The hurt ringing in his voice made her look up. Her eyes bored into the words Boyfriend Material straining across his broad chest.
Suddenly, she felt like a huge ass. She never considered herself one of those wishy-washy women she often worked with on house flipping projects or some of the wives of rodeo stars. Sadie prided herself on being down-to-earth, serious and stable.
Except right now she felt far from those things. The feminine part of her that Theo’s presence aroused hovered in fantasy-land, where she and the cowboy tumbled in the grass under a beautiful Georgia sky. He made her feel as off-balance as a schoolgirl.
She shook her head. Somehow, she must right things with him.
“Don’t leave. They’re your friends,” she said.
“Yours too. I had no idea you were the person Jada and Dom were throwing a party for.”
She sucked in a deep breath of air, filling her lungs with the male scent that flooded her dreams and tormented her days. She ran her tongue over her dry lips.
Damn if Theo didn’t track the action.
That same connection she’d felt as the sunset faded in the sky haunted her now.
“You must think I’m crazy,” she said.
He stared at her for a long heartbeat and then that smile appeared, the wide, full-lipped, easygoing boyfriend material one.
“Maybe a little,” he admitted.
How could she resist that honesty? She burst out laughing, a full belly laugh as if she’d heard the funniest joke in her life—and it was aimed at her too.
She sent him an embarrassed look and bit down on her lip. “You’re right.”
His grin didn’t fade. “So you’ll come back to the party?”
* * * * *
Theo returned to the party first and headed straight for the beer cooler. Not only was he parched from running into Sadie again, but he was also keyed up from seeing her glorious ass first from across the deck and then when he chased her through the house and outside.
Hell, one beer wouldn’t be near enough. He hadn’t planned on getting drunk at his friends’ party, but sometimes a situation called for it.
Dom appeared at his side, as he knew he would. He looked him over. “You okay, buddy?”
Theo chugged the cold brew and broke off with a gasp. He gave a nod.
A gleam came into Dom’s eye. “How do you know Sadie?”
There was no getting out of this, was there? For her sake—and his own—he needed to come up with a hell of a convincing lie.
“Ran into each other at the winery.” Rule one about lies—stick to the truth as much as possible.
Dom waited for more. “And that’s all?” he asked finally.
He nodded. “Yup. She was new to town, she said. She bought wine. I bought wine. We exchanged names.”
And bodily fluids.
Time to change the subject.
“How do you know Sadie?” he turned the tables on Dom and plunged a fist into the ice, coming out with a beer.
The woman in question returned to the deck. Jada jumped on her like starch on grits, and he heard Sadie mutter something about forgetting to make a phone call about a house for sale.
She shot him a look from the corner of her eye, and he returned it with one of his own. Damn, the woman was seriously fine. Finer than even his sluggish memory recalled, but now every detail of Sadie and their moments in the back of his truck glowed in neon and technicolor.
He distracted himself by popping the top off another beer and sealing his lips to the bottle. Oh yeah—Dom still hadn’t answered.
He met the man’s eyes, catching the amusement in his eyes.
Theo cocked a brow at him.
“Sadie is Sadie James. Jackson Jesse James’s widow.”
His gaze flashed to her even as his stomach dropped like a stone in the Satilla River that cut through Crossroads. Everybody knew the story of the legendary Jackson Jesse James, how he’d fallen off a bull before hitting the eight second buzzer, got caught beneath the hooves and…
Well, Dom had been pretty broken up over it, being the one to jump into the area and risk his life to try to save him.
He swung his gaze up to Dom. “Damn…that’s rough.”
He nodded. “She moved here for a fresh start. It’s been over a year, but I imagine running in the same circles and living in Dallas didn’t give her the distance she needed from her grief.”
Suddenly, Theo felt like a huge ass. He’d touched a widow, which to his mind was hallowed ground. Had she even been with other men since her late husband? Hell…
But she took charge that evening. She’d lured him in and admitted it too. If he’d known…
Would he have done anything different? Christ on a bike, he wanted to put his hands on her right now, even knowing her situation.
He brought the beer back to his lips, and Dom went on, “Jada and I persuaded her to move here, and she arrived a few weeks back.”
Oh he remembered far too well the date of her arrival. Three weeks, one day and about…he looked up at the sky to judge the time…twenty-two hours, by his estimate.
“She stayin’ here with y’all?” he grated out and swigged more beer.
“No, at the bed and breakfast. Jada offered her our guest room, but she wanted her own space. She’s some kind of interior designer. Calls herself Doctor Fixer Upper.”
Theo stared at her. Beauty and talent. The double punch to his type. Not that he’d ever met anyone close to Sadie. All the girls he dated were simply pretty but lacking more.
“What the hell’s a fixer upper?”
Dom chuckled. “Beats me. Something with flipping houses? All I know is she’s looking for a place to live, and then she plans to start work.”
“Plenty of places to settle down in Crossroads.”
Like on my cock.
Jesus on a piece of toast, he had to purge this woman from his mind. Her running away to escape seeing him again was proof enough that he couldn’t think about making a move on her.
Several steps away, she had picked up her abandoned bowl of fruit and was making a noble attempt to eat it. He also noted that she wore a pair of jeans the way a damn supermodel would. The denim clung to her curves and accentuated all the right places a man wanted to put his hands. If he moved around behind her to get a good look at her ass again, would she notice?
Her brown hair had been streaked with reds and golds from the sunset that night, and now wasn’t much different. Her natural brown had a red cast that shimmered whenever she moved her head. She wore the long locks off her face, the sides sort of twisted back and pinned. The effect gave her a girl next door look that strung his heart out even more.
And that top…hell, he might never get over her if she moved one more time, because the buttons stretched taut over her breasts. While he couldn’t see anything from across the deck, and from around the bodies of a dozen other friends, he wondered if he worked his finger into the gap if he’d find the lacy bra she’d been wearing that night.
Fuck!
His jeans grew tight, and he had to twist away, back to Dom.
The man eyed him. “She’s fragile. Jackson’s death hit her hard.”
And Theo’d been the one to take advantage of that, even without knowing it, the minute she rolled into town.
He polished off his third beer. At this rate, he wouldn’t be driving home anytime soon. That didn’t stop him from reaching for a third.