Forty-One

After he managed to usher Reilly outof the house, Stone attempted to do the same with Leah. Unfortunately, she was proving to be a bigger pain in his ass than he remembered.

"Your sister set me up, Stone," Leah insisted. "She twisted my words around."

He huffed a mirthless laugh as he downed one of the beers he'd brought back from his parents' house.

"We were talkin' about you, and she started makin' fun of you for not havin' a degree."

Stone stared at her. "Reilly made fun of me?"

"She did." Leah moved closer. "I was tellin' her how I wanted you to come back to run the ranch, and she said you weren't qualified."

Even if he hadn't heard every word they'd exchanged, Stone wouldn't have believed her. Leah was good at many things, but lying wasn't one of them. She tried. God, she tried. The majority of words that came out of her mouth were fictitious. He didn't know why she resorted to lying, but that was her knee-jerk response.

"It doesn't matter," he told her, exhaling heavily. "I'm not goin' back to the Double J."

"You have to."

"Why?"

"Because…" Her eyes went wild, and he knew she was trying to come up with a reason.

"Come on," he goaded. "Spit it out."

"Daddy … he's…"

"What? He's sick?"

Stone could tell she was trying to find a way to use that, but her eyes gave her away, and she knew it.

"He's not sick, Leah."

"No. It's … um … Not him. It's…"

"You're sick?" he said, hating that he was playing this game with her.

"I … uh…"

"Leah, it's not gonna—"

"I'm pregnant," she blurted.

Stone stopped, his beer bottle halfway to his mouth. His brain shifted from neutral to fifth gear, racing to figure out how that could be possible. He'd never had sex with her without a condom—they weren't 100%, of course, but he'd still used them. And Leah had assured him she was on birth control. Hell, he still remembered her words when she told him.

You don't have to worry about that, Stone. I'm on birth control. I don't carewhat my daddy says, I'm not gonna give him another heir unless there's somethin' in it for me.

Because he sensed she was bullshitting him, Stone pushed. "How far along?"

Please, God, let her be bullshitting him.

"I … uh … don't know."

"How'd you find out?"

It took her a moment. "I missed a period."

"Just one?"

Her forehead scrunched. "Two?"

"You missed two periods?"

"Yes."

"Did you take a pregnancy test?"

Leah chewed on her bottom lip. "Yes."

"When?"

"I don't know. Does it matter?"

"Yeah. If fuckin' matters, Leah."

"A couple of weeks ago, I guess."

"And you're just now tellin' me?"

"I wanted to tell you in person."

"Don't take offense, but I'm gonna need to see the test for myself."

"I didn't keep it. Gross."

Stone rolled his eyes. She truly did think he was an idiot. "I'll run to the store and get another one."

"No," she exclaimed, rushing over. "I … I wanna wait until I go to the doctor."

"You're in luck. We've got one right here in Coyote Ridge."

He could see the fear in her eyes. "My own doctor. In Houston. I'll go next week sometime."

"Pregnancy test," he insisted. "If it's positive, I'll go to the doctor with you." Because he was convinced she was lying, Stone reached for his truck keys, then walked over to get his coat off the hook by the door. "It'll only take me a few minutes. Twenty tops."

He could feel her eyes on him as he put his coat on. The tension ratcheted tighter and tighter with every breath. He knew it was about to break because that was what Leah did. She was a horrible liar because she couldn't stick with the story long enough to make it believable.

Please, God, don't let it be true.

"Fine," she blurted. "I'm not pregnant. But I could be. One day."

He exhaled heavily, partly from relief, partly from irritation.

"Maybe we could get to work on makin' it a reality," she suggested sweetly.

He shrugged out of his coat and reached to put it back on the hook. "Look, Leah. I'm sorry you drove all this way, but—"

Leah squealed. "Oh, no. I spilled it."

He turned to find her standing beside the island. Beer had poured down her shirt and was dripping onto the floor.

Her gaze cut to him, and he could tell she was making sure he was looking.

"It was an accident, Stone. I was just…"

Accident, my ass.

"I was reaching…"

Stone sighed when she let that sentence die off, too. Leah couldn't even come up with a decent lie. She'd always been that way, and he honestly wasn't sure why. She resorted to bending the truth to get attention. When someone was telling a story, she had to have one of her own—bigger in scale, more dramatic. It was one of the reasons people kept her at a distance. That and she treated most people like they were beneath her.

I'll have you know that Stone won't ever run my Daddy's ranch. Or any ranch, for that matter. Not without me. He's an outsider. A nobody. If he expects to make it in the cattle business, he needs a name backing him. I'm his best shot at ever makin' somethin' of himself.

And what exactly do you get out of it?

I'll have a man who'll do exactly what I tell him to do.

Unlike what Leah told Reilly, Stone had never been under her thumb. At times, he allowed her to think he was, but the truth was, he'd merely looked past her arrogance and haughty indignation, and he'd befriended her despite her irritating need to embellish the truth. She was irritating most of the time, but now and again, she would surprise him. For a little while, he'd even liked her.

"Do you have a shirt I could borrow?" she asked, already unbuttoning hers.

"Go on," he said, pointing toward the hallway. "My bedroom's on the right."

"Thank you." Her voice dripped like honey.

While she sauntered off to change her shirt, Stone grabbed paper towels to clean up the spilled beer.

Too bad Bounty didn't make something to clean up the mess that was his life.

***

"I have nothin' to say to him," Stevie told Nico, wondering why he wouldn't just listen to her.

She'd told him a dozen iterations of that statement since he insisted on going to Stone's and taking her with him. She didn't want to go. She wanted to sit at home and pout for a little while. She could address the stupidness of this day tomorrow when it was behind her, and she could actually think about it without the red haze that clouded her vision.

"Well, I do."

"What?" She stared at him as he drove toward Stone's. "What do you want to say?"

"I'll know when we get there."

"Meaning you have no idea." She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "And what if he's already gone?"

"He's not leavin'."

"You know this for a fact?" she snapped, hating that she was so angry.

"Yes."

"I don't believe you."

"Well, you're gonna—"

Stevie's cell phone rang, cutting him off. She picked the phone up from the cup holder and glanced at the screen.

"It's Reilly," she said, confused as to why Stone's sister would be calling her.

"Answer it."

"I don't want to," she said petulantly.

"Answer. It. Stevie."

"Don't have to be rude," she grumbled as she hit the talk button and put the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, Stevie. It's Reilly."

"Uh… hi?"

Reilly chuckled. "I know it's weird that I'm callin', but I wanted to give you a heads up that Stone's crazy ex-employer … her name's Leah. She's stone-cold nuts, Stevie. I think she believes the shit she says. Anyway, she's at his place, and she's tryin' to convince him to come back. He's not," she added quickly. "But I don't know if she's listenin' to him. She seems like the type to keep pushin'."

"What am I … uh … supposed to do about it?"

Another soft laugh. "For starters, you could go over there and kick her ass."

"I don't have a say in who Stone spends his time with."

This time, Reilly's laugh sounded bitter, and her voice softened. "You might not think so, Stevie, but my brother's worth fightin' for. I know he hurt you once, but he's not the same guy anymore. I've never…"

"Never what?" Stevie prompted, needing Reilly to finish that sentence.

"I've never seen Stone so happy. Y'all might not want to admit it, but I'm not an idiot. I know the three of you have somethin' goin' on. So, if you care about him at all, you and Nico should swing by and save him from her. I don't think she's gonna give up. Just beware. I think she's the Hulk in disguise."

"What does that even…" The call ended. "…mean?"

"What did she want?" Nico asked when Stevie set the phone down.

Staring out the window into the night, she gave him a quick rundown of the conversation—at least the parts she understood.

"And then she said somethin' about her bein' the Hulk in disguise?"

Stevie tried to make sense of that as Nico drove faster. She tried to make sense of it all. Melanie showing up to talk to Nico. Stone's ex-employer slash girlfriend, or whatever she was, coming back. Was the universe out to get her, or what? All on the same day?

It did make her feel better that Reilly had called. It restored some semblance of hope that her world wasn't crashing down around her again.

As easy as it would be to get angry and sulk for the next fifteen years while Stone ran off to do whatever the hell he wanted to do, Stevie knew confronting him was the only real option. And if Reilly was right, Stevie had a few things to say to the crazy bitch who thought she could prance in and take what didn't belong to her.

Speaking of crazy bitches… "What did Melanie say after I left?"

Nico cleared his throat. He did that when he was uncomfortable talking about something.

"I told her I was in love with two people, and I was gonna fight to make it work."

Her heart flipped over to reveal its soft underside.

"It's true, Stevie." He reached for her hand, linking their fingers. "I'll fight for what's mine."

She turned her attention out the window again. Maybe that was what she needed to do, too. Fight for what was hers.

Ten minutes later, Stevie stomped around the Double J truck parked next to Stone's, refusing to let it get to her. She was going to confront this woman if it was the last thing she did. And the only way she was walking out of here was if Stone told her he wanted her to leave. It was interesting what could happen in the span of a few minutes. She'd gone from being full of self-pity to convincing herself that she was now the invincible thing that could take down the Hulk.

If she recalled correctly, the Hulk was invincible, but as God was her witness, she was going to prove Marvel wrong by the end of the day.

As she was banging her fist on the door, some of her courage wavered, but she squared her shoulders, determined to stand her ground.

Stone opened the door, his expression one of … was that relief?

She sure hoped it was; otherwise, he was about to get really angry because she was doing this.

"Hey," he greeted, his gaze shifting past her to Nico.

"Reilly called," Nico explained.

Stone stepped back. "Come in."

"Who's at the door? Oh. Oh, my goodness. I didn't realize we were expectin' company." The woman flashed a smile, pretending to be self-conscious because she was wearing one of Stone's button-downs.

And nothing else.

God. Could shebe any more cliché?

"Stevie, it's not what it looks like," Stone said.

She looked at Stone and flashed a smile of her own. "I know."

Before he could launch into an explanation, Stevie marched over to Leah and held out her hand. "I'm Stevie. Stone's girlfriend. And you are?"

"Leah," she said, frowning as she put her limp hand in hers.

Stevie shook it once, then dropped it like it was a hot potato. She glanced down at Leah's bare legs. "We should find you some pants. It's cold. Wouldn't want you to catch a chill." Stevie met her gaze and smiled. "Because you're leavin'."

The woman sputtered, but Stevie didn't give her a chance to spout whatever bullshit that was piling up in that big head of hers.

"We'll be right back," she called out to Stone and Nico, adding more honey than vinegar to her tone as she urged Leah back the way she'd come.

***

Nico wasn't sure what to say ordo. Hell, he wasn't sure he could sputter a word after watching Stevie introduce herself to Leah, then march the woman out of the room like it was her duty.

While contemplating whether to intervene, he held J?ger in his arms as he stood beside Stone, watching Stevie and the half-dressed woman disappear into Stone's bedroom.

"That's Leah, huh?"

"Yeah." Stone huffed, looking as dumbfounded as Nico felt.

"Why's she here?"

"She's insane," he said, his tone lacking any inflection at all.

They stood in silence for another few seconds, staring at the empty space where Stevie had just been. Nico was trying to figure out what to say when Stone turned, gesturing toward the towels on the floor.

"She poured beer down her shirt. On purpose. Then asked to borrow one of mine. She doesn't do anything without an ulterior motive."

Nico glanced at the puddle and then toward the bedroom. "You turned down her offer to go back to Houston."

"More than once." Stone glanced at J?ger as though seeing him for the first time. "Shit. Let me clean that up."

It took Stone only a few seconds to get the spill cleaned up. When he did, Nico set the puppy on the floor, figuring he couldn't possibly cause any more of a ruckus than there already was.

Stone returned to stand beside him. "I was gonna explain everything as soon as I got her out of the house. It's not what it looks like. I didn't—"

Nico silenced him with a kiss, grabbing him behind the neck and crushing their mouths together. He wasn't sure what came over him but he couldn't help himself. During the drive over, he had doubts about how he would feel when he arrived. Trust was a huge part of a relationship, and he knew this would never work if he didn't trust Stone.

But the second he saw him, Nico knew that Stone was as irritated by the situation as Nico had been when Melanie showed up. Neither of them had set these events in motion, but it was their responsibility to deal with them.

Which reminded him…

He pulled back, waiting for Stone to look at him. "Melanie stopped by the house today. Before I got there."

Stone frowned, their gazes colliding as they stood chest to chest, mere inches separating them. "Melanie? The ex-fiancee?"

"Yeah." He spoke softly since they were so close. "She waited with Stevie. Said she wanted to talk to me."

"How'd Stevie handle that?"

"Like she handles everything. With grace and courage." He didn't mention that he saw right through her, though. Nico knew that Melanie"s appearance had hurt her, which was why she'd run to her room. He hadn't been surprised to find her on the phone with Niyah, probably trying to make sense of it all and get someone on her side.

What Stevie didn't realize was that Nico was on her side. He would always be.

Stone's gaze implored him as his arm banded around his back, the space between them disappearing fast. "And?"

It was difficult to think when the man was touching him, but he managed. "And nothin'. I sent her on her way. I'm just tellin' you so you know what Stevie's been through already today."

His expression morphed into one of understanding, and he stepped forward, closing the small gap that separated them.

"I don't wanna leave anything to chance this time," Nico told him. "Communication was lacking the last time we were together."

Stone nodded. "I know. And I agree. If we're gonna do this, we've gotta do it the right way."

When Stone leaned in, Nico did, too, meeting him halfway. The press of his lips was gentle, but Nico felt the current underneath—a raging river beating against the ground containing it. Any moment now, it was going to break free and drown them all.

"Oh, my God!"

Nico pulled away, staring at the woman whose eyes were about to pop out of her head.

"What are you…?" Her nose scrunched. "Are you gay?"

"Technically, no," Stevie said, her tone flat. "What he is is taken." She marched Leah toward the door. "And you're leavin'."

Nico stood beside Stone as Leah passed, her forehead creased with confusion.

"Don't forget anything," Stevie instructed. "Because you won't be comin' back."

Leah's gaze shifted to Stone, and he could tell she was weighing her options. He realized she wasn't as stupid as she pretended to be because her expression cleared as she realized she didn't have any.

Stevie wasn't backing down, and Nico had never been more in love with her than he was at that moment.