Cougar in Texas (Rugged and Risque 3)

She had a feeling it’d be her first sound sleep in ages.

Chapter Five

Reese left the B&B after making breakfast for Caleb and serving him. She’d had an awful time trying to keep her smile light, instead of giving into the ridiculously giddy one that continually threatened her lips.

Arriving at church for the early sermon, she couldn’t find the nerve to make eye contact with anyone, knowing she blushed from head to toe—and fearing she wore a deliriously happy expression that would give her away. Whether she was thinking of Caleb in general or their night together, she flushed—and knew it was visible.

She sat in her usual pew and pulled a hymnal from the rack mounted on the back of the pew in the row before her. Practically burying her face in the book while everyone filed in, she tried to get her emotions and her euphoria under control.

No such luck. Jess scooted in next to her and Ginger stepped around Reese to sit on her other side, the two of them effectively trapping her.

“No use trying to hide it,” Jess said. “You look guilty as sin.”

“And we had better get all the juicy details,” Ginger added in a low voice.

Reese sank lower in her seat, as though that might keep anyone from noticing her. “Ladies, please. We’re in the house of the Lord. Show some respect.”

“Uh-huh,” Jess quipped. “And do you plan to confess all to Reverend Bain?”

“Hell, no,” she shot back. “That would mean I’m repentant. And I assure you, I am not.”

Ginger snickered. “Rang your bell, did he?”

“And then some.”

They quieted down as the pew in front of them filled. Luanne Dunham turned to face Reese and sweetly asked, “How’d your peach cobbler work out?” Her tone suggested she was inquiring about dessert of a different variety.

Reese felt her blush deepen. “Just fine, thank you. You know your peaches.”

Luanne grinned, then turned back around.

“Everyone in this town seems to know I cooked dinner for Caleb last night,” she whispered.

“Filet mignon from what I hear,” Ginger concurred.

“And they’re all speculating about what happened after dinner,” Jess said, lifting her brows. “Serves Tommy right for spreading rumors yesterday about you and Caleb getting it on at the B&B.”

She gasped. “He didn’t!” This said a bit too loud, for many heads snapped in her direction. Reese clamped a hand over her mouth and resisted the sudden urge to run from the church. But the gazes she met were not the least bit judgmental.

“Stop thinking you’re doing something wrong,” Jess insisted when the indiscreet attention shifted away. “And as for Tommy, you are bouncing back with a man he could never compete with—so more power to you. And these people know you deserve someone with more common decency than that country rat ex of yours.”

Reese tried to tamp down her extremely uncomfortable self-consciousness. Difficult to do with people shooting her sideways glances. And her discomfort mounted as the rev

erend took to the pulpit and started his sermon—on the sins of infidelity, no less. It also felt as though his lecture was directed toward her when he said those with a higher moral fiber would rise above the pain inflicted upon them by those who had trespassed against them. The strong would prevail, he said, as if to reassure her.

She pressed the edge of her fingertip to the inside corner of her eye to stymie a tear. Maybe the good folks of Wilder really were behind her. Admittedly, her humiliation had made her think she’d done something wrong—that her neighbors would look to place the blame on her shoulders for not being able to keep her husband happy and in her bed—not sending him off to someone else’s. Figuratively speaking, of course, since all the beds at the B&B belonged to her.

Sitting a little taller in her seat, she listened to the rest of the reverend’s sermon with her head held high. So what if people gossiped over whether or not Tommy’s rumors about her were true? What single woman wouldn’t mind headlining the grapevine with a man like Caleb Bennett?

After church, the three women stopped into Wade’s Saloon for Sunday brunch. One of Liza’s brilliant ideas that had the congregation flocking to the joint in droves. Ryan was on patrol and George had been called into the office to perform an emergency root canal, so the ladies found a table by the buffet and Liza served them champagne. She’d certainly “classed up” Wilder since her arrival, right down to the designer clothes and shoes she wore.

“How was dinner?” she asked with a mischievous look.

“I barely remember the actual dinner part,” Reese teased in a soft voice.

Jess hooted. “Finally, we’re getting to the good stuff.”

“Oh it was all good,” she assured them. “Especially Caleb,” she added with a playful wink. Seemed the verve she’d lost long ago had returned to her this morning.