by Em Petrova
He sliced a look at Kaoz.
She caught Cort’s eyes again. “And that the box won’t be empty.”
“You drive a hard bargain, but I agree. Next time you need a table delivered, don’t hesitate. And make more o’ that.” He pointed to the pan on the table.
She took two more takeout containers and heaped both with the rest of the brisket, saving herself only a small portion for her own dinner. The men watched her like eager little boys waiting for hot fudge sundaes. When she handed them each their boxes, they leaned down for her kiss on the cheek.
“Best get back to the ranch. Thanks for the goodies, Jada,” Cort called on his way out. Kaoz threw her a grin and a wave, leaving her alone in the kitchen of her new restaurant.
She gave a happy sigh. Her family had been so supportive. As soon as they learned she was taking over Mortimer’s, Joss and the guys as well as their wives showed up with buckets of champagne—and some ginger ale for Joss. They’d christened the place, and Jada had the memory of her hangover to show for that special night when she signed the agreement with Mortimer.
She emptied the grease left in the pan into the trash and then carried the heavy pan to the big sink to wash it up. After that, she wandered into the indoor dining area. Only six tables fit indoors, but in Georgia, most people wanted to eat at the picnic tables outside. She drifted to the glass door to peer out across her holdings.
Then she spotted someone coming out of the building across the way. Up until a few days ago, a for-sale sign had been pinned up at the window of what used to be a battery warehouse. Before that, the building served as a kitchen store. Before that… Well, she forgot all the purposes the building served over the years, but it looked as if the place had adopted a new use.
After pushing open the door with the flat of her hand, she stood watching a pair of men carry things in and then return to a box truck for more.
Whatever was going in across the street would only benefit her business. Reviving this section of town wouldn’t be a bad thing.
She settled her gaze on a wide set of shoulders belonging to one of the men carrying boxes inside. If she didn’t know better, she might guess it to be Dom.
He ducked under the doorway. Seconds later, he appeared again. She squinted against the afternoon sun, hoping to make out his features. Then he laughed at something the other man said.
Jada froze. That toss of his head when he laughed…
No, it couldn’t be Dom. She was only feeling emotional at all the progress she’d made with her life over the past few weeks and her brain played tricks on her with shoulda, coulda, woulda beens.
The men returned to the truck and carried something long between them. They leaned it against the side of the building and one pulled out a blade to remove the taped wrappings from it.
When the packaging fell away, a low scream escaped from her.
SAVAGE’S BARBECUE
“No. No way. No freakin’ way!” Every muscle, tendon and sinew in her body tensed. She thought she might have a stroke. Or one of those conniptions that her momma always talked about when she and Joss misbehaved at church on Sunday.
She only knew one Savage, and it was the man who dumped her to go off for the winning belt buckles.
Leaning forward at the waist, she stared hard at that set of wide shoulders. No. It can’t be.
There had to be a logical explanation. And she would not hyperventilate, no matter what acrobatics her lungs felt like doing at the second.
She’d heard about celebrity types always dabbling in businesses, trying to grow their fortunes into millions. That had to be it—Dom was an investor.
Did it matter who invested? Why did they think it was fine to slap another barbecue restaurant two hundred paces from hers?
She didn’t know she screamed again until the two men looked up. Oh no. Now she was starting to sing.
Her nervous habit when angered was to sing something fun and upbeat. So “Dixie” started spurting from her lips, and she knew she was in trouble.
The men looked her direction. She felt that stare on her and all the soft, jelly-like parts of her body that weren’t muscle, tendon and sinew seemed to slump over, leaving her weak.
She could feel that stare from two hundred paces. How would her body react if she marched over to him and told him off?
I’m about to find out.
She took off across the road to show her ex what she was made of.
* * * * *
Dom’s buddy Theo nudged him in the arm.
He looked up to follow Theo’s finger. A fist of surprise socked him in the guts, and the air whooshed from his lungs. The last person he expected to see at that moment paused at the edge of the main road running through Crossroads. She glanced right and left before continuing on in determined strides that made her legs appear much longer than he knew they were.
“Who’s that?” Theo drawled out.
The interest echoing in his buddy’s tone made Dom want to shove him into the building and slam the door shut.
“That’s my ex.”
Theo snorted. “Oh yeah. Jada. I see her resemblance to Cort’s wife. Good luck, bro. I don’t do pissed-off exes.”
Dom sized up Jada. Everything from the way she strode toward him to the swing of her arms told him that Theo could be right. A bee had gotten into her bonnet and she was about to give him a piece of her mind.
Theo vanished into the building, leaving Dom to watch the woman approach him. Goddamn, she was beautiful. From her thick blonde hair twined into a braid dangling over one shoulder to the way her hips twitched in jeans slung low enough to flash a peek at her tanned midriff. Her baby blue T-shirt had been knotted at the side of her stomach, and everything in Dom’s stomach gripped hard.
What a fool he’d been to break things off with her. The only reason he hadn’t suggested a long-distance relationship was knowing how terrible they always turned out. He didn’t want her hating him—but the sparks shooting from her brown eyes said that she hated him anyway.
She got close enough he could see the whites of her eyes. Why did he feel as if he was about to be challenged to a shootout? She stopped ten paces away and settled a fist on her hip.
“What is that?” she demanded.
Her clear voice carried all the power it once had over him, when they’d spent hours chatting over coffee. He’d managed to forget what he knew back then—that Jada Ellis moved him—she moved mountains of stubbornness and made him want to be a better man.
But he’d walked away from it all to follow his dreams. If he hadn’t left Crossroads, and he ended up marrying her, he would have always wondered how far he could go on the rodeo circuit. Eventually, years of marriage and children would result in him resenting her holding him back. What should he have done?
At least he didn’t resent her—he only felt disgust with himself for figuring this all out a few months too late.
“Well?” She nodded toward his new sign.
He lifted a hand to rub at the scar on his jaw, barely hidden by the stubble growing there. “I admit the sign could use some work. But the people associate the blue letters of Savage with me. I’m hoping that goes the distance until I can order a real sign.” He looked over the long plank of wood painted white with blue lettering.
Her faint eyebrow shot up. “I mean,” she said in a slow and even manner as if his cylinders weren’t all firing, “what does the sign mean?”
He pointed. “Says right here—barbecue.”
“I can read.” The sparks shooting from her eyes amplified until they had laser force. “I mean why are you opening a barbecue restaurant across from a barbecue restaurant?” Each word she spoke dipped lower in volume until the deadly tone became a whisper.
“Oh that. It’s the only building I could lease that fits my vision.”
“Your vision.” Her teeth landed on her plump lower lip, and her brows pulled together.
He stared at her. “What am I missing?”
&nbs
p; “You’re missing the fact that my barbecue restaurant is directly across from the one you’re planning to put in!”
“Your—” He broke off and shook his head in confusion. “Your restaurant?”
“Yes, I just bought the business, and having competition two hundred steps from my front doors does not make me happy!”
“About that—” He grew distracted by her shifting her weight to a rounded hip and folding her arms, which boosted her breasts an inch higher.
A finger of desire slipped down the length of his cock.
“I figured this town’s big enough for both barbecue restaurants. Besides, Mortimers always did chicken and wings. I’m serving other things.”
“What kind of other things?”
“Pulled pork. Brisket.”
Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she slammed the lids down over them. For several heartbeats, she didn’t open her eyes or say a word, giving him ample time to study her beautiful face. God, he’d missed her.
When she popped her eyes open and fixed her brown gaze on him, he found it hard to draw air again.
“You can’t stay, Savage. You have to move your restaurant.”
“Sorry to upset you, but I signed a lease.”
“Un-sign it. Or better yet, move to the next town. You’re good at picking up and moving on.”
Ouch. That blow hit below the belt, but he deserved it after what he’d done to her, getting so close during the months he spent visiting his grandpa and then finally asking her to date, only to dump her and leave town.
“Jada, I know this must be a surprise. I’m just as surprised to find you’re my competition.”
“Uh-huh.” Her flat tone cut through several layers of his heart like a whip.
“I didn’t know you bought Mortimer’s.”
“Why are you opening a restaurant? Did you get kicked out of the rodeo again?”
He prickled with irritation and his guts churned at the real reason for leaving it. “I realized I’m better suited to other ventures.”
“Which is killing off women’s dreams. Gotcha.” She spun to go.
God, what he wouldn’t give to grab her up, kiss the hell out of her and then bend her over the nearest picnic table.
He curled his fingers into fists. “Jada!”
She glanced over her shoulder at him.
“We’ll see if this town’s too small for two barbecue joints.”
“Guess so.”
He watched her march back across the street. The way she strode, so militantly, her shoulders thrust back and head held high, and the last words she tossed at him both warned him that she was about to launch an attack.
Any woman willing to shove a big man with the nickname Savage into the pond would have something up her sleeve.
He felt the corner of his lips tug.
Long after she disappeared through the front door of her own restaurant, he stood there.
Theo poked his head out. “Is the coast clear?”
Dom chuckled. “Yeah, she’s gone.”
“She’s not too happy to have you as competition, is she?”
“You could say that.”
“You didn’t know she bought the place?”
“Didn’t your momma ever teach you not to eavesdrop?”
“Yeah, but I figured that only applied to conversations about Christmases and birthdays.”
Dom wagged his head at Theo’s antics. They’d known each other since Dom’s first amateur rodeo event, and Theo had taught him a few tricks to get through the elimination round. Now he worked as a ranch hand on the Bellamy, where their friendship had really been solidified.
“No, Jada isn’t very happy. My grandpa told me she quit as a nurse at Crossroads Manor, but I never would have guessed she bought a restaurant.” It seemed the furthest from the Jada he knew.
A dozen questions blasted through his mind. What he wouldn’t give to sit her down and ask what prompted her to walk away from nursing, a field she once claimed to love, and take up, of all things, ownership of a barbecue restaurant?
When he mentioned the menu items he planned to serve, she looked about to pass out or start slinging rib bones at him.
“Wanna grab that prep station off the truck next?” Theo’s question interrupted the flow of his thoughts.
“Yeah, let’s do it.” He shot another look toward Jada’s place. The glass front door swung open, and she walked out in those long, purposeful strides again. She had a cloth in hand and proceeded to wipe off the picnic tables lined up in the grassy spot beside the parking lot.
He’d wondered why business was so slow when he didn’t see a single car in front, but it was clear that she was in the process of making changes. Upon closer inspection, he noted the fresh coat of white trim paint and how the table umbrellas seemed to be scrubbed to bright white that contrasted sharply against the brilliant red stripes.
The Mortimer’s sign remained the same, though. He wondered what she’d call her establishment. Jada’s Home Cookin’ or Jada’s Barbecue Chicken both had a ring.
Seeing her cute, round little ass jutting his direction as she furiously wiped off a table left his Levis a bit too tight. Then he realized Theo was rubber-necking too as he crossed the parking lot to the truck. Dom threw out a hand to smack him in the chest.
“Stop starin’ at her.”
“Touchy, aren’t ya?”
Dom lifted a brow.
“Fine, fine. I see how it is. You still like her.”
What wasn’t to like? Jada was the girl next door with a kind heart and—he knew from their current interaction—enough sass to keep a man toeing the line and guessing at the same time.
She moved to the next table, knelt on the bench and began rubbing her cloth all over the surface.
Theo stopped alongside him to stare.
Dom smacked him again, this time upside the head. “I said stop starin’.”
“Sorry, man. It’s just that she’s got a rockin’ body.”
He grunted. She did. Besides being amazing to look at, it felt great tucked up against him.
He hadn’t gotten further than a couple bases with her. A woman like Jada deserved to be savored, and he took his time getting to know her before ever asking her out. That first date, he’d taken her to the movies and he sat in the dark wanting to drag her onto his lap and press his erection into her firm, round ass. Instead, he’d found her fingers in the dark. He still clearly saw her expression when she turned her head to smile at him.
Hand-holding and tender kisses morphed to more insistent touches, and she’d allowed him to slide a hand underneath her top and feel her breasts.
He put on the brakes there, and he was glad he did. If he’d taken her to bed, it would have looked so much worse when he ended things. He never, ever wanted Jada to feel he had used her for a cheap thrill.
Theo leaped into the back of the truck, and Dom used the ramp. Maneuvering the heavy prep station took some doing, but once they got the power of their thigh muscles behind the work, they quickly removed the long, stainless steel unit from the truck and carried it inside.
A glance across the street revealed that Jada had stopped working to watch. He experienced a pang at the thought that she was working with all the decades-old equipment Mortimer owned, while he’d ordered brand new. But she had the advantage with loyal customers who’d run inside as soon as she opened her doors.
When would that be? She must be ready to open, and he’d take another week at least.
“You really think Crossroads is big enough to support two restaurants that are so similar?” Theo seemed to voice the big question in Dom’s head.
He nodded. “Yeah, I do.” When Theo didn’t speak again or look again, Dom said, “What? Don’t you?”
“Sure, man. Lots of business for everyone.”
He raised his head. The distance between businesses seemed bigger than a couple hundred steps. As Jada met his gaze, the rift felt like a canyon.
“It’ll
be good for both our businesses. What I don’t have here, customers can buy from her, and the opposite.”
“Sounds like you got it all worked out, Dom. Savage’s Barbecue’s bound to be a huge hit.” They carried the station inside. After they emerged, he saw Jada’s doors closed up tight, no sign of her anywhere, and even her truck was gone.
Chapter Three
Jada tapped her pen against her teeth as she stared down at the marketing plan she was creating.
Several scribbles covered the page, and she’d scribbled a few notes in the upper corner to use in another week. But overall, she felt pretty satisfied with her ideas.
Carolee, an older employee who’d stayed on after the business changed hands, dropped into the seat across the table from her. “What’d you come up with, hon?” Her drawl and bleach-blonde hair said Georgia like nothing else could.
Jada glanced over the page and then slid it across the shiny clean surface of the table to her employee. “I’d appreciate your feedback. You’ve been here long enough to know what works and what doesn’t.”
Beaming, Carolee accepted the paper and hunched over the table to read it while Jada sat back, hovering over pins and needles to see if her first marketing plan would resonate with locals.
“Ohhh, Friday night date night!” Carolee sang out.
“Yes. Everyone comes out for the special anyway, but with a buy one get one free special, I thought we might drum up double the business.”
Carolee smiled. “It’s a great idea. Over the years, Mortimer ran similar specials. Buy one whole rotisserie chicken, get one free. We sold out of chicken two weeks running, until he figured out how much to increase our shipment.”
“You don’t think it’s giving away too much?”
Carolee slid her gaze to the window beside where they sat. She didn’t need to guess what the woman was looking at—Carolee’s attention fixed on Savage’s Barbecue. The building, newly painted in a bright blue to match his dumb sign, had so many cars slowing to gawk at the newest business in town that more than once Jada had experienced a sinking in her stomach.