A Dark & Stormy Knight: A McKnight Romance (McKnight Romances) by Suzie Quint Page A

dead.”
    “Ah, yes. The lingering effects of
pregnancy,” Georgia said. “I remember it well.”
    “So that’s normal? The feeling that half
your brain’s been anesthetized.”
    “Normal?” Georgia shrugged. “I don’t know
about that, but I do remember a few times wondering if I’d had a stroke because
I’d said or done something really stupid. Something I knew better than.” Like
the times she’d taken Eden out to Sol’s trailer, so he could see her, and ended
up spending the night in his bed. Yeah, that qualified. Definitely had to have
been a stroke.
    Maddie laughed. “You’ve just described my
life lately. I’m fully capable of opening my mouth and sticking my foot in all
the way up to my hip. Say you’ll come help us celebrate. Please. It’s only two
weeks away. I need someone there who understands and can leap across the table
to clap their hand over my mouth if my brain disengages while I’m talking.”
    “I’d like to but it’ll depend on how Mama’s
doing.”
    By the time they finished the dishes, Georgia figured Sol had found his supper elsewhere. It annoyed her that he’d missed
spending the evening with his daughter to . . . do what? Was it
her he was avoiding or was he seeing someone who was happy to feed him? Not
that she cared about that except for how it affected their daughter.
    As she pulled out of the ranch driveway,
the depression about having to go back to her folks’ place set in. With every
mile, she felt the weight of it falling heavier on her shoulders.
    The Lariat was just outside the town
limits. A drink sounded really good. On impulse, she pulled in. It felt like a
death-row reprieve.
    ###
    “Hey, Georgia,” Tommy Mulligan greeted
her from behind the bar as she slid onto a stool. “What can I get you?”
    She and Sol had gone to school with
Tommy, who had been the star quarterback the year they graduated. If he hadn’t
blown out his knee in the last game of the season, he’d have had a full
scholarship to the University of Texas and a spot on the Longhorns football
team.
    Hero Creek’s school was small enough that
not only did everyone know everyone else, most felt a camaraderie from those
years. Particularly if they’d gone there since first grade as Georgia, Sol, and Tommy had.
    She hadn’t hung out with Tommy’s crowd—if
you could actually have “crowds” in a class of forty students—and the one time
they’d gone out in their junior year, he’d been all hands. But then so were
most boys at that age. It was ancient history now, and Georgia saw no reason to hold a grudge.
    “I’ll have a Baileys on the rocks,” she
said.
    He filled a glass with ice then upended a
bottle, letting the liqueur flow from the spout. “I heard you was in town
helping out your mama.”
    She grimaced. “Yeah, looks like I’m stuck
here for the summer.”
    His eyebrows rose as he returned the
bottle to the glass shelf on the wall behind the bar.
    “Sorry. My folks are getting to me.” She
laid a twenty on the bar.
    He swapped her drink for the twenty. “Family
has a way of doing that.” He stepped over to the cash register to make change.
    Georgia took a sip. Damn, it tasted good. She took another, longer drink. Mmm. Baileys’
biggest drawback was how easy it went down.
    “So how’ve you been?” she asked.
    He shot a glance toward the pool tables
at the far end of the bar. Two vertical creases appeared between his eyebrows. “As
well as can be expected, I suppose.”
    She turned her head to see what the
problem was. The crowd was thin, even for a Sunday night. On the one pool table
that was busy, two couples were playing a partners game of eight ball. One of
the women was Missy Mulligan née Stevens, another Jefferson High School alumna and, according to Bethany’s Hero Creek Update, Tommy’s estranged wife.
    Georgia met Tommy’s gaze. “Tough times, huh?”
    One corner of his mouth quirked up. “Yeah.”
He picked up a towel and started wiping down the