Luck Be a Lady - Cathie Linz [40]
“Yeah, I can’t believe my luck either. It’s gone down the toilet since I met you.”
“That’s not fair,” she said. “None of this is my fault.”
“Well, it sure as hell isn’t mine.”
Distracted as they were glaring at each other, they didn’t realize the door had been opened. Rowdy stood there behind the screen door with its safety bars.
Rowdy shook his head at them. “Well, you two have certainly caused a major kafuffle. I’m not sure what to do with you.”
“Let us go right now and we won’t press charges against you,” Logan said.
“Against me?” Rowdy’s eyes widened.
“For unlawful detention. Extortion. Entrapment. Assault with a deadly weapon. Unlawful use of a firearm.”
“I didn’t assault you,” Rowdy protested.
“You threatened to do so,” Logan said.
“I did no such thing.”
“Like I said, release us, let me call a tow truck and we’ll be out of your hair.”
“The wedding thing seemed like such a good idea when Pepper, Chuck and I talked about it,” Rowdy said morosely.
“Has it worked before?” Megan had to ask.
“You were our first attempt. Maybe if we’d fixed some of the bugs ...”
Megan shook her head. “I’d stick with that haunted mine thing instead. A much better bet.”
“Possibly.” Rowdy sighed. “What do you two have against marriage, anyway?”
“A shotgun wedding isn’t exactly the beginning of a dream marriage,” Megan said.
“So if we toned down the shotgun part ...”
“It would still be a bad idea,” she assured him.
“Why do you have a teacup clutched against your chest?” Rowdy asked.
“It called to me,” she said.
Rowdy looked at her as if she were a few pancakes short of a stack.
“Being locked in that room nearly drove her over the edge,” Logan said. “You could be looking at a civil law-suit on your hands here. Do the smart thing and call a tow truck to come get us. I know the entire landline phone thing was a con.”
Rowdy sighed. “You don’t need a tow truck. Chuck was a top mechanic before he went into infomercials.”
“Forgive me if I don’t trust him or you,” Logan said sarcastically.
Chuck joined the group, wiping his greasy hands on a paper towel. “The Chevy’s ready to go.”
“How do I know you haven’t sabotaged the car to die a few miles from here?”
“You’ve got my word on it. Come on, I’ll show you what the problem was.”
“He has to release us first,” Logan said.
“Just lift up on the left bar. The door pops open.” Rowdy stepped aside and regretfully watched Megan and Logan walk past him.
Megan gathered her teacup and saucer close and hurried after Logan. She found him bent at the waist, leaning over the side of the Chevy, with the hood popped open. He and Chuck were examining the fine points of the engine and other stuff she couldn’t follow.
“You can keep the teacup,” Rowdy told her. “And the shotgun wasn’t loaded.”
“That doesn’t excuse your behavior,” she said.
“That law really does exist. It’s still on the books here.”
“Then you better repeal it.”
“It seemed like a good idea when Pepper found a book about strange laws around the country,” Rowdy said. “We decided to take a look at our town’s laws and ...”
The sight of Logan’s denim-clad butt as he leaned over the car distracted her from the rest of Rowdy’s apologetic explanation. She remembered seeing a T-shirt at the airport when she’d first arrived proclaiming that Girls Go Nuts for Cowboy Butts. Logan might not be a cowboy, but he definitely had a very fine butt.
She didn’t know whether to be relieved or sad when Logan straightened and got in the car to turn the ignition. The car purred like a cat. Or so Chuck proclaimed proudly.
Logan returned to the motel room to grab her stuff and toss it into the car before telling her, “Let’s go.”
Looking at Pepper and Rowdy’s woebegone faces, Megan couldn’t help feeling sorry for them. “What about the hotel bill?”
Rolling his eyes, Logan shoved his credit card at Pepper, who raced inside to run it before returning with the slip for him to sign.
“Wait, I should pay for that,” Megan said. “As you pointed out, we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”
“And as you pointed