Page 2 of Austin
“Yeah?” Austin smiled a little. “Which one?”
“Tonopah.”
He gave a short nod. “Go to high school there?”
“I did.” She looked as if she wanted to be anywhere except where she was. Why?
“I forget…what’s Tonopah’s mascot?”
The waitress stilled. “Excuse me?”
“The high school mascot. What is it?”
She swallowed. Her mouth opened, closed again, then she blurted, “It’s a rattlesnake.” Her gaze drilled into his, as if daring him to question her further.
He was done.
Cody lifted his glass. “Now that’s a mascot. Mine was a—”
“Chipmunk?” Austin asked.
“Fuck you.”
The Kristen-look-alike took advantage of the moment to slip away. All for the best, really. Austin didn’t need a mystery or anything else to screw with his focus. So what if their waitress was the spitting image of the girl who’d ripped him to shreds in front of a crowd? It had been years ago. He gave her one final farewell look over his shoulder as she walked away, then sat up straighter as he spotted the scar just above her right elbow.
Son of a bitch.
He knew that scar—had studied it during math class when he’d sat behind Kristen Alexander and spent more time focused on her than on what the instructor was blathering on about. He’d even asked her about it, thinking that maybe she’d talk to him.
No way.
His eyes narrowed as Kristen—it had to be her—edged her way past a group of women wearing dresses that were too tight and heels that were too high. In other words, damned hot women. Likely Josh would have one of them in a convenient bathroom stall soon.
“Are you up to it?” Gus asked, obviously referring to the women, not Kristen, who was now at the bar.
Austin settled back in his chair, lifted his drink. “I am…but I won’t.”
Gus coughed into his fist, but Austin ignored him as he sipped the Jameson. What was Kristen Alexander, the woman who’d toldhimthathewas going nowhere in life, doing working in a mid-level casino?
He pulled out his phone, but before he could look up the Tonopah mascot, Casey said, “You know what? She lied to you.” He held out his phone to show Austin a cartoon prospector.
“No shit.” He sipped again. “I think she just wanted to get rid of me.”
Casey gave a small snort. “Makes sense. I’d like to get rid of you, too, at times.”
“Ah…you know you love me.”
Casey tipped back his beer while Austin once again zeroed in on Kristen, who was checking tables on the opposite side of the room.
He wasn’t the vengeful type…not usually. But this situation was different, and he felt as if it needed to be addressed. Now. While he had the opportunity.
Guess what, Kris? The roosters have come home to roost.
*
Somehow Kristen managednot to hyperventilate on the long walk back to the bar. She’d just about died when Austin Harding and his friends came into the casino bar and sat in her section. What were the chances of someone from back home ending up in the Silver Bow Casino? And of all people, Austin Harding? Really?
But she survived. Barely. When she chanced a look at the table of bull riders, they were deep in conversation. As far as she could tell, squinting across the dimly lit room while trying to appear as if she wasn’t staring, not one of them had a phone out to look up the real mascot of Tonopah, Nevada. Maybe she’d guessed correctly? Surely some school in Nevada had a rattlesnake as a mascot—why not Tonopah?
