Summer's Indiscretion(Divine Creek Ranch 7)(45)
She gestured at Kemp to come closer and mouthed, “Say, ‘I’m coming in, gorgeous.’” She shushed the other girl, who nodded and blushed profusely. Ace stood behind the counter and chuckled quietly. More furtive whispers came from the dressing rooms.
He did as she asked again, and then Summer bustled into the dressing room and all the girls screamed.
“What are y’all doing flirting with my boyfriend!” Summer hollered, and then started laughing.
“Summer? Oh my gosh! I thought it was him in here!” the bride said, and then she and Summer broke out into a-mile-a-minute conversation and all the other girls joined in. Kemp didn’t see how any of them could understand each other, all talking at the same time.
Summer giggled and said, “I should have warned him that you crazy gals would be coming by today. Are you ready for your wedding?”
“Hell, no! So that guy is your boyfriend? He’s frickin’ huge!”
“And hot!”
“Those green eyes!”
Kemp felt his cheeks flush as Ace laughed at him. They listened as Summer gabbed back and forth for a few minutes with the bride, helped with laces, and delivered G-strings to the other girls.
Kemp leaned against the counter and Ace asked, “Where is Rachel?”
Kemp grimaced. “She got really sick after everybody left. I called Eli, and he took her to see Dr. Guthrie. She was running a fever.”
“What?” Summer asked as she retreated from the noisy dressing room. “Is she okay?”
Kemp described how she’d been, and Summer called Eli to check in. It turned out that Rachel did indeed have the stomach flu, and Eli was instructed to take her home, push fluids, and watch for dehydration.
Summer checked the register tape and said, “Looks like you were busy this afternoon.”
“For a little while. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
“Thank you,” she murmured as she snuggled close for a kiss. Their romantic moment was met with whistles and catcalls as the girls exited the dressing rooms. The girls did a double take when they saw Ace behind the counter on the other side of Summer.
“And who might you be, handsome?” one of the bolder girls asked.
Ace grinned and replied, “I’m Summer’s boyfriend.”
There was a split second of complete silence, and then several of their mouths fell open.
The bold girl giggled and replied, “Can I fill out a job application, Summer? Because y’all have sure got some multiple men action goin’ on around here.”
Kemp felt a little like a bug under a microscope as the girls stared at him and Ace for a few seconds before recovering their wits. Summer took care of the girls’ purchases, and as they left, Kemp realized it was nearly closing time.
As she was removing the cash drawer from the register, Ace asked, “Summer, would you like to go catch a bite to eat?”
“Sure.”
“Good. When you’re done, why don’t you grab your overnight case and we’ll treat you to supper at O’Reilley’s before we head to the house.”
Kemp smiled, retrieving the handled bag off of the side counter near the register. He hoped she liked his surprise.
* * * *
Ace sat tensely in the driver’s seat of his black Hummer. Kemp sat in the passenger seat, his eyes trained on the side-view mirror. Ace and Summer had just picked the vehicle up from the dealership in Morehead that afternoon, where it had been in for bodywork and repairs after another run-in with a deer late one night.
He was especially grateful right now to have “the tank” back, as Kemp called it, and he hoped it wasn’t about to need more bodywork done on it.
Kemp silently watched Summer’s red Mazda in the mirror. They were tooling down the highway, headed toward the restaurant in Divine at sixty miles per hour, and there was a black SUV behind her that had been on her tail for the last two miles.
Several times the vehicle had moved up until it was mere inches from her rear bumper then backed off. The distance between her and the Hummer evidently emboldened the driver of the SUV in harassing her. Several hundred yards in front of her, Ace had watched in growing concern as she’d moved over into the outer lane and the SUV had moved with her rather than passing her. She’d moved back into the inner lane, and it had stuck with her again, creeping closer and dwarfing her little red sports car.
The SUV matched the description Grace had given them of the vehicle that had harassed her on the road a couple of times in the past few weeks.
Ace knew she had hands-free phone capability, so he hit the “talk” button and spoke her name when prompted by the phone system. The call connected over the audio speakers and began to ring.