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“Do you make a habit of that?” I asked.
“Of what?”
“Staring at women’s tits?” I asked.
“They’re pretty obvious right now.”
“So is the limp in your left leg, but you don’t see me staring at you when you walk.”
I saw a wall come down in front of his face. His eyes whipped up toward mine, and his smile turned from playful to dark. His eyes clouded with a fury that seemed uncharacteristically like him.
And yet, it didn’t.
I’d hit a sore spot, and I was glad. If he thought I wasn’t watching him, then he had another thing coming. If he didn’t think I saw his faults, he was wrong. He wasn’t some swoon-worthy country gentleman that any woman would be proud to settle down with.
He was a miserable, cynical drunk.
“Same time tomorrow,” Drake said, as he turned and left.
I watched him walk into his house, the screen door slamming behind him. The sun had fallen, and my legs were still weak. I needed a meal, a shower, and two gallons of water poured down my throat. I got inside my truck, slamming the door shut as I dug for my keys. I pulled my seat mirror down and took a look at myself, my face flushed with effort and my neck tanned from the sun.
“It’s good money, Delia. It’s very fucking good money. It’ll set you up. It’ll pay off your degree. It’ll give you the perfect reference for any job you want.”
Drawing in a deep breath, I flipped the mirror up and jammed my keys into the ignition.
I didn’t want to come back tomorrow. I wasn’t going to lie to myself. He was a miserable man who was determined to walk all over me just to prove a point. Whether it was control at this point or whether he was just pissed at my existence, I hadn’t quite figured out yet. But if I did the job I came here to do correctly, it would get me into whatever facility I wanted to work in until I’d established enough experience to open my own practice.
It was only a bit of hard work. one more semester’s worth of pushing through to get to where I was going. I’d done it all my life. This was no different. Dealing with this asshole was no different than dealing with any other asshole that had stood in my way.
If he wasn’t going to recognize my authority, then I had another trick up my sleeve.
I could stand toe-to-toe with his antics, if only to show him that however far he could dig his boots in, I could dig mine farther.
This wasn’t my first rodeo.
Chapter 7
Drake
“What?” I asked with a groan.
“You’ve got a performance today. Get up and get going,” Hank said.
“I don’t have anything like that on my calendar,” I said. “The fuck gives?”
“Shouldn’t you be up anyway? You know, doing ranch stuff? It’s an impromptu concert you’ve been invited to.”
“I don’t do those.”
“It’s an open-air thing, and you do it now.”
“I’m goin’ the fuck back to bed.”
“It’s for a good charity,” he said.
“Then just write them a check,” I said.
“It’s an acoustic set. Real mellow stuff.”
