Accounting For Lovel (Long Valley Book 1)

by Erin Wright

  Yeah, it was much too early.

  He stared at the haystack in front of him, trying to focus. He needed to calculate how much of his second-cutting hay was left. Then he’d know if he needed to buy some hay to supplement his own supply before winter hit.

  He started walking as he thought, and before he realized it, he was climbing the front porch steps of the farmhouse and not at all counting hay bales like he was supposed to be.

  Whoops.

  Well, he could force himself to go back to the haystack and start counting – this time for real – but even as he thought it, his hand reached out to open up the front door. After all, there was no point in going all the way back without first at least checking to see if Jennifer was awake. Then after he verified that she was still in bed, he could go back to work.

  He thought about the joyful grin that Carmelita had given him this morning, eyes sparkling as she’d asked him – bluntly – if he’d slept well last night. She looked like she’d just been given the present of a lifetime. He’d wanted to ask her how she knew, and then had stopped himself. There were some things that were better left unknown.

  Not to mention that discussing his sex life with Carmelita just gave him the heebie-jeebies. One time, in high school, she’d asked him if he had rubbers while staring at the far wall over his shoulder, and it’d taken him a minute to realize that she was asking about condoms.

  That conversation officially went down on record as the most awkward conversation ever held between the two of them, and he could only hope something like it was never repeated again.

  “…after that, I told her that she could cook her own meals,” Carmelita said as he walked into the kitchen.

  “Who could cook their own meals?” Stetson asked, grabbing his coffee mug from breakfast that morning and refilling it. He leaned casually against the counter, trying to study Jennifer without being overly obvious about it, and failing miserably. Her hair was mussed, she still had no bra on, and his t-shirt and shorts still never looked better than they did in that moment.

  But this morning’s disheveled look came courtesy of him, and he felt his dick springing to attention with pride over that fact.

  Down, boy, down. Springing a boner in front of Carmelita is not a good idea.

  “That Michelle woman.”

  Stetson tore his eyes away from Jennifer’s legs and the memory of them wrapped around him last night long enough to look at his housekeeper. “My ex? When did you tell her to make her own meals?” Inwardly, he couldn’t help chuckling a little at the phrase “that Michelle woman.” He’d dated her for six months and was engaged to her another two years after that, but Michelle and Carmelita had gotten along like oil and water. Carmelita had threatened to wear all black to the wedding, although in the end, she’d shown up in a black-and-white dress instead.

  He figured that was quite the restraint, considering. And not a single I-told-you-so when Michelle hadn’t bothered to show up at all. That had required even more restraint.

  “When she told me not to include so many carbohydrates in my dinners. She wanted me to cook a meal without a potato in it.” Carmelita sniffed her indignation. “I told her that we live in Idaho, but she did not think that this mattered. Güera.”

  Stetson tried to repress the grin he felt threatening to erupt across his face, but he was totally losing that battle. Güera…he’d asked Carmelita a long time ago what that meant. She’d told him it meant someone who didn’t understand anything outside of her own little view on the world.

  If anyone deserved the nickname of güera, it was definitely Michelle.

  Turning to Stetson, Jennifer shook her head mock seriously. “You were engaged to a woman who did not understand the sanctity of the potato? Some days, I’m not even sure who you are.”

  He shook his head, trying to glare at her for egging Carma on, but mostly just laughing. “Are you ready to go?” he asked, trying to ignore that comment. His eyes swept down her legs and back up again. “You appear ready for a pajama party, not a tour of a farm,” he added dryly.

  “I’ll hurry!” she promised, jumping out of her chair. “We got sidetracked, swapping war stories. Sometime, you’ll have to tell me what you saw in this Michelle.”

  Stetson opened his mouth to ask his housekeeper exactly which tales she’d shared when someone pounded on the front door, loud and angry. Everyone froze, staring at each other. Just moments later, the knocking came again, even louder this time.

  “I think you should answer it before they knock the door down,” Carmelita said, worry drawing her eyebrows together. “Maybe someone is hurt. Your brothers?”

  Stetson hurried to the front door, his boots echoing on the oak floors as he practically ran through the house. What if Declan had gotten in a car wreck? Hit a deer? Was dead, just like their mother?

  He yanked the door open, heart pounding, only to find a shorter, balding man standing on the porch, his hand raised in the air, ready to knock a third time. Stetson jerked his head back, staring down at the man. He didn’t recognize him, and the man didn’t have an official uniform on, which likely meant he wasn’t an EMT or cop, come to give him bad news.

  So why the hell was he here?

  Just as he was opening his mouth to ask that, the man puffed up his chest and announced regally, “I am here for Jennifer Kendall.”

  “Paul?” came Jennifer’s voice from behind Stetson.

  Chapter 37

  Jennifer

  Jennifer slipped underneath Stetson’s arm, propped up in the corner of the doorway, to stand on the front porch and glare at her ex-fiancé. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

  Paul’s eyes followed her form up and down, making her feel like she’d just taken a bath in used motor oil, before he finally spat out, “Is this how you dress at a client’s house?”

  “This is how I dress on a Saturday morning. I repeat – what are you doing here?”

  “Well, after I called and texted you – multiple times, I might add – and you didn’t answer, other than those few rude texts that I just couldn’t believe were coming from you, I decided to come up here and talk to you in person. I guess your overgrown ape here is the one who’d been sending those awful texts to me? Cell phone conversations are private, you know,” he said, glaring up over Jennifer’s shoulder. “You shouldn’t be reading her texts, let alone replying on her behalf—”

  “As happy as it makes me that you understand and believe in a woman’s right to talk to whomever she pleases,” Jennifer cut in, trying to keep the sarcasm from dripping too much off her tongue, “you should know that Stetson has never so much as touched my phone. Unlike other people, he doesn’t think that I’m going to cheat on him every time he leaves the room.”

  Okay, so it was possible that she’d given up completely on the idea of keeping sarcasm out of her voice. Paul’s eyes bugged out. “I did not think you’d cheat on me every time I left the room!” he huffed. “Hyperbole does not suit you.”

  “And hypocrisy doesn’t suit you,” Jennifer said blandly. “They always say that whatever you’re worried about in a partner is what you’re actually doing yourself. Hmmm…is that why you spent three years thinking that I was cheating on you, and always making me re-confirm to you again and again that I hadn’t? How many women, exactly, did you give mouth-to-mouth lessons to while we were engaged?”

  “Well, I never—” Paul sputtered, his face growing red with rage. “I am here,” he drew himself up imperiously, bringing his height to the full 3/4’s of an inch that he had on her, “to tell you that if you promise to behave yourself, I am willing to take you back.”

  Jennifer could practically feel the anger pulsating off Stetson in waves, but she didn’t dare retreat back into him. She was going to stand up for herself this time, dammit. She’d spent a whole year working through self-help books after she’d left this snake, trying to figure out why she’d put up with Paul, time after awful time when he’d denigrated her. Told her she was less
than. And then the final insult – to find him in bed with a coworker, Lizzie, who had much larger boobs than Jennifer could ever hope to have, even if she paid for breast implants or something else equally as ridiculous.

  But instead of laying into him when she’d found them together in bed, she’d run away, crying. She’d gotten her stuff out of his apartment while he was at work. She’d quit the hospital and had never gone back. The Old Jennifer hadn’t wanted to talk to him, ever again.

  After a year of self-help books and digging in deep, though, she’d made a lot of realizations about herself, and New Jennifer had a backbone that made her willing to share those thoughts instead of just forcing herself to bury them deep inside.

  Well, now was her chance to say all of the things that Old Jennifer wouldn’t say to him, and she was starting to realize that it felt good.

  Damn good.

  “That’s funny,” she drawled in her best thick Idaho accent, “’cause I don’t recall wanting to come back.”

  “Now, Pumpkin,” he said, instantly changing tactics. He was as transparent as plastic wrap, and about as personable. What had she seen in him all those years ago? As her eyes flicked up and down his body, she realized she had a hard time remembering now. “You don’t know what you’re saying. It must’ve been quite the shock to see me show up here, but that doesn’t mean you should be hast—”

  “How many nurses?” she asked bluntly.

  “What?” Paul was staring at her. Stetson was shifting from foot to foot behind her, probably just waiting for the signal to pound the guy into the ground.

  Jennifer ignored it all. She was in control here.

  “How many nurses have you slept with since I left you?”

  “I don’t know what that has to do wi—”

  “Because I heard one time from another nurse back at the hospital that you tend to cycle through relationships every six months or so. I was the only one dumb enough to last as long as I did. So I’m just wanting to do the math. Did you find any other doormats to trample all over for years? Or did they all get out at the six-month mark?”

  “This is what I’ve been trying to tell you!” he exclaimed triumphantly. “I know that you’re jealous of the other women in my life, but I have to be able to work with females, Pumpkin. You can’t keep throwing these little temper tantrums.”

  “Huh. So faster than six months, eh? What did they average – three months? Four months? Did a nurse figure out what an ass you are and drop you at two months?”

  The flush that spread across Paul’s face was the only indication that he heard her.

  “How’d you get here?” she asked, abruptly changing subjects. He jerked, startled by the switch.

  “I dr-drove,” he sputtered. “Of course. I’m not going to walk all the way from Boi—”

  “How did you know to come here?” she asked, interrupting him again. She’d been raised to never interrupt others, but damn if she wasn’t finding a perverse pleasure in doing it to Paul.

  Finally, all of the things she’d wanted to say and do, but had never thought she’d have the chance. This was her chance. Her legs felt shaky and her head felt like it was floating off her shoulders from the adrenaline rush pumping through her veins. Standing up to Paul was scary and thrilling and amazing and horrible, all at once.

  Some part of her knew that Stetson was behind her 100%, both figuratively and literally, and would be willing to take a swing at the guy if need be. She also knew that Carmelita was hovering back there too, no doubt waiting for her chance to jump into the conversation and tell Paul to go eat McDonald’s food – the worst insult ever – but this was Jennifer’s show. She was running it. She was standing up for herself.

  Even if it made her want to throw up a little bit, it was totally worth it.

  “I asked down at the bank,” Paul sniffed in his best “duh” voice. “Yesterday afternoon. Then I had to put together a suitcase and an itinerary for our date that we’d have together once I picked you up. So I couldn’t actually leave until this morning.”

  A small part of her – okay, a giant-ass part of her – was dying to know what was on this itinerary, but she didn’t want to get sidetracked. She had facts to gather, dammit.

  Stetson started to speak, his anger at high tide at this point, but Jennifer held up her hand, not even looking back over her shoulder.

  This was her fight. She would take the worm down.

  “Intermountain West Bank & Loan told you where I was,” she repeated softly, staring at Paul, her eyes boring into his.

  “Well yes, of course,” he huffed. “I told your boss, Gregory, that it was of the utmost importance that I speak to you. Once he found out that I was a doctor, why, he gave me the information right away, as he should have.” He nodded once, as if agreeing with himself.

  Of course he agreed with himself.

  “Good to know. I wanted to make sure I implicated the right employee on Monday when I filed a complaint with the bank headquarters over this. I’ll be sure to state that you are my source of this information. I have your phone number, so the bank president can call you for more details if he’d like.”

  He sputtered for a moment, his eyes growing wide as he looked at her, and finally, he spat out, “You’ve changed! You’re nothing like my old Jennifer.” It was the worst insult he could think of to dish out.

  She sent him a huge smile. “I know!” she said with a laugh. “Isn’t it wonderful? When I think back to the Old Jennifer – the one willing to put up with all that I did – it makes my skin crawl. Every change that I’ve made in the last two years has been because I realized that I didn’t like you, but even more importantly, I didn’t like me when I was with you. Now, if you’ll excuse us, Stetson and I were about to go out on a tour of his farm, and you’re not welcome to join us.”

  “So the overgrown ape is your boyfriend, eh?” he sneered. “Just wait until your boss hears that you’re dating a client!”

  “Well now,” Stetson rumbled in his deep voice, his patience completely gone, “I suggest you walk back to your car, get in it, and drive on back to Boise. Right now. If you insist on making me escort you off my property, you’re not gonna like how I do it.”

  “You wouldn’t dare touch me!” Paul said indignantly. “I am a doctor! No court in the land would side with a redneck over me.”

  Stetson chuckled. “The sheriff of Long Valley hunts on my land every fall. We’re coming up on hunting season. Do you really think that he’d take the side of some city slicker who he’s never met, over his hunting buddy and his chance to hunt in the best elk territory in the county?”

  So that’s why he decorates with elk horns…

  She forced her mind back to the topic at hand.

  “I’ll…I’ll call him right now!” Paul threatened, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.

  “You go right on ahead,” Stetson said blandly. “And while you’re at it, remind him to put in for the elk tag draw for this fall. I’d hate to have him miss another elk season because he forgot to fill out some paperwork. He was damn busy last year, and I had to make do with hunting with the deputy sheriff instead.”

  Paul’s eyes darted between Jennifer and Stetson, clearly trying to decide if Stetson was being serious. His fingers hovered over his phone, undecided.

  So, Stetson being the kind soul that he was, helped him along in the decision-making process. Picking Jennifer up and setting her gently to the side, he was on the porch in just seconds. He grabbed the collar of Paul’s shirt and the waistband of his pants in one smooth motion, and then Paul was flying off the front porch, through the air, to land in the same puddle she’d stepped in the second morning she’d come out to the farm. It was smaller now, since the rain had stopped yesterday morning, but it still wasn’t small by any stretch of the imagination.

  Paul rolled over, looking down at his ruined clothes and back up at Stetson. “You…you…” he spluttered, as Stetson leaned against one of the porch columns, looking
on as if watching a fascinating play that was being put on in his front yard.

  Jennifer moved up next to him and slipped her arm around his waist. “Hi, darlin’,” she said casually, and then grinned up at him. “Nice arm.”

  “Thanks!” he said, grinning back. “My brothers used to do that move all the time on me. I guess it’s just fun to finally be able to pull it on someone else.”

  They turned to watch Paul scramble to his feet, blustering like a bedraggled rooster about how he was going to call his lawyer as soon as he got back to civilization.

  “You do that,” Stetson drawled. “And be sure to tell your lawyer that you gained my address illegally, and that you were asked to leave in a polite way before I helped you along. I’m sure your lawyer will want to hear all of the details.”

  Face red, Paul slid into his Ferrari and tore off, wheels throwing up chunks of mud and gravel. They watched him go, Jennifer waving gaily as he did, her stomach practically floating with happiness. With the help of Stetson, she’d actually faced down and defeated a man who’d held way too much power over her for way too long. What a feeling it was.

  “Ouch!” Stetson yelped, pulling away from Jennifer and rubbing the back of his head as he turned to glare down at Carmelita. Jennifer jerked too, completely startled. She’d been lost in her own little world. Had Carmelita just smacked Stetson on the back of the head?

  Before she could ask what just happened, Carma smiled up at Stetson, a huge, jaw-cracking grin. “You did good, mi hijo. Your parents,” she crossed her ample chest, “are smiling down on you. Now! I must go wash bedding. It is time for me to do my job.” She hurried back into the house, dabbing at the corners of her eyes with her apron as she went.

  As quickly as the surge of power and pride had filled Jennifer’s soul, they went rushing back out again, leaving the stench of shame in its wake. She was so embarrassed. How had this happened?

  “I’m so sorry!” she gasped. “Oh God. It’s so unprofessional to have my ex show up here like this. You…argh!”