Page 3 of One Boiling Summer (Texas Summer #15)

THREE BEERS AND A BAD IDEA

HUDSON GOODSON

The entire time I was obligated to partake of the family engagement festivities, I kept one eye on Lacey. That plastered smile was nothing more than a veiled attempt at hiding her true feelings, I could tell. I’m guessing she came back expecting to find Carson waiting for her.

Hell, that was exactly why I should ignore her. Even if her legs looked stunning under that dress, slender feet set in a pair of fancy leather flats she probably bought at some pricey store on Fifth Avenue.

Yep, just pretend she didn’t exist. Even if I’d like to know what her manicured, painted pink nails would feel like raking down my back. Or her pink lips wrapped around my?—

“City girl visiting, huh? Can’t imagine what the sight of her is doing to you,” Anderson chortled, after I finished my speech.

He offered me one of two beers in his hands, but I declined.

I had originally intended to party hard tonight with my brothers to celebrate, but with Lacey’s sudden appearance, I stuck to Coke.

“Don’t read into this,” I warned with a growl.

Of all my brothers, he was the only one I’d ever confided in about my attraction to her.

I think specifically I’d admitted to it in a game of fuck, marry, or kill one night when we were shooting the breeze after work.

I’d named Lacey to marry. Now I hoped I didn’t come to regret it.

He and I were the closest, just a year or so apart. That’s how it was with all of us boys. Before our parents knew it, they had seven sons to raise. The Goodson house was eternally chaotic. Despite it, loving above all. We had our good times and bad, but we stuck together.

“Mama’s pleased as punch,” I observed as her laughter carried over to us at something Emme said.

“She couldn’t be happier to bring a female into the fold. Even better that it was Carson, her baby boy. First of us to get hitched.” Anderson shook his head.

I poked him in the ribs. “Well, Doc, if you’d quit chasing away every nurse from your clinic with that serious brain of yours, you might have caught one and married her by now.”

“Nope. Not me. I’ve got a ten-year plan. Settling down isn’t on it for a while.” He didn’t fool me. I suspected he had a nurse servicing him plenty now and then. “Maybe Lacey showing up is your sign. Make your move right, you could be next. You know Mama always loved Lacey like her own daughter.”

“Knock it off. I’m not chasing her to New York. My life is here. Besides, she’s never even thought of me that way.”

“Aha. So you admit that in the short span of time between her showing up tonight and now, you’ve thought a thing or two about her and this situation.” He guffawed, but I maintained my scowl.

Then I saw Lacey take off with a few beers in her arms, heading back down the path to her car.

“Shit. Why’d she have to go and do that?” I sighed.

“Steal our beers?” he asked. “How dare she? Should we go after her?”

“I don’t care about the beers. I care about her.

For someone with a high IQ and professional bedside manners, you lack people skills, you know that?

” I shouldn’t say things like that considering the man was the smartest of all of us.

Mama and I worked hard to support him through med school, and he was a huge benefit to the community.

“Says the guy the whole town calls the grumpy fireman,” he ribbed back. “So we’re not going after her?”

“You’re not. I am. I’ll make damn sure she doesn’t drink and drive.”

“Good thinking. Don’t need Branson pulling her over. Hell, he might be bold enough to steal her from you.”

“Shut it. Spread the word—none of our brothers better look Lacey’s way. Got it?”

I left him, ignoring his laugh, and his yelling after me. “Go get her, tiger!”

I moved close enough to keep an eye on her, but still visible to the party, so Mama wouldn’t chew me out for ignoring family responsibilities. Although I’d leave in a heartbeat if I could.

As the oldest, and as happy as I was for Carson, it didn’t sit right with me that my youngest brother would be the first to settle down.

Hell, Carson barely got his shit together the past few years running the Java Company.

If it weren’t for Emme getting a loan from her folks—arguably the richest family in town—I doubted Carson’s business would’ve stayed afloat.

Sure he loved her—no dispute. Just hoped he knew what he was getting himself into, mixing business and family like that.

Moonlight shone off the glass of a bottle in Lacey’s hand.

As I suspected, she sat in her car, drinking.

Probably crying. That stabbed my gut, knowing after all this time she’d cry over Carson.

It’d always been clear to me she loved him more than he loved her.

Maybe now, seeing him with Emme, she’d get the hint.

I let her get through three beers before I intervened. She hadn’t noticed my approach, and startled when I rapped on her driver’s side window.

“Oh, Hudson? What do you want?” She swiped quickly at her face, as if I couldn’t tell from her wobbling voice she’d been crying.

“Come on. Out. I’m driving you home,” I ordered. As second in command at the firehouse full of men, I’d gotten used to barking orders. I opened her door and offered my hand.

She grabbed the door to pull it closed. “Thank you kindly, but I don’t need your help.”

As much as she tugged, my grip on the door held firm.

“Fight me all you want, Lacey Andrews. But you’re not driving home in this condition. Now, give me those keys—please.” I tried a softer approach.

“Nope.”

“Don’t make me call Branson over here. He’ll arrest you before you even set out.”

“Aw, how is Officer B? Still sneezy?” She snickered. The old joke in town about us seven Goodson boys, each being like one of the seven dwarves, got old and made my teeth grind.

“His allergies are under control. Now get your little ass outta that seat.”

“Fine. It’s just a few blocks to Mom’s. I’ll walk.” She exited her hatchback and proceeded to tug at a bag and suitcase buried in the trunk. I sighed and came around behind her, giving the handle a good yank—too hard. The whole thing pulled free, and we tumbled backward.

Lacey landed on top of me, far too close to my family jewels.

I groaned. Couldn’t help it. My cock had never been this near to Lacey before.

I’d thought about it now and then—what it might be like inside her tight walls.

The fantasy now ignited fully under the weight of her, thanks to sparks of electricity pinging between our bodies.

She righted herself. I quickly did the same.

“Hudson Goodson, I don’t need your help.

” Full of fire, she ran a hand over her hair to smooth it, then continued with her palms straightening out her dress, like a prim and proper city girl.

But I could see the Texas chick inside of her still.

Wonder what it’d take to wake that wild side of hers up again?

She grabbed her things and huffed away, stumbling across the parking lot. With her suitcase rolling beside her, she balanced a few bags on her shoulders, redistributing the weight, looking about to fall over.

“You really have been gone a while. Your mama’s house is this way.” I called after her and thumbed behind me.

She stopped, sighed loudly, and then she slumped over, head down, shoulders shaking. Her cries hit me hard and I ran toward her, but too late. She leaned too far on the handle of the case and it collapsed, sending her to her knees on the ground.

I scooped her up and carried her back to my truck. In my arms, her body weighed next to nothing. Too bad I wasn’t carrying her to my bed instead.

“Wha-what are y-you doing?” She sobbed, bringing her arms around my neck and holding onto me tight.

“Taking you home.” I opened the passenger door of Blue Betsy and deposited her gently on the seat. Then I ran back and collected her things from the middle of the parking lot and threw those into the back.

When I reached her side, her face scrunched as she swiped her tears away. “Why are you driving Carson’s truck?”

“Carson’s? It’s been mine for a few years. He needed money to start his shop, so I bought it.”

“He sold her to you? But… he loved this truck. He put so much time and effort into it.” She reached out, running a hand along the dashboard as if petting a loyal family dog.

“Shoot. Either you’ve had more to drink than I thought, or your memory’s bad. Who do you think taught him how to fix this thing up? I probably put in just as much—if not more—work into it. Couldn’t see letting this beauty go to someone outside of the family.”

Which was my problem in a nutshell. Couldn’t let go of my infatuation with Lacey, either.

Up until her sophomore year, I’d thought nothing of her. Just an irritating friend of my brother’s. Then I’d gone off to firefighter school in Austin and worked there a couple of years until I finally got a job at our hometown station.

The day I moved back, she and Carson were celebrating their eighteenth birthdays with a combined party at our house. Somehow, she’d blossomed into a gorgeous young woman. And a helluva lot less irritating.

I admired her for all of her talk about moving to a city, even more when she actually did it.

Many people in this small town had dreams, very few fulfilled them.

Yeah, she got my heart racing. But being years older, I ignored it.

Not to mention, being Carson’s girl and best friend at the time, I wouldn’t dare pursue her.

How time changed everything... He moved on. She moved away. Even when she would visit her mom on rare holidays, they hung out, but just as friends. I asked him once about their relationship. He claimed no interest in her beyond friendship.

Now he’d popped the question to Emme, Lacey returned to town, and here I was, unattached, and undeniably bothered by the sight of her. But how would Carson take it if I pursued her? Hell, she probably wouldn’t even want me if I tried.

In her seat, she tugged at the seat belt, but it wouldn’t give. I stepped up on the sideboard. “Here. Let me do it. The old belt gets stuck now and then.”

I leaned over her and buckled her in, to the sound of her breath catching. Her chest rose and fell. The creamy skin there called my name, as if begging to be touched.

“Thanks,” she breathed.

“No problem, Lace.”

“Hm. Besides my mother, you’re the only one who ever called me that.” Then she bit her lip and looked away.

I backed off before she could cry, or before I did something stupid to that bottom lip of hers, like capture it with my mouth. I shut the door and ran around to my side. All kinds of warnings went off in my head.

What the hell was I doing? Getting any closer to her would be a bad idea. What would Carson say? Besides, she said she’d be here for the summer. Not forever.

I needed to keep myself in check around her. I reached down to adjust myself before opening my door, because fuck if my cock didn’t get the message.