Chapter and Verse (22 page)

I had no clue I could hold my breath that long, but I found myself practically hyperventilating when I started breathing again.

“
Well good.  Thank-you.  What did he say when you told him THAT?”

“
He said fine.”

“
Fine?”

“
Yes, fine.”

“
You mean, ‘fine we won’t sleep together’, or ‘fine I’ll get a ring’?”

She looked at me as if I switched to Swedish in mid phrase.

“
Dorothy, how the hell do I know what goes on in my son’s head?  One minute he’s a sought after millionaire bachelor and the next minute he’s talking about rings and moving his girlfriend into his bedroom.  I can’t keep up with this shit any more than you can.  You want some bourbon for that lemonade?”

“
Uhm... yes please.”

“
Good.  Me too.  I’ll be right back.”

She disappeared back into the house and I kept on churning.  It was a good distraction.  How could I avoid sleeping with him if he pulled stunts like this?  Another thing, I needed to find out what his idea of “fine” was.  I was supposed to be making HIM nervous, not the other way around.

Bree came back with a pint bottle and poured a healthy dollop of amber liquid into my lemonade, then repeated it with hers.

“
There.  That should do it.”

She took a long drink and then turned to me.

“
So what are you gonna do with him?”

“
Ma’am?”

“
My son.  Deacon.  What’s the plan?”

“
We haven’t talked yet, so I don’t know.  He seems to think that we’re an ‘us’ and it’s inevitable whether I like it or not.  That’s the way it is.”

She waved her hand in front of her face and took another swig.  I got the distinct feeling that Bree wasn’t a drinker.

“
Bullshit.  You’ve always got a choice and don’t let him convince you otherwise.  However.  I’d still like to keep you in the family.  So if Deacon is off the menu, may I suggest Pierce?  Anton is just as bad as Deacon only different.  Pierce is everybody’s sweetheart.  You’d do good with him.”

Why did I feel like I was in a meat market and Sloans were on Special?  I mean, what do you say to that anyway?

“
Bree, I appreciate the offer and you’re right.  Pierce is a teddy bear and any woman would be lucky to have him...”

“
Why do I feel a ‘but’ coming on?  You’re into bad boys aren’t you?  You don’t look the type, but I can feel for you.  Grant was a bad boy and I fell hard.”

Whoa.  Back up the truck.  Grant?  A bad boy?  Cow milking, beekeeping Grant?  I’m sorry but I almost blew nasty tasting lemonade out of my nose.  I kept it together and kept on churning.

Bree was watching me closely.

“
Believe me, I know it’s hard to believe NOW, but you should have known him when we first got married.  All that black wavy hair and those blue eyes.  He filled his Levis out too, let me tell you.”

Oh god.  Please don’t.  And yet, she continued.

“
He rode a motorcycle and wore a heavy denim jacket like James Dean.”

I could see it now.  Rebel Without a Cow.

“
The first time my folks heard that thing pull up, they locked me in my room.  Daddy had a fight with him out in the middle of the yard and told him it would be a cold day in hell before his daughter took off with a hoodlum on one of those death traps.”

She finished her lemonade and poured another.  Bourbon included.  I kept on churning.

“
The next week, he drove up in his dad’s Chevy Impala.  Freshly washed and everything.  He took me to the drive-in and, well...”

“
That’s okay Bree.  I don’t need the details, I get the picture.”

“
Yes.  Well.  The thing is, we were married a year later.  So I understand all about your bad boy infatuation thing.”

I took a deep breath and let it out.

“
Bree, I do not have a bad boy complex.  My ex was the biggest nerd you’d ever care to meet.  Bad boys mean nothing but trouble to me.  I usually avoid them.”

“
Even Grant?”

She had me there.  Grant was like Pierce in a way.  Bad boy?  I still doubted it.

“
I can see you trying to work it out Dor’, but I swear it’s true.  If Grant can change, so can Deacon.  He wants to you know.  He’s ready to settle down with you.”

“
Do you really believe that?”

“
I sincerely do.  And damn it, I want some babies before I get too old to enjoy them!  I’m entitled to grandbabies.  I put up with those three without killing them or shipping them off to boarding schools, I think I deserve a reward!”

Now I was tickled.  Drunk Bree was loose-lipped Bree.

“
Were they that bad?”

“
That bad?  They took everything apart and fought constantly.  Deacon talked Anton into jumping off the garage roof once by tying a red towel around his neck.  He told him it had special powers and he could fly.  The dumb ass kid believed him.  Three hours I spent in the E.R. waiting for them to set his broken arm.  Pierce wrecked two cars while trying to learn how to drive, and they all snuck out once they hit their teen years.  They’d sneak back in at one or two in the morning and assumed we never knew.  Yeah right.  Wait until you have my grandbabies.  You’ll see what I mean.  You develop the hearing of a bat and eyes in the back of your head.  Nothing gets by you.  Nothing.”

Things were ramping up and as much fun as I was having, whatever was in the churn was getting harder to move around.

“
Uh, Bree?  This feels like sludge.  It doesn’t want to move.”

Her eyes lit up and she clapped her hands.

“
Oh goody!  It’s done.  Now come in and help me drain and mold.”

We moved inside and tried to do exactly that without destroying her kitchen floor.  She was right.  Buttermilk tasted like something left outside in the heat for a day or two.  No thanks.  The butter was a pretty light yellow though and putting into molds was actually kinda fun.  I’d most definitely pick up a cow when I got the dream farm.  Now I knew how to get my own milk, cream, and butter.  Maybe I could sell the buttermilk.  Or maybe Spock would like it.  I didn’t care, I was learning new skills and reveling in the experience.

Once we got our mess cleaned up, I put on a pot of coffee.  Before three of you stand up and say, “That’s a myth.  Coffee does not sober people up”.  I know that.  But it was something to do and it felt like the prudent thing to do, so I did it.  Besides, if she was drinking that, she wasn’t drinking the lemonade.  If Grant or Deacon walked in to a tipsy Bree, they’d wonder how that happened and I wasn’t in for the recounting of what I’d learned.  Some secrets are best kept between us pioneer women.

Two hours and three cups of coffee later, things were settling down.  Bree was frying chicken and I was mashing potatoes and we were both grooving to the Stones trying to get Satisfaction.  Again, I know how they feel.

The back door opened just about the time a sleepy looking Deacon came shuffling around the corner.  If he was carrying a teddy bear he could not have been cuter.  He was rubbing his eyes and scratching his tummy and I just wanted to lick him, he looked so sweet.  When he saw me and smiled, another brick fell out of my wall.  Damn it.  I needed a better brick mason.  Then the asshat spoke.

“
Ahh... don’t you look all domestic and stuff.  Mashing potatoes in the kitchen with mom.  You’re gonna make one hell of a wife Dorothy.”

Now what in the hell did he mean by that?  Did he mean HIS wife or A wife?  He was standing behind me kissing me on the neck before I had a chance to ask and I almost dropped my pot of potatoes.  He’d slipped his arms around my waist and he was still warm and toasty from his nap.  Before I knew what I was doing, my head was flopped over to the side and he was chuckling under my ear.

“
See?  You can’t help yourself.  Why don’t you just admit you’re mine and we can move on.

I jumped forward and he laughed again.  His father was laughing as well as he washed his hands in the sink and the kitchen felt way too crowded all of a sudden.  Bree nudged him with her elbow, saving me the trouble of whacking him with a potato masher.

“
Deacon make yourself useful and set the table.  Grant?  Pour the milk.”

They moved like they had no options and I liked that.  I had much I could learn from Bree Sloan.  I wanted to be her when I grew up and got my shit together.

The four of us settled down to eat dinner and I thought it would be awkward but it wasn’t.  Grant asked Deke about work and Deke questioned his folks about the farm.  Several times he reached over and squeezed my hand before he winked and resumed eating.  This Deacon I could get used to.  This was more like my friend Deke, not my new boyfriend, Voldemort.  The meal was fun and comfortable.

Afterwards, Deacon and I volunteered to clean the kitchen and we shooed his parents out onto the back porch for some quiet time together.  I washed and he dried and it stayed quiet for a minute or two before he spoke softly in a serious tone.

“
Dor’ do you think you’ll ever forgive me?”

I knew what he was asking, he didn’t have to spell it out.

“
I already have.  You’re not asking the right question.”

“
What should I be asking?”

“
The question is, will I ever trust you again?  The jury’s still out on that one.”

“
Trust is a hard one, I agree.  The only people I’ve ever trusted were my family and you.  Oh - and Miranda.”

“
Well see, you just proved you have shit instincts in the trust department.”

“
I can’t trust you?”

I casually sprayed him with the sink sprayer and continued.

“
You shouldn’t trust Miranda.”

He put down the plate he was drying, wiped off the shirt I’d drenched and turned to face me.

“
That’s the second time you’ve eluded to that.  If there’s something I should know, I wish you’d tell me.”

I dried my hands, folded my arms across my chest and turned to face him so that we could make solid eye contact.

“
She wants you Deacon.  As in Mrs. Miranda Sloan.  She’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen, including sabotage of you and me.  She warned me off you in a hurtful way and made her intentions perfectly clear.  You think she’s just your P.A., but she doesn’t see it that way.  The things you let her do only solidifies the belief that eventually you’ll realize you feel the same way.  If you don’t, then you’re not doing her any favors.”

“
Are you jealous?”

I narrowed my eyes and wished I had a superpower.  Like a death ray or fire breathing.

“
I just told you that your secretary told me I was nothing to you but a piece of ass and you’d break my heart, and THAT’S what you come away with?  Maybe the two of you are made for each other after all.  Go for it.  Would you hand me that glass please?”

I went back to washing dishes and he stood there thinking.

“
You’re serious.  She said hurtful things to you.”

“
She did.  And you blew them off.  Now, I’m done.  I warned you and that’s all that I can do.”

“
Would you rather I replace her?”

“
I honestly don’t give a flip what you do.  Replace, screw her, marry her, I could care less.”

“
You’re lying again, I can tell.  You care a great deal.  You care about everything that concerns me and you always have.  That’s why you’re mine.”

“
Will you quit talking about me like I’m a damned toothbrush?  How can you say ‘I’m yours’?  We haven’t even talked about whatever this is.  How do you know how I feel?  Have you even stopped to ask and then actually listened to what I’ve said?”

He took my sudsy hands and spun me around until my back was against the counter.  He pulled my hands around his neck and put his around my waist.  Then he pushed me hard against the counter and gave me one of those open-mouthed-hotter-than-hell electric kisses that made my legs wobble and my insides liquify.  I kissed him back.  My aggression made him growl and I liked that so much I did it again.  The sense of power I got was almost overwhelming.  I made him do that and I couldn’t help but do cartwheels in my head.  Take THAT Miranda, you evil skank.

At some point in the festivities, his hands were on my ass and he was pulling me even closer.  I didn’t realize this however, until his hand was sliding down my leg and he hooked it behind my knee.  Then he slowly pulled it up around his waist.

I knew where this was going.  It may have been three years, but certain mechanical aspects of the act don’t change and Anton gave me strict orders.  Do not sleep with him.  Okay, technically this wasn’t sleeping, but I knew what he meant.  I took his bottom lip between my teeth and nipped him gently before I pulled back.  He moaned but allowed it.