“Sadie Jo Hollowell!” someone yelled.

Vince lifted his gaze from the women in front of him and his eyes locked with hers. He watched her for several long seconds before she turned just in time to be caught up in a big hug that lifted her off her heels.

“Cord?” Cordell Parton was three years younger than Sadie and had taken odd jobs at the JH off and on with his aunts.

“It’s good to see you, girl.” He lifted her up higher and his hat fell to the ground.

He’d gotten huge since she’d seen him fifteen years ago. Not fat. Just solid, and he squeezed her tight. “Lord love a duck, Cord. I can’t breathe.” Had she just said, “Lord love a duck”? If she wasn’t careful, she’d be saying “crying all night and pass the tea towels.” Maybe it was the hat. She was starting to sound like a Texan.

“Sorry.” He set her back on her feet and bent to retrieve his Stetson. “How’s your daddy?”

“Getting better.”

“My aunts said you’ve been spending a lot of time in Laredo with him.”

“He was moved to Amarillo last week.” She looked over Cord’s shoulder and her gaze landed on Vince’s butt as he leaned across the next table over and took a shot. Lord love a duck, he was hot. Judging by the three women watching his butt, too, she wasn’t the only one who thought so. He made those non-issue cargo pants look good.

“Come say hey to Lloyd and Cain,” Winnie said, and took Sadie’s elbow.

“It was great to see you, Cord. Come out to the ranch and have a beer with me one of these days soon. We’ll catch up.”

“Sounds good.” He slid his hat back on his head. As she walked away, he called after her, “You’re still as pretty as a Sunday sermon. I always had a crush on you, you know.”

Yeah. She’d known. She smiled and glanced at Vince out of the corners of her eyes. He lined up another shot, then laughed at something one of the women said to him. She wondered which one was his girlfriend, because, after all, he’d been in town for over a month. In Lovett, that was plenty long enough to meet someone, get married, and start a family.

“Hey. It’s Sadie Jo Hollowell,” Cain Stokes said as she and Winnie approached the table. He leaned over and lined up the white ball, and Sadie got a chance to look at him. She didn’t know if he was a catch, but he’d certainly improved since high school. He was taller. Leaner. And somewhere he’d developed a killer smile that filled his blue eyes with mischief. He also knew how to dress for Founder’s Day in a pair of tight Wranglers that outlined his package. Not that she cared to know.

“Hey, Cain.” She turned to his brother. “How’s it going, Lloyd?”

“Can’t complain.” Lloyd wasn’t as handsome as his brother, but he was better husband material. Sadie could tell just by the way he looked at his wife.

“I heard you were back in town.” He gave her a quick hug. “How’s your daddy doin’?”

“Good and getting better.”

She pointed to the pool table. “Who’s winning?”

“Cain.” Lloyd raised a beer to his lips. “He’s a hustler.”

In more ways than one. Cain came around the table and gave her a hug that lingered a bit longer than his brother’s. “Lookin’ good, Sadie Jo.”

“Thanks.”

Winnie followed Lloyd as he moved around the table and eyed his next possible shot. She told him exactly where he should hit the ball and how hard. “I was doing fine before you walked up,” Lloyd complained.

“Where ya’ been hangin’ your hat these days?” Cain asked.

“Phoenix.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Wanna play me next after I finish kicking Lloyd’s behind?”

“You gonna let me win?”

“No, but if you kick my butt I’m gonna tell everyone that I let you win.”

She laughed and shook her head. She was in Texas. Flirting was just another form of conversation. She glanced at Vince as he rose up from the table. Another time, another day, she might have flirted back a little with Cain. Tonight she just didn’t feel like it. Not that it had anything to do with the SEAL with the light green eyes. She just wasn’t in the mood and didn’t want to give Cain ideas. “Maybe next time,” she said, and moved from beneath his arm. Within the crowd surrounding the tables, she stood ten feet from Vince. Close enough to recognize the deep timbre of his voice and the answering laughter of the three women she was now close enough to identify.

The two women in the matching straw hats were the Young sisters. Not twins, but they looked enough alike that they could pass. Sadie recognized the redhead playing pool, too. Deeann Gunderson. All three women were close to Sadie’s age, but had been raised in Amarillo. She’d gone to charm school with them. They’d passed due to skill. She’d passed due to her last name, and the Young girls had never failed to point that out.

“I’m runnin’ to the girls’ room inside the Albertson’s. I hate those Porta Potties,” Winnie announced, and pointed to a row of blue portable outhouses across the parking lot. “You gonna be here for a while yet?”

“I think so.”

She watched Winnie move between the tables and past a skinny teen in full dress code compliance. He wore a big black Stetson and a Texas flag shirt with one enormous star on the back.

She took a step back out of Lloyd’s way and bumped into someone. “Excuse me,” she said, and looked over her shoulder into Jane Young’s hazel eyes.

“Sadie Jo Hollowell,” Jane said, drawing out her vowels. “It’s been forev-ah.”

It had been a long time, and Sadie didn’t believe in holding anyone’s nasty teenage past against them. Lord knew, she hadn’t always been so sweet herself. “Hello, Jane and Pammy.” She gave the sisters a hug, then turned to the third woman standing with them. “How are you, Deeann?”

“I have nothing to complain about.” She laughed, and her smile was genuine. “But that never stops me. How’s your daddy?”

“Good and getting better. Thanks for asking.” She turned her attention to Vince, who twisted a small cube of blue chalk on the tip of his cue. “I see you’re making friends.” It had been almost two weeks since she’d seen Vince at the Gas and Go. Two weeks since he’d told her she looked like shit and that she owed him. Two weeks since she’d told him that her orgasm was worth only forty cents.

“Sadie.”

“Y’all know each other?”

She glanced at Jane, then returned her gaze to Vince. “Yes. He had trouble with his truck and I gave him a ride into town.” Since she didn’t want to discuss the other ways she knew Vince, she turned the subject. “Jane, Pammy, and Deeann and I went to Ms. Naomi’s Charm School together,” she told Vince. “They were much better at the Texas dip than I was.”

Vince looked at all four women. “What’s in it?”

Jane and Pammy laughed. “That’s funny.”

“The Texas dip is a debutante curtsy,” Deeann explained as she handed her cue to Pammy. She moved to a clear spot several feet away, then she extended her arms out to her sides and slowly bowed like a swan until her forehead almost touched the ground.

Sadie looked up from Deeann’s flowing red hair to Vince, who watched with one brow cocked. He set the chalk on the edge of the table, then moved to the other side. He leaned his big body over the table and lined up a shot. The long cue slid between his knuckles as the Christmas lights shone in his dark hair and black shirt. She couldn’t tell if he was impressed with Deeann or not.

Deeann rejoined them and took her cue. “I can still dip.”

“Wow, I wasn’t even that limber at seventeen. Very impressive.”

“Remember when you tripped on your train at the Cotton Cotillion and your rose headdress fell off?” Pammy reminded Sadie, like she’d ever forget. After that, she hadn’t really bothered to pile and pin and spray her hair into a headdress of any kind. She’d just worn her hair straight, which had caused a bigger scandal than the headdress debacle.

“That was tragic.” Both sisters laughed as they had years ago, and Sadie guessed they hadn’t changed much over the past ten years. What the women didn’t know was that Sadie didn’t care. They no longer had the power to make her feel bad about herself.

“But you were always so pretty it didn’t matter,” Deeann said, genuinely trying to make Sadie feel better.

“Thank you, Deeann,” she said, and thought to return the favor. “I parked my car in front of your shop. It looks like you have some real nice stuff. I’ll have to stop by before I leave town.”

“I hope you do. I make my own jewelry, and if you decide to stay in Lovett, and don’t want to live out there at the ranch, let me know. I sell real estate, too.”

Her interest piqued, she said, “I’m an agent in Phoenix. How’s the market around here?”

“I’m not getting rich, but it’s picking up slightly. Brokering a lot of short sales.”

Short sales weren’t what agents bragged about the most. “Me too.” Sadie liked that about Deeann.

“Goodness, are you going to bore us with shop talk?” Pammy asked.

Sadie glanced at her watch and pretended she had somewhere to be. Just because she didn’t care what the sisters said, didn’t mean she wanted to hang out with them. “It sure was great to see y’all.” Lord, had she just said “y’all”? It had taken years to extract that contraction from her vocabulary. She looked at Vince, who lined up another shot. “Good night, Vince.”

He shot the six ball in the side pocket and rose. “See ya around, Sadie,” he said, more interested in his game than in her.

She said good-bye to Lloyd and Cain and headed toward the beer vendor. Overhead, dark blue and orange streaked across the night sky. She ran into JH employees and former employees, and by the time she made it to the vendor, it was full dark and Tom and the Armadillos took the stage at one end of the parking lot. She was tired but didn’t want to go home. She didn’t always mind being alone. She’d been raised on a ranch filled with people, but she’d always been alone. But lately she’d either been in a hospital room alone or listening to her grumpy daddy.