The Sweethearts’ Knitting Club by Lori Wilde Page B

be bloody and protracted.
    What should she do?
    Kathryn was moving off the dais, obviously going after security.
    And here Flynn was, standing there like a ninny as Jesse raised the glass of champagne and locked eyes with Beau. “To Beau and Flynn. I wish you the very best.”
    Then he shifted his gaze to Flynn.
    Her heart flipped.
    “Why fight genetics, right, Dimples?” He winked and tippled back a long swallow of champagne.
    Jesse, no!
    She almost reached out to slap the alcohol from his hands. But she didn’t dare say or do anything to stop him from drinking the champagne, not here with everyone watching. She couldn’t give the slightest indication that she cared about him at all. She was engaged to the richest, most influential man in town; a man who had the power to send Jesse right back to prison.
    Didn’t Jesse get that? By coming here tonight, pulling this stunt, he was putting his freedom in jeopardy.
    At that moment, the band started playing “I Got Friends in Low Places,” and Flynn suspected from the devilish gleam in Jesse’s eyes he’d paid the band for their choice of tune and impeccable timing.
    The crowd cheered and broke into wild applause.
    At that moment, two off-duty sheriff’s deputies hustled up onto the gazebo. Kathryn scowled at the band and made cutting motions across her neck.
    The Garth Brooks song was quickly replaced by another go-round of “Cotton-Eyed Joe.”
    “Guess it’s time to clear out the riffraff, eh, Trainer,” Jesse said.
    The deputies reached for Jesse, but he shook off their arms and sent them an expression that had them stepping back a pace.
    A chill ran down Flynn’s spine.
    Jesse cocked a smile at her. “Don’t worry, Dimples, I won’t embarrass you further in front of your fancy friends. I’m leavin’.”

C HAPTER S IX
    Beau Trainer and Flynn MacGregor voted couple most likely to end up married
    —Twilight High, 1999
    Beau and Flynn did not speak of what happened at the party on Saturday night. She kept waiting for him to say something, but he never did, and she wasn’t stupid enough to kick a hornet’s nest. So the incident just lay there between them. The eight-hundred-pound gorilla no one wanted to poke.
    On Tuesday morning after the Memorial Day weekend, Beau showed up on her front porch in his uniform and bearing a grande Mocha Frappuccino from Starbucks. “Thought you might need the kick start.”
    “You know me too well.” She smiled. She preferred cold beverages to hot, even in the winter, and she’d never sprung for the pricey coffeehouse stuff herself, but she did love Mocha Frappuccino.
    “My little night owl,” he said fondly and kissedthe tip of her nose. “It’s gonna be tough on you adjusting to my meadowlark schedule.”
    “You think I’m changing my schedule?” she asked as they walked to his SUV.
    He looked puzzled. “I get up at five A.M .”
    Flynn groaned. “Ungodly hour.”
    “Mother demands that her cook have breakfast on the table at six.”
    “Well, that’s your mother. Relax, I’m not that regimented. You can eat a bowl of cereal on the couch in your underwear any time of the morning.”
    Beau frowned. “I suppose that’s something we’ll have to negotiate with Mother when we move in.”
    “Whoa, back the train up here. Move in with your parents? Are you nuts?”
    Beau tilted his Stetson back on his forehead. “I can see I shouldn’t have sprung the idea on you like this.”
    “If anything, we can move in here.” She waved at her house as they drove by. “Or even your apartment.”
    “That’s too small for the two of us.”
    “Then let’s buy a house of our own.”
    Beau cleared his throat. “That house has been in our family for five generations, Flynn.”
    “I’m not saying we can never live there, Beau.” She spun the oversized engagement ring on her finger. “Just not as long as your parents are alive.”
    “My mother needs help with the place and with my father. It’s all too much for