Cowboy Up(62)

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.