Page 13 of The Mountain Man's Determined Bride
“I did show up.” He sit up a little straighter and turned to look at her, not expectingthatanswer.
“What do you mean youdidshow up? I was here all day and never saw you.”
“That’s because you were too busy doing…whateverwith that little bimboMargaretto notice.”
“What are you talking about?” He had no clue who she was referring to.
“Luke, come on. Don’t pretend like you don’t know what I’m talking about. I was there, I saw exactly how it was.”I was so disgusted and hurt that I had to get out of there before I threw up.
Luke had been rendered speechless. He didn’t know any Margaret and anyway, why would he do something like that when he was expectingher, Morgan, the girl he loved enough to ask to be his wife. Morgan on the other hand, had no trouble with words at this moment and was appalled that he was denying her accusations.
“Please do not play dumb with me. You were there, you have to remember. Rack your brain just a little and it might come to you.” She crossed her arms, turned her body slightly away from him and huffed a breath of aggravation.
“You know what Luke, it doesn’t really matter what you say, not that you can come up with a logical excuse either one of us will believe. Just leave me alone. Go cut some wood or something while I rest myself and when I’m ready, I’ll be leaving. And don’t even try to make me stay because it won’t work.”
He didn’t have much choice at this point. He had no clue what she was talking about and he would never win anyway. He needed to search the recesses of his long term memory or pull the answers out of his ass otherwise nothing would be getting fixed and the love of his life would be walking out the door forever.
He conceded defeat, slowly climbed from the bed and headed for the door. He turned to soak in one last look at her as he took the last step through the door. Mad or not, she was themost beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life. Before he could move another step, they both heard someone blast through the back door. One look at Morgan and he knew it wasn’t good.
Chapter Eleven
“Hello” a high squeaky voice called out. “Is anyone here? Luke honey, where are you?”
When Luke turned to Morgan, she was anchoring herself off the bed in a flash.
“Really?” If her eyes had been lasers, she’d have burned holes right through him. “Now tell me you don’t remember what happened six years ago. Oh I knew I couldn’t trust you and leaving then was the right decision. Just like I’ll be doing right now.”
She was hobbling pretty well but the anger bubbling through her blood was much more powerful than the pain and now more than ever she was determined to leave this mountain and Luke. He could have his damn floozy. She’d sure as shit never changed her ways. Otherwise, why would she be here hollering for her honey?
He closed the distance between them and tried to stand in her way, she wasn’t having it.
“Is Margie who you were talking about?”
“Don’t’ talk to me. Get out of my way. Now!” She wanted to plant her palms in the center of his chest and push but he was no light weight. She knew he might try to stop her from leaving. It wouldn’t really be too hard now that she was a little crippled. She just couldn’t understand why he would deny any of what had happened. She saw with her own two eyes, they were definitely wrapped around each other.
As she passed the end of the log bed, her arm snaked out in a swift motion to grab her old duster lying on the cedar chest. Throwing it around her shoulders, with the other hand she grabbed the saddle bags Luke had left on the floor at the door.
Bursting through the bedroom door into the living room she stopped dead in her tracks as she took in the site before her, the train-wreck of an ex-best friend who’d ruined her future. She tried to ignore Luke as he stood right at her heels cursing silently to himself.
“What asurpriseto seeyouhere Margaret.” Morgan’s tone dripped with sarcasm as she drawled out her words. “No happy homes in town to break up so you came looking for your old flame? Oh wait,” she threw up her hands in exaggeration. “Maybe itscurrentflame; Ihavebeen gone a long time after all so one never knows.”
She couldn’t contain her nausea much longer. The back door was in sight, she had to get out fast.
“Morgan please wait.” Margaret sat her bag on the kitchen table and walked into the living room across from where Morgan and Luke both stood. “I really think we need to talk this out. Wewerebest friends after all.”
“Werebeing the key word and you should of thought about that before you stole my boyfriend?” Once Margaret was further away from the kitchen and standing in front of the fire place, Morgan knew her escape was in sight.
She could hear Margaret saying something but her attention had already wandered off, tuning her out. Mentally tracing her steps back to earlier before she got into that unfortunate little scuffle with Luke, a few things could be checked off of her short list for the trip home. First, she’d alreadyloaded up and saddled Pepper so all she had to do was untie him and hop on. She’d also thought about radioing her uncle but knew he would question her about Luke. Apparently those two were thicker than thieves and she’d rather avoid the questions until they were face to face.
The small freezer was empty after loading its contents into a couple leather pouches Uncle Bill had in the barn. After strapping them to her saddle, all she had left was her own bags with her personal items and clothes.Yep got it all. No way do I wanna come back because I forgot something.
Focusing back to the present, she saw that Luke had walked over to where Margie was standing at the fireplace which first of all made her sick to her stomach to even see but also gave her the perfect opportunity and she made a bee line for the back door. Hopefully they didn’t notice she’d taken off. It was harder than she thought to climb onto Pepper but she’d done it. Just when Pepper’s first footsteps hit the trail under the cover of the trees, Morgan heard the back door slam open and Luke hollering for her. She hiked up her chin took a deep breath and kept riding. Talk about Deja Vu. Looking back at the cabin now would only plummet her six years back. She needed to run away fast.
* * * *
“What in the sam-hell just happened?” Luke was standing on the back porch after he’d heard the rustling of her horse as Morgan rode away. “Shit, I’ll never catch her...”
“I’m guessing I shouldn’t have come?” Margie stood behind Luke in the middle of the kitchen by the cook stove with an out-of-place smugness about her.