“I’ll leave when you leave,” Marty said.
She laughed, then headed for the register. The sound of a car pulling up in the parking lot caught her attention and she turned her head just in time to see Grant get out of a newer model BMW. All of a sudden the drive by from Nate Willis made sense.
“I’m texting, I’m texting,” Marty said.
“Just stay cool,” Jessica said. She walked to the door where Grant stood. He tried to push it open and it didn’t move. Then he pointed at the lock. Jessica shook her head.
“Let me in,” he said.
“No.” She pointed at his car and said, “Get the hell out.” She could hear his voice through the glass, so she knew he could hear her.
“I want to talk.”
“So talk,” she said. She’d never been afraid of Grant, but right now she wasn’t sure about letting him in, despite the plan. He’d obviously killed his mother. Would he kill her, and Marty, too?
“We have things to discuss.”
“Like you killing your mother?” She pointed at Marty. He nodded. Obviously, he’d texted Hawk. She wondered when her man would show up.
“Do you want to be alone with the old man?” Grant asked.
“What do you want?” she asked.
He stared at her and cocked his head. He was handsome, that was for sure. But knowing what she did about him, she wished she’d never gone out with him. She remembered the plan, but she wasn’t sure she could face it right now.
Her phone dinged and she pulled it out of the pocket of the apron she wore. Hawk’s name appeared on the screen with the words, “Let him in. I’m in the back room, watching.”
She put her phone back in her pocket and shook her head. If she opened the door after looking at the screen, Grant would be suspicious.
“Please let me in,” Grant said.
Jessica thought about it for a minute, and then she sighed heavily. She remembered that Hawk was in the back room, and he would protect her from this murdering monster. She unlocked the door and took a step back. Grant came in, looked around, and focused on Marty.
“You can go,” he said. “I want to talk to Jessica alone.”
“Then go back outside and do it through the door,” Marty said. “I’m the bodyguard until she leaves for the bank with the day’s take.”
Grant snorted. “Get out.”
“Screw you,” Marty said. “I fought in Vietnam for three years, and I can face your sorry ass.” He stood and for a moment Jessica thought he was going to rush toward him.
“Fine old man,” Grant said. “Just sit down and shut up.”
“Don’t talk to him like that,” Jessica said.
“Fine, I’ll talk to you like that.” He laughed. “I know you’re going to jail, and then to prison. Maybe I’ll come and visit.”
“Maybe I’ll come to visit you,” she countered. “We all know you murdered your mother for that ring.”
“What a horrible thing to say.”
Jessica couldn’t help but see he was smiling.
“So horrible it makes you laugh? Are you remembering the part where you put a bullet in her brain?”
“In her chest,” he said, and then his smile faltered.
“Oh, so now we know,” Jessica said.
“You bitch.” Jessica noticed his fists were doubled up. Marty must have noticed, too, because he was on his feet, his fingers flying over his phone screen.
“You’ve been nothing but trouble since I met you,” Grant said. “I should have known your sexual skills didn’t make you a decent person.”
“Well, you don’t have sexual skills and you’re not a decent person, either. Pretty sad.”
“We’ll see who gets the last laugh.”
At that moment Hawk strolled through the doors that led to the kitchen.
“That would be Jessica.” He pulled out his handcuffs. “Grant Dobbs, you’re under arrest for the murder of Matilda Dobbs.”
The front door opened and Ranger Jackson came in, his gun drawn and pointed in Grant’s direction.
“You have the right to remain silent,” Hawk said. He rattled off the rest of the Miranda rights. Grant, obviously stunned, just stared at Jessica.
“You’ll want to put your hands against the counter and let Constable Coleman search you,” Jackson said.
At first, she thought Grant was going to fight, but he looked at her, then Hawk, then Jackson. Jessica noticed Marty stood nearby, his hand on the butt of his gun. She wondered if Grant had noticed that, too.
Grant put his hands on the counter. Hawk frisked him as Jackson stood nearby, his gun still drawn.
“Oh, and don’t worry about the remain silent part,” Jackson said. “Your girlfriend already told us everything when we caught her trying to plant the gun and ring in Jessica’s house.”
“She did it,” Grant said. “She killed my mother.”
“Funny, that’s what she said about you,” Jackson said. “Willis told me she spilled her guts about the planning and the actual murder. What sort of story will you tell us?”
“The truth,” Grant said.
Jessica laughed. “Doubtful.”
“Bitch,” Grant spat at her.
“You’ve used that word before,” Jessica said. “Try and figure out something different.”
“Let’s go,” Jackson said. He holstered his weapon and took one of Grant’s elbows. He led him out the front door. Jessica hurried over in time to see Vanessa, the woman from the regional newspaper, take photos of the arrest.
“How did she know?” Jessica asked.
Marty waved his phone at her. “I love text messaging,” he said.
Jessica burst into laughter. She ran across the room and hugged him. “Thank you, Marty.”
She turned to Hawk and rushed to him. She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him close, and then kissed him deeply.
“Hey, where’s my kiss?” Marty asked.
“I owe you one,” Jessica said as she kissed Hawk again. Hawk wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
“You owe me, too,” he said.
“A debt I will gladly pay,” she said. “Just name the price.”
“I’ll think on it and let you know.”
She was sure he would, and it would be a great deal of fun for both of them.
A week later, Jessica checked her cabinets to make sure she had enough supplies to make the wedding cake. The event was in a week and a half, and if she had to make an emergency run to a box store in Amarillo she wanted to make sure she had enough time to get all her ducks in a row.
Lizbeth and Natalie would take care of the bakery next week. The only thing Jessie would do was make cakes: two of them, the main wedding cake, and the groom’s cake. The main cake would be three tiered, with all the bells and whistles of a wedding cake. Holt had asked her to make the groom’s cake into the shape of a boot She’d spent the last week making drawings of how to cut cakes into the shapes to make the boot.
Hawk had suggested she use a mold, but she knew that would look, to her anyway, unprofessional. She wanted to cut and make her own design. Aurora had unique boots to go with her dress, white with turquoise inlay. The groom’s cake would be turquoise color with white inlay. But cutting the pattern into the cake would be difficult. The main cake would be easy. She would have it made by Monday, with the cakes stored in the refrigerator. The frosting and decorations would not take place until Saturday morning.
But the groom’ s cake. She was wishing she’d never told Holt it would be “a piece of cake.”
She had a new composition book. Hawk had given it to her a few days ago when he’d seen her drawing images of the cake on napkins. Now the book was a fourth full of cake drawings, all of them of boots. Most were single boots, but there were also pairs of boots, some of them together, some separate. She couldn’t decide which one she liked the best, and which one would be easiest to make. She flipped a page and giggled when she saw Hawk’s handwriting under a drawi
ng of a single boot with an A and an intertwined S on it.
“This one,” he’d written, and drawn an arrow toward the boot. Yes, he was right. This one was the best, but it was not on its side, and getting it to stand up, using dowels, would cut down on the amount of cake there was to serve.
Jessica picked up her pen and started to draw again. She could make the boot lying on its side. It would be easier to make and would serve more.
As she drew she thought about the first book he’d given her. It was very close to full. She wrote in the morning, at breaktime, and after dinner. It had drawings of the Spellman house, although she knew that soon they would have to start calling it the Coleman house. It would be home to the two of them.
The playroom was almost done, and to her it was perfect. The only door into the room from the house came from the bedroom. There were pegs on one wall to hang BDSM equipment, and closets on another to hang costumes. Two of them were already full with the Cinderella and Jasmine clothing.
Jessica smiled as she sketched the boot, thinking about the first book Hawk had given her. It held her innermost feelings, and it also contained things her Little had drawn, Hawk + Jessica. Mrs. Hawk Coleman. Mrs. Hawkins Coleman. Jessica Coleman. She looked at her empty ring finger and wished there was something there to show that she and Hawk would soon be married.
How long after the wedding would be sufficient time for her to wear an engagement ring? Not that she had one yet. She didn’t want something splashy like Grant had given her. She wanted a simple diamond that would match a simple band. To her that was the perfect way for them to show their love for each other.
“I had to see you as soon as I got to town, had to know the woman who captured my son’s heart.”
Jessica looked up to see a beautiful woman of about sixty standing near the counter. She was a female version of her sons, tall, with dark hair, and blue eyes. They all had blue eyes.
“Mrs. Coleman?” Jessica whispered.
“Please dear, call me Sissy. My friends do.”
“Okay.” She hardly looked like a woman who had given birth to six strapping sons, three of them triplets. Jessica put down her pencil. “I’m not Aurora. I’m not the bride.”
Sissy laughed. “I’ve already met her. I had to see the woman who captured Hawk’s heart. I never thought he would settle down, and yet here you are, ready to become his bride.”
“How did you know…” Jessica checked the room. The retirees had left a while ago, and the girls were in the back, baking. “We haven’t told anyone.”
“I could hear it in Hawk’s voice when he told me about you. Hawk would never have bought a house unless he planned to settle down. I knew he was in love the minute he talked about the house, and the changes you were making to it.”
Jessica’s hands shook. “You weren’t supposed to be here for a few days.”
“I told Todd to get us here asap.” She sat down on a stool at the counter. “We stopped at the ranch, met Aurora, had lunch, and took one of the ranch trucks. Todd is on his way to the Spellman house to surprise Hawk.”
Yeah, he would be surprised, Jessica thought.
“You want some coffee? A cookie? A cupcake?”
“I’ll have one of Hawk’s favorite cookies,” Sissy said.
Jessica smiled. As far as tests went it was one of the easiest ones she’d ever taken. Jessica poured Sissy a cup of coffee, then placed two dark chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips and nuts on a plate. When she set it in front of Sissy she said, “I’d never made these until I met Hawk. He said it was a test of our relationship, if I could make his favorite cookie.”
“He loves you,” Sissy said.
“And I love him.” Jessica topped off her own coffee. “He’s taught me how to love myself, and to open myself up and love others. I couldn’t live without him.”
“That’s all I needed to hear,” Sissy said. “Two of my sons finding the loves of their lives in such quick succession. It’s more than I could hope for. Of course there are four more.”
Jessica laughed. “I have a feeling it’s spreading among them.” She thought of Leslie and Reed. Would they be the next? Not before she and Hawk got married, that’s for sure. She wished he was here right now, so she could kiss him and feel his warm breath against her cheek.
“Get married soon,” Sissy said. “Todd and I have lots of country to see.”
“She actually said that?” They were in the living room of Hawk’s—their—new home. They’d picked up dinner at a drive thru, several burgers with fries and shakes, vanilla for her and chocolate for him. It amazed her that she didn’t worry about the snakes anymore. The guys had come out and cut the grass and trimmed the trees. It would keep the crawly critters away, Hawk told her.
“Always remember snakes are scared of you, too,” he said. “Don’t agitate them and you’ll be fine.”
“I was flabbergasted,” she said as she ate a French fry. “Not only was she in my bakery when I didn’t expect her to be, she was encouraging me to marry her son as soon as possible.”
“I wish they had told me they were coming into town early.” Hawk took a big bite of one of his burgers. After he’d swallowed he said, “I was so shocked to see Dad pull up in a ranch truck I almost fell off the ladder I was on. Reed wouldn’t have been any help because he rushed out to greet him.”
“What were you doing on a ladder?” she asked.
“Looking at the roof,” he said. “We had to have it replaced, remember, and I just wanted to check out what had been done.”
“Always micromanaging,” she said.
“I’ll micromanage you one, right in the kisser.” Then he leaned over and kissed her, even though she’d just put another French fry in her mouth.
“Ewe, gross!” She pushed him away with a laugh.
He chuckled and went back to eating. They ate in silence for a while before Hawk said, “I have a treat for you tonight.”
“Another costume?” she asked, eagerly.
“Greedy little girl,” he said with a laugh. “No, it’s something totally different than what we’d planned. Reed came up with the idea, although I wish he hadn’t.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because I should have done it.” He snapped his fingers. “Eat up, sweet pea.”
They finished their meal and she cleaned up the wrappers and sacks.
“I miss cooking,” she said as he took her hand and led her toward the master bedroom. Excitement coursed through her. She couldn’t wait to see this when it was finished.
They went through the door into their new playroom and Jessica stopped in her tracks. Against the far wall was the frame for a set of stairs, leading to a hole in the roof.
“What is that?”
“That is why I was on the roof,” he said. “Kyle convinced me that we’d have a bigger BDSM playroom if we built it on top of the Little space. What do you think?”
“Kyle knows we’re going to have a BDSM playroom?”
“Sweet pea, they all know,” Hawk said.
Holt knew, that much was for sure, but Jessica wasn’t sure how she would face all the other brothers knowing they knew about her sex life.
“I may die,” she said.
“Quit being melodramatic,” he said. “Tell me what you think about an upstairs BDSM playroom.”
“I think it’s a great idea,” she said. “Do I get to design it?”
“We’ll pick out the toys together,” he said. “Speaking of which…” His voice trailed off, and he went into the bathroom.
“Did you put in my soaker tub?” she asked as she started after him.
“Stay there!” He pointed to the middle of the room. Jessica went back and stood there, her hands clasped in front of her. Seconds later he was back, with bags that she recognized. They were from the adult store in Amarillo, on the disastrous night that she and Aurora had snuck off. Or had it been disastrous? It had brought about “the talk” that had made her admit her feelings.<
br />
In retrospect, she knew it had turned out to be a perfect night. It had brought them closer together. Hawk set the sacks at her feet.
“For our new space?” she asked.
“Do you even remember what you bought?” he asked.
“Not really.” She started to open a sack, then looked at him for permission. He nodded and she reached in and pulled out the first thing she came to—a spreader bar. “Like this. I knew it would be fun, but I don’t remember buying it. By the time I checked out I was pretty pissed.”
She placed the bar on the floor and reached back inside. This time she found the package of ropes and restraints that had so fascinated her. “I want to try this out.”
“Not until the room is ready,” he said. “New toys for a new space. And speaking of which, we have a Little space to design, too.”
Jessica forgot about the bags and went into the Little space. With the outside door it was almost like a playhouse built into a backyard. She imagined painting windows on the walls with curtains pulled back. The room would have a small kitchen where she could make snacks for tea parties, and a coloring space. After she’d revealed her ideas to Hawk he nodded.
Perfect,” he said.
“We’ll have our two spaces right on top of each other,” she said. “Two halves of a whole.”
Hawk stroked her hair back from her face and said, “You make me whole. I’d say we should elope but my mother would kill us.”
“Yes, she would,” Jessica said. “Six months from now?”
“How about a month,” he said. “We don’t want a really big wedding, do we?”
“No,” she said. “All that matters is we’ll be together.”
“Forever,” he said.
Jessica went into his arms and placed her head on his chest.
Forever sounded perfect to her.
Epilogue
Hawk put his hand on Jessica’s and pushed down. The knife sliced through the cake like it was butter, and he heard a soft giggle escape her lips. Convincing her to let Lizbeth and Austin make their wedding cake had not been easy. Jessica had trouble letting go in the kitchen, but in the end it had been Lizbeth who put her foot down and said, “I hear making your own wedding cake is bad luck.”
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