CHAPTER THIRTEEN
DelMonaco’s was packed as usual when Ethan pulled the Ford up beside Rob’s Chevy in the parking lot. They didn’t even make it to the door before Jamie yelled for them to wait up. Autumn turned to see him leading Claire by the hand across the parking lot from the other direction.
“Jamie, Claire!” Rob called. “Perfect timing!”
Claire hung back a little as Jamie led her up the steps, as if she was embarrassed, Autumn thought, but the noisy greetings of the men covered up any awkwardness and soon the whole group was seated at a table.
No sooner had their waitress brought the first round of drinks when Cab appeared. “Is this a private party, or can anyone join in?” He didn’t wait for an answer – just grabbed a chair from a nearby table and sat down.
Before long a whole crowd had joined them and the waitresses kept busy pushing tables together and bringing more chairs. Ethan caught on right away that Autumn didn’t want to drink and helped mask her abstention by switching glasses with her when he’d drained one. Rob seemed to be drinking the most of all and managed to make about half of the noise himself. Autumn wondered what was eating him. For all his laughter and toasts and cheers to Ethan and Jamie’s good fortune, she sensed he wasn’t happy at all. In fact, she couldn’t entirely understand the friendship between Ethan and Rob. Everyone said they were best friends, but how could honorable Ethan be so close to a man who would try to lure unsuspecting women into making porno movies? And if Rob liked Ethan so much, why would he be so angry tonight when Ethan was celebrating. She turned back to her meal, resolved to keep an eye on the situation.
Most of the men ordered steak, the women chicken. Autumn ordered eggplant parmesan and then poked at it, decidedly not hungry. She was just as pleased as everyone else about the progress they’d made on keeping the ranch, but she was way too distracted by the thought of the pregnancy test kit stashed in her luggage back at the bunkhouse to truly get into the celebratory mood.
Claire looked different tonight, she thought as she pushed a bite around the perimeter of her plate. She looked…younger. Happier. Must be the thought of all that money pouring into her bank account. What would she do with six hundred thousand dollars, if it was hers? Her gaze rested on Ethan. Invest it into the ranch, most likely. Her attention returned to Claire. She realized it was the woman’s outfit that made her seem different tonight. Gone were the stiff-looking business skirt and blouse, the sensible shoes, and in their place she wore form fitting jeans and a peasant blouse. Jamie couldn’t take his eyes off of her, she noticed with a grin. Was romance blooming there?
As she finally lifted the bite of eggplant to her mouth, she caught sight of Rob’s face. He, too, was watching Jamie and Claire, but his expression was hard. The hand holding his fork clenched tightly. But a moment later, he turned back to his meal and popped a piece of steak into his mouth. By the time he’d chewed and swallowed, he was back to faking good spirits, joking around with Cab, who sat across from him. Autumn shook her head. She barely knew these people. How could she translate the undercurrents swirling around her?
When the waitress returned to clear their plates, talk at the table turned to what to do with the rest of the evening.
“I thought we were heading to the Dancing Boot,” Jamie said. “I promised Claire we’d close the place down.”
“Sounds good to me,” Ethan said. “What about you, Autumn?”
“Sure.” She bit her lip, thinking of the pregnancy test again. Still, this night was a big deal to Ethan. She’d find out whether or not she was pregnant soon enough.
“Rob, Cab? You guys coming with us?” Ethan asked.
“Sure thing,” Cab said. “I’ve got nowhere else to be.”
Rob made a face. “Ain’t no point me going with you. Not like anyone’s going to dance with me tonight.”
Claire laughed out loud and more than one person at the table looked surprised. “Are you kidding, Rob? Since when have you lacked for partners – you always have some girl or other on your arm. Always have!”
“Not anymore. Not since this joker,” he stabbed a finger at Ethan, “pulled his last trick.”
“Uh oh,” Claire said. “More practical jokes? I thought you guys would have given that up by now.”
“What did Ethan do?” Autumn asked. Rose had said something about practical jokes back when they were buying her engagement ring, but she couldn’t imagine steady, solid Ethan planning out a complicated joke.
“Let me tell her! You gotta let me tell her,” Jamie said, his face splitting into a wide grin. Rob waved him off at first, then sat back as if giving up. “First, you gotta understand these guys have been playing tricks on each other since grade school – this ain’t nothing new. Rob deserved everything he got.”
“I didn’t deserve…” Rob began but everyone shouted him down.
“As I was saying,” Jamie said. “He deserved it. Ethan was looking for payback for a trick Rob played on him a couple of months ago.”
Ethan leaned forward. “Not just a trick. He moved all the cattle out of the northwest pasture onto his own land and left the fence all torn apart to make it look like someone stole them. Scared me half to death. That pasture doesn’t border Rob’s property,” he explained to Autumn, “so it didn’t occur to me at first it was him. What with all my debts, losing any of the herd would have put me under. I called the police, the sheriff’s office,” he nodded toward Cab, “I was about to call the CIA before I realized it was probably Rob playing a joke on me. Nearly gave me a heart attack.”
Appreciative laughter came from around the table as Jamie took up the thread of the story again. “So Ethan, here, makes a plan and bides his time. It’s kind of an ingenious plan, too. Rob’s a bit of a ladies’ man.”
“That’s an understatement,” Claire said.
“He tends to make friends on the dance floor,” Jamie said. “Good friends. Hardly ever goes home alone on a Saturday night. Ethan was counting on that, so when a Saturday night came up and he saw Rob getting it on with a fine, young thing out on the dance floor, he nipped out early, rode over to Rob’s cabin, and snuck inside.”
“What did he do?” Autumn said when Jamie hesitated.
“Well,” Jamie said, his grin getting even wider. “He set up a big, ol’ video camera on a tripod at the end of Rob’s bed, hung up this backdrop he’d painted on a bed sheet – what did you paint again?”
“A barn with a bunch of horses running around,” Ethan said. “The view from my back porch!”
More laughter all around.
“He hung up the backdrop by the bed, and set up these big old lamps all around with their shades topsy turvy like lights on a movie set,” Jamie broke off laughing and Autumn felt her own lips curl up with the beginnings of a smile – she knew exactly where this was going. “So when Rob brought that lovely lady of his home and eased her into the bedroom, she about nearly had a fit! You could have heard her screaming in Billings!”
“She thought I wanted to make a porno flick!” Rob said, the only one at the table not laughing. “She screamed bloody murder – I was afraid for my life!”
That only made the crowd laugh harder, Autumn right along with them. She knew from the seriousness with which Rose had told the story to her that her friend's cousin had bought the ruse hook, line and sinker.
“She hightailed it out of there so fast I couldn’t explain anything, and she’s told everyone about it – every woman in a hundred mile radius thinks I’m a freak now. I haven’t had a date – or even a dance – in a month! It’s not funny!”
Even Autumn couldn’t keep the tears from rolling down her face, and normally she didn’t hold with practical jokes. The thought of this suave Lothario getting his comeuppance was too much to bear, though.
“Fine. Go ahead and laugh, see if I care.”
But as Autumn regained control she could see Rob did care. He sat back and played with his drink, but didn’t lift it to his mouth. He seemed lost in thought and whatever he was thinking wasn’t pleasant.
“Oh, come on, Rob – you sure got me back good,” Ethan said, then froze. Cab and Jamie froze, too. Rob looked from one to the other and straightened up.
“Yeah, that’s right – I did get you back good, didn’t I?”
Confused by the sudden tension around the table, Autumn said, “What? What did you do?”
There was a long moment of silence, then Rob smiled slowly. “That particular joke hasn’t had its run just yet, so I think I’ll let sleeping dogs lie. Right, Ethan? You think that’s a good call?”
“I think that’s a great call, Rob,” Ethan said in a tight voice. “And I think we should finish up here and get over to the Dancing Boot. Ladies, have pity on Rob here – the man needs a dance partner. Bad.”
The tension broken, people began to make their way toward the exit.
“What was that all about?” Autumn asked Ethan as she linked her arm through his and walked out to the Ford.
“Ignore Rob. He tried to get back at me and then found out the joke was on him again.”
* * * * *
Autumn managed to forget Rob’s strange behavior and the pregnancy test waiting at home for several hours after they moved the party over to the Dancing Boot. Ethan taught her the two-step and swung her around the room during song after song until she was dizzy and breathless and had to sit down. When the line dancing started she begged off, but had a great time watching the fancy footwork of the others. Jamie was particularly light on his feet and Claire wasn’t half bad, either. They made an interesting couple, she thought, now that Claire had lightened up a little.
Cab sat out the line dancing, too, but he’d taken his turn as her partner for a couple of other dances and she enjoyed his company, both on the dance floor and off. He told her a couple of stories about his exploits as a sheriff and she had to give it to him – he seemed entirely suited to the job.
Rob kept somewhat to himself, remaining at the table while the others came and went to the dance floor. After a while, Autumn began to worry that someone who so obviously had an axe to grind shouldn’t be drinking so much, so fast.
It was already past midnight when the topic of the wedding came up again.
“Who’s going to be your maid of honor?” Rose asked. She had joined the party when they reached the bar. Autumn took her aside when she arrived and explained all about the practical joke, which Rose found hilarious. She promised to pass the word on to her friend to pass on to her cousin, and told Autumn she’d do her best to spread the truth around to take the heat off of Rob. Not that Autumn cared if Rob ever dated again, but she didn’t like the anger she saw in him, or the direction it was aimed – at Ethan.
“My best friend, Becka. She’s flying in on Wednesday to help me get all the last minute details finished up.”
“There you go, Rob,” Jamie said with a wink. “New blood. This Becka girl won’t know anything about your wicked ways – she’ll dance with you at Ethan’s wedding.”
“Maybe she will,” Rob said, tossing back another drink. “Speaking of the wedding, who’s going to be the best man?”
Conversation died down as the group’s attention shifted to Ethan, who rubbed his jaw and looked a little uncomfortable. “Cab, Rob, Jamie – you’ve all been good friends to me over the years, so I hope you’ll all stand up with me, but seeing as how Jamie’s giving me the chance to keep the ranch and becoming my business partner, I thought it was only right to choose him to be my best man. Whattya say, Jamie? Will you do it?”
“Hell, yeah!” Jamie raised his glass. “To the groom!”
“Here, here!” Everyone clinked their glasses together except for Rob. He stood up unsteadily and waited for talk to die down.
“I might have known. Some friend you turned out to be, Ethan Cruz. You owe your present happiness to me and you know I could undo it in a minute if I cared to. Unlike you, I don’t care to ruin my friends’ love lives. Just remember I can.” He shoved his chair aside and stomped off across the bar, swaying a bit as he did so.
Autumn looked to Ethan in shock. “What does he mean?”
“You’d better go after him, Ethan, and smooth things over. Rob shouldn’t drive like that,” Claire said.
“Sorry, honey – I’ll be right back. Claire’s right – Rob’s in a bad way and I don’t want him behind the wheel.”
Ethan rushed off after him, leaving Autumn in a circle of sympathetic and definitely uncomfortable faces. More than ever she wished she and Ethan had spent the night home alone.