Page 93 of Blue Jean Summer

“Well, that settles it. Nice to meet you, Dorothy. I’ll get you some friends soon.”

“Being married to my half brother has you talking to cows already. Can’t say I’m surprised.”

I shrieked as I turned to find Lewis a few feet behind me. His sports car was idling on the lane with the door open. I had been so excited about Dorothy finding her moo that I hadn’t heard him drive up.

Beady eyes raked up and down my body, making me want to take a shower to rinse off his gaze.

“Lewis,” I said by way of a curt greeting.

“You know, I had some time to think after your nuptials,” he mused. “I think it’s weird that you applied for a very large grant with my company—”

“Walt’s foundation.”

He seethed. “And when you didn’t get my stamp of approval, you married into the family and got more than what you would have gotten through the grant.” Lewis crossed one arm over the other. “I just find it strange that you didn’t submit the grant application until you were supposedly already engaged. If you knew you could open your legs and get Hayes to give you whatever you wanted, why go through all that paperwork?”

I gritted my teeth and steeled my poker face as rage boiled inside me.

“Unless this marriage is a sham,” he said as he took a step toward me. “What? You and Hayes conjured this whole thing up so he could steal the estate from me and you could get a payday?”

Actually, that’s exactly what happened. But I’m not about to let him think he’s onto something.

“Leave me alone, Lewis,” I said firmly. “If you have an issue, take it up with Hayes. Or the court, which you’re already doing.”

“An issue?! A fucking issue?” he spat as he leaned in closer. “Yeah, Barbie. I have a fucking issue with Hayes giving away my land in exchange for some pussy.”

“I have a fucking issue with you speaking to my wife like that,” Hayes said as he appeared behind Lewis, wearing a murderous look I had never seen on him before.

But Lewis didn’t pay Hayes any mind and channeled his rage directly at me. “I will enjoy wiping that smug look off your face, and I will keep my foot on his fucking throat until I do,” he spat as he pointed at Hayes.

The last word out barely escaped his mouth. Hayes fisted the back of Lewis’s collar and jerked him away from me. “What did I just fucking say? Huh?”

Lewis’s face turned the color of an eggplant.

Hayes’s expression morphed from angry to lethal. “If you speak to my wife again, or you even look at my wife again, you will get two choices. Either you won’t come through the gates ever again, or you’ll never leave them. Have I made myself clear?”

Lewis seethed in silence as he stabbed me with his gaze.

Hayes tightened his grip, shaking Lewis with a jolt. “Have I made myself clear?”

Lewis gritted his teeth. “Crystal.”

Hayes released him and dusted his hands off as if he had been taking out the trash. “Then there’s no reason for you to be here. Go to the house or get lost. This is Catherine’s land and you’re trespassing.”

To my surprise, Lewis didn’t hesitate to stomp to his car and zip down the lane to the house.

I didn’t exhale until his taillights disappeared down the hill. Hayes rushed forward and cupped my cheeks. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” I choked out as the shock that rooted me to the spot began to recede. Hayes pulled me into his arms, but I pushed back. “I’m filthy and you’re all dressed up.”

“I don’t care.”

I leaned into him then, closing my eyes and resting against his chest. “Thank you.”

His hand was warm and strong as he stroked up and down my back, caressing away the tension until I could breathe more easily.

Dorothy, apparently jealous of the attention I was receiving, mooed at us.

Hayes chuckled. “Is she having a good time up here?”