Crossing my arms over my chest, I tipped up my chin. Met his gaze. “No.”
“No?” he asked, his eyebrows going up and disappearing beneath his hat, seemingly shocked at my answer. “You sure because I grew up here and know all the secret spots.”
If he weren’t married, I’d love for him to show me all the secret spots. On my body. But since he was, his words only pissed me off even more.
“I said no,” I replied then glanced around to ensure no kids were nearby. “If you need me to be more clear, how’s this? No. Fudging. Way.”
Turning away from him, I caught Sarah Jane’s attention and gave her the signal that it was time for me to leave for the day. Since I was crashing in the preschool’s back room at night, I opened in the morning and someone else closed. She nodded then gave me a little wave and I fled inside.
I was so keyed up I was shaky. Tom had done a number on me, but this guy? God, he had nerve. There was a big dick in his pants, but he had balls too. Really big ones.
How did I keep attracting assholes? What the fuck was wrong with me? I opened one of the high cabinets in the back room, the one the kids couldn’t reach, and pulled down my purse.
A hand settled on my shoulder, and I shrieked.
“Look, I’m sorry I—”
I processed the voice, the words, in the same instant I just reacted. Maybe it was everything I’d been going through, maybe Sawyer Manning had been a trigger for all the shit I’d pushed down that had happened because of Tom. The fallout I was still living through now.
Or maybe he was just a dick.
I spun on my heel and kneed him in the balls. He bent at the waist, dropped to his knees, then tipped over onto his side in a fetal position on the industrial carpet. His hands cupped his crotch.
“Oh shit,” I whispered as he groaned from the floor. I glanced at the door, hoped Sarah Jane didn’t come in with any of the other kids, or Claire in search of her dad.
My breath came out in pants, my adrenaline pumping. I stared down at him, noticed the way his face had turned white and couldn’t miss the wheezing coming from his lungs. I hadn’t meant to knee one of the preschool’s clients in the balls. I’d just acted without thinking. In anger.
This was bad. Really bad, even though he deserved it.
This was what I’d wanted to do to my ex. Hit him where it counted, but I never got the chance.
“I’ve had enough of guys like you,” I said, setting my hands on my hips. He was clearly in misery. Served him right. “Try your flirting shit on someone else.”
Grabbing my bag and keys, I stormed out the front door. I’d taught Sawyer Manning a lesson, but had I learned one too? The hard way, like losing my job and where I slept at night?
2
SAWYER
“A bachelor auction? You’re shitting me,” Huck said, running a hand over the back of his neck, staring wide eyed then dropped into the stool at the counter.
“Language,” Alice scolded. She’d stopped chopping the carrots for the stew for dinner and gave him her familiar withering glare. Even though we were grown men, that didn’t keep her from reminding the three of us of our manners.
My brother only grinned back, if a little sheepishly. It was the look that had gotten him out of messes growing up and still got women out of their panties. Since he was the chief of police now, he’d grown out of being a hellion but not out of charming the ladies. “Fine. You’ve got to be joking,” he said instead.
A smile turned up the corner of our housekeeper’s mouth as she looked from Huck to Thatcher to me. The three Manning brothers. Bachelor brothers to her disappointment. They were in the kitchen with Alice as she prepped dinner. I was on the couch in the great room—the open space that was part family room, dining room and connected to the kitchen—with a bag of frozen peas on my crotch.
As soon as we’d gotten back to the ranch, I unhooked Claire from her booster seat, and she’d run off toward the stable where Roy had promised her a pony ride. After I saw her meet up with the older ranch hand, I’d headed inside and right to the freezer. When I’d dropped onto the couch and put the package over my… package, Alice had arched a brow but hadn’t said a word.
My annoying brothers had, and I’d had to give them a play-by-play. More like blow-by-blow. Fuck.
They’d thought I’d been joking at first, but the peas resting on my jeans-covered crotch had set them straight. They’d even winced and put their hands over their own junk in instinctual male protection. With a little distance and recovery time, I’d had to laugh because a woman had dropped me like fucking Redwood. Not many caught me by surprise, but Kelsey sure as shit had.
I knew what to watch out for next time. There would be a next time. No woman had intrigued me like she had in… ever, which meant I’d lost my mind. She was feisty, bad tempered and had it in for me.
I’d laid on the floor of the preschool for a few minutes after she’d stormed out. Partially because I’d been unable to move and partially because she’d destroyed my pride. I’d thought of our short conversation ever since and tried to figure out what I’d said or done that had pissed her off that much.
I didn’t hurt women. I didn’t fuck with them. String them along. I was the nice Manning brother. I sure as shit hadn’t done anything to Kelsey, and yet she seemed to have a fucking hair trigger, and I’d somehow pulled it. I thought I’d behaved the gentleman in the few minutes we’d talked.
I’d offered to show her around town, not around my dick.
“I’m not joking,” Alice repeated. “A bachelor auction Friday night, and all three of you are in it.”
Thatcher glanced my way but didn’t seem too bothered by the idea. He’d come in from the stables and sported jeans, held up by a belt and the Junior Steer Roping champ belt buckle, and t-shirt. His t-shirt was as dusty as his sturdy work boots. There was a crease in his red hair from his Stetson, which hung on a hook by the back door next to mine. He worked as bartender at the Lucky Spur downtown, but that was at night. During the day, he pretty much ran the ranch.
Huck gave me a grim look, as if he were heading to the gallows on Friday instead of a fundraiser. He shifted uncomfortably, adjusting his utility belt, heavy with radio, cuffs, holster and pistol. Between the two of us, we had the chief roles down. He was the chief of police for The Bend. I was the fire chief. I’d had the day off, so I’d volunteered to pick up Claire, so Alice hadn’t had to go back into town.
I shifted the ice cold peas in my lap, remembering what that kindness had gotten me.
“I admit,” she said with a small shrug of her shoulder, “I will get some amusement from watching you three squirm up there on stage.”
“At our expense,” I called, adjusting the pillow behind my head.
She set those gray eyes on me. “A woman’s paying the tab. No expense to you.” The corner of her mouth twitched, and she was intentionally being sassy. As if the older woman was ever sassy.
“It’s for a good cause,” she added, reminding me we couldn't complain. But that didn’t stop Huck.
“Yeah, but here? The Bend is so small, who’s going to bid?” he asked.