Chapter 14
fourteen
Chance knew it was shitty of him, but he’d be glad once Cordy was officially out of a job.
He looked around the familiar setting of the Swing Inn, waiting for her to finish her shift so he could take her home.
They’d been living together for a week. Despite their insistence they were only roommates—with benefits—Chance discovered Cordy needed a lot of care, even if she didn’t think so.
First, she had to have three square meals a day and some healthy snacks. He left her breakfast every morning, came home at lunch to make sure she’d eaten and was all right, and made dinner every night.
Each bite she took made a possessive satisfaction burn in him. It was dangerous, but he couldn’t seem to stop.
Second, every night he gave her as many orgasms as she needed, making her scream and cry and moan until she was limp and wrung out. She hadn’t been lying when she’d said pregnancy hormones revved her up—the woman had the kind of stamina a man dreamed about.
Chance never let her touch him, though. He figured that was only fair, a suitable punishment for what a piece of shit he was. He’d be her stud and nothing more. She could move on from him with a clean conscience.
Third, she wasn’t driving herself to and from work anymore. The day after they’d hooked up, Cordy had left for her shift with a smile and a wave. Chance figured he’d be asleep when she got back. He had to be up at dawn, after all.
He’d ended up sitting on the couch, unable to sleep, waiting for her until three in the morning, imagining all the horrible things that could happen on her drive home.
When she’d finally come in, he’d been the strangest mix of pissed off and relieved.
“I’m driving you to work tomorrow and picking you up,” he’d told her.
When she’d protested, he’d scooped her up and taken her straight to her bedroom, giving her two orgasms without even letting her catch her breath.
There had been no more protests from her. Chance might not be getting enough rest, but one more week and then she’d be done with the Swing Inn. She was sad, but Chance was glad she’d be safe at home. And he could catch up on his sleep, at least until the baby came.
Cordy nodded to him from behind the bar. Fifteen minutes, she mouthed.
Justin was next to her, looking lost, even though it was his father’s bar. Chance resisted the urge to shake his head. Justin was damn near forty and still looked like he was a teenager with no plans after high school and fuck all for future ambitions.
The man had two kids and was taking Cordy’s job. He could at least look like less of an idiot about it.
Something at the edge of his vision caught his attention. A teenager was walking across the dance floor, coming right for Chance. It took him a moment to place the kid: Pierce Bautista. He was a senior at the high school and a wrestler—the only wrestler since the school was too small for a whole team.
The kid was coming at him like an ornery steer. What the hell was going on?
“Hello, Pierce.” Chance lifted his water glass in greeting.
“Sir.” Pierce’s nostrils flared as he fisted his hands. “I have to talk to you about Cordy.”
Cordy? Chance shook his head. “Son, what are you even doing here?”
His family was odd, even for Bucklands, but Chance couldn’t see his parents deciding that hanging out at a bar in the middle of the night was a good idea.
“I work here.”
“Aren’t there child labor laws or something? It’s two in the morning.” Chance felt a million years old as he said it. “Don’t you need your sleep for school?”
“Pete called in sick, so I had to come in.” Pierce shrugged. “It’s not my regular shift. And it’s not like Glenn is that concerned with labor laws.”
No, Chance supposed he wasn’t. “What’s going on with Cordy?”
“She’s a nice lady,” Pierce growled. “Really nice. Like the best lady I know.”
“I agree.” What was this kid getting at?
“We all want the best for her.” Pierce sucked in a breath. “But she’s living with you, and that means… well, you know. Because you’re, well… Everyone knows what you’re like. She needs some stability.”
Chance inwardly groaned as he realized what the teenager was implying. “Son,” he drawled, “are you asking my intentions toward Cordelia Johnson?”
To his credit, the kid didn’t flinch. “Yeah, I am. We all love Cordy, and we want to make sure she’s safe.” He propped his elbow on the table and flexed his bicep. “We won’t let anything happen to her.”
Was Chance seriously being threatened by this kid who thought doing arm curls made him a badass? Yep, he definitely was.
“Who’s we?” You and whose army are rolling up on me?
“A bunch of us.” Pierce rolled a shoulder. “The guys in the kitchen. Some of the regulars. And Sam. Sam’s real upset.”
Pierce tried to make that as threatening as possible, but Chance knew for a fact Sam Ulker couldn’t run more than five feet without doubling over wheezing. It’d be like shooting fish in a barrel, going after Sam.
“I see,” Chance said. “And you all think I’m going to hurt her?”
“Well,” the kid said bluntly, “yes.”
Christ. Chance had no idea what to say to that. His chest ached like Pierce had socked him as hard as he could.
“Don’t get me wrong, sir,” Pierce went on. “I’m a big fan of your work.”
“My work?” Chance groaned. “Jesus, how do you even know about that?”
“I see things here.”
Chance’s stomach dropped. When he’d been picking up women in the Swing Inn, he hadn’t considered a kid might be watching and taking notes. Yeah, Pierce was seventeen, but still too young to be a fan of Chance’s behavior. Jesus.
“My work ,” Chance said through gritted teeth, “is over. I’m done with all that. Forget whatever you saw before. Please.”
“But you’re here now.” Pierce was trying to be tough, but there was uncertainty there, too. He assumed Chance was here to hunt.
Chance glanced around the bar, wondering how many other people thought that. Probably all of them. It wasn’t like he was known for anything else.
“I’m here to take Cordy home, and that’s it,” Chance said firmly. “I’m waiting for her since I don’t want her to drive herself anymore.” He swallowed hard, still pricked by the look in Pierce’s gaze. “And I’m being careful with her. As careful as I know how to be.”
Chance wasn’t sure that was enough. But he was doing the best he could.
Pierce’s shoulders sagged with relief, making him look even younger. “We’ll all be glad to hear that. She’s got a lot of people worried about her.”
“She’s got a full house of admirers here, doesn’t she?”
Pierce grinned. “Yes, sir, she does. I hope she’ll stay in Star Crossed Springs, but that’s not really her thing.”
Chance hoped the same. “We’ll see. People change when they have kids.”
“I wouldn’t know.” Pierce gave an artless wave. “Okay, I guess it’s all right she’s staying with you. I gotta go finish my shift.” He was gone in a flash.
Well. Chance resettled himself in his chair. That had been… something. He guessed he’d passed the kid’s test.
Cordy came up then, looking like he was the best thing she’d seen all day. A man could get real used to that, not that Chance was going to.
“Was that Pierce walking away?” she asked.
Chance nodded.
She frowned. “He’s not supposed to be working tonight. It’s pretty late.”
“He said someone called in sick. As for it being late, that family won’t care much.”
His tone caught her attention. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Pierce is a Buckland.”
Bucklands didn’t care about things like bedtimes or being normal or other people’s opinions of them.
“No, he’s not,” Cordy said confidently. “He’s a Bautista. It’s right there in his last name.”
“His grandma is a Buckland,” Chance explained.
“So that makes him a Buckland?” She frowned. “Do you hate him?”
Chance laughed. “No, but I was getting close to yelling at him a minute ago.”
“Why? He’s a sweet kid. You better not have.”
The fierceness in her expression made his breath catch. God, but she was such a fighter for the people she cared about. Did Pierce even know how lucky he was?
He’d just bodily threatened Chance to protect Cordy, so maybe he did.
“He was warning me that if I hurt you, I’d answer to him,” Chance said. “And to Sam, too, apparently.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened. “ Oh.” Her mouth fell open. “He… He threatened you? ”
“Yep. He was dead serious. Wanted to know my intentions.”
“That’s never happened to me before.” Her voice trembled. “I didn’t even know Pierce was worried.”
“Yeah, well, it sounded like some committee had sent him. The Chance Kessal is Not Good Enough for Cordy Johnson Committee. Heard of it?”
She laughed as she shook her head. “No. I had no idea.” After a moment, she asked, “So Pierce is a Buckland? Is everyone in this town related to each other?”
“Hardly. But everyone’s connected in some way.”
“Like six degrees of separation?”
He snorted. “More like three.”
“Prove it.” She jerked her chin at a table. “How is Francine Holder there related to…?” Cordy scanned the room. “…um, related to Jack Weston over there?”
“Easy. They dated in high school.”
“Damn it,” she muttered. “I’ve got to make this harder.”
Cordy took her time, going slowly through the room. “Let me see… Ah!” She smiled triumphantly. “I’ve got a good one. Jason Cooper”—she pointed to a slicked-down bro in one corner—“and Renee Pierson.” Her finger swung over to a fifty-some-year-old woman who looked like she was sitting on her hands.
“That is a tough one,” Chance admitted. “They’re not related. Jason never did 4-H or sports.”
“But Renee did?”
“Won grand champion market lamb seven years in a row at the fair. She’s got a killer instinct when it comes to lamb showing.”
Cordy looked skeptical. “So they don’t know each other then? I’ve won?”
“Hold up. Never said that. Just said it would be tough.”
She crossed her arms. “You’re stalling.”
He was, but he wasn’t going to admit it. Not after bragging so hard. Chance squinted at his two targets, his brain churning.
Chance snapped his fingers. “Got it. Jason had to volunteer at the library thanks to some light vandalism at the school—he wrote Jason rules in all the boys’ bathrooms—and spent about three months shelving books after school. Renee’s sister, Marie, is the head librarian, and Renee herself is part of the creative writing club at the library, so they know each other from there.”
Cordy tapped her fingers on her arm. “That’s a pretty weak link.”
“But it’s still a link. And I guarantee Jason remembers Marie. She whipped him into shape in those three months.”
“She did?” Cordy raised an eyebrow as she looked over Jason, who did look especially bro-ish that night. “He was worse than that?”
“Yep. He was all testosterone, no brains. Marie got him to read some off-roading magazines in the library, and it changed his life.”
“I see.” She pressed her lips wistfully together. “Would all these people be connected like that to Reed? Would they all have stories of him for the baby?”
It took a moment before Chance’s voice would work. “Yeah. They’d have stories about you, too.”
He could see the word Me? Hovering on her lips. “What kind of stories?”
Her yearning expression made his chest ache. She might claim she was a wanderer and wasn’t going to settle down, but she clearly wanted to belong somewhere. Her parents had really messed her up.
Of course, you could say the same about Chance. He cleared his throat. “Well, most of them would probably have stories about you working the bar. A lot of people come here to hang out, reconnect with friends, and forget their troubles for a while. It’s as much a part of Star Crossed Springs as Third Thursdays.”
“You don’t have to convince me how important bars are,” she said dryly. “So, I’m a pillar of the community?”
“You’re laughing at me, but yeah. You are. That’s why Pierce came over to give me that warning. Because you mean a lot to a lot of people here.”
Cordy pondered that. She was always beautiful, but she looked especially so in the low lights of the Swing Inn, coming to terms with the fact that people cared about her. That they wanted her to stay.
Maybe Chance most of all. But she needed support and help from him, not pressure to stay in a place where she wasn’t sure she belonged. Even though she did.
“I was just thinking,” she said finally. “I’ve got stories about nearly everyone in here, too.”
“Oh yeah? Like who? And what?”
Cordy inhaled and sat back. “Well, Lauren over there came in one night looking… not herself. She was nervous but trying to hide it. So I asked her if everything was okay.”
“Was it?”
“She told me she was waiting for a blind date.”
“She’s dating again?” Chance hooked his arm over the back of Cordy’s chair. He caught a whiff of her shampoo, lavender and mint. “Good for her.”
“I kept her company while she waited and heard all about her garden. I had no idea flower shows were so competitive. Anyway, the guy never showed up.”
Chance frowned. “Who was it?” If it was someone from Star Crossed Springs, he would need a reminder on how to treat a nice lady like Lauren.
“Oh, I don’t know. Not anyone from town. But when he didn’t show, I introduced Lauren to the rest of them.” Cordy gestured to the women sitting around the table with Lauren. “Holly, Irene, and Mia. They hit it off and started a garden club together.”
“You introduced them?” Chance cocked his head. Irene gave him a small wave, and he waved back. “I thought they already knew each other from somewhere.”
“They knew each other,” she said, “but they weren’t friends. They became friends that night. They asked me to be part of their gardening club. I said no.” Her mouth turned down. “I’m not sure why.”
Because you’re terrified of putting down roots because your selfish parents dragged you around the world.
“You can still say yes,” Chance said. “They’d be happy to have you.”
“Maybe.” She set her hand on her stomach.
That was her tell whenever she was thinking about her future. She’d put her hand on her belly as if she was talking to the baby through it.
“Who else do you have stories about?” he asked
“I help Sam celebrate whenever Janine agrees to go on a date with him.”
Chance laughed. “Those two have been doing their off-and-on thing since my parents were young. They’ll never stop doing it.”
Cordy swatted his arm. “No, Sam insists she’s going to marry him someday!”
“If Janine ever says yes to one of his proposals, he’ll be like the dog who caught the car. He won’t know what to do.”
Cordy caught her laugh behind her hands. “No, no, he really does love her.”
“I’m sure he does, but he’s near sixty and never lived with anyone before. It would be a disaster. Sam wants to love from afar, not up close up, warts and all. Not that Janine has warts,” he added. “I meant the metaphorical warts we all have.”
“I still believe in them,” Cordy said. “And I’ll never forget the night when Kelly Ulker got the entire bar line dancing. Literally everyone in the place, including me and the kitchen staff, were stepping to ‘Elvira.’” Her expression softened as she remembered. “It was the best time ever.”
“Once a gym teacher, always a gym teacher. I’m sorry I missed that.”
“It was pretty great.” Cordy looked around the bar and sighed. “I’m going to miss this place. Even though every night my feet are killing me. And my ankles swell.”
“Then quit early,” Chance growled. Why hadn’t she said anything? And why hadn’t he noticed?
“Weren’t you just telling me I’m a pillar of this place?”
“You are, but you’re about to have a baby. Tell Glenn this is your last night. You don’t owe him shit, not after what he did to you. Justin is here, ready to take over.”
Cordy shook her head. “He’s not. He’s not very good at bartending.”
“He’s not good at anything from what I hear.”
She watched Justin behind the bar, a frown forming between her brows. Justin must be messing something up. “He’s trying. I feel bad for the guy.”
“Why? He took your job and your house.”
“Yeah,” she said, “but he lost his job in Fordsville and needed to make his child support payments. He only has two kids,” Cordy informed him, holding up two fingers. “Ruby made it sound like he’d left a dozen kids behind with thirteen different mothers.”
“Ruby can exaggerate at times. And she’s a teacher—she wants every kid to have a picture-perfect childhood.”
“Well, this was Justin’s last hope.” Her expression softened into pity. “Can you imagine, your only options are to come work for your dad and live in his place?”
“ Your place,” Chance reminded her, “or at least it was. And yes, I can imagine.”
“I didn’t mean you. The ranch is something entirely different.” She leaned in and dropped her voice. “Justin told me he hates bartending. He’s doing it all for his daughters. I think that’s… that’s noble.”
She was too softhearted. Chance was nowhere near ready to be nice to Justin. “If he’d kept the job in Fordsville, this wouldn’t be his only option.”
“Not everyone can be like you,” she said offhandedly.
“Given a job by my father?”
Cordy slanted him a look. “I know it wasn’t anything like that. You’re the one who saved the ranch. And your father, too.”
A fist closed around Chance’s throat. “What do you mean?”
“I guarantee Holden is still alive thanks to you and Quint.” She leaned forward and brushed her lips across his cheek. “You’re good at saving people. Even if you don’t want to be.”
“I didn’t save you,” he said gruffly. “I’m only helping out. Don’t make me sound better than I am.”
“Okay.” Her smile was knowing. “Should we head home?”
He liked it too much that she called it home. “Let’s go. You need your rest.”
The look she sent him made his blood race. “Hopefully, not too much rest?”
Like he’d said, the woman had stamina.