“Family and heritage has always carried a heavy weight for me. Being a MacKenzie in Mercy, Mississippi means something.”
He rolled his eyes.
She stamped her foot. “I thought you were a smart guy. Do you always make snap judgements? Does that work well for you in your chosen career?”
He had the grace to look away. She was right. Snap decisions. Decisions without facts. These had no place in his world. And, who the hell was he to make judgements about what it meant to belong to a family with a long history? He had absolutely no experience with that phenomena.
She must have sensed that he’d weakened and went on.
“I’m honeysuckle tangled on a barbwire fence in summertime. I’m the scent of magnolias on a hot summer night. My family was one of the founding ones of this town. And, this county. Those things don’t exist in Montana.”
Jesse snorted. “That’s all very picturesque, but it doesn’t make a damn bit of sense. As a matter of fact it sounds like a lot of bullshit excuses to me.” He looked her up and down. “I never would’ve thought Ian would fall for such a weakling.”
She inhaled to the point he thought her lungs would burst as her eyes went big and the bright blue went navy. She turned on her heel, stalked to the front door and slammed it on her way out. Hard enough to rattle the pictures on the wall.
Suddenly he had a bad feeling that he’d misjudged the situation.
Ian came through the same door minutes later with a bemused look on his face.
“What’s up with Piper?” He asked. “She had the look on her face that she only gets when she’s restraining herself from doing serious damage to someone.”
“You didn’t ask her?” Jesse inquired.
“Hell, no, man. When she has that look on her face, I try to fly under the radar. If I start questioning her before she brings it up herself I’m likely to get both barrels when she unloads.”
“You’re going to let her just stew?”
Ian plopped down on the couch. “You better believe it.”
Jesse rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe you put up with this kind of ridiculousness.”
Ian motioned him to sit down, with ill grace he flopped onto the other chair.
“Piper is Piper. If you love her, you take her as she is. She has a bad temper that she very rarely indulges in, but when she does the best thing to do is just hunker down until she’s ready to talk about why she’s riled.” He glanced out the window toward the road where Piper had burned rubber as she left. “I sure hope it’s not me she’s so pissed at. Once in my lifetime was enough.”
Jesse leaned forward, forearms on his knees. “What did you do? I thought you walked on water as far as she’s concerned.”
Ian laughed. “I made the mistake of cheating on her in high school.”
Jesse’s eyebrows went up. “Don’t stop now. This I’ve got to hear.”
Ian’s eyes shifted. “I thought I was quite the stud in high school and had Piper wrapped around my fingers. So I decided to try my wings one night with a girl who wasn’t as strict about things as Piper – if you get my drift.”
Jesse nodded. What guy wouldn’t take advantage of a situation like that?
“So, it took like five seconds before Piper found out. To this day, I don’t know who knew about it and told her. But when I went to pick her up for a date the next night she met me at the door with a rifle in my face.”
Jesse laughed. “Bullshit.”
“I’m serious as a heart attack, man.”
“It’s a wonder she didn’t shoot her own foot off with it.”
Ian shot him a look. “Piper can shoot a squirrel out of a tree at fifty yards.”
Jesse goggled.
“Yep. So you can imagine how I damn near pissed myself when she had that rifle pointed at me.” Ian made a gun with his fingers and pointed it at Jesse.
