Page 25 of Beehives and Broken Heroes

“Thank you,” Steph said, as she poured everyone a glass before guzzling her own.

“Whose birthday’s next?” Swayzie asked, drinking from her glass.

Jessie raised a hand. “I’m in August.”

“That’s no good,” Allie said. “We’ll just have to make up some excuse to come.”

“Like it’s Tuesday.” Presley laughed.

“Or I woke up on the right side of the bed,” Caroline joined in.

“Or it’s national donut day?” Jessie asked.

Allie’s eyes widened. “There’s a national donut day? When does this magical day happen?”

The women laughed.

“I’m all for it,” Steph said, “if I can get a babysitter.”

“What are husbands for?” Presley chuckled.

Just then, Mirabelle Mason and Danny Cabrera walked up, having just arrived. Mirabelle wore a cute cowboy hat over her black curls, and Allie wondered what Danny had to do to get her off the farm. The woman was a workaholic when it came to her horseback riding company that catered to tourists.

Allie’s gaze zeroed in on Mirabelle’s and Danny’s clutched hands, and she grinned. Seemed like a lot of people had fallen in love at the fall festival last year, and it stuck. Jo had told Allie about how Danny had shown up after Tony had wrecked their shop, helping them paint over the creepy message Tony had left on the wall. She hadn’t met Danny yet at that point, but she’d liked him immediately knowing he’d been willing to help. As far as she was concerned, Mirabelle deserved all the happiness the world had to offer her.

Mirabelle stepped in and wrapped her arm around Allie’s neck, giving her a quick squeeze. “Happy birthday.”

“Thank you,” Allie said.

“Deputy,” Jessie said with a glint in her eyes as she looked at Danny. She nodded her head toward the dance floor. “You here to arrest the Slades for their bad moves?”

The group all glanced toward the dance floor as “Cotton Eye Joe” came on for its once-a-night turn. Nash and Porter rushed to the top of the dance floor and started the line dance with exaggerated leg lifts and hand clapping.

Danny grinned. “I’m off duty tonight. Sorry, ladies. But maybe if they keep it up, Mo will throw them out.”

They all laughed again.

Danny looked at Allie. “Are you Allie or Jo?”

Mirabelle checked him with her hip, and when he looked at her, she pointed to where Jo danced with Cash, kissing. “Well, that one’s making out with Cash, so I’m hoping this one’s Allie.”

Allie made a visible shudder. “Kissin’ Cash would be like kissin’ my dad. Yuck.”

More laughter.

Caroline quickly leaned over to Jessie and whispered in her ear. Jessie sat tall and stared toward the door. Allie spun on her stool to see what they were looking at. Caroline took off then toward a handsome man in dress pants and a button-up shirt, heading straight for her. Well, well. There had to be a story there. The two met in the middle and grasped hands. Another man, more brooding and no less handsome, had come in with the man now dancing with Caroline, and he stood at the entrance in jeans, a T-shirt, and a baseball hat. He looked really familiar. He stared at Jessie, and Jessie squirmed in her seat.

“Who’s that?” Allie asked.

“No one.” Jessie spun her stool toward the bar.

Allie was just about to grill her when none other than her lying scumbag of an ex-boyfriend, Tony, walked around the guy in the baseball hat, holding the hand of a cute blond woman. Allie froze as nausea rolled over her like a wave at sea. What was he doing here? The nerve! Showing up on her birthday.

After Tony’s scheme to steal her business had fallen through and she’d dumped him, Deputy Ethan and Deputy Roger had given her the chance to press charges. She hadn’t done it. Charges entailed court dates, and testifyin’, and paperwork, with nothing more than him getting community service, and she’d wanted nothing more than the man gone from her life as quickly as possible. He’d returned all the money he’d stolen and promised to be out of Harvest Ranch within the week. That’d been enough for her. But now here he was, on her birthday, in the adjoining town, as if he had any right to show up at all.

He didn’t live in Charleston. She knew that for sure. She had too many friends in Charleston, and Charleston wasn’t that much bigger than Harvest Ranch. If he’d been here, she would’ve known. This had to be intentional. He’d shown up in the club she went to every year for her birthday, on her birthday, for a reason.

Red fuzzed through her vision as fury seeped from the top of her head all the way down to her toes. She’d kill him. With her bare hands. And she’d do it now.

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