Hot Pursuit Read Free

everything she’d ever
wanted when she’d broken out of her hometown and gone to cooking
school a few years ago.
    But here she was again, back in Rochambeau
and washing hair in her mama’s salon, just like when she’d been in
high school. Loser . All she wanted was to get out again at
the first opportunity. Before that loser feeling wrapped around her
throat and squeezed the rest of her dreams away.
    Matt reached for the door, and Evie darted
behind the stockroom curtain. Her heart slammed against her ribs as
the tinkling bell announced his arrival. She turned to lean against
the doorjamb and pushed the rose-print polyester aside with one
finger. She was being silly. He wasn’t here because of her. He was
here because his sister had sent him on some errand or other for
her wedding.
    Hell, he probably wouldn’t even blink twice
if he ran smack into her.
    Evie frowned. Her eyes slid down his body and
back up again. He was still something to look at. Something easy on
the eyes and hard on the senses.
    He’d changed in ten years, but some things
were still the same. That cocky swagger as he’d approached the
shop. He’d always walked like his daddy owned all the oil in the
Gulf of Mexico. Which he damn near did. The Girards had been
Rochambeau’s wealthiest family for as long as anyone could
remember.
    Matt’s dark hair was cut very short, and his
shoulders were much broader than when he’d been seventeen. The
fabric of his white cotton T-shirt stretched across a wide chest
packed with muscle. His bare forearms made her throat go dry.
    Something quivered deep inside her, the way
it always had from the moment she’d become aware of Matt as more
than a boy she played with. Something hot and dark and secret. Evie
squashed the feeling ruthlessly.
    He pushed a hand through his hair, every
muscle of his torso seeming to bunch and flex with the movement.
She would have sworn she heard a collective sigh from the ladies in
the salon. Rachel absently ran water in her sink, cleaning out the
soap bubbles from the last shampoo. When she got too close to the
edge, the water sprayed up into her face.
    Evie would have laughed if she too weren’t
caught up in Matt’s every move. She’d adored him ten years ago and
worshipped him until the night she’d given him her virginity.
    What a mistake that had been. Not because the
sex had been awful. No, it’d been pretty exciting, all things
considered. It was what had happened afterward that ruined it for
her. The shift in their relationship hadn’t been what she’d
expected. And then he’d been such an ass about it.
    “Afternoon, ladies.” Matt tipped his head to
them.
    “Afternoon,” they murmured in unison, voices
sugary and lilting, eyes assessing and cataloging him.
    “Miz Breaux.” He took her mother’s hand and
kissed it like a courtier.
    “Oh, shoot.” She smacked him playfully on the
shoulder. “What do you want? Don’t you know this is a beauty
parlor? Sid’s Barber Shop is on Main Street.”
    “Well, ma’am.” He grinned that devil-may-care
grin Evie remembered so well. “I figured Old Sid can’t see so well
anymore and I’m still fond of my ears. I’d much rather have a
lady’s touch, if you know what I mean.”
    “Oh my.” Mama giggled. Giggled .
    Evie rolled her eyes. No wonder she couldn’t
pick a decent man. She came by the defect genetically. Mama had
been divorced three times. She’d gone back to using her maiden name
after the second one in order to avoid confusion. Evie had her
daddy’s last name, her sixteen-year-old sister had a different
name, and Mama had yet another one.
    “You don’t even look like you need a
haircut,” Mama was saying.
    He scrubbed a hand over the nape of his neck.
“My sister thinks I do. And it’s her wedding.”
    Mama giggled again. What was it about that
man that turned even the smartest woman into an airhead? “Well, we
can’t let Christina be disappointed then, can we? But you’ll have
to wait until I