“I’m gonna kill her.”
Lucy makes a snarling sound in her throat, backing up Leighton’s threat without words.
I keep my mouth shut but grab Leighton’s hand before she can leave the table at which Jana had told her, firmly and without room to argue, to “sit down and not move from that spot” not even five minutes after walking into her bakery. I feel the wide-eyed stares of the people in the shop around us, but it oddly doesn’t bother me, proof that I really am becoming stronger. The only thing I care about in this moment is the nasty woman causing a scene inside my boyfriend’s sister-in-law’s bakery. His very, very pregnant sister-in-law’s bakery. And that woman is going to find out just what the new me is capable of.
“You might think you’ve got him,” Jess continues in a snarky tone. “Hell, you might even keep his attention for a little while, but he’ll be back. He always comes back. No woman stands a chance at changin’ that.”
“You stupid bitch. Smartest thing he ever did was scrape you off, and he wasn’t stupid enough to come back to you once since then. You can be damn sure he isn’t gonna do it now,” Leighton snaps with fury in her words.
“We have a history!” Jess shrieks, her beautiful face turning hideous and revealing her true nature.
I stay silent and study Clayton’s ex. Jess really is lovely, I’ll give her that, but she’s the kind of woman who thinks that beauty is the be-all and end-all. The type that only has their beauty going for them and it really doesn’t get them as far as they’re convinced it does. Every time she throws more nasty words around, her shoulders start shaking with temper, her long blond hair swinging. Her blue eyes are cold, calculating, and full of vicious evil. She’s taller than me and bustier than me, with curves I’ll never have.
And I’ve never felt more beautiful.
“Your desperation is embarrassing,” I finally say, low and steady, not backing down when that evil gaze homes in on me.
I stand and step in front of Leighton when Jess moves forward. Her eyes track my movements like a predator hunting its prey. Before Clayton, I would’ve curled into myself and backed down instantly under the weight of her stare and impending confrontation. Now, though, I’m ready to take this horrible woman on, and there’s no way in hell I’m letting her close enough to Leighton to have even a slight chance of harming her or the baby.
“How does it feel to have my sloppy seconds?” she mocks.
I roll my eyes. “Bless your heart, honey. You really believe that, don’t you? Insinuatin’ a man as incredible as Clayton Davis could ever be sloppy seconds to any woman is pathetic and insultin’. You might think what you had with my man is worthy of bein’ some secondhand, used-goods kinda love, but that handsome cowboy has never loved another woman until me. You were just a way to pass time until we found our way to each other.”
She moves closer, stepping on my sandal-covered feet with her boots and making a shooting pain jolt through my body when she rolls her weight onto my toes. I don’t give her the pleasure of flinching, though. I hold myself strong and true, unwilling to give her the upper hand.
“I was pregnant with his baby,” she hisses, thankfully low enough that the people eating farther away can’t hear.
Again, I don’t react. Not even when I hear Leighton gasp as the secret Clayton kept from his family unfolds. I see Lucy start to stand in my peripheral vision, but I wave her off.
I might not care what the gawkers around me think anymore, but I won’t allow Jess to hurt Clayton by bringing something so painful to light.
Moving my face closer, I sneer at her. “Correction, bitch, you tricked him and then killed his baby. Even if you ever had a chance at experiencin’ the beauty of his love, you were dead to him when you showed him how nasty he already knew you were by doin’ that.”
I can tell she hadn’t planned on me knowing the truth, but when her hand comes out and cracks against my cheek, I lose the upper hand.
“That is enough!” I hear Jana bellow from behind the counter.
“I’m fine, Jana,” I call in her direction, pressing my hand against my cheek and not looking away from Jess.
“I’m gonna kill her,” Leighton grumbles, repeating her threat angrily behind me, but thankfully, she doesn’t move. I feel her knees bouncing against the back of my legs, so I don’t need to turn to make sure she’s still sitting. I’m not going to have another pregnant woman go into labor because she got too excited at the crazy that keeps invading my life.
“You can have that hit, Jess. I’d be mad too if I lost someone as amazin’ as Clayton, but honey, you never did deserve him. I want you to really listen now. I’m gonna marry that man. In fact, he can’t wait to get his ring on my finger. I didn’t have to trick him into wantin’ that. When the day comes that I’m blessed enough to share somethin’ as beautiful as a child we created with our love, I’ll be thankin’ my lucky stars to have a gift that incredible. And we’ll have that baby, Jess. It will be one that we both enjoy the hell outta workin’ to get—without tricks and lies. We’re gonna raise a house full of babies on that ranch. Babies we would have tomorrow, we want that blessin’ built from our love that bad. Both of us. And sweetheart, I’m gonna keep lovin’ Clayton so hard he’ll feel that long after we’ve both left this earth.”
“You stupid bitch. Clay doesn’t believe in marriage.” She cackles, the sound evil and malevolent, either not hearing me or really believing, after years of not having him, that Clayton might be pining away for her.
I press my hand against her breastbone, pushing her out of my face. After I get her a step away from me, I pull my phone from my back pocket and bring up Clayton’s name. I hold up a finger in Jess’s face and wiggle it a little before pointing down at my phone and tapping the speakerphone button. Ringing fills the shocked silence at the PieHole and this time I don’t care that our audience is making an attempt to get a little closer and hear us better.
“Hey darlin’,” Clayton answers, his voice soft and happy. I picture him smiling that heart-pounding smile and my own grows.
“Honey,” I answer lightly, not wanting him to hear just how tense I am, but I should’ve known he’d hear it anyway. My cowboy knows his woman.
“What’s wrong, Linney?”
“Nothin’ I can’t handle. You have a second?”
I hear him speak to someone, hear him moving around a moment later before the click of a door shutting comes over the line. “Always got a second for you, baby.”
“I don’t want to keep you, I know you’ve got the doc out there checkin’ on things.”
“It’s fine, Linney. Just finished with the last foal. I’ve got time before we move on to the fillies and colts.”
“All right, honey.” I pull the phone away and whisper to Jess. “Listen carefully.” When her eyes flash, I pull the phone back up and address Clayton again. “You wanna get married, handsome?”
“You free in an hour, sweetness?” he answers immediately.
“I’m a little tied up right now, but I think an hour could be doable.”
“I’ll meet you at the courthouse then.”
I laugh, feeling his love through the line wrapping me up in a cocoon of happiness. I don’t even care if this didn’t start out serious. I can’t think of anything better than being his wife. I want this. As crazy fast as it is, I think I knew he was my forever the second he bought me a whiskey and promised to show me bad. “Only if you promise to start working on giving me those babies we both want right after our date at the courthouse.”
The rumble of his deep chuckle comes through the line and I find my smile growing even bigger until my cheeks burn from the sheer insanity of my grin.
“My girl’s got an itch to be bad?”
I hear Lucy and Leighton start snickering as heat crawls over my skin. I might be ready to ignore the busybodies and nosy old biddies, but I bet any woman would blush hearing Clayton Davis make an announcement like that to a roomful of people. Difference is, I don’t even care anymore. Let them know how much I love being a bad girl.
“I like the way you think, honey,” I say softly, my eyes on the red-faced woman a foot in front of me. “But I think I’ll take lovin’ you slow before you love me bad.”
“I love you, Linney,” he drawls slowly in the erotic way that only Clayton can achieve with the deep raspy tones of his voice.
“I love you, Clayton.”
“Linney?” he calls before I have a chance to say good-bye.
“Yeah, honey?”
“You let Jess know if she ever comes near you again, not even my woman callin’ and givin’ me her sweetness will be enough to keep her safe from my anger.”
The woman in question jerks her head and gapes at the phone in my hand. I’m not even surprised that he knew about her being here. There isn’t anything that gets by him, especially when it comes to my well-being.
“There won’t be a safe place left in Pine Oak for her if she pulls that shit again,” he says, the fury in his words unmistakable.
“You’re on speaker, Clayton,” I tell him, not taking my eyes off Jess.
“Good, baby. Maybe she’ll heed my words this time and not twist them up in her head to be whatever crazy shit she’s convinced herself of this time. You enjoy your time with the girls, but when you finish you better get that sweet ass home so I can get my ring on your hand.”
“What?” I gasp.
His deep, low laughter is the only answer I get before he disconnects the call with his parting shot still ringing in my ears. He doesn’t just shock the nasty woman who interrupted my girl time though. He also floors me as well. I had been joking. I wanted to put his awful ex in her place, but the second the words left my mouth it became something else. I can’t help but feel a little anxious over what will happen when I go home. I don’t know if he’s serious but hope he is, even if it makes us both crazy. When you know, you know. But the part of me that’s completely owned by him can’t stop the rush of pure pleasure I get when I think that he might have been planning for this if he really does have a ring.
“Holy cow,” Leighton gasps breathily.
“Oh my God!” Lucy screams.
“I knew that sexy brooder would be a scorcher!” Jana bellows from her position behind the pie displays. “Just knew he’d give it real good.”
With a pounding heart that has nothing to do with the showdown I just went through, I give Jess one last arch of my brow and let my whiskey-filled teacup boil over one more time. “Get out of my face, Jess. Get out of Leighton’s place. And learn something from today.”
I turn, my ponytail slapping across her face, and return to my seat at the table I had been sitting at before she stormed into the PieHole and started throwing her crap all over the place.
Clapping my hands, I look between Leighton and Lucy. “So, where were we?”