His Southern Temptation - By Robin Covington Page 0,31

Gent.”

“Holy shit. Can’t you keep anything secret in this town?” Lucky asked his dad, Owen, as he paused in his caulking job on the barn roof. The sun was hot and oppressive where he stood on top of the roof, but his father’s continued silence really made Lucky sweat. They were finishing up the last of the repairs to the roof in their usual mode—lots of hard work, little conversation, and many things present but remaining ignored. “Who told you?”

“Your mama. She heard it from one her regular customers at the beauty shop.” He turned to throw rotted boards over the side, the crash when they hit ground drifting back up to them in the quiet of the farm. As he swung back around, Owen peered at him from under the brow of his ball cap. “You’ve got some explaining to do.”

“Well, for the record, I didn’t get arrested. I was just taken in for questioning.” Obviously, he wasn’t used to being in Elliott again. He knew from a lifetime of prior experience that he should have called his mom and told her what happened before she opened Sissy’s Southern Style and learned of his exploits from her customers.

“I’m not the one you need to explain it to. Your mama was not pleased,” Owen said and returned to his job. “I heard the Elliot girl was arrest—” He paused, looking at Lucky, amusement teasing at his edge of his mouth. “I’m sorry—questioned—as well. You have anything to do with that?”

“Why do you assume I did?” Lucky asked, just to be ornery.

His dad humored him, continuing on as if his son wasn’t being a jackass. “Well, there was a time when that girl did nothing but look at you.”

Lucky shrugged, continuing his work and trying to play it cool. He didn’t want to get into a discussion about Taylor or any woman with his father. It was a little too close to the “sex talk” and the memory of that awkward, embarrassing, but blessedly short conversation still gave him the hives.

“And then there was a time when you started looking back,” his father added mildly.

Lucky paused at that one. He didn’t think anyone had noticed, least of all his father. “Ancient history.”

“History often repeats itself. You learn that as you get older,” his father said.

Time to change the subject. Getting pseudo-arrested was a safer topic.

“I was at the Jolly Gent because I’m working a job for Jack. A girl went missing from there and I was chasing down leads.”

“So you decided to take Jack up on his offer? I think that’s a good idea.” His father peered at him from under the brim of his ball cap, a quick nod emphasizing his agreement with the decision he thought his son had made regarding his future.

Lucky had been waiting for the perfect time to bring up his plans, dragging his feet and being a general chickenshit about the whole thing. It looked like now was the time. It wasn’t as though his dad could go anywhere.

“Dad, I want to buy the farm.”

Nothing.

“Did you hear me? I said I wan—”

“I heard you… I just thought I heard you wrong.” His dad, broad and strong, in fantastic shape for his age, looked up from where he was hammering down the replacement boards, his blue eyes narrowed in disbelief. “Why now? Never did interest you before.”

“People change.” Lucky braced himself for the debate.

“I thought you were pretty well-suited for what you were doing.” His dad turned back to the job at hand, the movement making his expression unreadable. His tone was clear, though—it said he wasn’t jumping on board the Lucky train any time soon. “Seemed to be exactly where you belonged. Trouble always seemed to find you.”

“So it only made sense for me to have a job that sent me to look for it?” Lucky finished the thought, not bothering to hide the bitter edge to his comment.

“Now, don’t read too much into my words. I didn’t mean you were a troublemaker, but it sure did follow you around. And you always knew how to fix it. I know you helped a lot of people in the service.”

“Don’t make me out to be a hero,” he said, voice rough as he pushed through the tightness in his chest caused by the pride in his father’s words.

“Lucky. I went to war and I know that every man who puts on a uniform isn’t a hero, but I also know even heroes make mistakes. I just