Trouble In Dixie by Becky McGraw Read Free Book Online

put an Oreo-crumbed
finger to it to stop it. "That's perfect, thanks, sis."
     
    "Now tell me why the hell you're crying,"
Karlie said flatly.
     
    Damn. It looked like she wasn't going to get
by without spilling her guts. Her lip trembled again and her eyes
filled then she admitted, "Yellow roses."
     
    "What?" Karlie asked in confusion.
     
    "Tommy came by here and brought me yellow
roses, trying to apologize," she told her sister in a trembling
voice.
     
    "Why the heck would that make you cry?"
     
    "His apology sucked, and I can't just be his
friend. I've tried it for three months now, and it's not going to
work..." Katie told her and a few tears overflowed her eyes and she
cursed then yanked another Kleenex out of the box to wipe her face.
"I don't want to talk about it, seriously."
     
    "Fine...we'll have a bottle of wine when you
get here and you can tell me all about it."
     
    "When I get there?" Katie asked in
confusion.
     
    "Yeah, I thought we'd practice some, it's
been a while, and you're probably rusty," Karlie told her with a
snort.
     
    "Hah, the only rusty thing about me is..." my hair , she finished silently, but then realized she
couldn't say that anymore. "A certain body part," she improvised
quickly with a laugh.
     
    "Well, we'll go out while you're here and
see if we can remedy that situation too...c'mon, sis, we need to
catch up," Karlie wheedled in that voice that drove Katie nuts.
     
    Katie looked down at the box of tissues and
half empty bag of cookies, and snorted, "I guess so...I think I'm
shopped out, and cried out...and we could use the practice
probably. I'll go pick up Laramie and head that way."
     
    Karlie whooped loudly, and Katie held the
phone away from her ear and laughed, then told her, "That whoop is
almost as bad as your snort...I'll be there in a few hours."
     
    "See ya then," her sister said happily then
hung up the phone. Maybe she could feel out some job prospects,
while she was there too. Katie threw down her phone on the bed and
cleaned up the trailer, so everything was secure, then went to load
the bike in the truck and hook up the trailer again.

CHAPTER THREE
     
     
    It was late afternoon when she pulled up in
front of the big farm house at the Double B, and she drove straight
back toward the barn, so she could park her trailer there and
unload Laramie. Karlie came running out of the barn and helped
guide her park the trailer under a tree, then ran up to the truck
door and swung it open. "Took you long enough!" she said with a
chortle.
     
    Cassie Matthews came out of the barn and
walked over to them with a smile. When Katie got out of the truck
and stepped into the sun, both her sister and Cassie gasped and
their eyebrows hit their hairlines.
     
    Karlie's hand flew to her lips and she asked
breathlessly, "Holy, shit, Kate...what the hell have you done to
yourself?"
     
    Katie fluffed her hair and stepped aside so
she could shut the door, and then stood facing her now un-identical
twin sister. "Definitely not boring anymore, huh?" she said
self-consciously.
     
    "Holy, crap!" her sister said then fingered
her new straight blond hair, as her eyes moved down over her halter
top, to her shorts, then she gasped in horror, " Fuck , you
got a tattoo?"
     
    Katie shrugged then stepped forward and
hugged her stiffly. "It was time for us to become individuals, so
this is my attempt."
     
    "You went waaay overboard, Katie," Karlie
told her angrily and took a step back to look at her again. "Those
clothes...Jesus, you're gonna give somebody a heart attack!"
     
    "I'm channeling my inner biker chick,
sis...the look goes with my new bike," she said with a wry
grin.
     
    " I'm the wild child, sis...this is so not you," Karlie told her quietly.
     
    "Well, I'm tired of being boring...and in
your shadow. I'm figuring out who I am, and it's a process," Katie
replied defensively. "Let's drop the subject, okay? I need to
unload Laramie, and get my bike unloaded."
     
    Karlie walked to the