The Lies Uncovered Trilogy (Books 4, 5, and 6 of The Dancing Moon Ranch Series) by Patricia Watters Read Free Book Online Page B

Rick said, remaining standing in the doorway, while making no attempt to move aside.
    Buzz glanced beyond Rick and saw Sophie, and said to her, "Hey Sophie. Can we talk on the porch?"
    Before Sophie could respond, Rick said, "She's here with me so you can just get back in your truck and be on your way."
    Buzz's eyes shifted from Rick to Sophie, then back to Rick, and he said, with brows drawn, "Are you and Sophie an item?"
    Rick took so long to respond Sophie stepped forward, and said, "No, Rick and I are not an item." When Rick still said nothing, Sophie added, "And yes, I'd love to have dinner with you tonight. You can pick me up at Rick's mother's house."
    She was hoping Rick would say something, even go into big brother mode and forbid her to go, but he did nothing, just stood with his hands curved into fists at his side, and his jaws bunching, like he was either holding back a string of cuss words, or trying to keep from throwing a punch at Buzz. When he did neither, Sophie brushed past him without saying anything and went to her car.
    Buzz caught up with her, and said, "What's with you and Rick? He acts like a jealous lover."
    "That's just Rick," Sophie said. "It's a habit. He's been hovering over me for years."
    "Then you're okay with dinner tonight?" Buzz asked.
    Sophie glanced at the house and saw Rick standing on the porch, that same disgusted look on his face.
    He acts like a jealous lover...
    Oddly, she wanted him to be jealous. She wanted him to feel something for her again. But he looked as immovable as a mountain, and just about as indifferent.
    "Dinner would be nice," she said. "I'll see you around seven." Refusing to look at Rick again, she got in her car and drove off.
    ***
    "Son, you're going to wear a path in the rug," Sam said to Rick later that evening, as Rick made another pass across the living room. "She's a grown woman with a mind of her own so there's nothing you can do, and pacing the floor won't help."
    "I didn't tell you everything," Rick replied, pausing long enough to look at his father.
    "Then sit down and let's talk through it," Sam said. He dragged a kitchen chair away from the table and poured a mug of coffee for Rick and set it in front of the chair.
    Rick took a sip of coffee then set the mug down and went to stand in front of the window, hands on his hips, eyes focused on the night. "It's not just that she's out with Buzz," he said. "When I picked her up from the party, Buzz was pretty cocky when he said she was a hot little number and he wondered where I'd been hiding her. Buzz doesn't take hot little numbers to dinner without expecting payback, and with the kind of girls he dates he gets what he wants. With Sophie though, all he'll have to do is give her a drink or two and she'll be all over him."
    "You're overreacting," Sam said. "Lots of guys might jump to the conclusion that Sophie's a hot little number because she's blond and good looking, but she also has a solid set of morals, so she'll know when to put the skids on anything Buzz might try."
    His back to his dad, and his eyes still focused beyond the window, Rick said, "When I found Sophie at the party she was drunk and had been smoking pot and was draped all over a guy, and she didn't much give a damn where his hands were, which weren’t in his pockets." He turned then, and from the surprised look on his father's face, wondered if he'd revealed too much about Sophie. But he couldn't keep it all inside either, and his father had always been his sounding board, more so in his adult years than when he was a teen.
    "Sit down, Rick," Sam said. "We really need to talk this out."
    Sucking in a long breath to calm the erratic beating of his heart as the image of Sophie at the party replayed in his mind, for the umpteenth time, Rick lowered himself to the chair, wrapped his hands around the mug of coffee, and sat staring at it.
    Sam reached out and placed his hand on Rick's arm, and said, "Sophie's been coming to the ranch with her folks