she wanted. Whenever she wanted it. “Sure.”

  “Okay, since you’ve never done this before, I’m going to take a very beginner approach, even though I’m sure you’re familiar with some of the steps involved.”

  “I humbly bow to your expertise.”

  Kelly grinned. “That’s the spirit. Here.” She handed him the knife. “First cut around the stem.”

  Dan cut a precise circle around the top of the pumpkin.

  “Perfect.” She grabbed the stem and wiggled it until the piece popped out.

  Her agile hands wrapped around the wooden stalk made all of the blood drain from his head and flood south.

  “Now…you’re not squeamish are you?”

  The irony of the question helped him focus. His mouth twitched. “No.”

  “Good. Reach into the pumpkin and pull out the seeds and stringy stuff.”

  The slithery, somewhat slimy insides slid through his hands as he transferred them to the metal bowl.

  “The eyes and nose are pretty easy. I usually go with a traditional triangle, but you can choose whatever shape you want.”

  “Triangles work for me.” The sharp knife sliced easily through the rind and flesh. He held up the cutouts. “Are we saving these too?”

  “Nope.” She studied his handiwork. “Nice. Now the mouth can be trickier depending how detailed you go. You’re pretty good with that knife, so if you want, you can add some teeth. If not, just make a curvy smile.”

  He fought a grin as, with steady hands—he hadn’t lost his touch—he carved two teeth on the top and one on the bottom of the curved mouth.

  Kelly nodded approvingly. “A lack-o-lantern after my own heart. Cute.”

  “You said you weren’t into macabre.”

  A curious expression crossed her face. Something between pleased and befuddled. She pursed her lips.

  Plump, moist lips that begged to be kissed. Would they taste as good as they looked? Dan swallowed.

  She shook her head, as if coming out of a trance. “Right. Well, we won’t get the full effect until later, but we can try it out.” She handed him a stubby candle. “If you cut a small circle out of the flesh of the bottom, but don’t go all the way through the rind, this will be more secure.”

  He did as instructed, his hands not quite so steady now as they trembled with the urge to touch her. But, the indentation was good enough to suit the purpose.

  She nestled the candle in, then grabbed a long lighter from the box. The flame flared with a click of the starter and the slight smell of butane. The wick sputtered, then burst to life. After placing the top back on the pumpkin, she took a step back. He resisted the impulse to take one closer. To press against her. To let her feel how turned on he was.

  “So how’d I do on my virgin attempt at jack-o-lantern carving?”

  “I’d say your first time was officially a success.”

  What would their first time be like? He had absolutely no concrete evidence to back it up, but in that moment Dan knew. Someday he and Kelly would have a first time. Not a first time-last time-one time thing either. Something meaningful. Lasting.

  For now, there was no need to rush. Better to take things slow. After all, anticipation was part of the thrill.

  ****

  Kelly ran her hand over the supple, brown leather of Dan’s couch. A matching chair, one that invited you to sink into it with a good book and not come out for days, sat kitty-corner to it. A rustic coffee table with logs for legs sat on a cowhide rug and held a stack of magazines: the top one read Bull Rider. Across from the sofa, a flat screen TV was mounted above a stone fireplace. A half-dozen silver buckles were displayed on the wooden mantel.

  The room was homey. Comfortable. True to type with its cowboy feel.

  She ran her fingers through her hair, then shook it over her shoulders before walking back into the kitchen. Almost immediately she chided herself for the primping.

  If she kept it up, she’d need to apply for her own DJ Fan Club membership card, and that’s not why she was here. Although even she couldn’t ignore the sensual tension that had woven its way through the room while they’d been carving. Nothing overt. Just subtle undertones. But there, like a palpable presence in the room, leaving her very, very aware of Dan.

  The way his shoulders strained the navy blue T-shirt. How his aftershave hung in the air and teased her with its sexy scent. The deep blue of his eyes. His strong hands gripping the knife, yet performing the detailed task with almost delicate precision.

  His smile, which tugged up the corners of his mouth, with those oh-so-perfectly-made-for-kissing lips, and revealed a row of even, white teeth. She grinned back, then asked, “You ready to bake some pumpkin seeds?”

  “Hell yeah. Bring it on.”

  “First let’s get this mess out of the way.” She swept the insides of the eye and nose holes out of the way with the flat of her hand. A stabbing pain made her jerk back. “Ow.”

  Immediately Dan was at her side. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine. I’m just an idiot. I nicked myself with the blade of the knife.” She sucked her little finger into her mouth. The almost sweet taste of blood pooled on her tongue.

  “Let me see.”

  “It’s nothing.” She wasn’t going to tell him it stung like a mother.

  “I’ll be the judge of that.”

  He held out his hand, palm up. His steady gaze held hers.

  Something in those blue eyes compelled her to give in. She placed her hand in his. “Really. It’s fine.”

  “Mmmn, hmn.” He peered at the oozing cut on her finger. “I can’t see how deep it is with all this blood. Let’s get it washed out.” In three steps he crossed to the sink.

  Kelly had no choice but to follow since her hand remained in his. Dan eased her finger under the stream of cold water. She gritted her teeth against the sting.

  “Keep it under there.” He washed his hands, using a plethora of soap, then dried them on the dish towel. “Okay, let me see it again.” He probed at the gash.

  Kelly sucked in a breath. Not from pain. Even though her finger was slightly numb from the cold water, the gentle touch of his fingers sent a wave of awareness through her.

  “It’s pretty deep, but I don’t think you’ll need sutures.”

  “Sutures?” Odd phrasing.

  He glanced up. “Stitches.”

  “I know what they are. I just never heard anyone outside of a hospital TV drama call them that.”

  “I have some antibiotic ointment and butterfly bandages.” Why did it seem like he was avoiding her gaze? “That should fix you right up.” From beneath the sink, he withdrew a very official looking first aid kit. Inside was everything from rubber gloves to rubbing alcohol to bandages.

  “Wow. I bet you were a good Boy Scout.”

  “I’m a bull rider. Injuries come with the territory.”

  “Do a lot of bull riding related injuries occur in your kitchen?”

  He didn’t look up from her finger. “Ha ha.” He finished applying the adhesive, then wrapped a few layers of gauze around it and secured it with white tape. “There. That ought to do it.”

  Y’think? Overkill was more like it. If she had been at home, a band-aid would have done the trick. Still, it had been really sweet how he took care of her. Add another layer to the mystery of ‘Who is
the real Dan?’.

  “You sit and talk me through this pumpkin seed thing.”

  Kelly rolled her eyes. “I don’t need to sit. I’m fine, but you will need to do a lot of the work since I’m thinking I shouldn’t get this wet?” She wiggled her white-swathed pinkie at him.

  He grinned. “Definitely not. So what first?”

  “Take as much of the stringy stuff off of the seeds as you can. Some people like to rinse their seeds before baking, but I like keeping the goo on. It adds to the flavor.”

  “Strings bad, goo good.” He gamely combed through the bowl of seeds.

  While he worked, she grabbed the baking supplies and spices out of the box. “Since we have so many seeds, we’re going to make two batches. One traditional salty and the other sweet.”

  “Sweet.”

  She preheated the oven, melted butter in two glass bowls in the microwave, then sprinkled cinnamon and sugar in one and salt and garlic in the other. “Okay, now half of the seeds in here and half in here.” She stirred, her immobile pinkie sticking out from the rest of her hand.

  “Now we spread them on these two pans and bake.”

  A half hour later Kelly sat across from Dan at the kitchen table, two bowls of pumpkin seeds between them. She tossed a handful of the sweet version into her mouth. They gave a satisfying crunch between her teeth.

  Dan reached into the salty bowl at the same time she did. Their hands bumped. Instead of pulling back, he threaded his fingers through her. “This was fun. Thanks for coming over today.”

  “Thanks for letting me barge in and take over your house.”

  He smiled. His eyes twinkled. Honest to God they did. “Can I ask you something?”

  Her heartbeat sped up just a tiny bit. Was he going to ask her out again?

  “How did you know where I live?”

  She blinked. “What?”

  “Not many people know where my house is.”

  A heated blush crept across her chest and up into her face. “I got your address from the billing system at the dry cleaners.” God. Could she sound any more like a stalker? She chanced a peek at him. Was he angry?

  He chuckled. “Very resourceful.” He cocked his head, a thoughtful look on his face. “And also probably very illegal.”