Free Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek) by Tina Leonard Page B

needs a mayor. Maggie will be awesome.”
    “Okay,” Sugar said. “I’ll tell Maggie. See if she’s still up for it.”
    “Thanks.” He had the sense Sugar wasn’t doing cartwheels for joy. “But I’m feeling some reservation from you. I could be wrong, but I’m not usually.”
    Paris launched herself off the pier, leaping into the water with an exuberant splash. Sugar watched her dog swim for a minute. “I’m just trying to figure out if you’re pitching for Maggie to keep me quiet about your secret living, or because you kissed me, or because you’re genuinely a nice guy trying to help the new girls fit into the town shark tank.”
    “Can’t it be all three?” Jake grinned, devil-may-care to the max.
    Sugar sank onto the wooden pier with her basket, the pier he’d installed himself with the help of his three buddies. He was pretty proud of the pier. Hours had been put into honing the wood, sanding it to keep it from splintering into little barefoot feet, then weatherproofing it. Sugar looked nice on his pier, her long legs tanned and lean, topped by wrinkled khaki shorts that fit her butt like shorts should fit a woman. She had a blue spaghetti strap top on that made his eyes pop from the effort of not staring at the curves of bosoms rising above the lacy vee of the ribbed cotton. A tiny gold chain circled her collarbone. She wore no makeup, her hair yanked up in a careless, saucy ponytail.
    “It could be all three,” Sugar said, “but it’s not. My guess is you’re determined to rope Maggie in to annoy Vivian. If Vivian’s festering about my mother, she’s less likely to focus on you. Which makes you not a nice guy, in my book.”
    He sat down next to her, letting his legs dangle over the pier as she was. Paris made it to the bank, got out, shook herself off, then dove off the pier again. “Look, I dig Maggie. It’s that simple. There is no other motive. Although doing it to atone for any guilt I might be feeling about kissing you was a colorful guess. I never feel guilty about kissing a woman.”
    Sugar looked at him. “Where is Mrs. Jake Bentley?”
    “Out there looking for me, probably.” He smiled at the prospect. “She’ll find me one day.”
    “No girlfriend?”
    “I had one. You’ll meet her soon enough. Averie Pipkin. With an ie instead of a y. A very nice girl.” He leaned back on the dock, staring up at the cloudless sky.
    “Go on. You started the story, don’t leave off the ending.”
    “There’s nothing to tell. She wanted to get married.” He sighed. “She’s such a nice girl.”
    Sugar lay back on the dock beside him, a foot apart, looking up at the sky he saw. “So? Nice girls finish last?”
    “Probably.” He yawned. “I think I’m too lazy to get married. It’s too much commitment.”
    “You own a restaurant. That’s a huge commitment.”
    “Not really. I have three buddies who really keep things going. I show up infrequently to count the money, check the stock, tell everyone I’m just helping out. I don’t do much.”
    “But you lie to your mother, and that’s a commitment.”
    “Not true. I avoid telling Vivian about my business, because Vivian is a fixer. Vivian would snoop into my records, she’d change everything from the menu to the soap in the soap dispensers in the bathrooms, and she’d force everyone to eat every meal at Bait and Burgers.”
    “There’s no bait in your restaurant. Why do you call it Bait and Burgers?”
    “Kel thought of the name. I didn’t care. The other guys voted it in. We run a hamburger democracy.”
    “So,” Sugar said, “getting back to Averie, ie instead of y.”
    “Yeah. You’ll know her when you see her. She’s gorgeous.”
    “Really.”
    “Absolutely.” He smiled, wondering if he’d heard a slight edge in Sugar’s voice. “She’s about five-two, with long blonde hair to her waist. It’s straight and golden like a waterfall. Her face is enough to make a goddess weep with envy, and she’s