through one day without showing the whole county my bra? “Are you okay?”
The question did not come from Beer Guy. It was a familiar voice, deep and close to my ear so he didn’t have to yell. All things considered, Ben McCulloch’s appearance, as if out of thin air, didn’t surprise me at all.
“Your friend needs to watch where she’s going,” said Beer Guy.
Ben had taken a protective hold of my upper arm. I drew a breath, ready to fight my own battle, but by his cutting stare, it was pretty clear he had his own beef with the guy.
“Accidents happen, Joe,” Ben said coldly. “And I don’t see you covered in Budweiser.”
Joe certainly seemed dry, as far as I could tell in the neon light. The two cups in his hands were mostly empty, and what beer I wasn’t wearing had already soaked into the rough wood floor.
“I’m out two beers,” he said.
Ben reached into his pocket, pulled out a bill without looking at it, and dropped it into one of the plastic cups. “Have a pitcher on me.”
I didn’t think it was possible for the guy to look any angrier, but at the sight of the twenty soaking in that inch of beer, his eyes narrowed to slits of cold loathing. “Good luck with your bridge, McCulloch. Must be tough with the Mad Monk sending people to the hospital. Hope you have some ranch hands left by the time you’re done.”
The only sign of Ben’s anger was the tension in the hand on my arm. His expression was coolly composed, which I realized, because I’d seen it a lot, meant he was really angry. “Thanks for the concern, Joe. If I’m still hiring before you’ve found a job, I’ll let you know.”
Joe looked like he was going to explode, so I didn’t resist as Ben steered me away. The crowd murmured their disappointment that there wasn’t going to be a fight. So did Joe’s friends, who’d shouldered up beside him. But if Ben was half as accurate with his fists as with his words, someone might end up in the hospital. And not from the Mad Monk.
“Friend of yours?” I asked when I’d recovered my powers of speech.
Ben kept me close as we wove through the crowd. I didn’t really like to be steered, but didn’t think I had much of an argument where driving myself was concerned. Not while my bangs still dripped beer onto my nose, anyway.
He gave a rueful sigh, as if to make light of the ugly incident, but his underlying tension remained. “Somebody’s great-grandfather hangs someone else’s for cattle rustling, and they never get over it.”
“Cattle rustling!” I started to look back, but Ben’s grip tightened, keeping me from a very obvious goggle.
“Don’t stare,” he said. Then, once we’d gained a little breathing room, he asked, “Are you okay?”
“Well, I’m wearing enough beer to get arrested, but I’m not such a delicate flower that I’m going to crumple when a big meanie yells at me. I mean, you should know that.”
His brows lowered, and he seemed to contemplate a number of answers, but before he could pick one a cute Hispanic girl in a Hitchin’ Post T-shirt intercepted us.
“Oh my gosh,” she said, handing me a clean bar towel, which I took gratefully, blotting my dripping bangs. “I saw what happened. Are you okay? Joe Kelly has been a jerk since grade school.”
“Joe Kelly?” I echoed. “As in Deputy Kelly?”
“His son,” said Ben, eloquent in his brevity. But I heard his grandfather in his tone. Never trust a Kelly.
I mopped at my T-shirt, but quickly realized the towel wasn’t going to cut it. “I can’t go back to the table like this,” I said. “I’m not decent.”
Ben glanced down, then quickly back up, clearing his throat. “Does your family know about this exhibitionist tendency of yours?”
My face flamed, but before I could work up a retort, the waitress hit his arm. “Be nice. I’ve known you since grade school, too.” Then she turned me toward the restrooms with a little shove. “Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up. I’m Jessica, by the way.”
“Amy,” I said automatically, looking over my shoulder at Ben, who seemed amused to see me herded like a nanny goat. “I think I’m a lost cause. I should just go home.”
Jessica kept propelling me to the hallway in the back of the bar, and a door that said Cowgirls. “Then let’s get you dry enough to not set off a