Chapter 9
MINCE WORDS
Clay was being a dick and he knew it.
He was acting like an asshole because he wanted Meredith more than he had any other woman in years and knew he couldn’t have her.
Her light brown hair that was flowing around her shoulders. Her face had little makeup on it, the way he liked.
Her chipper personality that he always ran from wanted to reel him in.
It didn’t hurt that her ass looked damn fine in those fitted tan pants. Or that the blue shirt clung to her tiny waist.
Nothing on her was sexy, but it was a tease just the same for a man who hadn’t touched a woman in longer than he cared to remember.
Add to that his overwhelming feelings of protectiveness, and he was a goner.
But she couldn’t handle how jaded he was, so he was coming off stronger than normal to fend her off.
She was too joyful and optimistic for the likes of him.
She saw the world through a rainbow-colored lens, floral-scented air, and candy-coated sweetness.
He watched her enthusiasm with the bride-to-be as they talked about plans.
A woman like Meredith was most likely planning her own wedding and had been for years.
She was single though.
The ex.
The one she thought damaged her car.
He’d be looking into the asshole as soon as he got more information.
He filled another glass. Might as well relax to get the information out of her.
“Tell me about Fredrick.”
“Huh? How can you go from your comment on excitement to my ex? Trust me, no excitement there.”
He shouldn’t have baited her like he had, but seeing her worked up was actually working him up.
Maybe he liked that side of her that would give it right back to him.
As a child she tried to talk to him and he was positive he scared her. Then she kept her distance. Until he had to keep taking care of her.
Picking her up when she fell off Gale’s bike after hitting a stone and skinning her knees.
Almost breaking her neck falling out of the tree house that one day.
Ugh, he had nightmares about that for years.
“Why would your ex do that and has he done anything else to you?”
She was squirming while she drank. At least he didn’t have to pound on her back to get her to stop coughing again.
The last thing he wanted to do was touch her.
Jesus, she was sniffing him earlier.
And the way her eyes moved over him.
He wasn’t dead even if he’d felt it for years.
Any idiot could read what was in her eyes.
“He’s been a jerk for almost two months since I left all his belongings on the front porch packed with a picture of him kissing his coworker taped to it.”
“Fucker,” he said.
She laughed. “Don’t let your mother hear you say that.”
“She’s heard me say it plenty of times.”
“I said it a few times under my breath when I found out what he’d done.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Why?”
“Because he damaged your car and you should report him.”
“He says it’s not him,” she said. “He admitted to the dead fish and he can’t dispute all the phone calls and texts since they came from him.”
He closed his eyes and let out a breath. “Start at the beginning.”
“Why do you care about my problems?”
“Because I’m good at what I do and if someone is bothering you, I’ll put a stop to it.”
She stared at him. Almost mimicking the way he’d done it to her.
“Why?”
“Is that the only word you know?”
“I want you to answer me,” she said. “Before I tell you what an idiot I am.”
He wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but he settled on the truth. “In the Navy my job was retrieval and extraction. To do that, I had to know exactly what I was getting into. I can help if you let me.”
“There is nothing to help,” she said. “My ex is an idiot and I probably caused him to act this way. Though he’s pushing it.”
“Let me be the judge of that. What did you do other than pack his clothes to leave them on the porch?”
“You’re going to have a completely different opinion of me when you hear this. You might fire me.”
He let out a half laugh. “I doubt that. And there is no way I’m going through the trouble of finding another wedding planner. You’re stuck here.”
“Awww, I think I’m getting to you.”
He pulled the empty glass out of her hand and filled it up a second time. She’d drunk that first one fast. “Maybe this will loosen your tongue.”
She heaved out a gush of air and moved to the other side of the bar and sat on one stool. He joined her.
There were a million things he could do right now helping his family out with customers on the property, but this was more important.
“It all started when I got a call from my coworker on a Sunday morning.”
He sat there and listened to the pictures she’d gotten, then the asshole coming home and wanting to have sex with her.
How she slept in the same bed with the guy that night was beyond him. He wouldn’t have been able to hold off kicking their ass out then and there.
“Glitter?” he asked. “You put glitter in a box of his clothes?”
She shrugged. “He always gave me a hard time about my arts and crafts. I take pride in my job. Maybe I spent more time than I needed to trying new things for my students, but it’s fun.”
“If you say so,” he said. “Not that I’d be happy to have glitter in a box of my possessions, but it seems he got off light. Not sure what the big deal is.”
“It wasn’t just one box. One was hot pink, the other box was neon green, the third was iridescence.”
“What’s that?”
“Like clear but when the light or sun hit it, you see pink or blue and it’s reflective.”
“Shit. That would be annoying.” Which meant you might not realize it was on you until you were outside.
“I put it in with his underwear. Also in a few of his shoes.”
He rolled his eyes. Childish, sure, but he thought she was justified. “What did he do?”
“He called and texted and left voicemails about how pissed he was. I should have swapped out my contact information in his phone like I did his mother and Lana. My guess is he wouldn’t have been able to remember my number to bug me if I’d done that.”
“What?”
“Oh, yeah. The first thing I did when he was showering was change out the names on his mother’s phone number with the woman he was screwing behind my back. Guess his mother didn’t appreciate the spicy text and dick pic.”
He snorted hard enough he was thankful nothing flew out of his nose. “That’s a good one.”
“I told him he should be more careful what he puts in a text.”
“So he was pissed?”
“Yeah. He figured that one out the next night when he tried to text Lana.”
“This was almost two months ago and you think he would damage your car over it?”
It didn’t play in his mind. Too much time had passed.
“Oh,” she said, waving her hand. “I’m just getting started. Every time he discovered something else I did, he’d get back at me. The first thing he did was come into the house and rearrange my arts and crafts room. I knew it was him. I had the locks changed after.”
“You should have done that immediately. Do you know the date of that?”
He had his phone out, but she was shaking her head. “I’d have to look at the messages he sent and try to figure it out. It was quite a few weeks until he signed onto his video console. That was sacred to him. Maybe he should have protected it more.”
“What happened there?”
He had buddies that spent hours building their rankings on shooter games. A few bad rounds could wipe that out.
“Fredrick had been building his Minecraft world for over ten years. I don’t even know. Since he was a kid. It’s not that he played with it or anything, but took pride in what he’d built. He’d get ideas and then spend hours creating it.”
He closed one eye at her. “Did you delete it?”
“I wanted to smash some buildings or put something repulsive in there, but I couldn’t figure it out. So yeah, I deleted everything I could and left three tiny buildings. He called me in tears. I almost felt bad over it.” She held her fingers up in a pinch. “Almost.”
“He’s a man now. Go build something with a hammer and nails.”
She pointed her finger at him. “I said that a bunch of times.” She chugged another big gulp of the cider.
“Okay, so when was that?”
She shrugged. “I can look it up.” She pulled her phone out.
He put his hand on hers and wished he hadn’t had that contact. The heat that filled his palm told him to get his grouch back on.
“Later. Other than being upset, how did he react?”
“My plants were pulled out of the planters on my front porch. I love flowers and had them all pretty and I came home to find them sitting in the dirt, some broken, others had the petals taken off. I had to replant them. I guess his simple reaction was to ruin something I took pride in. You think I’m really petty, don’t you? ”
“Here’s the thing. You did it all at once, right? Not going back weeks later and continuing it?”
“Correct. That day when I found out, I was heartbroken. I really was. But that was it. He moved out and in my mind it was over with. He kept coming back and carrying it on longer. For me, it’s like, end it now.”
“What’s the thing with the fish?”
“Oh. That’s the last thing I did. Took him a long time to figure out. Since he enjoyed sending dick pics, I realized he used a filter to you know, enlarge his girth.”
“I don’t want to know,” he said, shaking his head.
“You asked. I’mmmmmm telling you,” she said. She took another gulp of her hard cider. Her tongue was getting looser and she let out a giggle.
Shit, was she going to get tipsy?
He’d have another problem on his hands if that was the case.
“Go on,” he said.
“He was always...” She stood up and moved her hand in front of her crotch. Jesus, he wished she hadn’t done that. Now he had another image in his mind.
“Did what?”
“What you guys do. Adjust yourself.”
“Your face is red again,” he said.
“It’s embarrassing to say that.” Down went another gulp.
“Not all guys do it either,” he said. “Some of us know where to put it and keep it there.”
Her hand came up and fanned her face. Yeah, that was more like it.
She started this, she was going to get an idea of what it was like to mince words with him.
“Well, Fredrick didn’t learn that. So, I put a few cross-stitches in the crotch of his work pants and some jeans. This way, he stayed put. Maybe they were tight on him and he hated the feeling, but it could have been a confidence booster that he was actually bigger than he was.”
“Hands down, you get an A for creativity on the scorned girlfriend.”
“Only an A?” she asked, pouting. She picked her drink up and drained it. “I’m the teacher’s pet. I work really hard to get A+’s.” She stood up and tripped, then righted herself. “I’m getting another.”
“Oh no, you’re not,” he said.
Jesus, the alcohol content wasn’t that much. Or not to him. But almost more than double a light beer. She’d just pounded two glasses of it in about twenty minutes.
“Sorry,” she said. “I don’t normally drink much. I can’t handle more than one. Fredrick didn’t like me drinking either. He never did. He was booooorrring.”
“Sounds like you’re better off without him then. Finish the story on the fish.”
“Oh yeah. The day I had the interview. I remember that. I’m so excited I got the job.
I come home and park, get out and hear this buzzing sound.
I walk closer to the house and start screaming.
There is a fish on the porch. Like one bought in a store in the white paper but open.
The head was on it and flies all over it. I gag, and holler and run.”
“He obviously knew you couldn’t stand flies, or was it fish?”
“Flies. Now I won’t eat fish for a long time. Jerk!”
“Did you clean it up?”
She shuttered. “No way. My neighbor came running. He’s nice.
Karl. I bring him cookies and leftover food.
He’s always helping me out with things and he cleaned it up while I got pizza for us.
I called Fredrick and he laughed over it.
He thought it was funny. So see, he admits when he does it. He denied my car damage though.”
“Because that has monetary value,” he said. “Nothing else really did.”
“Petty. I know. But I was hurt. Bet you don’t know what that’s like.” Her bottom lip was out, her eyes droopy. He was afraid she might fall asleep standing. “I should go,” she said. “But I don’t think I should drive either. Right?”
“Right,” he said.
He was going to bring her to his mother’s, but she was working in the cafe. He could get some food into her, but then his mother would know what happened.
Somehow he’d get blamed for this, he was positive.
Reenie was working too, so that was out. He wouldn’t drop her at the cabin without Ford or Reenie knowing.
That left one other place on the property.
His ranch.
“Can I just sit here for a bit?”
“No. I don’t trust you not to drink more.”
“This is the first drink I’ve had since I found out what he did. I’ve been eating ice cream, but too much of it hurts my belly.” She poked him in the side. “Like Ford said happens to you. But mine gave me gas. Does that happen with too much cider? I don’t want to toot in front of you.”
He looked up at the ceiling. He wasn’t a religious guy, but heaven help him.
“Do whatever makes you feel better,” he said. “Let’s get you to lie down.”
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“My place.”
“You don’t even like me,” she said. “Why would you want me in your bed?”
He liked her too much.
He wasn’t heartless, but his soul was empty and had been for too long.
Meredith needed someone whose optimism flowed through them like magic.
He could barely get a full night’s sleep without getting a glimpse of the filth he’d been exposed to, if not the destruction he’d left in his wake.
She’d figure it out soon enough, that he wasn’t who she hoped he was.
He shouldn’t have damaged her car.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Now he had to figure out what to do. How to cover his tracks. How to hide his temporary lapse in judgement.
Where the heck had all his control gone? Mother would be so mad if she knew what he’d done and have him right back to the doctor to find out the problems.
He didn’t need anyone to tell him what to do. To restrain him from being the person he wanted to be. He was done with all that nonsense.
He was his own man and was going to prove it to everyone.
But Meredith wouldn’t want someone who lost their temper like that. He knew. He’d witnessed it already with her ex.
He started to bang his fist to his head.
“Think. Think. How am I going to get out of this?”
He went to his medicine cabinet, pulled out the bottle of pills, looked them over a few times and put them back.
“No. Meredith wouldn’t want anyone weak enough to medicate themselves. I got through this before, I can do it again and win her back. She’ll be mine without help from anyone or anything.”