by Becky McGraw
“I was worried, I didn’t know where you’d gotten off to, I’ve been filling in, but I’m not you, that’s for sure,” she said with a laugh, then added looking her over from head to toe, “If you’re sure you’re okay, I’ll finish the gig, so we don’t lose the money, then head back to the hotel to take care of Angel, until you get back.”
“Thanks, Jazz,” she said then leaned down to kiss her cheek. “Knock ‘em dead…and you are as good as me, they’ll never know the difference,” she told her with a pained grin.
Her friend might be a country musician, but you’d never know it by looking at Jazzie. She dressed in spandex jewel tone dresses that accentuated her curves and skyscraper high heels, instead of cowboy boots, for every performance. Her sophistication made her look like she belonged on the stage at the Met, instead of playing fiddle for a country band. And she almost had been…if she’d taken the scholarship to Julliard instead of teaming up with Jess to form this band. Her parents hadn’t been happy, but Jazzie did what she wanted to do, and whatever that was, her parents supported her.
Pointing at Wade, Jazzie narrowed her eyes, then told him fiercely, “You better take care of her, or I’ll kick your ass.” Jess had to laugh, because Jazzie wasn’t kidding, even though she was five foot nothing. Her Latina heritage had given her not only her beautiful black hair and curvaceous body, it gave her a temper as hot as a chili pepper and a fierce protective streak for those she loved.
“Down, girl…” Jess chuckled, then soothed, “We’re just going to the hospital, I’ll be fine…you go kick some butt in there. I’ll see you later.” Jazzie nodded, then turned around and wiggled her fingers backward at her, as she stomped up the back stairs with purpose.
“Your friend is a little intense,” Wade said as he got into the truck and put it in drive again.
“Yeah, but she’s the best friend a girl could ask for…and I love her,” she told him fervently. Dust flew up in the headlights as he drove them over the pot-holed driveway out of the ranch, and Jess gritted her teeth as her leg bounced around, and moaned a couple of times when she couldn’t hold it back.
When they reached the paved road, he looked over at her and said, “Lay down on the seat, sugar, and put your leg up here,” then patted his thigh, and told her, “It’ll help with the swelling.”
Jess didn’t want to get anywhere close to him, because she knew how he affected her, but what he said did make sense, and maybe putting it up would help the pain too. She undid her seatbelt and slid her butt on the seat toward him, then eased her leg up on his lap, and laid back on the bench, with a sigh.
“Better?” he looked down and asked her then slid his hand up her leg to rest it on her thigh.
“Yeah, thanks…” she told him, but groaned, because her ankle did feel better, but now she had pain of another kind a little farther up, as the heat of his fingers scorched her bare skin.
After they’d driven in silence for a little while, he asked softly out of the blue, “Who’s Angel?”
Jess was half asleep and automatically responded, “My dau—” before she caught herself and shut up, wanting to kick her own butt for being so careless.
“Your daughter?” he finished for her then added, “I saw the car seat in the van, and the toys.”
Since the cat was already out of the bag now, it would be strange if she denied it, so she said with resignation, “Yeah, my daughter.”
“How old is she?” he asked curiously.
She had time to think this time, so she hesitated then lied, “Six months…”
“So you were three months pregnant when we were together?” he asked her in disbelief, his hand clenching on her thigh.
“Yeah, I guess so,” she said not wanting to blatantly lie to him again. She hated liars, but Jess supposed that’s exactly what she was now, and didn’t like it much.
“And that guy with you is the father?” he asked suspiciously, with anger tingeing his tone.
Jess choked and started coughing, then asked evasively, “What is this, twenty questions? If so, I have few of my own. And why do think that would be your business?”
“You lied to me, Jessica, so it is my business,” he told her hotly, then accused, “That night you said you hadn’t been with anyone in a long time, then you also said that you didn’t do the ‘Angel’ thing often…lies and more lies. You did it again tonight…did you call Beau and let him know you weren’t gonna make your rendezvous? Poor guy is probably sitting there with his dick in his hand.”
“Did you call the redhead and tell her you weren’t going to show? And why are you so worried about Beau?” Jess spat nastily, tired of his accusations and tired of having to lie.
“Katie Upton is none of your business, just suffice it to say she’s nothing like you, she’s a lady, and we didn’t have a hook-up planned,” he spat then added, “And Beau is the brother of one of my friends, so if someone is trying to play him, then I make that my business too.”
He’d finally come out and said what he was thinking, had basically just called her a tramp…Katie Upton was a lady, and nothing like her? Hurt flowed through her and Jess pushed up on the seat and cringed, then dropped her leg to the floorboard and slid back on her side of the truck. She buckled up then told him quietly, “Travis and Angel are not your business either…”
Jess crossed her arms under her breasts protectively, then looked out the window so he wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes. Glancing down at herself, she realized she was still in her stage clothes. If she didn’t want the people at the hospital to think she was a prostitute, she needed something to cover up with. “Do you have a t-shirt I can borrow?”
“Why, don’t want anyone to see the real you? Ask questions you don’t want to answer?” he asked her in a derisive tone.
At the end of its leash, her anger broke loose and consumed her, so she told him, “Go fuck yourself, you smug bastard. You didn’t seem to mind the way I was a year ago when you were inside of me, and now you’re all self-righteous?”
“A year ago, I didn’t know the real you…I was a fool who believed what a pretty face told him about herself…but I know now, darlin’ and I can’t say I like it.”
Indignation that this judgmental cowboy had the audacity to judge her, ramped up her anger so high, her ears were buzzing with it. “You think you know me, but you don’t know a damned thing. You’re doing is judging me and making assumptions. Yes, I’m a single mother, but I’m not a whore. I work my ass off to support my child, and I take very good care of her.”
“When she grows up, what do you think she’s gonna think of her mama and all her men?” he asked her bluntly, with a heated glance. Jess saw he was squeezing the wheel so tightly his knuckles were white.
“There are no men, Wade…that’s all something you made up in your mind, because you’re jealous and trying to reason out why I don’t want to have anything to do with you. Well, you jerk, with your attitude, why would I want to?”
Jess didn’t harbor regrets, she thought they were a waste of time, but the more she got to know this man, the more she regretted that he was Angel’s father. It was obvious what he thought about her, and it wasn’t justified. Just like she’d told him, he hadn’t been judgmental when he’d wanted to get in her pants, but now he sat back and cast stones at her like he was superior to it all.
Wade grinned widely and that distracting dimple popped in his left cheek, the one that was identical to Angel’s when she smiled her soft baby smile, but this time his grin was edged with smugness. “I’m not jealous, sugar, I just resent being lied to, and being a notch in your bedpost…I won’t be again.”
“Well at least you got something right,” she spat then turned to look out the window again, swearing she was done talking to the irritating and judgmental man. Instead of dropping her off at the hotel, she might just get him to drop her at the hospital then wait for Jazzie and the gang to finish the gig and come get her. She didn’t want to be in his company one minute long
er than she had to.
They made it to he hospital, and Jess tried to slide out of the truck under her own steam, but couldn’t manage it. As much as it aggravated her, she had to wait for a wheelchair, because she couldn’t walk on her ankle.
“Wait here, I’ll be right back,” then ordered gruffly, then stalked inside the sliding glass doors.
When a nurse pushed a chair outside, and Wade walked out behind her, she opened the door and held onto it, so she could at least get out on her own. She didn’t want the cowboy to feel the need to help her, or put his hands on her again. Doing it on her own was a good idea in theory, but when she stood, the blood rushed to her ankle and she groaned as pain shot through her. Her toes were numb, but her ankle sure wasn’t.
Wade immediately ran around the nurse and to her side. “I told you to wait!” he shouted then put his arm under hers to steady her.
Jess grabbed the side of the truck and yelled, “No! Just leave me alone…don’t touch me…” then added firmly, “And I’ll get a ride to the hotel, so you can just get out of here.”
Wade huffed out a frustrated breath then said through gritted teeth, “Stop being stubborn, Jessica, and let me help you.”
“My name isn’t Jessica, you arrogant ass, and I don’t need your help, just go away!” The pain in her ankle had tripled now, and so had her disgust with this man’s ego and attitude.
The nurse who’d been patiently waiting, watching their argument finally asked, ““Ma’am? Can I take you inside now?”
“Yes, please,” Jess said then hopped on one foot to the chair, then turned and sat down, without looking at Wade again.
“Fine,” he said and slammed the passenger door, then stomped around the truck and got in slamming the door behind him. She heard the truck roar to life, then heard a screech of the wheels, as he left.
Two hours later, sitting outside the emergency room doors in a wheelchair, with her ankle in a hot green cast, and her heart in the bottom of her stomach, Jess had another regret…that she’d sent Wade away, because she was mad. Now, she didn’t have a ride, because she’d forgotten there was no cell phone coverage at the Double B ranch, and her purse was in the van, which meant she didn’t even have money to call a cab, or use the pay phone again. She’d had to borrow fifty cents from someone in the waiting room to make the first call to Jazzie’s cell, which didn’t go through.
If worse came to worse, she’d have to try and wheel herself to the hotel, which she thought was about three miles away…or wait until Jazzie or Travis figured out she was stranded here. Giving into the pain medication they’d shot her up with in the emergency room, she slid down in the wheelchair and dozed off.
CHAPTER THREE
The party was pretty much winding down, when Wade got back to the Double B, and everyone was going home. He pulled to a stop outside the tent, and went to find Jazzie to tell her that she needed to go pick her stubborn friend at the hospital. Wade was done fighting with her, he was only telling Jazzie, because he wanted to make sure she had a ride.
The things he’d discovered about the lithe blond tonight, pretty much told him he didn’t want to have anything else to do with her. Not only was she a conniving liar and a player, her morals seemed to be pretty damned shaky. Wade never thought he’d see the day when he met a woman he thought was too wild for him, but he could now say, he’d met that woman. Her games were Olympic caliber events…she had her routine down pat, and definitely scored tens on execution. The men she targeted didn’t have a chance.
Wade considered himself a decent judge of character, and he couldn’t resign himself to the fact that he’d been so damned wrong about her though. Now that he’d calmed down some, a few pieces of the Jess puzzle didn’t quite fit in his mind.
For one, when they’d made love a year ago, if she’d been three months pregnant, he felt sure her stomach would have been at least a little rounded, it hadn’t been…it was concave if anything…and there weren’t any other typical signs either, not that he’d been with any pregnant women that he knew of, but he wasn’t totally dense to the signs.
The first person he saw when he walked under the tent was Beau Bowman, who was talking to Jazzie by the stage, flirting with her. It was obvious to him then that Jess hadn’t lied about not having a meeting planned with Beau. That man was a straight shooter, and he wouldn’t be flirting with one, if he had plans with the other. Wade got an uneasy feeling in his stomach, when he walked over to them.
Jazzie immediately broke away from Beau and walked toward him. With concern pinching her black brows together, she demanded, “How’s Jess? Where is she?”
Wade swallowed hard, knowing this spitfire who was Jess’s best friend was not going to be happy with him, “I don’t know, I left her at the hospital…”
She put her hand on her curvy hip, then leaned forward and narrowed her eyes, and Wade knew she was building up steam to blast him. The fiery little Latina’s face reddened and she took a step toward him, then put her finger in his chest, and hissed, “What the hell do you mean, you left her at the hospital? You promised you were going to take care of her! If this is how you do that, then I’m glad she didn’t tell you!”
Guilt flooded him, because she was right, but how could he take care of someone who didn’t want to be taken care of? “She told me to leave her there, she didn’t want my help,” he said defensively.
“I don’t give a damn, you should have stayed! She’s stubborn and hard-headed and when she gets in a snit, she’s even worse! What did you say to her?”
Something Jazzie said a minute ago, finally settled in his mind and worked its way to the front. Wade narrowed his eyes and asked, “What is it you’re glad she didn’t tell me, Jazzie?”
The woman’s face got even redder and her eyes widened in horror, then she covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head then said, “Nothing,” and turned to walk away.
Wade took two steps and caught up to her then grabbed her shoulder, and grated, “Tell me, Jazzie…what is it that Jess didn’t tell me.”
“I can’t tell you…it’s not my place to tell you,” she said with determination.
Wade figured maybe he could trick her into telling him, so he went fishing. “She did tell me, if it’s Angel you’re talking about,” he said trying to keep an even tone. This had to be the issue, because there wasn’t much else that Jess had been evasive about.
Jazzie spun around to face him, her dark eyes wide with shock, as she said breathlessly, “I don’t believe you…she wouldn’t.”
Her reaction told him that whatever Jess had held back, it had to do with her baby, and that made his stomach lurch, and his heart rate kick up. He didn’t think she was pregnant when they’d had sex a year ago, and now her best friend had basically told him there was something she wasn’t telling him about the baby.
Two and Two still added up to four, and Wade felt his heart drop through the floor, as he cast his line out again, “Yeah, and I want to see my daughter, that’s what we argued about…” he lied and tried to keep his face neutral, although the blood was pounding so hard through his body, he heard it in his ears.
“That’s something you’ll need to talk to Jess about…” she said and tears filled her eyes, then she finished with a shake of her dark head, “I can’t believe she told you…she said she’d never do that.”
“She didn’t, but you just did,” Wade told her with so much fury heating his blood, he was afraid it was going to boil out of his ears, then he shouted incredulously, “I can’t believe she didn’t tell me, since that kid is mine too.” Wade looked around and saw the remaining guests from the party had all stopped talking and were watching him intently, including Cassie and Luke.
Beau Bowman stepped up and put his hand on Wade’s shoulder, and said quietly, “Maybe we should take this outside so there’s not an audience, man.”