Bare Naked: Naked Cowboys, Book 4 (11 page)

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Cade began.

But Georgie was getting angry. People needed to know that this man was working hard to redeem himself. To become a new person. With her.

“Let’s sit over there.” She pointed to an empty booth in the middle of the row along the wall.

“You sure you don’t want the one in the corner?” Cade asked.

“I’d sit in the middle of the damn room if there was a table empty. Come on.”

They slid into the booth, Cade doing his best to keep his eyes focused on Georgie. The waitress appeared at their side and slid one mug in front of Georgie.

She looked up at the woman and gave her the sweetest smile she could manage. “Thanks. We’ll need another mug though. There are two of us, as you can see.”

The woman glared at her, shot a look of venom at Cade but went to fetch the mug.

“Told you this wasn’t such a good idea,” he reminded her. “To make matters worse, that woman and I had, um, what you might call a short relationship.”

“You slept with her.” Georgie stated it matter-of-factly. “Call it what it was. It’s over and done with. Time to move on and this is as good a place as any to show people the new you.”

“Yeah, right.” He snorted. “Like they’ll even care.”

She reached across the table and touched his arm. “Do you trust me, Cade?”

“I do, although why you believe in me is way beyond me.”

“My bullshit meter has had a lot of practice,” she told him. “And it tells me the new you is for real. Is it still a little shaky? Absolutely. But you’re moving forward. With me. So let’s have lunch.”

Although the waitress made her displeasure with him evident and people stared at them and whispered constantly, they managed to relax partway through lunch, and even laugh a little. Georgie was grinning at something Cade said when the door to the restaurant opened and the triumvirate walked in—Amy, Reenie and Jinx. They were busy chatting with each other about something and smiling, until Reenie caught sight of Georgie and Cade and nudged her sister-in-law.

Georgie didn’t think she’d ever seen such a combination of shock and anger on anyone’s face before, and she’d been in a lot of sticky situations. If looks could really kill, she and Cade would both be dead. At least Cade would, and she’d be severely injured.

“Don’t look now,” Georgie said in a low voice, “but I think we’re about to be the center of some very unpleasant attention. Just remember, I’m with you all the way.”

He set the half of sandwich he was eating down on his plate. “What now?”

In seconds, Amy Montgomery was standing beside their booth, the other two women behind her. She looked at Georgie, astonished.

“
This
is your handyman? This piece of crap? The one we warned you about?”

Georgie stared at her in shock. “Amy?”

“No wonder you didn’t want to tell us who you’d hired. I’m appalled at your lack of judgment.”

“Listen, Amy,” Cade began.

“Get out of here, Cade.” Her voice was heavy with venom and rage. “You don’t belong where decent people eat.”

“Amy, stop,” Georgie began.

But Amy was apparently on a roll and her friends didn’t look as if they were planning to stop her. Before anyone realized what she was doing she slapped Cade hard across the face.

“Jesus, Amy,” Reenie whispered. She reached for Amy’s arm but her sister-in-law shook her off.

“How dare you show your face here, Cade Hannigan, as if you’re some respectable human being. Which we all know you’re not.” She turned to Georgie. “So this is why you wouldn’t let us come to see you. I can understand it, because we would have told you to throw him off your property.” Her voice was escalating in volume and the entire restaurant was listening.

“Amy.” Reenie touched her shoulder. “Let’s go. We’ll eat someplace else. We can talk to Georgie about this later.”

“Absolutely not.” She pounded her fist on the table. “It would make me happy if you just dropped off the face of the earth, piece of crap that you are.”

“Amy, take a breath and listen to me.” Reenie reached for Amy’s hand again but the woman jerked it away. “Maybe Cade is making a real effort to turn his life around and that’s why Georgie hired him. You haven’t seen him the past few weeks—”

“Turn his life around?” She gave a hysterical laugh. “That’s just rich. Georgie, I can’t believe you fell for his line. You must be the only person in Rowan County who would.”

“I—”

“Do you know what he did to me? Do you?”

Georgie nodded. “He’s told me everything.”

“I don’t believe it. Did he tell you he lied to me when we were engaged and I ran into him in a bar with naked women draped over him? Or how about all the threats he made after I broke it off? Or the day he and his so-called friends trapped me in front of the post office. If Buck hadn’t happened to show up just then I think he was actually ready to beat me. Hit me.” Her eyes blazed. “How about that? You’re hiding a man who abuses women.”

Georgie glanced at Cade and saw every vestige of color leach from his face. She looked back at Amy.

“I think we can continue this discussion in a much less public place.” She was surprised her voice was as steady as it was. “There are things about Cade you need to know. Why don’t I call you later?”

She literally had to push her way out of the booth, forcing the women to move back. Cade dropped some cash on the table and followed her to the door.

“I have plenty more stories to tell you,” Amy shouted after them. “I guess we made a mistake thinking you were someone we wanted to be friends with. We don’t want anything to do with a person who hangs out with assholes, the kind who intimidate and threaten women. You should save yourself while you can.”

Georgie was shaking when they climbed back into the SUV. She waited until they had pulled out of town before trying to say anything.

“Cade, I want you to know—”

“Not now.” His words were like chips of ice.

“But—”

“I said not now.”

What frightened Georgie was the absolute lack of any emotion in his voice. She twisted her hands together in her lap on the silent ride to the B&B. Cade was still silent as he helped her into the house. After guiding her to a chair in the kitchen, he continued on to the bedroom. She started after him when she heard him rustling around in there but in seconds he was back with the beat-up suitcase he’d brought his things over to the house in.

“Where are you going?” She could hardly breathe.

“I knew this wouldn’t work. I told you that from the beginning. I’m poison. And poison’s bad for the system.” He headed toward the door.

“Don’t leave.” She limped after him. “I want to talk about this.”

He stopped and turned. The pain on his face was almost unbearable to look at.

“There’s nothing to talk about. I made my bed. I guess I’ll be lying in it for whatever’s left of my miserable life. I should have known better. People like me don’t get second chances.”

She planted her hands on her hips. “Do you think I believed what Amy said? You told me about those episodes yourself. Cade, she’s upset and holding a lot of anger. But do you really think I’d believe you would hit her? Or me? Or any woman, for that matter?”

“What’s the difference? Everyone else will believe it. Because they want to. You’ll never make a go of this place with me around here. People don’t forgive or forget.” He opened the front door. “The best thing I can do for you is walk out of your life.”

“No.” She grabbed his free arm. “I won’t let you leave. Not like this.”

“You don’t have a choice. I’m out of here.”

She stood in the open doorway, unshed tears burning her eyes. “What about us? Was that a lie? Were you giving me a line too?”

But even as she said the words, she knew they weren’t true. Cade had peeled away every layer of himself for her. He might have been able to snow her for a couple of days, but not for all this time.

At the door to his truck, he turned to look at her, agony etched so deeply on his face it pierced her heart.

“There is no us. There can’t be. You just saw the reason why. I was an idiot to think there could be.”

She limped out to the driveway, but before she could make it to the gravel, he’d backed up his pickup and roared out to the street. She stood there watching him pull away, feeling emptier than she had in a long time.

Finally, she trudged back into the house, locked the door and threw herself down on her mattress. Cade wasn’t the only fool here. How stupid was it to think everything was going to work out. The B&B and Cade had become her life. But without him this place didn’t seem quite so important anymore.

And for the first time in longer than she could remember, she indulged in a good long cry.

Her cell phone rang several times, followed by an assault on the doorbell and banging on both the front door and back.

“Georgie.” She heard Jinx’s voice. “We know you’re in there. Let us in. Come on. That business wasn’t really directed at you. Amy wants to apologize for making such a scene.”

I’m not the only one she should apologize to.

She didn’t have the strength or inclination for any kind of deep discussion with them right now. She was more worried about where Cade had gone, what he would do and if she’d ever see him again.

At last, they gave up and she heard their vehicles pull away. Still fully clothed, she pulled the covers over herself and tried to blank everything from her mind.

“Okay, who called this council of war?” Reenie filled her coffee mug and sat back down at the table.

“I did,” Jinx admitted. “We need to discuss Georgie.”

They were sitting in Amy’s kitchen with coffee and muffins from the Muffin Man.

Amy groaned. “She won’t even talk to me. I’ve tried. Although if I’m honest about it, if I were her I wouldn’t talk to me either.”

“She won’t talk to any of us,” Reenie pointed out.

“She wouldn’t have talked to me either,” Jinx said, “if we hadn’t had business to take care of. Even then she tried to get me to leave the ad in her mailbox for her.”

“What ad?” Amy and Reenie asked simultaneously.

“For the grand opening of the B&B. I insisted I had to go over it with her in person.” She looked at her two friends. “I’m here to tell you she looks like hell. The place has really turned out great, but you’d think she was preparing for a funeral rather than a grand opening.”

“What do you mean?” Reenie demanded.

“She looked like someone had just died. She’s pale as a ghost. I could barely coax more than a yes or no out of her, let alone a smile. And she couldn’t get rid of me fast enough.”

“It’s been three weeks,” Reenie reminded them. “She hasn’t even been in town in all that time.”

“I know you got Matt to send one of the hands over to help her finish getting the place ready to open. He’s apparently been doing her errands.” Amy looked at her sister-in-law for confirmation. “That was very nice of you.”

“Lord, Amy. I felt so guilty, I had to do something. She sent him back the first time.” Reenie tasted her tea and then added another packet of sweetener. “Matt had to go over there himself and practically force her to let the guy work. He said she looks like shit.”

“Why should you feel guilty, Jinx? I’m the one who made the scene. Not that the bastard didn’t have it coming.” She took a swallow of her coffee. “I guess I didn’t stop to think about Georgie, or whatever else might be happening or anything. Oh, God.” She massaged her temples with her fingers. “Crap, crap, crap. What a friggin’ mess.”

“I know you wanted your pound of flesh, and I can certainly sympathize with you,” Jinx pointed out in a soft voice. “But you’re right. You didn’t stop to think. Georgie’s not the bastard here and she got caught in the crossfire.”

“I was just so shocked to see him sitting there with her like a normal decent human being. With Georgie. Our new friend. And after we told her what a piece of crap he is. You’d think she would at least have asked us.”

“You don’t know what happened after Ed threw him out.” Reenie stirred her coffee. “What choices he had. How he got to her. What he told her. Or even what happened after that. And from just the little time any of us have spent with her or talked to her on the phone, she doesn’t seem like the stupid or gullible type to me.”

“In fact, she mentioned that she’d had some bad luck before she moved here,” Jinx added. “I’d think that would make her more cautious. Not easily snowed. So whatever he did to convince her to hire him—”

Jinx sighed. “I got the feeling she wasn’t just upset about losing a handyman or about the scene you made, Amy. She seems to have real feelings for Cade. And she may be what’s been helping him straighten up and fly right.”

Amy’s jaw dropped. “Feelings? For Cade? Holy shit.”

“Stranger things have happened,” Reenie reminded her.

“I understand you have all this latent hostility about him built up,” Jinx said, “but damn, Amy, that was two years ago. More actually. And you sure made it sound a lot worse than it was.”