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On the other hand, she didn’t want the rumor mill to grind out that she was being squired around town by Key Tackett. How tongues would wag! The lady doctor had corrupted Senator Clark Tackett, people would say, and now she had her hooks in his younger brother.
But facing down the gossip was a future possibility. Key’s scorn was a sure thing in the here and now. She opened her door and got out. He was wearing an insufferably smug grin when he joined her at the entrance and pulled open the door.
The interior of the honky-tonk was no sightlier than the exterior. A pall of tobacco smoke clung to the ceiling, making the dim lighting dimmer. The smel
l of beer was almost as strong as the bass being pumped from the gaudy jukebox in the corner. Several couples were two-stepping around a tiny dance floor. A long bar comprised one entire wall, and tables were scattered around the murky fringes of the room.
Every head turned toward the door when they walked in. The women inspected Key; Lara was a target for the men. Self-consciously she let him lead her to a table.
“Do you drink beer?”
She rose to meet the challenge in his voice. This was another test. “With barbecue? Of course.”
He placed two fingers in his mouth and whistled shrilly. “Hey, Bobby, two beers.”
“Well, I’ll be a cross-eyed billy goat!” the bartender boomed. “Two beers coming up for the long-lost Key Tackett.”
Key sat down across from Lara and pushed aside the condiments in the center of the table. “Saving a kid’s life and drinking beer with me all in the same day. You really enjoy living on the edge, don’t you, Doc?”
He didn’t expect an answer, and she didn’t have time to offer one before a rotund man wearing a white apron stained with meat juices and barbecue sauce sauntered over carrying two longneck beer bottles in one hand. With the other, he whacked Key between the shoulder blades.
“Long time no see.” He set the beer bottles on the table. Lara quickly reached out to catch hers before it toppled over. Bobby didn’t notice. He was still greeting Key.
“Heard you just got back from one of them A-rab countries. Heard if you look sideways at their women, they cut off your dick. That true? Wondered how a horny bastard like you could survive over there. Wondered when you were going to get out here to see me, you asshole.”
“The place looks great, Bobby. Still doing a land office business.”
“Hell, yes. As long as folks eat, drink, and screw, they know the best place to come to find all three. One-stop shopping. That’s my business philosophy! Who’s this?” He jabbed a finger in Lara’s direction.
Key introduced her. The tavern owner didn’t even attempt to hide his surprise. “So you’re the shady lady I’ve heard so much about. Son of a bitch.” He looked her over with a candor she appreciated after being eyed covertly by so many others.
“You hung your shingle out in town. Old Doc Patton’s place, ’s that right?”
“That’s right.” Lara smiled, noticing the burn scars above his eyebrows and along his hairline.
“Will wonders never cease.” He shifted his gaze between the two of them. “Didn’t reckon y’all would be on speaking terms.”
“We’re not,” Key replied. “But we were hungry at the same time, so here we are. You going to serve us or jaw all night?”
Barbecue Bobby grinned. “Hell, yeah, I’m going to serve you. Can’t wait to get my hands on your money. What’ll ya have?”
“Two rib platters. No sauce on mine.”
“I’ll bring the sauce on the side and y’all can suit yourselves. A couple more beers?”
“When you bring the dinners.”
“Sure hope I get sick real soon,” Bobby said, winking at Lara. Then, shaking his head over the vagaries of life, he lumbered back to his bar.
Key took several long swallows of his beer. Lara sipped hers. “Did you go flying last night?”
He stopped drinking, but held the spout of the bottle against his lips and idly rubbed it across them. “Why?”
Lara looked away from his mouth and the beer bottle. “Just wondering.”
“Yeah, I flew last night. Took out a Piper Cub. Know what that is?” She shook her head, although she now had a vague idea of what one looked like. “Nice little kite if you’re going out for a spin. Why’d you ask?”
She wouldn’t admit that in order to clear her head after their altercation in the school parking lot she had taken a drive in the country, or that she had watched a foolhardy, but highly skilled, pilot flirt with death and destruction.
