Page 123 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

She’d spent the day mulling over what he’d said, and she understood his dilemma. But she also understood that he’d chosen his loyalty to her brother over his desire for her. And she was furious with him for it!

“What do you want for dinner?” Jared asked from his side of the room.

“I don’t care,” she said, patting Lucy as she moved across the motel room to stand by the window. She pushed aside the blinds and saw the neon lights of a honky-tonk bar flicker across the street. She let the blinds drop into place. “Order whatever you want. I’m going out.”

“What?”

“I’m going out,” she repeated.

“Where?”

“None of your business,” she answered, pulling a clingy, tank-top dress out of her suitcase.

“What do you mean ‘none of my business’?” His eyes bugged.

“Exactly that.” She grabbed the hem of her T-shirt and began to pull it up. “If you want to protect your friendship with my brother, you may want to turn around.”

He narrowed his gaze at her and spun on his heel. “Cat, I know you’re still angry. You have every right to be, but sulking isn’t going to solve anything. We need to talk this out.”

“Ha!” Cat snorted. “The quiet one wants to talk!”

“Cat.” Jared peeked over his shoulder, but she ducked out of his line of vision.

“Ah-ah. No looking. What would Cam say?”

“Cat.” This time his voice was a growl, and he spun around just in time to see her jerk the dress down to her knees. Stepping into strappy black sandals, she flipped her hair over her shoulder, pushing it into place with her fingers.

Grabbing her wallet out of her purse, she knelt down to scratch Lucy’s tummy. “Don’t wait up.”

“Catherine!”

She shut the door with a click. She was being petty, and she knew it. Halfway across the street, she almost turned around, but the thought of facing Jared in retreat stayed her course. She was going out on the town by herself. She did not need him or his approval. She was single and independent and needed to remind herself of that fact.

Besides, how could she face him? She’d been throwing herself at him for days, and he’d merely been baby-sitting her. It was humiliating. Oh, sure, he’d said he cared for her and there had been moments between them when she’d thought something special was happening. But that was Jared. She was sure any woman would feel swept away by him.

Pushing open the door to the Red Horse Saloon, she strode into the dimly lit interior as if she were an experienced bar hopper. A jukebox blared out cowboy ballads that Jared would undoubtedly know the words to, while the television over the bar cast the room in an eerie blue light. A bar lined the wall to the right, while pool tables filled a room toward the back.

“Hey, lady, are you coming in or what?” the bartender greeted her.

“Coming in,” Cat squeaked and stepped over the threshold.

“What’ll ya have?” The bartender was short and stout and his bulbous, red nose indicated that he drank his share of the profits.

“What kind of wine do you have?”

“We don’t got none,” he said. “Hard alcohol and beer, that’s it.”

“I’ll have a beer,” Cat said and slipped onto a stool at the end of the bar.

The bartender poured one off the tap and smacked it down in front of her. “Five dollars.” Cat handed him a ten.

A group of men were playing pool at the back, while two older men sat several stools down from her. Cat tried to relax, pretended to watch the football game on TV, and chugged half of her beer with a grimace, all the while wondering how long she had to sit here until she’d made her point.

“I can’t finish it now, not with her sitting there.”

Cat glanced up to see the chubbier of the two men pointing at her.

“Aw, come on,” the other one chided, scratching his whiskers. “You can’t leave me hanging for the punch line.”