Lisa turned to James and punched him right in the gut. She heard a whoosh of air come out, but other than that, he didn’t seem to notice, and now her hand hurt.
She gave him a dirty look and started rubbing her knuckles. When he noticed, he took her smaller hand in his very large one and brought it to his mouth. When his lips brushed her skin, she felt a surge of electricity run from her fingers all the way to her toes.
“Tiger, I’m just worried about you. And yeah, I know I was being sneaky, but I knew you wouldn’t have listened to me. I knew your mom would have a better chance of talking you into staying with them. Of course, if you want, we could go ahead and get married. Then you could move in with me.”
She gave him a look of irritation, and tried to pull her hand free from his, but he just turned it over despite her struggles. When he placed a kiss in the palm of her hand she nearly dropped to the floor. She had to step forward and lean her head against his chest.
“James, stop, please. I can only take so much.”
“Have we got there yet?” When she looked up at his handsome face, she seen the desire flare to life in his eyes. “Maybe I should ask you to marry me now.”
“You’re not fighting fair,” she said, unable to pull her eyes away from his.
“I never said I would.” He just stood there grinning down at her. He really liked the way she couldn’t hide her reaction to him. “I want to get married now. I want to be there to take care of you.”
While her and James had been busy talking, everybody else had managed to finish getting dinner ready, and when she turned to see what else needed to be done, it was to discover the table was already set, and everybody was already taking their seats.
They had left the chicken over on the stove. Everyone had agreed to go to the stove to get theirs so that the smell wouldn’t waft around the table as bad. They were trying to make it possible for Lisa to eat dinner with everyone at the table.
Jamie had also baked it, instead of frying it, so the smell wouldn’t be so nauseating. So far, she wasn’t having any trouble with the smell. Beef and pork were always worse. She had also boiled her eggs to replace the chicken this time.
When everyone had their chicken on their plates and had come back to sit down, Lisa had a moment when she was afraid she was going to have to run to the bathroom, but it only lasted a second. And the smell faded away enough she was able to remain in her seat.
James took the seat beside her and picked up her hand and kissed the back of it. “How are you doing? If you need, I’ll sit on the back porch with you.”
“No. I think I’m going to be okay.”
“How are you doing, James? Have you given yourself an ulcer worrying about her and the baby yet?” Zane asked, smirking at him.
“Ha, ha,” James said. “I’m not that bad. I’m doing just fine, thank you.”
“Well, let’s hope it stays that way. You’ve got about seven more months to go.”
“Let’s not talk about it. I’m going to have to do this one day at a time. Of course, if she would go ahead and marry me, I would feel better. I’d be with her at night. As it is, I’m worried when the time comes, I’m not going to be with her when she goes into labor, and if it wasn’t for the morning sickness, I’d feel a lot more comfortable. I don’t like the thought of her getting so weak.”
“Oh, gee. Thanks, Zane. Now you’ve got him over thinking things. James, I’m going to be fine. Morning sickness is part of pregnancy and we don’t need to worry about when I’m going to go into labor. That’s way off yet.”
“Sorry. It wasn’t my intention to make your anxiety worse. I’m sure her morning sickness will stop in a month or so,” Zane said, trying to correct his mistake.
“Yeah, I know. It’s just making me a little nervous.”
“I’ll be glad when it passes,” she Lisa, scrunching up her nose. “I hope it don’t last the whole pregnancy. I’d really like to be able to eat a steak sometime in the near future.”
Carl looked up the table at his daughter. “Baby Girl, I promise, as soon as you can eat meat again, I’ll grill all of us a steak. I don’t care how cold it is. We may just have to eat it in the house.”
A round of cheers and applause went around the table. “Lisa, you should have a baby more often. Dad usually won’t grill steaks,” Zane said, with an innocent expression. He knew his sister would definitely be married before she got pregnant again, and he was trying to goad her.
“Two things first. I’d like a whole year after this pregnancy, before I get pregnant again,” she said, giving her brother a dirty look. “Then, I also need to be married before I have another one.” Lisa looked over at James. All the sudden he sounded like he was choking. And just so he didn’t misunderstand, she added as an afterthought. “After that, I’ll have as many as James wants to have.”
“Are you going to marry me now?” James asked, sounding confused. He looked like he might jump up, grab her and drive to Vegas overnight if she said yes.
“I’ll marry you. Just as soon as you figure out what you’re missing.”
“What if I don’t figure it out?” he asked, the fear coming back into his eyes.
“You’ll figure it out. Just stop racking your brains and go with your instincts.” She turned and looked him straight in the eyes. “Follow your heart,” she said laying her hand on his chest. She heard his breath catch. The look on his face made her think he may have just got it. But when he shook himself and looked back at the table, she knew he still wasn’t ready to trust what those instincts were telling him.
Chapter 10 – Saturday, September 8
Carl and Jamie had decided to take advantage of the lingering warm weather while they could, and have another barbecue. When James got there, they had asked him if he could go with Lisa to pick up a few things they hadn’t realized they were out of.
Lisa had asked him if he could go grab ketchup and mustard while she went the other way to get buns and cheese. Now he was walking toward the dairy section, and he could hear her voice raised in irritation.
“I have no interest in you like that. You already know that. Leave me alone, you creep. Why do you always have to be so vulgar?”
“If you’re afraid the baby’s a problem for me, just give it to James once it gets here. I can forgive you the slip up. I mean we all sink beneath our own level from time to time.” James could hear the sneer in his voice without looking at his face.
He had to work hard to resist the temptation to run through the store. He knew that voice. He’d given Lisa problems all the way through high school.
James managed to make it around the corner in time to hear her tell him, “I’m not giving my child away. How dare you even suggest it.” James could hear the obvious outrage in her voice, and it made him grin. “I want James’ baby, you idiot. I loved this baby the second I knew I was pregnant. James and I belong together. What kind of a moron do you have to be to suggest such a thing?”
James stepped up beside her and tossed the condiments in the cart just as she was coming to the end of her outburst. He had to work to resist the temptation to reach out and grab the guy around the throat.
“Oh, come off it, Lisa. The whole town knows you’re refusing to marry him,” Greg said, not bothering to hide his laugh.
“I’m not refusing to marry him,” she said, not sure why she was wasting her time trying to explain something so complicated to someone so simple minded. “I will marry him. I’m just not going to marry him till he figures out what I really want from him. And he will figure it out. I know he will.”
“Are you sure he’s smart enough?” the guy asked with a sneer once again.
A man in a cowboy hat, that had come around the corner at the other end of the aisle about the same time James did, had been standing there quietly listening to the exchange. He came closer, so he could look the guy in the eyes. “You know he’s a lot smarter than you ever thought about being, Greg Becket. My guess, that’s part of the reason
you’ve always been so jealous of him. That and the fact that Lisa has always spent all her time with him. She doesn’t even give you the time of day.”
“Tyler Wentworth, I’m surprised you even have the guts to show your face around here after what you did,” Greg sneered.
“I guess that means you can actually read. Obviously, you seen the newspapers. I wonder if you’ve seen the more recent ones. You know, the ones were my name was cleared.”
“I don’t care if they did clear your name. I believe you did it.”
“Whatever. You’re just a small man, with an even smaller mind. I’m betting you still live in your mom’s basement. How is your mom by the way? Still disappointed in you?”
“Don’t you dare talk about my mom,” Greg puffed up like a little banty rooster.
“What are you going to do about it?” Tyler asked with a laugh, not really trying to sound menacing.
“Don’t threaten me,” Greg said, taking a step back.
“I didn’t threaten you, and you know I respect your mother. I feel sorry for her, having to deal with your stupid stunts all the time.”
“Yeah, he isn’t any different than what he was eight years ago when you started riding the rodeo circuit. He’s been in more scrapes than you’ve rode broncos, I would imagine,” James added with a smirk.
“Who are you to talk? You’re the biggest idiot in this town.”
“Don’t talk to him like that. He’s so much smarter than you, it makes it seem like you have the intelligence of a slug. You’re the town idiot.”
“You can’t seriously want him over me.”
“How many times do I have to tell you, I don’t want anything to do with you like that? I mean there’s slow, and then there’s no hope.”
“Greg, if she hasn’t made herself clear enough for you, I’d be happy to clear things up the rest of the way.” James just gave the guy an evil grin as he cracked his knuckles.
“I’m not scared of you. You’re just a waste of space.” James could hear the fear in the smaller man’s voice. Greg knew the only way to really make James angry was to mess with Lisa.
“Good. You won’t run.”
Joe Harris and Chris Miller came around the end of the aisle just as James took a step toward the creep. He could tell Chris had heard the exchange. He had a huge grin on his face, and he was struggling not to laugh.
“You might need to keep an eye on her while she’s pregnant. She’s a lot feistier with all those hormones,” Chris said, still trying not to laugh. James would have laughed if he wasn’t so furious at the little creep for harassing her. He never liked seeing her upset, but it was worse with her being pregnant.
“James, get a handle on it,” Joe said, authority ringing in his voice.
James stepped back and relaxed his stance. He had spent almost as much time at Joe’s house growing up as he had the Townsend’s. His son Mark was one of the gang. He had a lot of respect for the man and didn’t want to give him reason to kick him out of his store. He nodded his head at him and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Yeah, Joe. Why don’t you call the cops on this scum?” For the third time, Greg sneered, and looked at James like he thought he had won some grand fight. Greg didn’t know Joe very well.
“The only person I’m calling the cops on, is you,” Joe said, pointing at Greg. “You need to leave.”
“Hey, you have no reason to kick me out,” Greg said, sounding insulted.
“I’m guessing I heard parts of your conversation that James didn’t,” Joe said with disgust in his voice. “Or you would already be bleeding. But I stopped long enough to call Zane and get Chris. I will not stand for you sexually assaulting my customer and friend,” Joe said, glaring at Greg.
“I wasn’t sexually assaulting her. I was just trying to let her know she could do better than some stupid black guy,” Greg said, leering at Lisa.
James just barely managed to resist the temptation to wrap his hands around the guy’s neck. He didn’t like him looking at her that way. That’s why he was a little distracted when Lisa started to step toward the creep. But when she started toward him with fury in her eyes, Joe called James’ attention to her. “James, grab Lisa before she goes after him. You don’t want her to get hurt.”
Joe had said the magic words. James reached out and took her hand and pulled her into his arms. There was no way he would take a chance of the creep hurting her.
“Yeah, you were sexually assaulting her. That’s why I came down this aisle. I made it to the other end about the same time James came around the corner. I heard the parts James obviously didn’t hear, as well.”
“I didn’t do anything to her, you dirty liar, except try to show her she can do better than James.”
James could only restrain Lisa physically. He couldn’t stop her shooting her mouth off. Like Chris had said, it had to be the pregnancy hormones.
He noticed when his arms came around her without her fighting him, Greg’s face had screwed up for just a split second with fury and jealousy, and now, with her practically screaming bloody murder at him in defense of James, it was getting worse. He was nothing short of furious. It caused James to pull her closer to him. He didn’t want the creep anywhere near her. He figured with all the help he would have, the guy wouldn’t even be able to get close to her, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
“You little piece of crap. James is worth a hundred of you,” Lisa said, shooting daggers at him with her eyes. “His black skin is nothing more than a physical trait. It’s just like my having brown hair and green eyes. And besides,” she said, a grin spreading across her face as she looked up at James, “I think he’s beautiful. But your ignorance and hate go to the bone. It makes you ugly,” she said, looking back at Greg, disgust ringing with every word.
“If I hear you use such racist comments again, I’ll ban you from the store. This is your only warning. I’d think twice about what I said if I were you. Unless you want to drive clear to Onyx Valley to get your groceries from now on,” Joe said, just barely managing not to snarl. “I don’t figure your mother would be too happy with you. She’s the one that pays for the gas that goes in that car you drive, not to mention the groceries you buy.”
Just then, they all realized Zane had stepped around the corner and had been standing there for a few seconds. He came up behind Greg, and slapped him really hard on the back of his shoulder, causing the guy to have to take a step forward. “From the way my sister is ranting, you must have insulted James. That was a bad idea.”
“You heard that?” Greg asked, seeming confused.
“Yeah. I’ve been here for most of this conversation.”
“Can he really ban me from the store?”
“Yeah. He can refuse service to anyone he wants.”
“That’s not fair,” Greg whined, sulking, looking down at the floor.
“Sure, it’s fair,” Zane chuckled, looking over at Lisa, who still looked very angry. “You’re lucky James has a hold of her. Otherwise, she would probably have scratched your eyes out.”
“Why is she so protective of him? He’s nothing,” he said, sneering yet again.
“You just don’t get it, do you?” Zane asked, shaking his head.
“She could do better,” he said, looking smug. Lisa wanted to smack him across the face, and knock that self-satisfied look off his face.
“Maybe. But you’re not better.” Zane managed to get rid of the smug look he wore. And he didn’t even have to resort to violence. Sometimes her brother’s smart mouth attitude could be a real blessing.
“You would prefer she be with a black guy?” James could tell the idiot was starting to get angry again, and without thinking, moved Lisa behind him, stepping between her and Greg.
“Oh, James is black? I never noticed that.” Zane’s voice was dripping with sarcasm as he rolled his eyes.
James couldn’t help himself. He started laughing. When he looked over at Chris, he found he wasn’t the only one l
aughing. Tyler was so close to losing it, he had turned and walked several feet away. Greg was no match for Zane.
“What? Are you stupid?” Greg had apparently missed the sarcasm. James couldn’t see how. It had been more than obvious. This just caused James, Tyler and Chris to all laugh harder.
“No, I’m not stupid. I’m color blind. My whole family is. Haven’t you noticed?” Zane asked, shaking his head.
“I didn’t know color blindness applied to skin. I thought it was just green and red.” Greg seriously looked confused.
At first Zane just stood there with a stunned look on his face, and that was saying something. It wasn’t easy to leave him speechless. Even for a few seconds. The guy had the quickest wit of anyone James had ever known. The only one that came close, was Jenny.
“Does anybody know what language this guy speaks? I can’t seem to help but speak over his head. I don’t think I can dumb it down enough.” When he finally turned back to Greg it was to say, “You really are stupid. What I was saying, is that I’m not a racist pig.” Zane sounded like he was starting to get tired of the conversation.
“I’m not racist.” Greg said, really sounding clueless.
“Greg, what planet are you from, anyway?” Tyler asked, sounding awe struck. “Even you should realize how racist you sound.”
“I’m not racist,” he snarled back, sounding like an offended Chihuahua.
“Really? Why don’t you look up the definition for the word in the dictionary? Of course, reading might be a problem for you.” Zane was unable to stop himself from smirking at the guy, and this just started James and Chris laughing all over again. “I’m starting to suspect you didn’t read a newspaper about Tyler, but maybe you heard it on the live news. It probably interrupted your TV binge watching.”
“You can’t talk to me that way. You’re a public servant. I have rights.”
“Do you see a uniform?” Zane said, waving his hand in front of his old high school football t-shirt and turning his back on him. “I’m done talking to you anyway. It’s giving me a headache.” Zane looked at Joe. “I’m guessing he’s the reason you called.”
Oh, Baby! (The Townsends Book 2) Page 8
