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“Look at it this way, you can save for the triplets’ college fund.”
She glowers at me. “This isn’t funny, Tee!”
“It isn’t, but you are.” I grin. Since she became Mrs. Korhonen, she’s a real drama queen. As I wonder if there’s a crystal for that, I chide, “Come on, Zee. We’ll rock this because you never leave the ranch without me anyway, so we both get to have hottie bodyguards.” I lean forward. “Maybe I’ll marry one of them!”
She groans.
“Thought you were going on a date tonight,” Cody inserts, but for some reason, his tone’s grim.
“I can cancel. Zee needs me.”
“No, it’s fine. I-I need to talk to Colt about... everything.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course,” she snaps. “Look, you have a nice time and you can tell me everything about it. Take my mind off stuff.”
“If I’d realized… I made the arrangement before the whole world, as you guys knew it, shuffled off its axis.”
“I know.” Her jaw works. “What time is this date? Are you going to be safe? You’re?—”
“I’ll be fine. No one’s interested in me. And...” I check my cell. “It’s in a half hour.”
“Then go. Are you wearing that dress you bought today?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you need to use my card? You can get a hotel room or something to change?”
“It’s fine, Ms. Moneybags. I’ll use a restroom. Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”
“I’m positive. I have to be.” Her shoulders hunch, making me feel worse about abandoning her, but I know she’s right—this is a conversation she needs to have with Colt.
“Why hasn’t Colt brought this up with you is your first question,” I prompt.
“Probably was waiting for the right time,” Cody answers before opening his door and climbing out of the vehicle so he can open mine.
When I’m allowed out, I round the trunk, head to her side, and crouch in front of it once it’s open too.
I snag her hands. “Everything will be fine. You’ll get your revenge on Pigeon Creek, and the whole country will know you make boss-ass sugar cookies and that Colt’s no longer the world’s hottest bachelor because he’s found his big fat HEA in the form of you.”
Her throat bobs. “You think so?”
“I know so.”
“What if... I’m not fancy, Tee. Not like they are.Grand-mèretaught us... but nothing...” She releases a breath. “Cameras and journalists and... I thought it was a couple invitations then I’d go back to my everyday life.”
“And you will,” Cody inserts. “We’ve been lax with security because Callan has the homestead hooked up like Fort Knox. Despite the pictures, we do stay under the radar. Now that that’s changing, we’ll adapt.
“Admittedly, Clyde hasn’t helped the situation, and then there’s Cole. He should probably have some security too. We don’t live in a nice world, Zee. Cole might like to think we live in a bubble, and sure enough, Pigeon Creek’s plenty safe, but who knows when that’ll change?”
“Callan doesn’t live in a bubble,” I point out.
(Baby Cowboy might give Parker a run for her money with how often he leaves the ranch, but there’s a difference betweenbeing terrified of stepping out the door and hating people in general.)
“Callan’s freaked out about a fire he doesn’t remember,” is Cody’s grim retort. “He’s haunted by the horrific truth of how the richest man in town could beat his wife and almost kill her and get away with it. No one ever asked. No one cared. Until she took off to spare herself from death and then everyone was up in our business about how she was a shit mom. She wasn’t. Clyde’d have killed her, but she was the bad guy.” His tone is firm but relatively calm considering the subject. I notice the tick in his jaw though. “And then there’s the fact that our beloved sperm donor apparently killed some kid from town and had a bunch of the cops in his back pocket. So yeah, bet your damn ass Callan’s paranoid.”
“We didn’t mean to upset you, Cody,” Zee whispers.