Heather's Challenge [Cattleman's Club 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Jenny Penn

  Alex snorted at that, exchanging his empty glass for the full one the server offered him. He sent the man away with a wave before responding to Konor. “Just wait until she cheats on you, and then we’ll see how long you actually do wallow.”

  “Not going to happen,” Konor stated with absolute certainty. “I plan on keeping the woman happy and busy. She won’t have the time to stray.”

  “There is always time,” Alex assured him morosely.

  “Okay? Then how about the fact that I trust her not to do anything or anybody else?” Konor offered and just as he expected, Alex dismissed that suggestion without pause.

  “Then I’d say you’re an idiot.”

  “And then I’d point out that Heather’s not eighteen anymore, and it wasn’t like you were sleeping with her back then anyway, were you?” Konor took Alex’s stubborn silence as a ‘no’.

  That just went to prove how deep his feelings must have been because Alex and Heather had gone out for a few weeks. That was longer than any other relationship Alex had ever had. Not that he had any other relationships.

  “And I believe, if I am correct, that you didn’t exactly sit around and mourn the breakup either,” Konor reminded him. “Or do I need to remind you of Paula Founder and the fun you and Nick had with her?”

  That brought a smile to Alex’s face that didn’t last long as he cast an irritated look in Konor’s direction. “I wasn’t under any obligation to be faithful when Heather had already given up the garden to Hugh.”

  “So…you’re just mad that she rebounded first?” Konor reasoned out much to Alex’s annoyance.

  “No. This isn’t just a matter of timing. It’s a matter of taste. Paula…” Alex hesitated, clearly unable to say that she was in good taste. Instead he stared down into drink and grumbled over it. “Well, at least, I didn’t get her pregnant.”

  “So that’s what this is about? It’s about the boy?” Konor frowned, alarmed at the direction the conversation was taking.

  If Alex resented Heather’s son, then there really was no hope for the future because he couldn’t ask her to make that choice. They all knew what her decision would be anyway. Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to make it. Konor released his breath as Alex shook his head.

  “No. The kid’s not the problem. I’m the problem,” Alex admitted with enough pity to make Konor roll his eyes. “You know, I had my chance and…I didn’t take it. And I mean I had it.”

  Alex shot Konor a very pointed look as he stressed that last point, repeating it with more than enough suggestiveness to assure Konor of his meaning. “I mean, it! Heather wanted more. She was pushing for more and I…”

  “You said no,” Konor filled in when Alex hesitated. “Because you were being a noble son of a bitch and she meant something to you.”

  “Or maybe she didn’t mean anything at all.” Alex’s tone lifted optimistically, but it was a false cheer that didn’t even reach his eyes. The difference left his words sounding hollow and desperate. “That’s certainly what I told her when she asked me why I’d made the bet.”

  “You told her that she didn’t mean anything to you,” Konor repeated, wanting to make sure he got that right.

  “Yep.” Alex nodded, but Konor could sense there was more.

  “And?”

  “And…that it was hard enough to hold my breath long enough just to kiss her, which is why she never had to worry that I would have taken anything else she offered.”

  “Oh, God,” Konor groaned. This was bad. Very bad, and getting worse by the moment.

  “I might have also said that I preferred women with less to hold on to, and who knew how to get a better grip.”

  “You really are a bastard.”

  “Well, I certainly was one that day,” Alex agreed without any hint of regret. “But Heather wasn’t being particularly pleasant either. She said some very hurtful things.”

  “Like she’s been doing Hugh?”

  Again Alex paused long enough for Konor to sense the guilt weighing on his friend. “No. That might have come a day or so after.”

  “So she didn’t cheat.”

  Heather hadn’t lied. Alex had. Konor was completely screwed.

  “She wasn’t supposed to go out and sleep with some other guy,” Alex insisted. “She could have forgiven me, and we’d have made up.”

  “You could have forgiven her and tried to make up,” Konor shot back with a complete lack of sympathy, not that Alex was asking for any. Neither apparently was Heather.

  “She never asked for forgiveness.”

  “Did you?”

  “I didn’t need it.” Straightening up indignantly in his seat, Alex sounded as stubborn as he looked. Konor knew that tone. This was bad.

  Very bad.

  Chapter 10

  Saturday, May 3rd

  Heather didn’t get any sleep at all thanks to Konor. Between her body’s frustrated desires and her mind’s plethora of paranoid worries, she’d spent the entire night tossing and turning until she came to a decision that she knew would probably haunt her. There just wasn’t any help for it. Heather did the one thing she’d sworn never to do—she called in Patton Jones.

  Patton was nice enough and her heart was always, undoubtedly, in the right place, but she still had to be Lucifer’s number one recruiter. Whether she meant to or not, Patton had a reputation for leading people into temptation. She also happened to be sleeping with the founding brothers of the Cattleman’s Club, which meant if anybody knew if something was going on, it was Patton.

  And something was definitely going on. Heather glanced around the packed bakery and then at the clock. It was ten. They were normally empty right about then, caught between the breakfast crowd and the lunch crowd. Not today, though.

  That was going to throw them all off schedule, Heather thought sourly as she forced herself to smile as yet another couple of men strolled in. This was getting ridiculous, and Heather knew who to blame—Konor. She just knew he had something to do with all the men watching her.

  They made her feel like some kind of cat strolling through a pack of dogs. While the tips might have been phenomenal, the stress was starting to get to her. Heather couldn’t have been more thankful when Patton finally showed up and took some of the attention off of her. In fact, she took almost all of it, which was typical of Patton.

  With her rich, thick auburn locks and her dazzling violet eyes, not to mention a walk that that made men sweat, there were rumors Patton had actually done some lingerie modeling, and Heather saw no reason to doubt them. Neither did Heather envy Patton her looks or the attention they earned her. The past day alone had proved just how annoying being the focus of so many men could be.

  Of course, Patton had been putting up with it her whole life and barely seemed to notice the stares that she drew. Instead, she headed right for where Heather was refilling mugs along the bar’s counter. Heather nodded toward the back, redirecting Patton toward the kitchen before asking Tina to cover the floor for a few minutes.

  That earned her a wide-eyed look from the normally-chipper assistant manager. Heather assured her she wouldn’t be long, and after all, Tina had Andy to help out. Andy might not be the brightest graduate of the local high school, but he was good at bussing tables and cleaning things up. He even managed to fill drinks and run food when necessary.

  Today it was definitely necessary, and it would only be a few minutes, Heather assured herself as she hurried off to find Patton helping herself to the cookie dough Heather had been working on in the spare seconds she’d managed to wring out that morning.

  “Stop that!” Heather snapped, shooing Patton away from the batter with an irritated scowl. “Don’t put your fingers in the bowl.”

  “Sorry.” Patton shot her a quick smile as she backed off. “It was irresistible. You do make the best cookies around.”

  “Thank you.” Heather nodded politely, uncertain now as to how to begin. It had all seemed so simple when she’d called Patton and said she ne
eded to talk to her.

  The truth was she never really had talked to Patton. They hadn’t even ever really socialized. In fact, all they had in common were a few friends, which is where Heather had gotten Patton’s number. If Patton had found it odd that Heather had it, much less used it, she didn’t let it show as she wandered back toward to the kitchen doors.

  “Yes, indeed,” Patton murmured as she peered through the plastic window imbedded in the door. “The Bread Box is well known for its coffee, its cookies, and its fried chicken, not to mention a whole bunch of other things.”

  Pausing to study the dining room beyond, she finally glanced back to catch Heather’s gaze. “But that still doesn’t explain all those men, now does it?”

  “No,” Heather agreed grimly as she began scooping the batter out in perfect ball-shaped portions and depositing them on a baking sheet already lined and prepped for the oven. The motion was like a reflex, requiring no effort of thought and allowing Heather the freedom to concentrate on Patton.

  “Not just men.” Patton smirked, turning away from the view. “Cattlemen by the looks of them. I think they’re terrifying your little waitress, too. She’s moving around like a scared rabbit.”

  Heather rolled her eyes at that. “Don’t worry about Tina. She’ll be grateful for the extra tips, and those men are exactly why I called you down here.”

  “Really?” Patton arched one perfectly-plucked brow. “Do you need me to get rid of them for you?”

  “No.” Though that didn’t sound like a bad idea. Heather was due for a break, and so was Tina. She’d handle that problem herself. She needed Patton’s help with a far more difficult task.

  “I need to know why they’re here,” Heather stressed, pausing to cast a glance over toward Howie, but the cook seemed oblivious to them. Cordoned off into his own corner of the kitchen, he probably couldn’t hear from the noise he was making as he tried to keep up with the morning’s packed house.

  Still, Heather leaned closer to Patton, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “And I was kind of hoping with your…ah, connection with the Cattleman’s Club you might…know something.”

  Heather drew out her request slowly, giving Patton ample time to speak up, but the other woman just blinked and stared innocently back at her.

  “If not, I thought, maybe, you might know something about Konor Dale.”

  “Konor Dale?” Patton’s polite smile took on a wicked curl as she all but purred. “Now there is a delicious specimen. Is he making a move?”

  “A big one.”

  “Lucky girl.” Patton sighed longingly.

  “So says the woman with three men,” Heather muttered as she went back to loading the baking sheet she’d just filled into its rack before pulling out a fresh one.

  “Pardon me?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You know there were always rumors about you two.”

  “‘You two’? You mean Konor and I?” That revelation had Heather’s hands pausing as she skipped a beat to toss Patton a shocked look. “And how would you know about any rumors? You weren’t in our class.”

  “I remember hearing Devin and Slade talk about it once…you know about you….” Patton faltered, as if she suddenly realized the ending of her memory wasn’t a good one, but that just made Heather all the more interested in hearing the rest.

  “That I…”

  “Well, you know you were a bitch for what you did to Alex.”

  “I…wh…I did what to Alex?”

  “Just that…you cheated on him,” Patton rushed out before waving her words away. “But nobody believes that. I mean, you’re one of the most…virtuous women in town.”

  “Virtuous?” This was getting worse by the second, and Heather didn’t know if she could take anymore.

  “Yeah. Virtuous, you know, meaning a woman could trust you around her husband even if you were trapped in a snowed-in cabin and had to share the same bed.”

  “Thanks…I think.”

  “Look, I’m just saying. Everybody knows you and Alex had a thing.”

  “Does everybody?”

  Because it hadn’t lasted more than a few weeks and had been thirteen years ago, but Patton seemed to know exactly what she was talking about, even if she hadn’t been around at the time. That either went to prove how small Pittsview really was or how good a rumor mill they had.

  “And everybody knows that thing ended badly.”

  “That’s the way most things end.” Heather busied herself with her cookies, now wanting to remember how things had actually ended.

  “And now his best friend, Konor Dale, is making a move?” Patton shook her head and sighed. “That’s got to make you nervous.”

  “So you don’t think I’m being paranoid?” Patton probably wasn’t the best person to ask that question of, but Heather would take validation from wherever the hell she could get it.

  “Paranoid for wondering why a man would choose a woman he hasn’t slept with—” Patton hesitated, waiting for Heather to nod her agreement with that statement before continuing. “—over a man he’s been best friends with for like ever? No. Definitely not paranoid.”

  “But you don’t know anything.”

  “No, but I haven’t been looking to know anything if you know what I mean.”

  “No.” But Heather could guess from the way Patton’s eyes were starting to sparkle. The way to hell was being paved right before Heather’s eyes. “Maybe you shouldn’t—”

  “Don’t worry,” Patton cut her off. “If anybody asks, I don’t know anything.”

  “That’s…reassuring.” Heather scowled, about ready to ask Patton if she thought they were in some kind of 1940’s spy movie when Tina popped her head into the kitchen.

  “Hey, Heather, there’s a guy here to see you.”

  “A guy?” Heather brushed past Patton as she followed Tina back out into the dining room. “As if we don’t have a room full of them. What does this one want?”

  “A job,” Konor answered for Tina, bringing Heather up to a hard stop as she glanced up to find him standing there fresh, pressed, and wearing a crisp white apron tied around his hips. “I figured you might need some extra help today, given the…uh, crowd.”

  He was serious, leaving Heather speechless. That was fine. She didn’t even know what she would have said. Fortunately she didn’t have to figure it out thanks to Tina, who took almost instant command of Konor.

  “We certainly do.” Tina latched onto Konor’s wrist and began pulling him after her. “Don’t worry about anything, boss. I’ll show the guy everything that needs to be done and you just focus on getting things prepped for lunch.”

  “If I were you I’d put myself on that list, honey, and let the motives take care of themselves.” Patton pressed in behind Heather to watch Tina drag Konor away. “That is, if you can pry him free of your waitress.”

  “Yeah.” It was easy to agree to that sentiment but, unfortunately, she was stuck on Konor’s wait-list, not his to-do list. “But I got twenty-three days to spare, so I might as well use the time wisely.”

  “Twenty-three days till…”

  “Until Taylor gets out of school and heads off to Florida to visit his grandmother,” Heather filled in, not about to explain what else was supposed to happen, not that she needed to.

  “Oh, yeah.” Patton nodded. “Like I was saying—virtuous. You’re the virtuous one-weeker.”

  “The one-what?” Heather turned away from the sight of Konor moving amongst the tables as he began refilling drink orders.

  “The one-weeker,” Patton repeated with a smirk and a waggle of her eyebrows. “You know, you only have fun one week a year.”

  “How the hell do you know that?” Heather gaped, both horrified and amazed at Patton’s matter-of-fact statement.

  “I’m sorry.” Patton’s smile faded as worry replaced the amused glimmer in her eyes. “I didn’t mean to offend you…it’s just everybody knows, you know?”

  “No, I
didn’t,” Heather snapped, feeling uncomfortable beneath the weight of such scrutiny. “And if it’s all the same to you, I’m going to continue to pretend like I still don’t.”

  “Not a problem. I am down with a denial,” Patton soothed with a sage smile that did little to comfort Heather.

  Neither did she care for the appreciative glimmer that danced in Patton’s gaze as she turned back to studying Konor. Her head tilted as she blatantly ogled his ass as Konor bent down to retrieve a fork off the floor. Heather felt the fiery rush of jealousy flush across her cheeks as the sudden urge to kick Patton nearly overwhelmed her.

  “And I’ll help you out with your problem, because I can imagine it’d be quite easy to fall in love with that,” Patton teased.

  Completely unaware of the danger, she tossed Heather a quick wink along with another oversized grin before pushing past her to head for the door. Heather watched her go, wondering if she hadn’t just made a big mistake. While Patton might have nothing but good intentions, she still led people straight to damnation.

  But what else was Heather to do? She needed answers, didn’t she?

  Heather wondered if she really did as her gaze shifted back to Konor. Patton hadn’t been wrong. It would be so easy to fall in love with the man. Already she couldn’t help but smile when he did, neither could she control the funny beat of her heart when he caught her gaze and shot her a look that assured Heather that his thoughts weren’t on whatever Tina was showing him over by the coffeemaker. In that moment, he made her feel wanted and special.

  Heather carried that good feeling with her for the rest of the day and wasn’t the least bit surprised that Konor stayed with her till closing. Neither did the fact that he had plans for the after-hours. She’d seen it coming when her father, who had brought Taylor around for bakery, had assured her there was no need to rush home for any reason.

  Her dad was clearly “team Konor” and had once again conspired with the enemy. Unfortunately, though, the enemy’s intentions were honorable, and instead of molesting her the minute she locked the door behind the last customer, Konor helped clean everything up and then took her out for a beer, burger, and fries at Riley’s.