Dakota Storm Read online

  Pat, Caroline’s sister and their waitress, dropped off a few menus and took their drink order without sticking around for small talk. The Roadhouse was too busy for that. Pat looked nothing like her sister. Her hair was short and brown, and she never quite stuck out in a crowd. David had always figured she did it on purpose. When Pat left he looked down at the menu, not really paying attention to the words in front of him.

  He was in shock that he was sitting across a booth from Misty. Still dumbfounded that she’d agreed to go out to dinner with him. The last thing on his mind was food. “What are you thinking of ordering?”

  “I'm going to take you up on that steak,” she said, not bothering with the menu.

  He set his menu on top of hers. “Nothing beats a Roadhouse Ribeye.”

  Misty smiled and looked down at the table, acting shy, as if this were their first date. That thought brought him up short. As strange as it seemed, this really was their first date. They’d gone out to eat numerous times growing up, but they’d never gone out together as a couple.

  While he was pondering that, Pat brought their pops and asked if they were ready to order. They both ordered the same thing, and Pat snatched their menus off the table and left them. David leaned back against the tall, padded bench seat and tried to look relaxed when he was anything but. Their first date. Unbelievable. “So, what have you been up to, besides slaving away at the house?”

  They hadn't had much time to talk, what with the tornado cleanup and his dad's surgery. If he wasn't working at the ranch, then he was fielding calls from his dad, hearing about one complication after another. The doctors were going to transfer him back to Pierre in the morning. They figured he’d be coming home within the week. After the updates on his health, his dad would inevitably ask him how it was going at the ranch, and David would respond with what he'd done that day and what was left to be done. Sometimes his dad would bitch and other times he'd only offer helpful suggestions. After they talked, David would get back to work.

  If Misty wasn't working on fixing his parents’ house, she was helping her own family on the ranch, or she was on her computer putting together lesson plans. She also had her nose buried in textbooks. Back in the day she'd often talked about wanting to be a teacher. Now it looked like she'd finally made that dream come true.

  “I think I found an apartment complex I like in Rapid. It's near the school I'll be teaching at, and it's within my price range. There's a gym and a pool.”

  He kept his expression set on mildly interested when he actually felt sucker punched. “Oh yeah?” Take a dose of reality and man up. She has a job that’s going to take her hours away. Nothing you can do.

  “There are only two apartments left available, so I'm thinking I'll put down my first and last month's rent to make sure I get one of them.”

  For some reason he felt like she was testing him—trying to gauge his reaction to the news. He picked up his drink and took a few seconds to digest that information before he asked, “You gonna try to get in there before school starts?”

  She fiddled with her silverware. “Yeah. I should be moving in the last week of July, which would work perfectly for me. I can start setting things up at the Ag shop. I’m really excited.”

  This time a throat-punch. He'd had it in his head that he'd have most of the summer to win her over. Apparently, taking his shirt off when he knew she was looking just wasn't cutting it. “You know you can stay at the guesthouse as long as you need to.”

  “I know. And I appreciate that. I really do.”

  But...

  “But I think it's for the best. School starts in a few months, and I need to get my lesson plans together. Get my Ag website up and running. It's only two weeks earlier than I had originally planned to leave.”

  He nodded, though it wasn't in agreement. He just didn't know what else to do or say. For all intents and purposes he shouldn’t even be sitting across from her enjoying her company right now. There had been plenty of times over the past few years, and especially over the past few weeks, that he’d thought this would never happen. He should focus on the good and not the fact that she was leaving soon.

  She cleared her throat. “I'm really proud of you for stepping up these last few weeks. You're showing Big Mike that he has nothing to worry about.”

  “I see you've had your doubts.”

  She shrugged and played with her straw. “To be honest, I didn't know what to expect when you came back. I’m not sure you can blame me. Now I can't imagine where Big Mike and Nora would be if you hadn’t returned. I mean, Matt and I would have helped, but you've really been busy, and I doubt we would have kept up, especially after the tornado.”

  The unexpected praise did weird shit in his chest. He didn't think he'd ever make Misty proud of him again. All he could manage was a simple, “Thank you.”

  They sat in silence for a few minutes until her gaze must have landed on something interesting, because her right eyebrow shot up and she leaned to the side in the booth to get a better look. She had a clear line of vision to the people walking in, but he had to turn in the booth to see who she was looking at.

  The night kept getting better and better. Brandon and a woman had strolled in together and were looking for a place to sit. Brandon wore a white button-up shirt and khakis, while the woman was dressed to the nines with perfect hair and makeup. The two looked like a power couple that were going to brunch while vacationing in the Hamptons.

  David turned back to Misty, wondering how seeing her ex on a date was going to make her feel. He had a gut feeling that she wasn’t going to be hurt by it, considering she was on a date of her own. “Looks like Brandon is on a date.”

  Misty shrugged but said nothing. She didn’t seem to be the slightest bit jealous, which prompted him to ask, “Does it bother you?”

  She focused her teal eyes on him. “No. Not at all.”

  He believed her. Though he was judging purely on appearance, the other woman seemed to suit Brandon better than Misty ever had. Misty exemplified a rough and tumble cowgirl, the type of girl you could take out for a beer and a night of country dancing in a loud, rank bar like the Longbranch. The other woman looked like she'd be more comfortable with a cocktail in her hand while speaking to heads of state.

  “Whatever made you go out with him?” he asked.

  She pushed her silverware to the side and started playing with her napkin. “He was safe. Comfortable. I guess you could go so far as to say he was a little piece of home while I was in Brookings.”

  She might as well have added unlike you. How many times had he, Matt and Misty talked about college and what they were going to do while they were in Brookings? He and Matt had planned to room together, and Misty had planned on rooming with Abby. After their required years in the dorms, the four of them were going to move out into a house their junior year. Instead David had left, and Brandon had moved into that role.

  He’d often wondered just how close Brandon and Misty had become. Unfortunately, he knew how close they’d been physically, but he was still in the dark as to how she’d felt about him. She’d said she loved Brandon, and yet David had a hard time believing that. “Seems like if there’d really been something between the two of you, his going out on a date so soon after your breakup would upset you.”

  Her hand stilled on her napkin, and she nailed him with a look that glued his ass to the seat. He could practically see her mind working. She leaned closer to him, and in a conspiratorial whisper that reminded him of the old Misty, she said, “Apparently there wasn’t.”

  Chapter 14

  Misty wanted to roll her eyes when Brandon and his date chose the booth directly beside theirs. Brandon shot a quick, sidelong glance Misty's way, but otherwise acted as though he hadn’t seen her. Smart move on his part, because his date saw her and had immediately looked at Brandon to gauge his reaction—which was forced blasé if Misty knew him at all. Obviously the mystery woman knew who she was, but Misty couldn’t place her. Intere
sting.

  The woman looked expensive. Like pinky-in-the-air-while-sipping-Cabernet-Sauvignon-on-someone’s-yacht expensive. Probably spoiled. Misty made no bones about checking her out. She wore a silk maroon blouse with white capris slacks and heels. A delicate gold necklace lay against her tanned skin, glinting from the yellowish glow emanating from their booth’s dusty pendant light. Clearly the woman fake-baked. Her hair was elegantly coiffed and held no less than five different shades of blonde—her highlights the epitome of professional perfection.

  Misty sniffed and took a sip of her drink. Talk about over-dressed. Hadn’t Brandon told the chick where he was taking her to dinner? Misty had never seen the woman, so she knew she wasn’t from Garner. Had Brandon introduced her to his father already? Misty bet Brandon's father was already drafting a prenup and welcoming her to their snooty little family. Lord knew she’d fit right in.

  Misty couldn't help but wonder what Brandon was up to. Just last night he'd been texting her and apologizing for being an asshole during their talk. He’d asked for a second chance. She’d texted him back and told him she was going to block him if he didn’t stop harassing her, and his texts had ceased. His sudden hot date didn't mesh with what he'd been texting. He was up to something. Trying to make her jealous?

  She looked at David sitting across from her in the booth. He'd been clean-shaven throughout high school, and she'd liked that, but the whiskers he sported now were better. He looked rugged. Like Abby had so eloquently put on the list, David was hawt. Sorry Brandon. If jealousy is what you’re going for, it’s not going to work.

  David's brows rose. She shrugged. “Small town.”

  “If this bothers you we can leave.”

  Did he not understand that she and Brandon didn't have some hot love affair by what she'd said earlier? Safe? Comfortable? She'd used Brandon as a crutch, and it had taken a lot of soul-searching to realize that she'd used him. But boy, had he shown his true colors the day they'd broken up. Since that day she'd found herself glancing at her phone every hour waiting to see an email from the superintendent. If she lost her job she was going to take Brandon out at the kneecaps.

  She wasn't sitting across from David a brokenhearted castoff. Hell, the only one who held that particular award was David himself. She'd never sat across from Brandon thinking her libido had caught fire and wishing the night would never end. There had never been raw desire or a friendship that went as far back as her first known memory. She felt entirely different when David looked at her—as though she weren't in control of the situation. Or in control of anything, for that matter. Especially her physical reaction to him.

  Hell, she was so nervous she couldn't manage to stop fiddling with everything on the table. She felt desired when David looked at her, and though it was something she'd always longed for, it was unnerving. “It doesn't bother me. Does it bother you?”

  “I don't like the thought of the two of you.”

  “Then you shouldn't have left.” As much as she craved that raw, out-of-control feeling that David alone gave her, she wasn't going to allow him to control everything. He'd left, and she wasn't about to let him make her feel as though she'd done anything wrong. “So, tell me about the past four years. What was the military like?”

  “Hurry up and wait basically sums it up. Boot camp wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. SOI school was more of a kick in the pants. Hit the gym more than not at Pendleton, and then I was working up for deployment.”

  She smiled. She’d known he would give her the Cliffsnotes version of his time in the Corps, but that bit of nonsense had hardly been more than a blurb. “You left out all the fun stuff, didn't you?”

  He took a sip of his drink, carefully set it back down, and leveled her with a devastating grin. “What fun stuff?”

  She watched as he took off his cowboy hat and set it aside. His eyes were dark brown, but in the obnoxious pendant light that hung above their booth, they looked lighter. The overhead light made their conversation seem like an interrogation. Hell, maybe it was.

  And who did he think he was kidding? With the way he looked, she bet women had thrown themselves at him. Add a uniform to all that muscle? She might be a lot of things, but naïve wasn't one of them. “The booze, the tats, the girls.”

  “How did you and Brandon spend your Saturday nights?”

  Usually watching Fox News, but she knew what he was getting at. He wasn't going to tell her, and she probably didn't want to know. Still, she found herself asking, “You leave anyone behind in Pendleton?” His answer might break that jealous bone of hers right in half, but the question had popped out and she couldn't snatch it back.

  “No, but I left someone behind in Garner.”

  Sparks. That was the only way she could describe the current condition at their corner booth. Hadn't she known this was going to happen when she’d finally accepted the olive branch and agreed to have dinner with him? Neither had used the word “date”, but then again, they didn’t have to.

  Both of them had thrown out that they were interested in one another. They hadn't been shy about it either. When he'd made mention that there must not have been much between her and Brandon, since she wasn’t convulsing with jealousy at the sight of his date, and she'd come back with, “Apparently there wasn’t,” she'd been letting him know exactly what was on her mind—and it sure as hell wasn’t Brandon.

  But one thing she’d always wanted to ask was on the tip of her tongue, jumping up and down like it was on a diving board and it wanted to do a cannon ball right there on their table. She considered keeping the question to herself, but curiosity won out.

  “Why did you leave?” she asked quietly. From what he’d said the day of the tornado, all she could surmise was that he’d been kicked out and had nowhere to go. But her parents would have taken him in. He had to have known that. “Was it just because Big Mike kicked you out?”

  He put his forearms on the table and leaned forward. “I... Leaving was the biggest mistake of my life. I regretted it every damn day. I’m sorry. Things were… I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t feel as though I had anywhere to go after my dad kicked me out, and I felt like I had dragged you into that downward spiral I had fallen into for months. I truly thought it was better for me to just leave. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have left the way I did, if at all. I was immature and stupid. And I’m sorry.”

  There was that feeling of being overwhelmed again. He seemed to suck up all the space in the Roadhouse. She didn't want to think about his sudden departure anymore. Didn't want to relive the pain it brought. She should have never brought it up.

  She cleared her throat, proud for letting go of the painful memories so quickly. He seemed so much like the old David. Thoughtful, kind and sincere. “You going to visit your dad tomorrow? He’s getting transferred back to Pierre in the morning, isn’t he?” She felt like a snowflake because she was reaching for a safe zone. A time-out. She suddenly felt as though she were getting in over her head. All those questions she’d had for him were getting answered, but she felt as though she were trying to read an entire dictionary, and not memorize only one definition.

  “Yeah,” he responded with a smile.

  He knew exactly what she was doing. Retreat! Retreat! The Marine in him must be so proud.

  “Can I come with you? I sent him flowers in Sioux Falls, but I wanted to visit him personally.” Another sip of pop. Another failed attempt at getting her heart rate to an acceptable level.

  “He'd love that. I planned to leave after I got some work done. Probably around eleven in the morning.”

  Her brain worked in the possibility of having to grab lunch together in Pierre. The drive was a little over an hour. “Sounds good.” She wanted to stay in a safe zone when it came to their conversation, but there were so many things she’d wanted to ask him for years, she couldn’t seem to help herself. “So, what did you do on leave since you didn't come back here?”

  He shrugged. “I usually stayed on base. Hit the gym.�
�

  She could tell.

  When she said nothing, he continued, “I took a trip to Italy and Germany a few years ago. Otherwise, I just stayed on base, like I said.”

  “Why didn't you come home to visit your parents?” Or the friends you'd left behind? Or me?

  “After you wouldn’t take my calls, I just didn’t think coming home was a good idea. My dad sure as hell didn’t want me here.”

  “Why now?”

  “My four years were up and my mom said they needed me back at the ranch. I wanted…” He cleared his throat. “I wanted to make things right. With everyone. That’s why I came back.”

  From the look on his face she realized he wasn't going to say any more on the subject. It was a hard subject for her to let go of, but thankfully, their steaks arrived, and they set about cutting meat and buttering their baked potatoes.

  A rather loud and obnoxious laugh filled the bar area, drawing the gazes of several of the patrons—hers included. Son of a bitch. I just can’t get away from her.

  “Is that who I think it is?” David asked, forking a decent sized chunk of steak.

  “Yeah,” she said, trying to blend into the bench. She was pretty sure Caroline had already spotted them, but she didn't want to let go of the hope that they had been missed.

  When she looked up, she caught sight of Caroline staring right at her. Damn small towns.

  “Well, look who we have here,” Caroline said, sauntering up to their table. Those fake lashes batted a few times, then flew straight to her hairline when she saw Brandon and the blonde sitting across from them. “Wow. Small town, huh?” she said as loud as possible.

  Misty held her temper in check as best she could. It was proving a difficult task since Brandon and his date were staring at them now. Caroline was wearing low-rise jeans and a crop top. Misty would kill to have a stomach as tight as Caroline’s. Skinny bitch.