“Okay, fiiine. I guess if you really need me...who am I to leave you hanging?”
We climb the stairs and find Linda next to the kitchen, snooping. She’s peeking in the door of Willow’s room.
Her blond hair is tucked under a red cowboy hat with matching boots, very high white shorts, and a red fringed button-up shirt.
“Linda,” I snap, giving her my coldest January tone.
She spins around with an utterly carnivorous smile.
“Oh, there you are!” She beams. “I saw the girls with Hank a little while ago and I couldn’t believe you weren’t with them at the rodeo.”
I clamp my back teeth together to keep from asking her to button her damn shirt the rest of the way up. I’m about as interested in ogling her goods as a corpse needs to breathe.
“So you thought you’d drive out here and stomp around my home, huh? Uninvited?” I’m usually not this hostile, but I’ve had my fill of her shitty flirt-ambushes this past year.
“I mean, I...I rang the doorbell,” she says, batting her lashes with a woebegone frown.
“We were in the basement.” I reach behind me and pull Willow into the room next to me. “Lotta hard work being bent over, rearranging furniture.”
I let the innuendo carpet bomb her.
“Willow.” Linda’s lips pucker as she looks Willow up and down. “Yes, that’s the name Avery and Sawyer mentioned. I was having a hard time remembering exactly what type of tree it was. I was thinking pine or spruce—or maybe dogwood.”
The rattle on this snake.
I clench my jaw harder.
“Yeah, yeah, I get that a lot,” Willow says with an easy laugh. “And you must be Hailey’s mom, right? The girls mentioned her.”
I bite back a grin at how she doesn’t include the word you.
Linda pats at her chest lightly with one hand. “Oh, I’m sure they have. They’re my little darlings. They’ve been in Hailey’s class for years.” After a fake giggle, Linda levels a nasty glare on Willow. “So you’re the new nanny?”
“She is. Not that it’s any of your business,” I answer. “What is it you wanted?”
Her smile sinks and worry fills her eyes.
“Oh, nothing much. I’ve just been worried about you, Grady.” She saunters toward me, heels clicking on the tile. “You and the girls, cooped up all alone with poor Faye gone. She’s such a dear, going to care for her friend. But it isn’t fair that a wonderful man like you should lose your right hand and be stuck here all alone.”
Perish the fucking thought.
“We aren’t alone,” I growl back. “Faye’s absence is the reason I hired—”
She lays her hand on my arm, cutting me off mid-sentence.
“You shouldn’t have. Your aunt was adamant about me helping you while she was gone. I know that you know that.”
I jerk myself away from her, turning to guide Willow away from the doorway. “And I know you’re well aware I told you I didn’t need your help.”
“Well, you know how Faye feels about strangers around the kids. Why, how the whole town feels about strangers lately. They’ve brought us nothing but trouble. First that poor girl our movie star married, Grace, and then those men after Faulk—”
“Save your breath, I was right in the thick of both situations.”
Her eyes swell. “You certainly were. Did you see the papers after that big bust with Faulkner, Tory, and the goats? They’re starting to call your crew the Knights of Dallas, our own hunky protectors. We got so lucky with you hometown heroes.”
Yeah, fuck, how could I forget?
The fact that I’m the last real single guy left who moonlights as an ass-kicker was like waving red meat in front of a tiger. But I’d rather be toe to toe with Bruce any day than a tigress like Linda Wood.
I take a deep breath for control.
“Willow isn’t a stranger. She’s doing a great job around here, and she’ll continue. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got some supper to fix. I’m looking to finish our hard, sweaty work in the basement before the girls get home.”
Willow inhales sharply, no doubt swallowing a laugh.
The dagger look Linda throws at Willow has me wanting to toss the intruder out on her ass.
I haven’t removed my hand from Willow’s back.
In fact, I step even closer to her side.
“Really, Grady?” Linda pauses for ten brutal seconds, her nose turned up, and then speedwalks to the kitchen door. “I’m disappointed in you. I would’ve thought a man of your caliber wouldn’t expose his daughters to this girl.”
Now it’s my turn to crank the evil eye on full force.
“What is it you think I’m exposing them to?” I ask. “Protecting them from someone like you?”
“From me? Well, I never!” Huffing, she marches out of the kitchen, clucking her tongue.
“Bye, Linda,” I grind out.
She storms through my living room, and I follow with Willow’s hand in mine, making sure she gets out. I’ll let the way she slams my door go.
It’s relief enough knowing she’s finally taken the hint. I’m not fucking interested.
I’d said it before, but never so forcefully, much less shown her there’s another woman I actually like in the picture.
This time, I doubt she’ll be back.
Thank God.
The tires on her truck kick up gravel as she spins the vehicle around, making her exit.
“Grady...are you sure that was wise?” Willow asks.
She’s at my side now, staring out the front window.
“Was what wise?”
“Making her believe there’s more going on between us than there is.”
Laughing, I turn and grasp her hips, pulling her close. “You tell me. How much more is actually going on?”
She slaps at my chest, a sunshine smile turning up her lips.
“You know what I mean. I’m not talking about our fun...”
“I do. Just like I know you’re reason number one she came barreling at us, ready to run you off like the screeching barn cat she is.”
“Hey, it’s you she wants, not me.”
“I’m not up for grabs, and you aren’t here to be attacked,” I tell her, running my hand along the back of her neck. “Let her obsess over another dude now.”
Willow glances out the window.
“I’m surprised you never gave her a chance. She’s a pretty woman.”
I snort. “Is she? I couldn’t see past her ten layers of makeup.”
“But you saw how her shirt was unbuttoned, right? Just enough to show some cleav.”
“Cleavage? Hell, it was down far enough to see her belly button,” I joke, running my hands up her sides and using my thumb to caress her tits.
I’m not having her doubt whose melons I’m interested in for a nanosecond.
“Besides, the only reason I noticed is because you were stuck on my mind, and I was pretty damn steamed over what she interrupted,” I say.
She leans forward and lays her head against my chest.
“You’re sweet. But sometimes I wonder if maybe we shouldn’t—”
Her phone rings, stopping her from saying more.