Love in Deed: A Silver Fox Small Town Romance (Green Valley Library Book 6)

by Smartypants Romance

  “Howard?” Jedd questions.

  “Jedd Flemming?” Howard inquires, equally surprised and giving him a nod as if recognition comes quick. I recall that somehow, Jedd knows Howard.

  He wasn’t a friend, Jedd assured me, but what he was I don’t know. However, the tension between them might be thicker than the air between Howard and me.

  “What’s he doing here?” Howard asks, running his eyes up and down Jedd.

  “He built a stable on the farm,” I state, kicking myself for offering Howard any information. The farm is no longer his concern. It hasn’t been for twenty years.

  “I’ve heard.” Howard turns back to me with a false smile, his teeth showing. “Heard the farm was turning profitable.”

  I’m slow to register what Howard’s said, but Jedd steps forward. “Is that why you’re here?”

  For a moment, I’m caught in a warp of wonder, and I want to snap, Maybe Howard’s here for me? Could that be possible? But quickly, I erase the thought. He’s here because he’s heard of the divorce. It’s the only reason he’s returned.

  “I’ve heard the farm has horses for rodeo.”

  My heart stops.

  It isn’t me.

  It isn’t us.

  Howard’s after money.

  Every fiber of my being screams to tell him to get out, get off my land, yet I can’t find the words. It’s like my tongue is swollen, filling my mouth. Like a child with too much food in her cheeks, I can’t speak.

  “You’ve got no business here,” Jedd defends.

  “My business is her,” Howard remarks, nodding in my direction.

  “Over my dead body,” Jedd growls, and for the first time, I notice another man is witness to this farcical pissing match in my driveway. Tower Hudson, I presume, fits his name. Tall and lanky with a wave of rust-colored hair and beard to match, he looks as if he hatched from the Appalachian Mountains around us. Then I see the scar. A gapping gash down the right side of his face from eye to lip. Unable to help myself, I gasp, and intense blue eyes catch mine.

  He nods once in recognition of what’s startled me, but he doesn’t lean forward to introduce himself. His hold is on Jedd, long fingers firmly over each of Jedd’s shoulders preventing Jedd from lunging at Howard.

  A moment later, another thought clicks into place. Jedd’s only here for the horses as well. Protecting his investment.

  “What do you want, Howard?” I ask, knowing we don’t need to discuss anything. I’d always struggled to come to terms with why Howard had left me, how he could’ve stepped out on me, and how he could’ve abandon his child, but now I have an epiphany as he stands before me. I don’t care for his answers. I no longer want them. I just want him gone again.

  “We have things to discuss, baby,” he sweet-talks in that patronizing tone, making my bones rattle.

  “You’ve got nothing to say to her,” Jedd interjects, and my head cranes in his direction. My mouth gapes, ready to defend myself when Howard steps forward.

  “I have plenty to say, and it doesn’t involve you.” Howard’s head twists from Jedd to me and then back to Jedd. His weaseling eyes narrow, intensifying the crow’s feet at the corners. “Unless you’re involved with each other.”

  Howard’s tone is so accusatory I want to smack him. How dare he? He will not make me feel guilty for something he’s done a thousand times over.

  Still, a twinge of unwarranted guilt rustles forward. Sensing a shift in me, Jedd reaches over for me again.

  “Bee,” he whispers, his hand making contact, and even though I twist out of his grasp, he follows the retraction by gripping the back of my shirt. “Bee, you did nothing wrong. We did nothing wrong.”

  “Whatever stunt you’re pulling isn’t going to work any longer,” Howard warns Jedd, but Jedd isn’t listening to Howard. His focus is on me. I can feel his eyes watching me as mine are lowered to the dirt at my feet. My body slumps over my crutches. I don’t tremble as much as I suddenly feel like all the blood has been drained from my body. I’m too weak to hold myself up, and I’m tired, so very tired.

  “Bee, honey,” Jedd mutters again, but with his inability to be quiet, the endearment is heard by all of us.

  “Honey?” Howard snorts. “Get off my land, Jedd.” My gaze flicks from Howard to Jedd and back to the dirt. Jedd straightens, continuing to clutch at my shirt as if he’s afraid I’ll try to make a break for it, and he won’t let me go.

  “Go,” I’d whispered once to him.

  “No,” he’d said in return.

  How far could I even get in my condition?

  He was with another woman.

  The reminder makes me stand a little taller.

  “I think you should go,” I say in a voice scratchy and rough, like little nails crawling within my throat.

  “You can’t mean that.” Jedd’s head spins in my direction, his eyes wide as ours clash. His are stormy midnight with questioning and concern. He roams my face, strokes over my lips, and returns to my eyes. “No, Bee.”

  “I heard about your date,” I whisper, despite our audience. “I think you should leave.”

  Jedd jostles my clutched shirt, stepping forward into the space between my crutches.

  “What?” His tone rings angry. “I didn’t go on a date.”

  “Last night. Hannah saw you,” I state, exhaling in hopes not to inhale the scent of him. Manly. Woodsy. Horse. My eyes close.

  “Where is my daughter?” Howard asks as if he’s an English gentleman come to claim his offspring. He has no right to her, and for a moment, I send up a quick prayer of gratitude she’s an adult.

  “I did not have a date,” Jedd continues, as we both ignore Howard. “I went to dinner with my sister.”

  “Your sister?” I question. Jedd’s very rarely mentioned his siblings, and it’s a reminder he’s still a stranger in many ways.

  “I…” Jedd stops as he licks his lips.

  “Your sister,” Howard interjects in a long-drawn-out breath, and a chuckle fills his throat. “How is Janice?”

  The pause between Howard’s question, and the twitch in Jedd’s jaw drags out for an eternity.

  Janice is the name of my attorney.

  Janice is the name of the girl to whom Howard was engaged.

  Janice is the name of Jedd’s sister.

  “Janice Julius,” I mouth to no one in particular, but Jedd reads my lips and closes his eyes. His hand slips from my shirt and swipes down his face.

  “Get off my land,” Howard repeats with more dominance in his voice along with a touch of excitement, as if he’s one-upped Jedd somehow. Only, I’m the one turned upside down. I don’t understand the connections.

  His sister. Howad’s ex-fiancée. My attorney.

  “Beverly.” My name is a plea in Jedd’s voice.

  “You should go,” I repeat.

  “I am not leaving,” he states, his voice rising louder than it already is. Actually, I don’t want him to leave. I want him to sweep me off my feet, tell me he loves me, and get us out of here. But this isn’t a fairy tale, even if Howard is a villain. And I’m so confused. Jedd’s sister was Howard’s ex-fiancée. He must have known who I was then. The pregnant girl who stole Howard from her.

  “What are you doing here?” My eyes narrow. “Is this some kind of joke?” Is he here for retribution for his sister? Is this Ewell and Crawford all over again?

  “I told you I wanted to borrow the land.”

  “The land,” Howard scoffs. “Your family forfeited it. You lost it.”

  “You stole it.” Jedd turns on Howard. “You took advantage of Boone.”

  Who’s Boone? But I don’t ask. I’m still reeling between the two men arguing over stealing and taking.

  “None of that matters,” Howard states, holding his head higher as he swipes a thin hand down his front, and I notice a stain near the beltline. “It’s mine now. So get off it.”

  “It’s hers, and you know it.”

  The space around us s
tills to silence.

  “Pardon me?” I ask, my voice rings low as I glare at Jedd. His eyes close for a moment.

  “Howard holds the rights to the farm,” I clarify. I’d like to argue it’s ours in deed, collectively as a married couple, but I’m certain Ewell left everything to his son.

  “No,” Jedd corrects. “He doesn’t.”

  “Jedd,” Howard warns, but a question lingers in his tone. Through gritted teeth, Howard hisses, “This is not your concern.”

  “What do you mean?” I ask, still facing Jedd, whose eyes meet mine once again, but there’s a shift in the midnight color. Something I’ve never seen in the teasing orbs—fear. Fear, because he knows something I don’t yet clearly should. My voice fluctuates between a rasp and a groan. “What do you know?”

  “He doesn’t own the land, Beverly. You do.”

  The trees in the distance stop rustling. The wind halts in blowing. The barn seems to straighten as the statement swirls around me.

  “What?” I ask, the question drawn out like a whistle.

  “Jedd, I’m warning you,” Howard begins, stepping forward. “Get off my land.” Tower shifts, placing his body between my husband and my lover. The pit of my stomach rolls over, and tears prickle in my eyes.

  Jedd exhales, wiping down his face one more time. “I was going to tell you.”

  I shake my head in disbelief.

  “Janice Julius was Ewell’s attorney when he was sick. She handled his will, and Ewell willed the land to you. Everything is yours, Beverly. Yours and Hannah’s.”

  I can’t process what he’s saying to me. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I guess he loved you more than his own son.”

  I blink, astonished. “I mean, how do you know this?”

  Jedd pauses a beat. “Janice is my sister.”

  His sister. Howard’s love. Ewell’s attorney. My attorney.

  “You need to go.” His eyes widen a fraction and then harden. Howard claps his hands together once, so loudly my shoulders flinch and my heart skips.

  “I’m not leaving.”

  Howard interjects, “Yes, you are. And don’t think you can hole up at that old house like your retard brother.” The next minute happens so quickly, it takes me a moment to register Jedd clocks Howard in the jaw, forcing him back against the hood of his car. He quickly recovers himself, hesitantly moving his lower face side to side.

  “That’s assault,” Howard states as if he’s an expert at law.

  “You’re lucky I don’t murder you,” Jedd threatens.

  Tower shifts between the men again, and Howard retorts, “That’s a threat. Beverly is my witness.”

  “Beverly is nothing to you,” Jedd hollers, and I’m not certain how to take his meaning, but I have other questions.

  “What house?”

  “Baby, there are things you don’t need to concern yourself with,” Howard mocks me, reminding me of his past opinions. He thinks I’m stupid, worthless, uneducated, and ridiculous. I will away the memories and glare at Jedd.

  “Crawfords,” Jedd clarifies, and I stare at him, confusion written on my face.

  “I don’t underst—”

  “Jedd is Crawford’s son. Janice is his sister,” Howard clarifies, the tone patronizing once again as if he needs to draw me a diagram.

  “But you said Hasting…” I stare at Jedd, my brows pinch.

  “Hasting Crawford, you—” Howard stops, but ninny floats unsaid. “Not like that, you ninny.” “Over here, you ninny.” Recall rushes through my head like a file cabinet opening and a gust of wind tossing out the papers.

  “Baby,” Howard self-corrects. “Hasting Crawford, baby.” Howard’s voice does nothing to soothe me.

  “But you’re Jedd Flemming,” I stress. Did he lie to me? Is he someone who he isn’t? I step back from him, swaying on my crutches, and this time, Tower reaches out for me. Long fingers curl over my upper arm to steady me, and I meet the sorrowful eyes of someone trapped in an awkward situation.

  “Ma’am,” he mutters, and I nod to acknowledge I can stand on my own.

  “Hasting Crawford was my stepfather,” Jedd clarifies. He reaches for me himself, as if worried I’ll fall back.

  “But Crawford was…” the neighbor. Our neighbor. My neighbor. The land Howard won in a poker game. You stole it. The land Ewell coveted after the death of his sister and the loss of his love. You took advantage of Boone. My gaze drifts from Howard to Jedd as I slowly piece things together.

  “So Janice was…” the woman he was engaged to when I got pregnant. The woman he claimed he loved more than anyone. The woman who he planned to run away with.

  “But she is your…” sister. I’ve lost control to complete thoughts as I look at Jedd. If Howard had married Janice, Ewell hoped to obtain the land, settling the Townsen-Crawford feud forever. Instead, Janice left Howard because of me, and then Howard won the land from the gambling son.

  “You?” Did Jedd gamble away the family land? Did he lose it to Howard?

  “Boone,” Jedd adds. “My half-brother Boone, who’s younger than me, lost the land.”

  Howard claps again, and the sound echoes. My head turns as if in slow motion as I glance up at him, now perched on the hood of his car.

  “Well, now that we’ve taken a trip down memory lane and drawn the family tree, I repeat, get the fuck off my property,” Howard states.

  “Beverly’s property,” Jedd corrects.

  My property.

  I blink.

  I blink again.

  Jedd comes into focus, and my eyes widen.

  “The house on the edge of the land. Your brother lived there, and that’s why you asked about it.” I pause, still gathering my thoughts. “Which means the land you lost…”

  Where I’m from doesn’t exist anymore.

  Because it’s mine.

  “Is this what you wanted?” My voice cracks, the threat of tears no longer a hint but a thundering warning. Jedd doesn’t answer me, and to my surprise, Howard holds perfectly still with his arms crossed and his head lowered. “Is this why you wanted to marry me?”

  Howard’s head shoots up, and he stares at Jedd, but Jedd hasn’t moved. Only his nostrils flare, the anger of a wild horse ready to buck. His hand fisted at his side.

  “Things changed.”

  “But you wanted the land,” I shout, swallowing back the tears. I will not cry in front of these men. These horrible, despicable, distrustful men. “You wanted the land, and I own it.” Reality hits hard. “You knew I owned it.”

  I pause, gathering the achy thought and the will to hold back tears. “It wasn’t never about me. Never me, but the land.”

  “Bee.” His mouth moves, but all I hear is the blood rushing in my ears. A cathartic thump, thump, thump reminding me I’m alive when I wish the earth would open and bury me six feet under. He steps up to me, ignoring both Howard and Tower, boxing me in as he does, stroking my hair behind my ear. “Bee, it’s me. You know me. I’ve told you. Only you. This is the life I’ve always wanted, and I want it with you.”

  Because he wants my land. And just like Howard, once Jedd has what he wants, he’ll be gone.

  No, no more.

  “You need to leave,” I tell him. Straightening my shoulders, I hold my head upright with the final strength remaining in my body. But I close my eyes. I can’t look at him.

  “No.” Jedd holds my upper arms, but Tower’s arm crosses the front of his friend’s body. He’s taller than Jedd’s six feet, and his arm crooks near Jedd’s throat.

  “It’s time to go,” he mutters with a smoky voice, but it’s enough to warn Jedd.

  “I’m not leaving you,” he says to me, and my eyes open, quickly meeting his before shifting to Tower. He’s witnessed enough as an outsider, and it’s time to take someone out of the ring. Tower presses at Jedd, forcing him aside, and Jedd takes the balancing step. He continues to pace with one foot methodically behind the other, but he reaches out for me with his cla
w. The two tongs snap, and Howard starts beside me. “I am not walking away but giving you space. I am not leaving you.” His voice grows louder, determined, willing me to hear him.

  He’s not leaving me.

  “Egad, that’s wicked-looking,” Howard mutters still focused on Jedd’s metal hand, and I shift my gaze to him, my husband. Howard is a wicked being. My eyes drift back to Jedd, who is practically dragged backward by Tower. Eventually, he pushes his friend off him. He stops once in the drive, yards away from me, and I brace myself, thinking he’ll run back to me. He’ll pick me up and run away with me. Then he turns, and my heart shatters as I watch the most beautiful man I’ve known walk away.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  [Jedd]

  “Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.” I’ve been repeating the sentiment for the past two hours, one hour of which I’ve laid here, sprawled on Vernon’s couch in his office. My right arm covers my eyes. My head hasn’t gotten the memo yet that I want to be drunk. I’m on my fourth beer and contemplating switching to the stronger stuff in hopes to numb myself faster.

  “You don’t know she let Howard stay,” Vernon mutters, commiserating with me, but he’s only on his second beer. From his seat, Tower silently peels the label off his bottle, lingering with his first. I should take a moment and beg his forgiveness for getting him into this mess, but he’s already stopped me twice from apologizing.

  “She didn’t let me stay,” I mutter, adding another fuck in my head. She couldn’t mean it. She didn’t really want me to go. But that look... “You should have seen how she looked at me.” She questioned if I wanted her or the land. I’ve survived bucking broncs, an invasion overseas, and an electrical wire, but the look on Beverly’s face when she learned the truth, when she connected the dots, when she questioned me.

  I shake my head, my nose brushing at my elbow. Beverly’s eyes said so much—it was the opposite of wanting to douse me in gasoline and set me alight. It was hurt. Pure, unadulterated, kick-her-in-the-gut pain and it gutted me.