Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Autumn
A knock at my classroom door jerked me out of my stupor. A common occurrence in the last week. How long had I been staring at the wall of pumpkin cutouts with each kid’s favorite fall memory written inside while I’d been lost in thought about my homelife?
I blinked at the door. School had let out an hour and a half ago, but I’d stayed late to grade since my productivity at home had tanked. Most everyone had left. Except Scarlett.
She wore an amused smile and crossed her arms over her pumpkin cardigan. She wore it every year in the week leading up to Halloween. “I feel like I can tell what you’re thinking about since you returned from Vegas. Or should I say who?”
She would be right. Gideon was on my mind all the time. And when I was home, he was inside me. All. The. Time. It was glorious.
I woke up to his cock. I went to bed with it. And many times, I’d even showered with it. Last night, for dinner, he’d had me first. The meat loaf had gotten overcooked.
I grinned. “Can’t help it.”
She wiggled her finger at me. “Tate would dry heave if he saw you right now.”
My brothers would not like to hear what I’d been getting up to with Gideon. “I might have to gush to him to make sure.”
Tate hadn’t contacted me since the party where Gideon and I had left early. Teller had probably passed on our exchange at the distillery. Other than that, my brothers were steering clear of me. Good.
A little scrape of indignation chafed the inside of my chest. Were they digging in their heels and going through with the sale without even asking my opinion?
Since when had they ever asked for my opinion?
But I was married. To the man they were personally upsetting over the sale. Me. Their sister. Wasn’t I more than business?
“Uh-oh.” She crossed to my desk and pulled up a yellow wobble stool that looked like a giant board game piece with a broad base and wide seat.
She sat on it like a pro, without tipping from side to side as she gained her balance, probably because she had some in her classroom.
“Now, what thought is going through your head?”
“It’s nothing.” I shuffled the math papers I should’ve been done correcting. “What are you doing here so late?”
“Tate took the kids to your mom’s place, and they won’t get home until later. I thought I could get some lessons outlined so I can relax a little for Friday.”
Halloween was this Friday. No one was getting anything done. The school had their fall festival and the kids could get dressed up. There was an art fair in the gymnasium and families were invited for the last two hours to tour the projects and have hot chocolate.
“Mama will send you home a plate of food.”
She put her hand on her stomach. “I’m counting on there being dessert too.”
I laughed. “There will be. If Mama doesn’t remember, Tate will.”
She put her elbow on the edge of the desk. The chair was so short her head barely reached her hand when she rested her chin in her palm. “I take it it’s going well?”
“So well.” A heat wave crept up my neck. “I really like him, Scarlett.”
“I hope so. You married him.” There was a slight question in her tone.
“I know you don’t think it’s real.” It felt legitimate.
Each day that went by, my dream was becoming more of a reality.
I liked going home to him. I loved waking up to him—and that was before he made me orgasm before work.
But the calendar continued to tear a page away with each day.
Slowly, we were creeping up to the closing date.
I didn’t want to wonder if he was waiting to go back to his plush penthouse and his runway-ready CFO and fuck buddy.
That wasn’t part of my fantasy. Neither was him unpacking that suitcase of his and actually hanging something up in a closet.
As long as he kept folding his clean laundry right back into his suitcase, I had no delusions.
“I think . . .” She ran her lower lip between her teeth. “I think your brothers are terrified it’s not real. They see you as the little sister they were supposed to protect. I see you as a smart and savvy woman who might drool at the sight of Gideon but would see through a facade.”
I stiffened. Scarlett was also intelligent and observant. I couldn’t tell her about the deal and ask her not to tell Tate. I wasn’t risking the only chance Gideon had, and I refused to put that kind of strain on my friend. “We must look like an odd couple.”
I was plain; he was a god. I was short; he was tall. I was wealthy in family connections, and he isolated himself. How could we be truly in love when he ran a company that earned over a million a day, and my late nights were filled with paste and construction paper?
Sympathy registered in her eyes. She sat back and wobbled intentionally side to side on her stool. “You two look adorable and I wish you knew it.”
I stuck my tongue out at her. Not even my students did that. “You’re supposed to say that. You’re my friend.”
“Do you think I feel like I belong next to Tate? The CEO turned single dad mountain man?”
“He’s a rancher. And you’re gorgeous.” I knew how she felt. We rocked the same style and it normally didn’t bother us. But we were only human.
“Good thing the cows don’t care he’s grumpy half the time.”
“He’s grumpy because he’s not with you.”
Her expression went dreamy. “Yeah.” She blinked, back to the mild teacher I knew. “He is worried about you, and it’s because he doesn’t trust Gideon, not you. I’m staying out of it, but I’m worried about you too. Why don’t you talk to Tate?”
Why didn’t Tate talk to me? “I don’t think it’d help.
” I might as well sidle up to the wall and have a long conversation.
If Tate didn’t want to budge on anything, he wouldn’t.
And since he was head of Bailey Beef and this deal was going through the ranch, then his mind was made up.
He was the oldest. He’d always been in charge. Teller and Tenor would follow his lead.
She put her hands up. “I’m not going to wedge myself in the middle. Just know you can always talk to me. I won’t go to Tate with everything.”
I lifted a brow.
She rolled her eyes. “I do keep some things from him.”
I kept the brow arched.
“Fine. I’m an open book with him, okay? But I’m still here for you.”
“Thank you.” I had been hesitant to be my usual self with Scarlett, unsure of what she’d report to her husband.
“What I really came here for, other than a check-in, is to see if you were going to be home tomorrow night for trick-or-treating.”
“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Maybe you have a hot date? Or maybe you’ll be in flagrante?”
I laughed. With the way Gideon and I had been all week . . . “I’m not going to be doing it when kids are ringing my doorbell. I haven’t really talked to him, but I’m sure he’s fine with answering the door a hundred times in two hours.”
Teachers’ houses were popular stops on the Halloween route.
“Only a hundred?” She let out a wistful sigh. “I miss that. No one comes out to the cabin, and I don’t blame them. It’d eat up half their trick-or-treating window.”
“You’re bringing the kids by?”
“Most definitely. Brinley got a taste of the candy last year, and she’s been talking nonstop about it.”
“I can’t wait.”
She rose. “What are you going to be dressed as this year? Or is your after-school costume a surprise?”
The air in my lungs froze. My costume. I had purchased it months ago, and I’d been preparing for Halloween, but the idea of wearing it around Gideon hadn’t set in. I had a costume I wore at school and then I switched out to surprise the kids when they came by the house. “Uh . . .”
She tilted her head. “You’re wearing your costume for trick-or-treating, right?”
“Oh, yeah. Of course.”
Her eyes narrowed. “With your makeup?”
“Not at school.” We weren’t allowed to have face paint at school.
“You know what I mean. Around Gideon?” she taunted, like a kid on the playground. “Or are you scared?”
“No?” My voice pitched high. “I’m still dressing up.”
“Good,” she said with false innocence. The hint of gotcha was in her voice. “See you then.”
“Bye-ee.” My grin faded as soon as she walked out.
Great. My trick-or-treating costume.
For school, I’d learned to wear something that was comfortable, and I had a rotation of clothing and headbands.
Black shirt and slacks and a headband with ears—kitty cat.
Brown shirt, brown pants, and a headband with even bigger ears—fox.
A dress and leggings with a red cape if it was cold out—Little Red Riding Hood.
Tomorrow, a purple dress and a green scarf.
With my red hair, I could pull off a decent Daphne from Scooby-Doo.
If only I was wearing that for tomorrow night, but my other costume was too uncomfortable for a full day of teaching.
I couldn’t be Daphne at night too. Every kid that came to my house would be expecting something different.
Not only would it be embarrassing to have kids repeatedly ask where my second costume was, but then I’d have to explain why if Gideon overheard.
And if any of the trick-or-treaters found out what my trick-or-treat costume was supposed to be and I didn’t wear it? They’d never let me live down the irony of lying.
Gideon
My wife was standing at the threshold of the living room, her cheeks bright red, and it wasn’t just from makeup.
She wore red shorts with suspenders, a yellow shirt with an obnoxious white collar, and a blue bow tie.
She had her hair bundled under a black bowl-cut wig and a yellow-and-blue beanie plopped on her head.
A long nose was strapped around her face.
“Is sexy Pinocchio a thing?” I folded my arms. Through the picture window in the living room, I could see a group of kids rushing down the sidewalk toward the house. They needed to slow down so I could take in the picture in front of me.
She shot me a mock glare, but a smile played along her lips.
Laughter bubbled in my chest, but I held it in. “Remember, I’ll know if you’re not telling the truth.”