“What is going on, Ryder? Why are you here?”
“I… I’m sorry to bother you at work, Buttercup. I know Jake wouldn’t like this—”
“Spit it out, Ryder. Why are you here?”
He looked at me, his light blue eyes apologetic. “I… I wanted—” he stopped, shuffling the toe of his black leather boot. Looked up at the sky. Cleared his throat. Finally, he stopped fidgeting, his eyes locked on mine. His voice strong and clear, he announced, “I came to ask you a question.”
My stomach dropped. What could the brother of my ex possibly need to come to my work to ask me? I could no longer overlook the fact that I had caught him driving by—several times. My face went hot, and a panicked feeling washed over me. I never should have kept this a secret from Jake, the time I saw Ryder at the Five and Dime, telling Ryder exactly where he could find me on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The suspicious drive-bys by the blue car that followed that day. I should have told Jake that Ryder was hanging around—I should have told him everything—a long time ago.
Willing my nerves to calm, I took a deep breath. I needed to say what I should have said before—even if I caused hurt feelings.
“Ryder. You probably shouldn’t be here.” There. I said it. The world was still revolving. Ryder was still standing. I was still standing. I had finally done the right thing by Jake.
The whispered words, “I know.” Ryder’s eyes dropped from mine. Did I detect a blush on his cheeks? My mind fought with my emotions. Yes, he had been acting inappropriately, practically following me around town, but the look on his face was anything but intimidating or scary. He was the one who looked downright scared.
“I just wanted to ask one question. Then I will go away and leave you alone—”
There was a loud slam of a car door. Ryder froze, his sentence trailing off. His eyes snapped to the parking lot behind us.
A loud, rumbling voice shouted, “Hey, you!” Behind me, a long, low whistle from Tex.
Jake.
I had forgotten that Jake and I had gone out to breakfast at the Grill that morning, he dropping me off for my shift and planning to pick me up this afternoon. Had I remembered sooner, I would have immediately told Ryder to hightail it out of there as soon as his car had pulled into the lot.
“Hey, you!” Jake shouted again. He was taking long, angry strides towards us. I looked over Ryder’s shoulder, watching my husband approach.
Ryder’s pale face blanched. He turned to face Jake, his back to me. I hurried around him, standing between him and Jake. I looked at Ryder. He held his hands up in the air in a ‘surrender’ type gesture. His mouth hung open as if to protest but no words came out.
Then, I turned back to Jake. Jake stopped two feet from me. My hand was held out as if to stop him from coming closer.
“What the hell are you doing here, man? At her work?” Jake’s hands went to his hips. “Buttercup—what is he doing here? Has he been bothering you?” Jake’s brown, livid eyes flashed at me, demanding an honest answer.
I looked to Ryder. A pink blush rose onto Ryder’s cheeks. He did not answer my husband. I looked back to Jake. Before I could answer, Jake took a threatening step towards Ryder. “Answer me, man. Why are you here at Buttercup’s work?”
“Jake—” I began but his flashing eyes did not move from Ryder’s face.
“Buttercup, it’s okay.” Ryder put a hand on my shoulder to move me out from in front of him.
“Don’t touch her,” Jake growled from in between his teeth.
I moved to Jake’s side, wrapping an arm around his waist. “It’s okay, Jake. I promise.” Jake looked down at me, his eyes still angry. He wrapped his arm tightly around my shoulders.
“I just came to ask Buttercup a question. I should have probably just picked up the phone, but I couldn’t get up the nerve. And then I never could muster the courage to come here and ask her, but today, I finally thought, ‘what the heck’.”
Dropping his arm from my shoulders, Jake moved within inches of Ryder’s flushed face. “What question could you possibly have for my wife?” he asked between clenched teeth.
Stepping backwards, Ryder ran his hand through his hair, his face further reddening. His eyes flashed to mine pleading with me for forgiveness.
I had no idea what to do.
Tex casually made his way over to us, stopping a few feet short of Ryder. He stood behind Ryder, out of the way, but close enough to intervene if necessary. My eyes shot to his with gratitude. Tex would help settle things down if they got out of control. I had seen him in a lot of high pressure situations, and he had a gift of dispelling the tension and bringing calmness.
Ryder began his choppy sentence. “I’m here to ask her about…” his mumbled words trailed off. His face looked pained at trying to finish his thought.
“Speak up. You’ve been sniffing around our town and my wife for far too long. Its time you come clean with your intentions or I’ll run you right out of Poke. Just like I did your brother.” Jake’s voice was low, dangerous and sent shivers down my spine.
A few other people started to gather around the doors of the building, looking at the three of us curiously. A little blonde peeked over the shoulder of the person in front of her. When our eyes locked, Cherry read the worried look on my face.
Cherry pushed her way past the other men who were blocking the door of the building, saying clearly, “’Scuse me, fellas.” Stomping her way over to us, she stood next to Tex, hands on her full hips. “Now, what seems to be the problem, Buttercup?”
At the sound of Cherry’s voice, Ryder lost all interest in Jake. Turning around to face Cherry and Tex, his gaze rested on Cherry. The flush left his face and a small grin played at his lips. The worry dropped from his features and a momentary beam of sunlight shone through his eyes. A broad smile spread across his handsome face.
“Hello, Cherry,” he said, speaking clearly for the first time that afternoon.
As Cherry looked over the tall stranger who stood before her, her own eyes lit up with that same sunshiny look, her face brightening. “Um… Ryder… is that you? Pre-med Ryder from Anatomy class? Well, I’ll be. How are you doing?” Her face stretched into a wide smile, her cheeks pinkening.
“I’m well.” Gesturing over his shoulder towards the south end of town, he said, “I finally made it to my residency. I’m over at the hospital in Clinton.”
Jake’s brow knitted in confusion. He gave Ryder a wary look, but stepped back, joining me. His arm twined around my shoulders, but not so tightly this time.
Ryder shot a grateful look at Jake, then took a timid step in Cherry’s direction.
All the usual sass dropped from Cherry’s voice as she spoke softly. “Doctor Ryder. That has a nice ring to it. Congratulations.” She shyly looked up at Ryder through her dark lashes. Her hands clasped before her nervously. I had never seen Cherry looking anything other than confident and take charge around men. Laughing away their interest in her or bowling them over with her sticky sweet charm. This was different. She wasn’t even trying to flirt. She looked… flustered.
Jake interrupted their conversation. “That still doesn’t clear up the matter of what the heck you are doing here in Poke town, miles from Clinton, on a Tuesday afternoon during Buttercup’s shift, no less.”
Cherry looked at Ryder, her face a mask of concern and nerves—and something else I couldn’t quite read. I looked from Jake’s angry face, to Ryder’s now fully humiliated one.
His eyes roved past Jake and landed back on Cherry’s baby blues. Answering my husband’s question, he was speaking directly to Cherry. “Buttercup’s not the only one who works on Tuesday afternoons.”
Silence fell over the five of us for a moment. Tex, stifling a laugh, looked down at the ground and scratched his head. Cherry’s eyes never left Ryder’s. Ryder continued.
“Cherry, I’ve been coming by on my day off—which happened to be scheduled on Tuesdays— and driving right past this building. Every time I tried to g
ather my courage, and every time I failed. Today, of all days, I finally got up the nerve to come here to ask your friend Buttercup,” my eyes darted to Jake’s as my name left Ryder’s mouth—there were storm clouds gathering there but I could breathe again—Jake was hearing Ryder out, “if she would ask you, if… if you remembered Ryder from Anatomy class at State.”
An awkward silence fell over us as Ryder, pink faced, looked to Cherry. Covering a chuckle with his hand, Tex retreated to the building, most likely to gossip with the guys. They were worse than ninth grade girls when it came to their whispered speculations.
Jake processing what had happened had a grin tugging at the corners of his full lips. I held in my sigh of relief—I liked Ryder enough to want to hear Cherry’s answer. If she turned this boy down—after he humiliated himself by driving by like a stalker, then literally put his life on the line with my husband— I was going to feel terrible.
Cherry’s eyes sparkled as she crossed her arms over her chest, cocking a hip out as she did, her confident nature returning to her.
“I do remember you, Ryder from Anatomy class at State. But why did you come all the way out to our tiny town of Poke just to ask Buttercup if I remembered you?”
It hit me, almost knocking the wind from me. This was the man Cherry would not say the name of. This was the one from college she had never forgotten about. The one in her anatomy class.
Ryder shuffled the dirt with the toe of his shoe. “I… I never got up the courage to ask you out at school. And I never forgave myself for it. I remember you telling our professor you were giving up nursing school and going home to Poke Town. To be an EMT. I graduated and started my residency at Clinton, but never got the little blonde from Anatomy class out of my mind. I knew Clinton wasn’t far from Poke, but I didn’t realize how close it was until I was cruising around on my day off and bumped into Buttercup. She invited me to her wedding. And told me she was loving Poke, volunteering as an EMT, and was making friends. Including a brand-new girl, she had just met at her first responder course, one named, Cherry.”
For the first time since I had met Cherry, she was rendered speechless. A pretty pink blush came to her cheeks.
Ryder took another step towards Cherry, still leaving a chaste distance between them. Jake and I looked on from the sidelines, the tension in Jake’s body melting away as he relaxed next to me. “Cherry, would you do me the honor of reacquainting ourselves over a cup of coffee?” Hope wrote itself clearly over his face as he awaited her response.
Arms still crossed over her chest, she wrinkled up her cute little nose. “Now, that’s going to be a problem, Doctor.”
Ryder’s face fell.
“I despise coffee.”
Ryder’s brow knitted in momentary confusion. Slowly, the smile returned to his handsome face.
Putting his hands on his hips, he gave a relieved laugh as he said, “Well, now. We can’t have that, Miss Cherry. What do you like?”
Her blue eyes sparkling, she announced confidently, “I like cupcakes. Jake brought some here for Buttercup and she shared them with me. They were the best I’ve ever had, and I declare my mouth has been watering for more ever since that day. I especially would like to try the Double Dutch Chocolate, which Jake here,” she gestured at my husband, teasingly, “whipped right out from under my nose and gave to Buttercup.”
I stifled a laugh.
“Cupcakes it is.” Ryder’s face beamed. “What time are you off?”
“In about fifteen minutes. I just have a few things I need to wrap up in there.” She gestured to the building behind us. As all our eyes cut over to the door, eavesdropping guys scurried hurriedly, suddenly busy.
Ryder’s face was positively beaming. “Well, I guess I will see you then.”
With a nod to Ryder, a wink to me, and a cheery, “Buh-bye!” Cherry bounced off in the direction of the building. Back to her old self, as she passed the few remaining rubberneckers, she sassed, “Get back to work you lot. Nothing to see here.”
When Cherry was out of earshot, Jake punched Ryder good naturally in the shoulder. “Why didn’t you say something earlier, man?”
Still staring at the door Cherry had just disappeared behind, Ryder grinned, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “I couldn’t. She just gets me all… tongue tied. I watched her every day during class, I almost failed Anatomy because of it. I never thought she would say yes—but I couldn’t handle hearing no. So, I thought I’d ask Buttercup to feel it out first to see if Cherry even remembered me. Today with the sun shining and this beautiful day I finally felt brave enough to pull the trigger.”
“And then I showed up,” Jake said.
“Yeah. But I owe you both an apology. I had no business acting like a stalker, driving by like that. Especially after what Buttercup went through with... you know… with my brother—I should have just manned up and asked Cherry out myself. Can you two forgive me for causing you stress?”
I answered quickly, “Of course, we do. All’s well that ends well,” I said, wrapping my arms around Jake’s torso.
Jake reached out his hand to shake Ryder’s. “I guess we’ll be seeing more of you now.”
Ryder shook Jake’s hand, his face sincere. “I wanted to apologize to you, Jake, on behalf of my family. I haven’t spoken to Thomas since last year. He had no business out here, coming after Buttercup.”
“I appreciate you saying that. I can imagine its difficult when it’s your own flesh and blood.”
“There is a heck of a lot more differences between me and Thomas than just our hair color. I’m sure Buttercup’s told you that. Hopefully, I’ll be around enough for you to get to know me well enough to realize that.”
Jake gave a nod. I reached out, hugging Ryder, hard. I was so glad it was as I had thought—Ryder was always the good guy I had known. And now, Cherry could get to know him too.
“Well, looks like I’ll be back in a bit. I’ve got just enough time to stop by the florist before I get Cherry. Y’all have a good day now. And thanks again for understanding, Jake.” Ryder turned with a wave and a smile, heading towards his little, blue car.
Once Ryder had sped away, giving a final wave over his shoulder, I turned to Jake. “I was surprised you believed him. How do you know it wasn’t a cover up to kidnap me, huh? He seems like a really dangerous character. How’d you let him get off so easy?” I teased, jabbing his ribs playfully.
Jake’s features settled into a serene look. His brown eyes locked on mine. When he spoke, his voice was thick with emotion. “I saw the look on his face when Cherry walked out.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s the same exact look I feel on my face every time you come into view. That’s how I knew he was sincere.”
“Oh,” I blushed. I was very familiar with the look he spoke of. It melted me to the core and made me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.
“I just… felt bad for Ryder after that. It brought back all those memories of the feelings I had after I met you at your brother’s wedding. Wanting you but knowing the timing wasn’t right. When he asked Cherry out, I have to admit, I had my fingers crossed for him. I was pulling for the guy.” Jake laughed shaking his head. “When Ryder first told me, he had a question he had to ask you—before Cherry came out—I thought that man was sweet on you. Was going to ask if you’d have gone with him if things had been different. I tell you what, I was seeing red. I’m glad Cherry came out when she did.” Wrapping his arms around me, he looked down at me with ‘that look’ we had just spoken of, shining in his eyes. “I should cut the men of Poke some slack—there would be something wrong with them if they weren’t sweet on you. You’re perfect.”
“If I’m perfect than why are you always spanking my butt?” I teased.
“Perfectly naughty,” he mused, leaning down and nibbling on my ear.
Feeling eyes upon us, I untangled Jake from me. “Let me go and grab my stuff. And say bye to Cherry.”
“More lik
e give Cherry the Spanish inquisition,” he said, poking the ticklish spot of my ribs. “I’ll drop you off at home but then I have to run down to Mr. Cooper’s ranch and check on a project for him. Our last game was last week, so I’ll be home tonight. I’ll cook us something.”
“Great,” I said, not really listening. Not only had the appearance of Ryder left me shaken, my mind was on other things. “Sounds great.”
“Okay. Now, I have a question for you.” His eyes narrowed, his hands remained clenched around my bottom.
My stomach dropped. All thoughts of tonight dropped from my mind.
“Did you know Ryder had been coming around here? He mentioned driving by on Tuesdays.”
“Kind of.”
His fingertips dug harder into my flesh, sending me up on tiptoe. “It’s a simple question, Buttercup. Deserves a simple answer. Yes, or no? Did you know Ryder had been coming around here?”
I couldn’t meet his eyes. “Y... Yes.”
“And you decided not to tell me?”
“I knew he was harmless—you saw that for yourself, today.”
“Yes or no.”
“Yes, I guess—”
“And what does that earn you, little girl?”
“Oh, boy.”
“That’s right. We will take care of it when I get home tonight. Now go get your stuff, and your gossip.”
With a kiss to my forehead, Jake was off to his truck.
I stood in the parking lot, my mouth hanging open, watching my husband walk off, whistling and getting into his truck. My breath caught in my throat.
I was in so much trouble.
Chapter 5
Jake
Returning from Mr. Cooper’s ranch, I found the house empty. Guessing Buttercup was running an errand—or stalling her paddling session with me—I figured I had some time to work on my wedding gift for her.
I finally knew what I would paint for my wife. Her. Not just her body, but a painting of her body. Her torso, her breasts. The gold and teal paints swirling over the rise of her peaked nipple. She was beautiful. And I would capture that beauty on canvas.
Mastering Her Will (Dirty Texas Love Book 2) Page 10
