She blinked back tears because no one had done that for her in this town. Abby nodded Jan’s way. “I’m doing well, Jan. Though I am having some trouble with the management of this establishment. Thank you for asking.”
She looked back at the grocery store owner with a little more strength than she’d had before. She’d come too far to walk out defeated now.
“Are you telling me I cannot buy a box of feminine necessaries in your store?”
Gunderson sighed. “You know I can’t sell it to you.”
“You’re the only grocery store in town, Mr. Gunderson,” she pointed out. “Where am I supposed to go?”
He stammered as he realized there were a whole lot of young female eyes watching him. “Well, there’s always Tyler.”
“You expect her to drive to Tyler for a box of tampons?” Jan asked flatly.
She looked back, noting a slightly unholy gleam in the eyes of many of the women there. It was as though the entire crowd sensed the distress of the man and was waiting eagerly to pounce.
“Obviously the man has never had a period,” said a young brunette with a baby strapped to her chest. She shook her head indignantly. “Is she supposed to hold it until she can get there? Because it doesn’t work like that.”
“Now, this is certainly not a fit conversation for mixed company.” Gunderson’s eyes darted around, seeking out the first man he could find.
He wouldn’t get any help from Sam. Sam looked like he was having a grand old time. He stepped back with the women. “If he can refuse to sell poor Abby Moore her much-needed tampons, what’s next, ladies? He’s a man on a mission to oppress the women of Willow Fork.”
“That is completely untrue.” The round man seemed to sense his Monday afternoon shoppers were about to turn into an unruly mob.
“We should protest,” someone from the back said. “We could get signs and everything.”
Jan Echols smiled. “I think, perhaps, tomorrow Mr. Gunderson might discover his store window covered in maxi pads. They stick, you know. We could line the whole storefront with them. Don’t think of it as vandalism, sir. Think of it as artistic outrage.”
“That’ll be five dollars and ninety cents.” Gunderson looked down at his cash register.
Reaching into her purse, she pulled out a ten. She took her change and held the small bag in her hand.
When she turned, the female mob burst into applause.
“About time someone stood up to that old prude,” she heard another lady in the crowd mutter.
“He won’t even carry hair color,” another said bitterly. “He says it’s for loose women.”
“Maybe a protest is still called for.” Jan stared at the very nervous grocery store owner.
“Maybe a new store is called for,” Sam offered cheerfully. “I’ve been looking to invest.” He took her by the hand and started to lead her away. “Baby, I take it all back. This is so much more fun than letting Jack scare the shit out of people. Let’s go up and down Main Street buying stuff you don’t need.”
As she let Sam lead her triumphantly out of the store, she noticed the stock boy watching her. Their eyes met, and he held a single hand up to wave good-bye. The lovelorn look on his face was enough to make her giggle. It really had been worth the trouble.
The nicest salon in town was across the street.
She decided she needed conditioner.
* * * *
The stories of Abigail Moore’s conquest of Main Street reached Ruby Echols very quickly. She’d been taking tea in her sitting room when the phone was brought to her. Helen Talbot had been in the Winchester Salon when Abby had threatened a multitude of lawsuits if she was not offered the ability to purchase hair products. What was the world coming to when decent storeowners were not allowed to select their clientele?
She wanted to shake with rage as she thought about the night before. It had taken a lot out of her to start that fire. It wasn’t as if the trashy trailer had put up much of a fight, but she had been obliged to walk through the woods in order to conceal her vehicle. A window had been conveniently left open, and some filmy curtains had been easy to set aflame.
It had been satisfying to stand back and watch it burn. Her only real disappointment was that Abby hadn’t been caught in the trailer. She should have known the tramp would have the devil’s own luck.
No, her work had been righteous and good, but ruined. It had been the sight of Adam taking care of the bitch that had infuriated her. Adam had walked up the lane and taken charge, as she had always known he would. Adam was the smart, confident one. He was a leader. He was everything she had dreamed he would become. His body was a man’s body now. He wasn’t a boy anymore.
But he still needed a mother’s protection. He was still in that siren’s clutches, and it was up to his mother to make sure things turned out differently this time.
She had another chance. She wasn’t going to let the same thing happen twice.
Ruby’s head began to pound. Oh, she wondered, where was that youngest boy of hers? He was supposed to bring her those pills. She hadn’t taken them already, had she?
Sometimes things were very confusing.
She gathered the cashmere cardigan around her shoulders. The door chimes rang, and she heard the housekeeper hustling to the door. She sat carefully on the antique sofa as Hillary Glass, Helen Talbot, and Miranda Knight were shown into the sitting room.
“Oh, Ruby, we heard all about it,” Miranda fretted as she moved to greet her.
“Did you hear the news that the tramp’s trailer burned down?” Hillary settled herself on the early-American armchair Ruby’s great-grandmother had brought with her when the family moved from Atlanta after the War of Northern Aggression.
“Yes,” she murmured. “I heard about it this morning. It doesn’t surprise me. I’m sure someone was drunk at the time. I doubt that her mother had insurance. Are they at a shelter?”
It suited her to think of those trashy women as homeless.
“No.” Helen shook her overly round head. Ruby had always thought Helen should lose some weight, but then again, her bloodlines were impeccable. One had to overlook such things at times. Now Helen’s large hands fluttered. “The rumor is she’s moved in with Jack Barnes and they’re getting married on Thursday. Barnes called the judge this morning and got the paperwork going. Can you imagine it? Abigail Moore is going to marry the largest landholder in the county.”
She flushed, her hands threatening to shake. “No, she is not.”
Helen shook her head. “I don’t know that you can stop this, Ruby. That Barnes fellow is quite intimidating. My son has done business with him. He says the man is tough but fair. However, when he’s crossed, he can be ruthless.”
“If he’s decided he wants Abigail Moore, then he’ll have her,” Miranda pronounced.
A plan formed in Ruby’s brain. She would drive Abigail out of town once and for all, and then Adam could come home. “Then we’ll have to convince Abby to leave him, won’t we? I do believe I would like to get a cup of coffee at the café in town. I think Abigail will more than likely show up there, don’t you?”
Three hours later, Ruby smiled as a shaken Abigail Moore walked out of the café. It had been relatively simple to corner the girl. Miranda had waylaid the young man escorting Abigail around with tales of car trouble. The handsome blond man had been more than willing to help out a little old lady. Abigail had been flush with her own success. She had accepted Ruby’s invitation to talk with a look of challenge in her eyes.
Abigail wasn’t so arrogant now.
She had shown the tramp what real power was. Ruby had laid out a detailed plan of how she and her friends intended to destroy Jack Barnes and his business. When they were through, his business would be in ruins. Any money Abby thought she would take from the smitten man wouldn’t be worth the trouble Ruby would put them all through.
She’d made it very clear that if Abby Moore didn’t leave town by the end of the day, she woul
d make Barnes’s life a living hell.
She had no delusions that Abby loved her fiancé. A gold digger like Abigail Moore wasn’t capable of love. She was a practical girl, however. She had learned her lesson the first time. She would move on and find easier prey.
Ruby sipped at the coffee. It wasn’t up to her standards, but it tasted like victory nonetheless.
Chapter Fourteen
Jack rode in from the south field with a mounting sense of anticipation. He gently prodded Ranger, his solid-brown gelding, and the horse moved easily toward the barn. It had been a long day. The south fence had several places he and Juan had been forced to replace entirely. It was hard work, but it was best to get it all done now while the weather was nice. The weather could be very unpredictable this time of year. It could get cold fast, and he didn’t want to be pounding fence posts in freezing temperatures.
Tipping his Stetson as he passed one of the wives of his ranch hands, he contemplated his current happiness. During his lunch break, he’d made arrangements for his marriage. The thought that he would soon have an honest-to-god wife made him smile. He’d always thought Sam would be the one to fall in love and Jack would allow him to have the legally recognized relationship. Loving Abigail changed everything, and he thought it would be for the better. He hoped Sam wasn’t disappointed, but Jack wasn’t letting their wife have any name but his.
And she would be taking his name, he promised himself.
She’d kept her maiden name when she married her first husband because she wanted to share her daughter’s last name, but Lexi was a grown woman. That argument would never have worked with him. He would have insisted on adopting Lexi and changing her name as well. He was a possessive man. He’d long ago stopped fighting it. He didn’t get close to many people in the world, but the few he did, he considered his. Sam was his. Abby was his. He knew it was a weird relationship, but he didn’t care.
Jack dismounted and walked the gelding inside the barn.
He could still remember the day he met Sam like it was yesterday. Sam Fleetwood had looked terrified. Everything the boy owned was in one suitcase and a backpack. Jack remembered thinking it was more than he’d ever had. He’d been jealous of the kid. Sam looked all wide-eyed and innocent. He had an easy charm, even through his grief. A charm Jack had never known once in his life.
Jack had been sure that Fred Hall, the biggest bully in the group, intended to initiate young Sam that first evening. After lights out, it was pretty much a free-for-all as long as it was quiet. The monitor slept pretty soundly and didn’t really care what went on. Fred had tried that shit with him, but Jack was bigger than Fred and had easily handed him his ass. Jack had been vulnerable as a child, but once he’d gotten big enough to scare off people, he hadn’t been vulnerable again.
He wasn’t sure what made him get out of bed that night. It would have been easier to ignore it and continue the way he always had. Even at fifteen he’d been sure of himself. He knew he didn’t give a shit about anyone. It didn’t pay to care because people always let him down. The only foster parents who’d been kind to him had either died, like the elderly lady who’d called him son and made him dinner each night, or had sadly explained they couldn’t keep him anymore. There were more people, of course, but they had other reasons beyond simple kindness for letting him into their home. He could almost forgive the ones who had beaten the crap out of him. He’d been a difficult kid. He’d certainly heard it enough. He couldn’t forgive the two who had gone further than that. So his fifteen-year-old self had decided to just never care about anyone. That way he never had to be disappointed, and he never had to share his shame.
He’d lain in bed, knowing damn well that the new kid was going to get the crap kicked out of him. It happened all the time. The kid should get used to it. It wasn’t Jack’s place in the world to protect anyone. He didn’t let anyone in, and then no one could hurt him. That had been his mantra.
It hadn’t held up.
As he heard Fred walking past him, he’d gotten out of bed and followed him. When he’d attempted to assault Sam, he stopped it. He’d beaten the shit out of Fred, and the next morning everyone deferred to him. Jack found he liked being in charge. It gave him a sense of control and he desperately needed it.
That morning, while he ate his breakfast in customary silence, Sam sat down in front of him.
“What should we do today?” Sam asked.
No one had ever asked him that. He and Sam rarely spent time apart since.
At first, Sam Fleetwood had clung to him like a life raft, and he couldn’t shake the kid. Later, Jack acknowledged, he didn’t want to get rid of Sam. Sam was the one who convinced him to give sex another try. The woman who lived across from the group home had paid the boys to mow her lawn, and when she invited both Jack and Sam to her bed, Sam had convinced Jack they should take her up on it. It was the first hint Jack had that, maybe, he wasn’t as damaged as he thought he was. He still had fond memories of Ms. Jackson. She was kind to them both, patiently teaching them what pleased a woman.
Years later, after they’d started the ranch, he had anonymously paid off the mortgage on her small house. He was a man who believed in paying his debts.
Jack forced himself to take care of his horse. He slowed down and told himself to be patient. Abby and Sam were home and waiting for him. The Benz was in the drive. He would join them for dinner, and Abigail would talk about her day. He loved listening to her talk. She was bright and funny and could make the simplest events seem interesting.
Did that woman have any idea how under her spell he was?
“Jack!”
He put down the brush he was using and walked to the front of the barn. Sam was running across the yard from the big house, a panicked expression on his face.
Something had happened to Abigail. There was no other reason for the look on Sam’s face. Anxiety crushed against his chest.
“What happened?” He had no idea what he would do if she was gone. Had someone hurt her?
“She’s leaving.” Sam was breathless. “I don’t know what happened. We were fine, and then she was quiet for a long time, and when we got back to the house, she said she was leaving.”
“She’s leaving?” The words felt foreign to him. “She’s not hurt. She’s just leaving?”
Sam nodded, and there was a dullness in his eyes. He couldn’t quite meet Jack’s gaze. “She says she doesn’t want to live like this. She says she’d be ashamed to tell her daughter she was with us.”
It was in that moment that Jack realized once and forever that the damage done to him as a child hadn’t broken him. What happened had been awful, but it hadn’t robbed him of his soul or his reaction to Abigail leaving would have been different. In his heart, he wondered if love wasn’t really a selfish thing. Somewhere deep down he’d told himself that if Sam left for some reason, he would cut the man out of his heart and move on. Even while falling for Abigail he had told himself the same thing. If she left, he would shrug and move on. He might hurt for a while, but he’d build his wall again, stronger than ever before.
He should be marching up to the house and showing her the door. He should be righteously pissed that she’d put that look of shame on Sam’s face. If she wanted to go, he’d kick her ass out. She’d never really loved them in the first place.
That should have been his reaction. His heart should be hardening, but it just softened further when he realized his love was far from a selfish thing, and if she walked out, he’d miss her for the rest of his life.
Something had happened. Abigail loved him. She loved them both. He was as sure of it as he was his next breath. He knew her deep to her soul, and he knew she wouldn’t leave without a reason.
She wasn’t ashamed of them. She was afraid.
So he buried any anger or fear he had because one of them had to be reasonable. One of them had to be strong and unwavering. That’s what it meant to be married. They hadn’t signed the paperwork, but it was time for hi
m to be a husband to her.
Jack placed his hand securely behind Sam’s neck and gave it a comforting squeeze. “She’s not going anywhere, Sam.”
* * * *
Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. She couldn’t walk away. It was too far and now that she thought about it, where exactly was she planning on going?
Sam hadn’t been an idiot. He’d taken the damn keys with him, and she had no choice but to sit here and wait for Jack. If she thought lying to Sam was hard, she couldn’t imagine having to do it to Jack.
But she had to. She had to lie and she had to make him believe.
She had to make him hate her.
She wouldn’t be the one who brought them down. She loved them too much to cause them the kind of trouble Ruby Echols intended. It seemed that loving Adam when she was just a kid was going to cost her everything again, and this time she wasn’t sure she could put the pieces together. She would be able to move through her days, but there wouldn’t be any joy to them. She would spend every minute thinking of two cowboys and how happy she would have been.
The back door opened, and her whole body tensed for the coming battle. This would be an awful scene. Jack was going to be furious. He would say horrible things, and she would say horrible things right back. She had to. She had to break this relationship in a way that rendered it irretrievable.
Jack would still have Sam. She would be the one who was alone.
“Abigail.” Jack’s deep voice was calm, soothing almost.
That deep voice of his would haunt her forever.
She took a long breath and turned to face him, her face schooled carefully into a polite mask. “I’m sorry Sam felt the need to bother you. Look, here’s the deal. It’s been fun, but I have an offer to work in Austin. It’s exactly what I want.”
Let him think work was more important than them. She waited for Jack’s eyes to narrow. He would order her to stay, and she would tell him she couldn’t stand his arrogant, overbearing ways another minute.
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