by Erin Wright
But what was one thing that was true about almost every bully out there? They were thin-skinned megalomaniacs. They couldn’t stand having someone think that they were dumb or less than in any way, because secretly, they think they’re dumb and less than.
Adam opened up his mouth, praying that his new plan wouldn’t end up with Kylie on the floor in a heap. Please God please God please God…
Adam forced out a taunting laugh. “You think that you’re not the village idiot, huh? That’s not what I see in front of me. A smart man would’ve planned this out so much better. A smart man would’ve made sure to pick a time or a place where no one else would walk in on him. But you…you picked right here, in the middle of town on a Thursday. And you honestly thought you’d be able to pull this off without a hitch? They must grow ‘em stupid in Utah.”
Norman’s body tensed up, his icy blue eyes narrowed and angry and pissed as hell. “How dare you, you stupid country bumpkin!” he roared. “What do you know – you drive a pickup truck old enough to date and work in this tiny cinder block hellhole. Obviously, I am a lot more successful than you, and—”
Adam laughed sarcastically, cutting his tirade off, while Kylie sent him pleading looks to just stop pushing this guy’s buttons. Adam didn’t dare look at her. He knew he wasn’t a good enough actor to pull that off.
“Shiiitttt…” Adam drawled, adding in a thick country twang that hurt his ears to even use. “I might just be a country bumpkin, but I at least know not to be such a dumbass like you.” The color began to climb in Norm’s cheeks, and Adam could tell he was starting to get to him. Just keep going… “I mean, Lordy, could you even have been more retarded? Only an idiot would walk into a business like this and attack a girl. How low can you go?”
With a roar that seemed to come from deep inside of him, Norm threw Kylie to the side and charged at Adam, his knife in a death grip in his hand. Adam waited until it was almost too late and then reared up, a cowboy boot straight to the shorter man’s face. The momentum of the charge put so much force into the boot kick, Norm dropped to the ground, his hands cradling his face, blood pouring out of them, screaming in pain.
Adam sprinted past the man, intent on getting to Kylie’s side to console and protect her, when she instead did a sharp about-face, snatched the phone off the cradle, and dialed 911. “Yes, this is an emergency,” she snapped. “An insane man just tried to kill me.”
Adam stumbled to a stop. He’d thought that…well, that Kylie would be crying. And would need him to hold her and tell her that everything was okay. Instead, she was doing her part to take Norman down.
He couldn’t be more proud of her than if she’d just won an Olympic gold medal. Anyone who underestimated Kylie was in for a hell of a surprise.
He turned around and instead snatched the fillet knife off the ground where Norm had dropped it and hurried into the back, slicing through the duct tape holding Ollie’s wrists and ankles to an old wooden chair, and then turned on his heel to head back towards the front. Norman may be thrashing around on the floor now, begging for his mom, but that didn’t mean he’d stay there.
“Holy shit!” Ollie yelled, as soon as he got the duct tape off and the cotton out of his mouth. “I can’t believe that jackass! He taped me to a chair!”
“C’mon, Ollie,” Adam said, laughing a little inside at the teen’s disbelief. He was heady with emotion and relief and his legs were rubbery but he had to keep going. He couldn’t sit down until this psychopath was behind bars. “The police should be here soon.”
They hurried back upfront to find Kylie still on the phone, telling the dispatcher everything that had happened while Norman…Norman was busy crawling towards the door.
“Oh no you don’t,” Adam said, grabbing the man’s collar and yanking him backwards. He was a little too pleased to see that Norm, in fact, had broken teeth as he gasped and begged for mercy. “It’s not so fun when you’re on the receiving end of an ass-whooping, is it, shithead. I do hope your job comes with a nice dental plan.” Norm got up on his hands and knees, making a drunken attempt for the door, but Adam grabbed his collar and flung him back down on the ground again. Sprawled out in front of him on the floor, Adam put his shit-and-straw-covered boot on the guy’s chest, pinning him to the ground.
“Huh. Well now, Ollie,” he drawled to the teen who was standing on the sidelines of the action, looking terrified and excited by turns. “I think it’s rather fun to keep him pinned here like the insignificant insect that he is. Kylie, how you doin’?”
“Good,” she called back calmly. “The dispatcher says the police are almost–oh, that’s them now.” There were sirens in the distance, tearing up the street towards them. “Thanks, Mr. Behrend. You be sure to bring your cat by next week when you have a chance.” She hung up the phone as Adam turned to shoot her a look, his boot still firmly planted in Norman’s chest. Norman let out a pained groan and Adam smiled to himself.
Maybe more than a little firmly planted.
Kylie shrugged at Adam’s surprised look. “Mr. Behrend started telling me about his cat while we were waiting for the police to show up. I mean, you have to talk about something. Apparently, she’s been dry-heaving lately and he doesn’t know why.”
“Sounds like a major case of hairballs…” Adam said, tapping his finger on his chin, pretending to think. The piece of shit on the ground began whining and mumbling, and Adam knew that pretending to ignore him, as if he were literally not worth worrying about, was the worst thing someone could do to him. Worse than breaking his teeth, not paying attention meant they weren’t giving Norman the Great the due respect and attention that he deserved.
Police were jumping out of their cars, doors slamming, sirens wailing, and still, Adam pretended to stay focused on the mystery hairball case. “Did you ask Mr. Behrend if she’s been shedding more than usual lately? It could be—”
The front door burst open as Officers Knittle and Morland moved in, guns drawn, shouting. Adam turned back to them, grinding his heel into Norman’s sternum one more time as he did so, and then waved. “Hi, you guys,” he said pleasantly, ignoring the whimpered pleas for help from his footstool. “Everyone is fine, but I imagine you’ll want to have the dentist meet you at the station along with a doctor. He’s gonna need a full check-up.”
He stepped back and let the men in blue do their job. Kylie came up and stood next to him, wrapping her arms around him. “I can’t believe he came here,” she said, her voice shaky and uneven now that the danger was over. “I can’t believe I ever thought I loved him.”
Adam hugged her tight. “The good news is, he’s gone,” he said softly against the crown of her head. The smell of wildflowers wafted up and tickled his nose, reminding him of everything he almost lost. He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “Everything is gonna be all right now,” he whispered.
And as Officer Abby Miller came in and began asking them questions, and as the police car pulled away with Norman in the back, Adam couldn’t help comparing this to the last time the person he loved desperately needed him. That time, it’d ended in funeral flowers and caskets and people awkwardly hugging him and endless casseroles, brought by neighbors who wanted to do something to help, even though eating had been at the very bottom of his priorities list.
Yeah, everything was gonna be all right now.
Chapter 41
Adam
He swung the saddle up onto Ladybug’s back, centering it over the saddle blanket and starting in on tightening up the straps. Kylie would be here any minute, and he wanted to have the horse ready to go for her so she wouldn’t be tempted to do the saddling herself. With all of the drama and anxiety surrounding last week’s attempted kidnapping and abortion, Adam wasn’t taking chances with the baby. Lots of stress wasn’t good for anyone, but it was especially not good for an expectant mother.
After what seemed like ages but was probably just seconds, he heard his mom’s car rumbling down the dirt road and he smiled to himself.
There was something comforting about his mom’s car being passed down to Kylie. You know, the whole circle of life thing, but with cars.
She pulled into view, peering over the steering wheel of the giant boat of a car and, spotting him, gave a huge wave. He waved back, holding up the reins of Ladybug and Sonny who stood there placidly, not even twitching an ear as Kylie came to a stop and cut the engine.
There was definitely a reason why he was able to use these horses for the therapy camp. They were virtually unshakeable, an excellent trait in horses that worked with any children, let alone special needs ones.
Kylie pushed herself out of the car and then, reaching into the back, pulled out a backpack – her part of the picnic. He provided the horses; she provided the food.
Considering his cooking skills and her complete lack of horse ownership…well, it seemed like a damn good arrangement to him.
“Hi, baby,” he growled when she came walking up, pulling her up against him and nuzzling her neck. “Damn, I’ve missed you.”
“I just saw you this morning,” she pointed out, laughing softly while also tilting her head to the side to give him better access.
“I know!” he murmured against her soft skin. “It’s been like four whole hours.” He began blowing on the kiss-moistened skin and she shivered in his arms.
“I…I can see the problem,” she murmured, eyes closed. “It’s surprising you lasted as long as you did.”
“It really is,” he said, sadly pulling away. As much fun as it was to kiss and suck and nibble on Kylie’s neck, he had more important things to do that afternoon. “You’ve got our lunch in there?” he asked, nodding towards the backpack she had slung over her shoulders.
“I do! Hand-breaded, deep fried chicken, since that’s a requirement for any self-respecting picnic, a salad,” he let out a mock groan that she ignored, “sweet rolls that I baked up this morning, and an apple pie that I finished just last night.”
“You got all of that into your backpack?” he asked, his respect for her rising to a new level.
“I did,” she said, beaming a smile of excitement as she patted the straps of her backpack. “You’ve got the blanket, right?”
He pointed to a knapsack slumped up against a boulder. “Ready to go. Let’s make this happen.” Fissures of excitement sparked through him as he led Sonny over to the mounting block and helped Kylie up onto his wide back.
Please, please, please…
He snagged his bag from the boulder and swung up onto Ladybug’s back, then led them down the well-worn path away from the barn and towards a small grouping of hills about a mile away. “So,” he said, turning to Kylie as they meandered along in the warm August sun, “how are the soap sales doing? I keep meaning to ask. I’ve been seeing them pretty much everywhere, and I swear that half the women in town smell like lilacs now.”
Kylie threw her head back and laughed. “Well, I’m not sure my sales have been as good as that, but I’m damn happy with them anyway. There’s only so much milk and cream that a body can consume, and even with you helping me out…I don’t know how Chloe used it all up. Anyway, I just got the Shop ‘N Go to agree to carry the soap in their bath and beauty aisle, so the sales oughta go up even further here in a bit. Now that I’ve pretty much covered all of Sawyer, I want to go over to Franklin next. They’ve got a lot of cute little shops, all there for tourists, and I figure that handmade soap oughta sell well with them, right?”
She patted her burgeoning belly – she was the cutest pregnant woman he’d ever seen in his life, for sure. Seeing her perched up on top of Sonny, swaying as they meandered along, her belly expanding even as he watched…yeah, life didn’t get much better than this.
“The income from it has been coming in in spurts, but I’ve tried to sock away every bit of it that I could so I can use it to pay for expenses when the baby comes. The one thing my mom keeps telling me is that babies are expensive. She thinks I believe that babies poop gold bars or something.” She let out a light laugh. “Mommas…what would you do without them?” she asked rhetorically. “I swear, it doesn’t matter how old I get, there’s a part of my mom who still sees me as a toddler in diapers.” She shrugged. “Speaking of moms, how is your mom settling into the retirement home?”
“Oh, she’s loving it,” Adam said, happy to have good news on that front. Considering her original reaction to it all, it was nothing short of a miracle, honestly. “When we first moved her in last month…well, you saw her. Nervous and excited as a kindergartener on the first day of school. She’s found some friends to hang out with and seems to be settling in. They have her starting down at the thrift store, looking over donated items and deciding what to sell, what to fix, and what to throw away, and so she’s in seventh heaven over that. Oh, and she says to tell you hello and that she’s running low on soap, so she’d like to buy a bar the next time you stop by.”
“Oh, great!” Kylie said, a huge smile on her face. Her hand went automatically to her pocket and then she grimaced. “I left my phone in the car. Remind me when I get back to put a date into my calendar to go out to see her. Otherwise, it’ll never happen.”
He nodded, trying to keep a straight face. With any luck, they’d be seeing her soon. As a couple. With things to announce. And stuff.
Please, please, please…
They finally reached the shade of the pine trees dotting the hills, and they both let out a sigh of relief at the same time, and then laughed. As Adam looked over at her, her golden hair glinting in the sun filtering through the canopy, he wondered anew at how it was that he’d managed to find such a wonderful woman, right here in Sawyer. First Wendy and now Kylie. He really couldn’t get much luckier, honestly.
She looked over at him and then cocked an eyebrow in confusion. “Why are you grinning?” she asked.
“I was just thinking how lucky I was to find you, and then I realized – I didn’t really have to look too hard. After all, you showed up on my doorstep. I didn’t so much find you as open my eyes to realize that you were standing right there under my nose.”
She threw back her head and laughed. “Was that a short joke?” she demanded, wiping the tears away from her eyes. “Need I remind you – again – that I am not so much on the short side as you are on the Jolly Green Giant side.”
He sent her a mock disgruntled look. “I’d tickle you into admitting that I am much more handsome than the Jolly Green Giant, but you are balanced precariously on top of a horse, so I suppose I shouldn’t tickle you until you fall off.” He said it magnanimously, as if granting her a kingly favor, and she bust out laughing again.
“So kind, so kind…” she said dryly. She pulled to a stop and looked around at the forest floor spreading out before them, a small stream rushing by, falling over the rocks in its hurry to get to the ocean. “How does this look?” she asked.
He took the idyllic scene in, a small stroke of fear brushing down his spine at the similarities between this picnic and the last one he’d gone on. “It looks good,” he said cautiously, “but promise me you won’t wade in the stream?”
“I promise,” she said solemnly, and the fear faded away. Maybe, someday, mountain streams wouldn’t freak him out anymore.
That day was not today.
They swung down from their horses and went on the hunt for the perfect spot to set up for their picnic, finally finding a soft, relatively flat bed of pine needles underneath a group of trees. Adam laid out the blanket while Kylie got to work unpacking the food.
“Oh. Whoops,” she said in an embarrassed voice, and looked up at Adam with a grimace on her face. “Sooo…that didn’t work out so well.” She held up a mangled mess of tinfoil and oozing brown glaze. “I don’t know what I was thinking. The tinfoil…I thought it’d protect the apple pie, which, looking back on it, is a really stupid thing to think. Tinfoil isn’t rigid enough to keep its shape. Duh.” She looked on the verge of tears over it.
Shit! Ruining this moment over crushed apple pie simply
couldn’t be allowed. Adam stepped up next to her, wrapping one arm around her thickening waist while snatching away the messy tinfoil with the other hand.
“Hmmm…” he said, licking the juicy goodness spread all over the tinfoil. “Delicious. I have a new idea for lunch. I think I should spread this stuff all over your nipples and then lick it off.”
Her eyes shot up to his in shock and surprise, and then she laughed. “You are such a guy sometimes,” she said, snatching the tinfoil disaster out of his hands and licking the side of it. Watching her pink tongue go to town…Adam swallowed hard. Was breathing a thing? Hopefully not a necessary thing. “Yeah, I did pretty good with this one,” she said around swipes of her tongue. “Maybe a little bit more cinnamon in my next one, though.”
He couldn’t stand it any longer. Between the tongue and the talk of more apple pies and the scent of wildflowers and the way her laughter made him feel like he could take on the world and just how damn happy she made him…It was time.
He dropped to his knees in front of her. Both knees, not just one, because she deserved both. “Kylie Carol VanLueven, will you be my wife?” he asked, before he could wimp out and do something ridiculous like claim he was down there just to tie his shoes.
Which, considering he was wearing cowboy boots…
She stopped, her tongue up against the tinfoil, her eyes big and growing bigger as she stared down at him.
Her arm lowered as she continued to stare.
Birds were singing to each other, squirrels were chattering with each other, insects were buzzing around…
Her pale green eyes were trained on him, unblinking, shock stamped across her face.
If she didn’t say something right this very minute, he was going to throw up all over her shoes, which were not cowboy boots but were instead tennis shoes, which meant they were fabric, which meant that they would soak up his throw-up and—
