Some Girls Do

By Amy Andrews

Fashion student Lacey Weston is desperate to leave the city and go home to Jumbuck Springs. Her three older brothers are adamant she’s not. They made a death bed promise to their mother that Lacey would stay the distance at design school and Ethan, the oldest, takes this responsibility very seriously. But Lacey is deeply homesick and determined not to be dissuaded again. She’s also impulsive enough to try anything – even faking a pregnancy.

Ex-cop turned mechanic, Cooper Grainger – one of Ethan’s oldest friends – agrees to watch out for Lacey in the city even though he has a history with her he’d rather forget. How hard could it be, right? But a couple of years later, Coop is over pulling Lacey out of scrapes and cleaning up her messes as she tries to outrun her grief and sense of dislocation. He takes her back to Jumbuck Springs so she can persuade her brothers to let her come home. But things don’t go according to plan. Before Coop knows it Lacey’s pregnant and he’s putting his hand up as the fake baby daddy, filling in for the town mechanic and moving in with her at the local pub.

Lacey is thrilled to have won a reprieve but nothing about the situation sits well with Coop. Least of all having sweet little Lacey Weston as his new roomie…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tule Publishing
• Release date: Sep 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781943963164

Amy Andrews

Amy is a multi-award winning, USA Today bestselling author who has written over forty contemporary romances for several Harlequin imprints. She's an Aussie who loves good books, fab food, great wine and frequent travel – preferably all four together. She lives by the ocean with her husband of twenty-nine years. To keep up with her latest releases and giveaways, sign up for her newsletter at www.amyandrews.com.au/newsletter.html

Book preview

Author

Keep Up with your Favorite Authors and their New Releases

For the latest news from Tule Publishing authors, sign up for our newsletter here or check out our website at TulePublishing.com

––––––––

Stay social! For new release updates, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and reader giveaways:

Like us on

Follow us on

Follow us on

See you online!

––––––––

Dedication

To Australian bush poet Banjo Patterson and 70’s pop group Racey – polar opposites but part of my musical heritage nonetheless.

Dear Reader,

G’day to all my readers and welcome to Outback Heat and the small country town of Jumbuck Springs.

For those of you who don’t know, jumbuck is a colloquial term for a sheep here in Australia. Anyone familiar with the song Waltzing Matilda will know it all started because of a thirsty jolly jumbuck! So, naturally, Jumbuck Springs is set in sheep territory. It’s also set in a valley bordered by Australia’s largest mountain range known as The Great Dividing Range (original right?), a massive geographical feature that runs down almost all of our east coast. Placing my fictitious town near mountains enabled me to have rock pools and springs and hence the name Jumbuck Springs was born. Having lived in outback towns, I loved creating my own and populating it with the kind of rugged, no-nonsense, hard-working, salt-of-the-earth people so prevalent in communities dependent on the land and the vagaries of nature for their livelihood. Of course, it’s only a couple of hours drive to the big smoke so expect some city lights too!

Outback Heat features the Weston family. Three older brothers who all work in the emergency services – policeman, fireman, paramedic – and little sister Lacey who’s set to take the fashion world by storm. Some Girls Do is Lacey’s story. Lacey’s kinda lost and messed up in the big city and yearning for home. Her brothers are determined she see her studies through but Lacey’s desperate to come home and will try anything, including dragging her oldest brother’s BFF, Coop, into a crazy, impulsive scheme. But Lacey and Coop have history...

Doncha just love it when there’s history? :)

I hope you fall in love with Jumbuck Springs and root for Lacey and Coop as they work towards their HEA. Next up is Jarrod and Selena followed by Marcus and Juanita and finally Ethan and JJ. As the series title suggests, things get kinda hot in Jumbuck Springs for all the couples so sit back, put on some flame proof undies and enjoy!

Love,

Amy

Chapter One

Cooper Grainger watched the leggy brunette press a Corona bottle to her lips and wished he was her beer. She downed a hearty mouthful, swiped her tongue across her lips, then laughed at something a guy in her group said as she passed the bottle to him before bending over the pool table.

A little frown knitted her brows together as she concentrated on her shot. A lock of her dark hair—a wild, wavy tangle cascading down her back—fell forward over her shoulder, kissing the bright green felt. His gaze dropped to the press of her breasts against the constraint of her tank top and that enticing little v formed at her cleavage.

He’d always been a sucker for that v.

The whack of a ball dragged his eyes back to the action. He watched as the white ploughed into the nine, which smacked into the five, which sailed with a resounding thunk into the pocket. He almost groaned out loud. A woman who turned beer drinking into an erotic spectator sport, had a cleavage that wouldn’t quit and knew how to shoot a combo.

He’d died and gone to heaven.

Suddenly her eyes lifted from the table and she was staring right at him. He paused mid-swallow as their gazes locked over the rim of his frosty beer glass. For long seconds she just looked and his gaze was drawn to the large golden hoop earring swinging from her lobe. Then a small smile curved her mouth into a plush little crescent.

Coop blinked and in that fraction of a second she was gone, handing the cue on to the guy with her beer, laughing again as the group congratulated her on her shot. Her gypsy hair swung against her tank top, which scooped low enough at the back to reveal several notches of her spine.

One of the guys slid his hand on her hip and Coop watched as she easily detached from him with a laugh and a playful swat. Then suddenly she was glancing over her shoulder, seeking his gaze again. She locked and held for a long moment and something primal made him think of his clean white sheets and dirty, sexy ways of messing them up.

Mystery woman looked away and he breathed again. But the images refused to leave his head as anticipation buzzed through his system.

He knew where this night was heading.

He hadn’t come to hook up but after a significant leave of absence his libido had roared back to life and he was suddenly thankful Ethan had sent him that box of condoms for his birthday—his friend’s way of telling him he needed to get laid already.

Ethan always had been an all-knowing son of a bitch.

By the time her group relinquished the pool table, he’d finished his second beer and had a hard-on that he doubted ten boxes of condoms could service. He shifted uncomfortably on the stool and his eyes followed the swing of hips, encased in skin-tight denim, and the swish of hair across the bar room. She turned down the corridor that led to the ladies room; just before disappearing she tossed him a look with another of those knowing little smiles.

Cooper knew that look. Knew he could get up off his stool and follow her and within minutes they’d be making out in a toilet cubicle or the alley out the back. But even at this short acquaintance he knew he wanted more from her than some quick fuck against the wall of a bathroom stall or prickly bricks biting into her back as they went for it all clothed and quiet outside.

He wanted her stretched out naked on his bed. He wanted to hear her pant, moan, cry out. He wanted her long and slow.

He wanted her loud. He wanted all night.

It had been a long time, after all.

Cooper kept an eye on the corridor anticipating the moment she appeared again. What her next move be. Would she wait for him to go to her? Or would she be as bold as her gaze and seek him out?

The chair moved beside him but he paid it no heed until he heard, Would you think me terribly forward if I bought you a drink?

Cooper pulse leapt as his head slowly swivelled towards the light teasing tone. His breath caught a little as his mystery woman loomed up close and personal. A shaggy fringe hung over her forehead, lead to artfully kohled eyes. Great cheekbones, cute nose and a wet glossy mouth that he knew was going to taste as good as it looked.

He grinned at her. I like forward.

She smiled. Well then you’re going to love me.

From his vantage point he noticed that her smile hadn’t quite reached her eyes, that there was a glimpse of misery lurking in the molasses depths. He recognised a little bit of himself in her unhappiness.

Takes all the guess work out of it, he said, dragging his mind back to the conversation.

Oh? she said, an elegantly arched brow kicking up, drawing attention to her eyes again, the glimpse gone. I wasn’t being clear enough already?

Cooper flicked a brief glance at her mouth. Oh no, he smiled, you were being clear.

Is that a problem?

He shook his head. He’d known where this was heading from the second their eyes had met, and his dick had always appreciated the direct approach. Nope.

She smiled then and held out her hand. Tracey.

Cooper, he said, sliding his hand along hers. Coop to my friends.

She kept her hand in his and regarded him with narrowed eyes. Does your friendship come with benefits, Cooper?

It does tonight.

She smiled and it reached right inside his underpants and stroked. "Well in that case, it’s nice to meet you, Coop."

He released her hand and turned to the bar tender. A Corona for the lady, he said.

Where’d you get this? she asked raising her fingers to the thickened horizontal scar down low on his windpipe. His skin burned beneath the light brush.

Coop forced himself to keep smiling. She wasn’t the first person to ask, she wouldn’t be the last. Knife fight.

She grinned, clearly not believing him. Intriguing. The bartender placed her beer down and she raised the bottle and tapped it on the edge of his glass. To friends with benefits.

Bottle to her mouth, she smiled at him as she took a sip of her beer and he tried to guess her age. The cop in him had already pegged her for mid-twenties, but sometimes you just had to come out and ask. How old are you?

Twenty-four. Lacey didn’t hesitate. She just came right out with it as if she actually was that age. Instead of five years younger.

One look at the compelling, sad blue eyes across the bar and she’d known he’d never contemplate a one-night stand with a nineteen year old. He had that look of brooding honour, the same look her older brothers usually wore during their this-is-for-your-own-good conversations.

It was just a tiny white lie, right? Well, another one. Sort of ... Her real name was Tracey. It was on her birth certificate for crying out loud. Was it her fault she’d never been called that? And tonight Lacey reminded her of all the things she tried desperately not to think about.

Cute little Lacey the peppy younger sister.

Bright little Lacey the smart little cookie.

Poor little Lacey the grieving, hormonal teenager, freaking her brothers out.

Tonight, with this very grown-up man, she wanted to be someone else. She didn’t want to be little Lacey anything.

And besides, they both knew the score here—what did a little truth bending matter? She was over the age of consent and hardly some blushing virgin.

Lacey didn’t ask him his age—she figured it started with a three—because there was just something about the man that drew her. Besides his broad shoulders, blond hair and crooked nose. Something sad and broken in his light blue eyes and that she could relate to.

She took another swallow of her beer, conscious of those eyes fixed on the bob of her throat. So what’s a guy like you doing in a place like this? she asked.

He raised his gaze to her face and laughed. I think that’s my line.

Lacey shrugged. Told you I was forward. And besides, if you don’t mind me saying, you’re kind of sucking at the pick-up lines.

You want a line? His mouth quirked up at one side. How about this? You have impressive ball skills.

Lacey hadn’t been expecting something so blatant and she was stunned for a moment before she laughed. Play your cards right and I’ll give you a personal demonstration.

He laughed too and it vibrated through her belly with all the subtlety, finesse and potency of a jackhammer. Lacey squirmed against the stool as heat flooded her abdomen.

She’d never been this hot for a guy.

Seriously, he said, sobering and his intense blue gaze caught and held hers. Where’d you learn to shoot a combo?

The laughter from earlier dried up from the inside out. She shrugged. A girl with brothers learns a lot of useless things. How to hook a worm and gut a fish ... how to make cricket stumps out of just about anything ... how to skip stones ... light a fire ...

How to never ever cry lest they get that stricken helpless look and send you away.

I imagine a girl with brothers would also learn not to let some guy pick her up in a bar, he murmured.

Hell yeah, she’d learned that one too. It’d been drummed into her—by Ethan particularly—just before he’d driven her two hundred kilometres from the only home she’d ever known to the college they’d insisted she still attend, despite her overwhelming grief.

But they couldn’t have it both ways. They couldn’t send her away and expect her to still live by their rules.

Hey, he said as he pushed a stray lock of hair off her forehead with his index finger. Where’d you go?

Lacey blinked as his blue eyes searched hers, frightened he could see everything—her hurt, her pain, the nagging homesickness that never seemed to go away.

No.

She would not think about home tonight. Quickly, she tipped her head back and drained her beer in three swallows. You want to get out of here?

Lacey could tell Coop was deciding whether or not to push her further on the subject. When he, too, drained his beer Lacey she almost sagged in relief. My place is three blocks away.

She smiled at him. Perfect.

He was ushering her through the entrance doors to his apartment complex ten minutes later. Lacey had no recollection of the trip. Not with his hand in the small of her back, his thumb stroking a lazy pattern through her shirt, streaking heat like a fork of lightning up her spine.

He pushed the lift button and Lacey glanced at him. The urge to kiss him pulsed inside her.

If you keep looking at me like that, he said, his voice full of gravel, his gaze firmly fixed on her mouth, we’re not going to make to the apartment.

Lacey’s gut clenched as the rumble in his tone abraded the hairs at the back of her neck, rubbed like sandpaper against her nipples and tingled between her thighs. It was only the ding of the lift that saved them from making out on the parquetry floor.

But the second the doors closed and they were alone, he was pushing her against the wall and she was grabbing his shirt and nothing could have stopped her from accepting the full-frontal assault of his mouth as it slammed hot and hard onto hers.

Lacey moaned as his fingers tangled in her hair and his tongue tangoed with hers. He groaned against her mouth and her belly tightened.

Crap, if the man screwed like he kissed she was a goner.

The lift dinged again and Lacey whimpered as Coop dragged his lips away and pressed his forehead to hers. Their heavy breathing filled the lift as the door slid open. Don’t plan on getting any sleep tonight.

A week later Coop was back at the bar. He told himself he wasn’t there for her, that he was meeting Ethan. But since the woman who’d rocked his world for long sweaty hours last Friday night had done a Cinderella on him and disappeared before morning, he was determined to track her down.

And it wasn’t just the sex. The shadows in her eyes had spoken to him in a way that only a man with shadows of his own understood.

Ethan arrived and they clapped each other on the back as they embraced. When Coop had taken off on his country-wide trek over a year ago he hadn’t figured he’d miss his best bud as much as he had.

It’s good to have you back, man, Ethan said as they settled in a booth.

Couldn’t leave Dad in the lurch, Coop shrugged. And it was probably time anyway.

Coop had healed a lot physically and mentally while he’d been away, but he’d needed that little push to bring him back into the fold. He still wasn’t sure he’d have come back had his father’s heart not decided to turn dicky.

Drifting had started to look more and more attractive.

How’d his op, go? Ethan asked.

Good. Few days yet ’til they release him. Mum wants him to take a few months off.

And the garage?

I’ll look after it while he’s away.

Ethan shook his head. You’re wasting your talent. You could get into private security or become one of those fancy PIs.

Coop suppressed a snort at Ethan’s grin. Chasing after loan defaulters and cheating husbands? No way. "Tinkering around car engines is my talent. My mother reckons I was under a car the second I could crawl."

Well your timing couldn’t be more perfect.

Coop watched as his friend’s face grew serious—its default position. Ethan hadn’t changed much from the solemn recruit he’d met when they’d both been at the academy. A little older now—hell, at thirty-two they both were—but Ethan looked it.

He was still the reserved, serious guy he’d always been. The guy who’d had the responsibility of being the man of the house thrust on his shoulders at fifteen when his father, the local police chief, had been killed on the job. And even more thrust on him when he’d become a father himself at the age of twenty-one and given up his dream of a becoming a homicide detective to go back to Jumbuck Springs and do the right thing by Delia and his kid.

We’ve been worried about Lace and I feel so much better knowing that you’re in the same town. Ethan took a long