The Rebel Tycoon Returns

Abby smiled at her friend and then reached over to squeeze her hand before getting up. “I’ll leave you to your dinner. It was nice meeting you, Chris.”

“You too,” Chris said.

Abby left and Macy sat back in her chair. “I’d forgotten what it’s like to come to dinner at the club. It’s such a hub for everyone.”

“You really haven’t been out for a while?” Chris asked. He took a sip of his drink and leaned forward when he talked to her. It was a very intimate thing to do and made her feel as if they were the only two people here tonight.

“For years.” At first she’d been horrified and so traumatized by everything that had happened that she’d been afraid to leave the house. Then she’d wanted to go out, but the few forays she’d made had shown her that people stared. She hadn’t been strong enough for that.

“Well, how do you think it went then?” Chris asked. “Your first dinner out in years.”

“I think it went well,” Macy admitted. “It’s also my first date in years.”

She’d been hiding away at her father’s ranch trying to pretend that she’d just moved from her hometown. It had been hard being so badly injured in a place where she’d known so many people. She had needed to just blend in and that wasn’t possible in Royal, so she’d started staying home.

“I’m glad,” Chris admitted. “I’m not happy about the circumstances that led to it, but I’m very honored to be the first man you’ve been out with.”

She didn’t want to let this mean too much. Chris wasn’t in town looking for a small-town girl as his wife, and she knew she was vulnerable right now. But she had enjoyed herself and their date and, if she was honest, she’d have to say she hoped he’d ask her out again.

“I’m glad it was you too,” she said. “You have made my night, and celebrating my first day free of bandages couldn’t have been nicer. Thank you, Chris.”

“It was truly my pleasure, Macy.”

The feeling of being in a fishbowl when he went out in Royal was very different from what he usually felt in Dallas. In the big city, no one noticed who he was with, but tonight he was very aware that most of the town knew he and Macy had had dinner together. The gossip had defined who he was and had served to make him want to be better than his dad. He’d been only too happy to shake the dust of this town from his feet.

“I’d kind of forgotten what Royal was like.”

“I bet. Don’t miss it much, do you?” she asked as he paid the bill and they sat for an extra minute to talk and drink the Baileys that Chris had ordered for them.

“I miss my mom,” he admitted. “She’s Royal born and bred. I’ve tried to get her to move up to Dallas but she won’t do it, keeps trying to make me move back here instead.”

“What about your dad?” Macy asked.

“Nah, he was a Yankee,” Chris said with a laugh. “East Coaster who fell in love with the oil industry thanks to the movie Giant. Mom used to tease him that he came to Royal looking for Liz Taylor.”

“Your mom is pretty enough. Did he think he’d found her?” Macy asked.

“Yes, I think he did. They had a happy marriage until he passed.”

“I was sorry to hear about your loss,” Macy said. “Did you get the flowers I sent?”

“I don’t know. Mom handled all that,” he said. That entire time was still a blur for him. He hadn’t been old enough to have made his peace with his dad. He had been getting closer to forgiving the old man for all the things he hadn’t done for him. Things that a boy had wanted but a man knew weren’t really important. “Why didn’t you come to the funeral?”

His dad had died when Chris had been a junior in college. It had changed his perspective and sharpened his desires to make his life different. He’d stopped being such a frat boy and focused more on his studies.

“I didn’t think I’d be welcome,” Macy said. “But I remembered meeting him and how sweet he’d been to me. He was a nice man. Your parents were always so funny at dinner, teasing you and treating you like … the apple of their eye.”

“Only when we had company. They had plenty of fault to find when we were alone.”

Unlike her dad, who’d forbidden Macy to see Chris, his parents had adored her and really treated her well when she’d come to dinner at his house. But Chris and his dad had butted heads a lot, something his mom had said was due to the fact that they were both stubborn as mules. Chris suspected it was more likely that they both wanted different things for him.

“Ready to go?” he asked, changing the subject.

“I guess so. I’ve really enjoyed tonight, Chris,” she said. In fact, she couldn’t remember a date she’d enjoyed more in her adult life. Benjamin had been a coworker of hers and they’d kind of fallen into dating because all their friends were coupled up. They had found each other by default, she thought. Maybe that was why they hadn’t lasted.

“Me too,” he said, his voice a rich deep baritone that brushed over her senses like a cool breeze on a hot summer’s day.

He put his hand on the small of her back as he directed her through the dining room toward the outer doors of the club. He liked the feel of her under his hands. They’d been too young when they’d dated before to get into anything other than heavy petting. And he remembered her teenage body in a bikini from the summer, but that was all. He wondered what she looked like now.

She stopped and started laughing as she saw the sea of pink flamingos.

“What’s so funny?” Chris asked.

“The flamingos. I can’t believe they showed up here,” Macy said. No one was supposed to know who exactly had placed the birds, so she had to pretend she didn’t know. The lawn of the club was dotted with gaudy pink flamingos and Chris had a chuckle as well.

“I guess it was the club’s time,” Chris said. “Mother said one of her neighbors had them a few weeks ago.”

“It definitely is the club’s time to have them here. I think they’re cute,” she said.

The conversation trailed off and he could do nothing but stare at her in the moonlight. He took her hand and led her down one of the many paths and out of sight of prying eyes. Her thick honey-blond hair hung loosely around her shoulders.

“Why do you keep looking at me?” she asked.

“I’ve never seen anyone quite as beautiful,” he said. It was the truth, and all that he knew about her had just been enhanced tonight.

“That’s not true, but I’m going to say thank-you anyway.”

“It is true,” he said. Years ago her question would have been blatant flirting, but today he sensed her genuine unease about her own looks. “How can I convince you of what I see when I look at you?”

She shrugged and nibbled on her lower lip, which drew his eyes to her mouth. He loved her mouth, even with the tiny scar on her upper lip. The full lower lip that made him just want to lean down and taste her. He wanted her.