A Creed in Stone Creek - Linda Lael Miller [65]
“‘Bucko’?” Tom repeated, grinning now.
“I must have been crazy to let you talk me into this,” Melissa ranted on, pacing now. Hugging herself to keep from flinging her arms out wide in frustrated emphasis. “Why can’t Bea Brady run the committee? Or Adelaide Hillingsley? They both give a damn, after all, which is more than anybody can say for me!”
“Whoa,” Tom said. “Calm down, counselor. If Adelaide headed up the project, Bea would raise hell, and vice versa. And for the first time in fifty-odd years, there wouldn’t be a parade to kick off Rodeo Days.”
“Then you do it!” Melissa steamed. With one hand, she made a slashing motion in front of her throat. “I am not going to spend the next few weeks arbitrating disputes over toilet paper!”
To his credit, Tom was trying hard not to laugh. He made a clucking sound with his tongue and shook his head.
“Melissa, Melissa,” he said. “Stone Creek needs you.”
CHAPTER TEN
“‘STONE CREEK NEEDS YOU,’” Melissa muttered to herself, still riled from the conversation with Tom Parker that afternoon, concerning the Parade Committee. It was five-thirty, and she’d already showered, replaced her unaccustomed skirt and sweater with an even more unaccustomed black-and-white polka-dot sundress, and spritzed on cologne. “What a load of manipulative crap. And I fell for it!”
In the end, much as she’d love to resign as chairperson, Tom had been right. She wasn’t a quitter and that was that.
Melissa studied her image in the mirror on the inside of her closet door and went right on talking to herself. “You’re not fooling anybody, Melissa O’Ballivan,” she told the reflected woman glowering back at her. “The real reason you’re all bent out of shape is that you’re about to do something you damn well know you shouldn’t!”
That something, of course, was spending an evening alone, in a private and relatively small space—with Steven Creed.
The man was a sin sundae, and she was so tempted to dig in.
If she had any sense at all, she chided herself silently, she’d stay away from him until she stopped feeling quite so—well—vulnerable.
All right, it was true that she needed to get out of the house—and out of her own head. And it wasn’t as if she didn’t have options—Ashley, her favorite confidante, was still out of town, but Olivia would have listened without judging, and Meg, too. Her sister and sister-in-law were smart, savvy women, and if they gave any advice at all, it would be good advice.
On the other hand, they were both in committed, loving relationships with men they knew all about, not relative strangers like Steven Creed was to her. By now, they must surely have forgotten what it was like to be in her situation.
Bottom line, she wanted full-frontal contact with the delectable Mr. Creed, and that was that.
And so what if she did? Was that so wrong?
No, she reasoned, arguing the case in the courtroom of her mind, it wasn’t wrong. Stupid, maybe, and probably shortsighted, but not wrong.
Having gotten exactly nowhere with this inner debate, Melissa slipped on a lightweight cardigan, not because she was cold, but because she had some bruises on her arms from biting the dust that morning, and she didn’t want them on display. She found her purse, locked up the house and climbed into her car.
Melissa drove straight to Steven’s demolition site of a place and parked behind the house, between two huge, overgrown lilac bushes. Stone Creek Ranch—and thus, Brad and Meg—were just down the road, and she didn’t want either one of them to catch a glimpse of the car. A roadster sighting would lead to too many questions, ones she wasn’t inclined to answer just yet.
While she was still thinking these thoughts, Steven emerged from the bus, cowboy-perfect in dark jeans and a spiffy white shirt, his hair a little too long and his boots showing just the right amount of wear.
He grinned in greeting.
The dog, Zeke, trotted over to her for a pat on the head.
“I thought you might back out at the last minute,” Steven said, standing a few yards away, giving her space, his arms folded.
Melissa, who had