Free Tall, Dark and Cowboy by Joanne Kennedy Page B

knowing smile as she set the food on the table. “Sure you are. Krystal has that daydream too, but you just might have what it takes to make it come true.”
    “Not me.” Lacey felt hot again, and it wasn’t from the steam wafting from the heaping plate of food. She needed to be careful. If just watching the guy from across the street heated her up like this, what would another close encounter do? And what if he made another comment like yesterday’s? She’d lose all her self-respect if she let him talk to her that way again.
    Not that she had much to lose. Once she’d unhitched herself from Trent, she’d realized self-respect was in short supply for her. She’d never done anything important in her life. She was still the same girl she’d always been, too pretty and too precious. The total implosion of her life really hadn’t changed her much; she was just a little less naive and a lot less sure of herself.
    “Go ahead,” Pam urged. “Give him one more chance. Just go over there and talk to him. Tell him you want to buy a truck or something.” She slid into the booth, clasped her hands, and leaned forward, obviously caught up in her plan. “Yeah, that’s it. Make him take you for a test drive.”
    Lacey scooped up a forkful of eggs. “I don’t have money for a truck.”
    “He doesn’t know that. He probably thinks you’re rich.”
    “He thinks I’m living off the money my husband made from your farm.”
    “Well, you were, right? For a while.”
    Lacey nodded reluctantly, and Pam’s smile turned sly.
    “So like I was saying, you owe him one more chance.” She shifted forward, the vinyl squeaking under her ample backside. “You came all this way to see him. You can’t just leave.”
    Lacey almost laughed. Pam didn’t know how true that was. With the Mustang in the shop, no money, and no prospects, she was stuck in Grady anyway. Heck, her car hadn’t even made it to the shop yet. It was still parked in front of Chase’s trailer.
    “All right. I’ll talk to him. But if he’s rude again…”
    “If he’s rude again, come see me. I’ll set him straight.”
    Lacey had to smile at the thought of plump little Pam setting her broad-shouldered brother straight. “I’ll bet you will.”
    “Hey, Mom.” A pigtailed tween girl skipped up to the table and slid into the booth, eying Lacey curiously. “Who are you?”
    “Manners.” Pam’s voice was low and stern, a don’t-mess-with-Mom voice. The kid had to be the product of that long-ago pregnancy. She had her mother’s dimples and the same thick russet-colored hair.
    “Oh.” The kid straightened and put out a small hand. “Hi. I’m Annie. Nice to meet you. I have a cat that lets me dress him up in doll clothes. Do you want to see him?”
    “Maybe sometime.” Lacey took the child’s hand and received a surprisingly firm handshake.
    “Okay.” Annie turned to her mother. “Can I go to Tracy’s?”
    Pam nodded, and the child jumped up from the table and skedaddled, her sneakered feet sliding on the gleaming linoleum. She rounded the corner and dashed through the door to the yard on long, coltish legs that promised there would be one heck of a high school basketball player in Grady’s future.
    Pam watched her go. “I’m raising a hooligan.”
    Lacey grinned. “She’s adorable.”
    “My cat doesn’t think so. Annie’s done with dolls, but that animal takes the brunt of whatever maternal impulse I passed on and ends up dressed in baby clothes all the time. You ought to come up after you eat. I think she crammed the poor thing into a Onesie today.”
    Lacey smiled. “Maybe I will.”
    She watched Pam head back to the kitchen and felt a stab of envy. Who would have thought Prentiss High’s head cheerleader would end up being jealous of an unwed mother?
    But she was. Pam had a real life. Not only did she take care of herself; she took care of Annie too. And Chase, by the sound of it.
    But it sounded like she needed some help taking