Free Make Mine a Bad Boy by Katie Lane Page B

belief that he would never be more than “that poor Lomax kid.” Of course, it made no difference now.
    Changing the subject, Colt nodded at the excavated lot next to the gas station. “Planning on expanding?”
    “I thought about putting a car wash there, but that outfit on the interstate beat me to it.” Tyler shook his head as he hooked the nozzle back in the pump. “ ’Course I didn’t really have the money for it, anyway. Things have been slow around here.”
    Colt took his wallet out of his pocket and handed Tyler the cash. “Thanks, Ty.”
    Tyler nodded. “You still tinkering around with motorcycles?”
    “Pretty much,” he said. “You still making babies with Missy Leigh?”
    Tyler’s smile was genuine and proud. “Pretty much.”
    Grinning, Colt walked around to the driver’s door.
    Tyler followed him. “If you stick around until Friday, we’ve got a play-off game. Best darned quarterback since Calhoun.”
    “Sounds like fun, but I’ll be long gone by then.” Colt opened the door and climbed in. But before he pulled away, he backed the truck up and checked inside all three open garage stalls, while Tyler stood there laughing.
    “Take care of her, T-bone,” he yelled through the open window.
    Tyler nodded. “Will do, Colt.”
    After leaving the gas station, Colt decided to take a quick cruise through town before he headed back to Shirlene’s. He thought about breakfast at Josephine’s, but Shirlene’s cook had fed him enough red and green chili to last him awhile. That, and he didn’t much feel like listening to the people of Bramble talk their nonsense. Although he had enjoyed them razzing Hope about being pregnant with twins.
    Hope pregnant. He shook his head and laughed.
    Crazy townsfolk.
    Of course, he hadn’t been laughing at first. He’d been too stunned to laugh. Over the years, he’d thought of Hope in a lot of different scenarios. But pregnant wasn’t one of them. Probably because babies weren’t something he spent a lot of time thinking about.
    Not that he didn’t like babies. He liked babies just fine. His sister had been a baby once, and she had been kind of cute. Still, it had been a full-time job making sure that she didn’t roll off the couch or play around electrical sockets or ram pennies in her mouth. And as she got older, there were more responsibilities. Like getting her out of bed, dressed, and fed before school. And making sure she washed behind her ears and did her homework before she watched TV. And keeping all the boys away from her when she finally outgrew being a tomboy and turned into a hormonal teenager.
    It had been a relief when she married Lyle and settled down.
    But that didn’t mean that Colt had stopped worrying about her. In the last couple days, he’d noticed that she was drinking more than usual. He figured it had to do with Lyle being gone so much. Lomax women didn’t do well without their men—his mama was a perfect example. Which was why he planned on talking to Lyle about staying home more often and keeping his wife from drowning her lonely heart in a bottle of Jose Cuervo.
    With his thoughts wrapped up in Shirlene, he barely noticed the woman who stepped off the curb to flag him down until he almost ran her over. He slammed on the brakes, and the tires squealed to a stop inches from her scuffed cowboy boots.
    He didn’t have to read her lips. Even with the windows closed, her voice carried.
    “Oh. It’s you.”
    With a thunderous look, Hope turned and stomped back over to her beat-up truck, parked next to the curb in front of the Food Mart. Biting back a smile, Colt pulled into a space and got out. Even with the gray clouds that rumbled overhead, the day somehow seemed brighter.
    “You need somethin’, honey?” he asked politely, although he had to admit a little gleefully.
    Completely ignoring him, Hope struggled with the big box of groceries that sat on the sidewalk next to her truck, the same truck she’d had eight years