Chapter 13
The Holiday Secret Sisterhood had started years ago when the Holiday sisters were just kids. The meetings took place at least once a month, either in person or by Zoom, depending on where all the sisters were at the time.
Tonight, it was on Zoom.
Noelle was in Dallas standing at a counter in what looked like one of her culinary classrooms, whisking something in a bowl. Hallie was in the brewery room of the brewery she worked at in Austin. Belle was at their office in Houston, the picture she’d had blown up of the Holiday Ranch directly behind her. Cloe was cozied up on a couch at the Remington Ranch. Sweetie was sitting on the porch of the quaint house she shared with Decker.
Liberty would have loved to be sitting in the swing on her parents’ porch. But since there was still no Wi-Fi at the ranch and she’d had a craving for Bobby Jay’s baby back ribs and twofer margaritas, she’d come to the Hellhole for dinner.
It certainly had nothing to do with hoping to run into a cocky cowboy.
She glanced around the restaurant and bar for what felt like the hundredth time while she tried to stay focused on the conversation. It seemed Noelle had met the love of her life. While she measured ingredients and whisked them into whatever she was making, she was expounding on her new boyfriend’s many virtues. Liberty might be more interested in the conversation if her littlest sister hadn’t found the love of her life every other week.
“I’m telling y’all, Luc is the one,” Noelle said. “He’s not only a hot Frenchman with a dreamy accent and a slew of awards for his pastries, but he’s also funny and polite and not at all arrogant . . . like some people I know.”
All the sisters knew she wasn’t talking about some people. She was talking about one person. Her archenemy, Casey Remington, Rome’s little brother. The two had been at each other’s throats since kindergarten. Something Liberty had always found amusing.
Tonight, she was too preoccupied to be amused.
She glanced around the bar again and scowled when she didn’t spot a rodeo bum with strawberry-blond hair and an impish smile. She hated to admit it, but she missed that impish smile. She hadn’t seen hide nor hair of it since Pip’s party. The morning after the party, he’d picked up Tay-Tay while she’d been visiting Cloe and hadn’t been back to the ranch since. Nor had he stopped by Nothin’ But Muffins and she’d been there every morning for the last week. Nor had he shown up at Cooper Springs while she was taking her afternoon and nighttime swims.
She thought about texting him, but she flat-out refused to be one of those women who fired off a hundred texts to a man who had ghosted her.
That’s exactly what Jesse had done. He had backed out of the bet and cut her off without any explanation.
Of course, she didn’t need one. She already knew.
She’d let down her guard and showed him the needy woman beneath the tough businesswoman. The woman who wanted children and a family—even though she said she didn’t.
It was the dog suit that had done it.
While most men wouldn’t have been caught dead in a fuzzy dog suit, Jesse had not only worn it, but also embraced the part. The kids had adored him and so had their parents. Everyone at the birthday party had commented how great he was with children.
It had made her want something she couldn’t have.
Not just kids, but Jesse.
He was the type of person who made people feel happy to be alive. At least that’s how he’d made Liberty feel. He’d made her feel more alive than she’d felt in years. She’d laughed more, enjoyed life more, and slept more. Now she was back to being stressed, bored, and not sleeping.
And it was annoying. Damn annoying.
She didn’t need Jesse Cates to live life to the fullest. She could live quite nicely without him.
She pushed him from her mind and cut into Noelle’s fawning over Luc. “I’m sure Luc is amazing, Elle, and I’m real happy for you. But I didn’t call this meeting to talk about our love lives. I called it to tell y’all that Jesse has agreed to convince Corbin to stop the foreclosure proceedings.”
She thought her sisters would look relieved. She was surprised when they didn’t.
“What exactly did you have to do to get him to agree?” Sweetie asked.
“I was wondering the same thing,” Cloe said.
Liberty didn’t believe in beating around the bush. “If you’re asking me if I had sex with him, the answer is no.”
“Are you planning on having sex with him?” Cloe asked.
She didn’t know where the brick of disappointment in her stomach came from. “Absolutely not.”
“But you kissed him twice,” Hallie said.
Liberty sent both Cloe and Sweetie glares. “You told?”
“You should have told us,” Noelle said as she viciously whisked. “That’s just part of the Secret Sisterhood oath we took. No secrets from sisters. Especially juicy secrets.” She stopped whisking and leaned closer to her screen. “So have you kissed him again?”
“Once.” Not that anyone would call what she and Jesse had done at Cooper Springs just a kiss. For the past few nights, when she did finally fall asleep, she dreamed about the feel of Jesse’s hard body rocking against her.
“Did something else come with that kiss?” Hallie asked. “Because that’s a hot-sex flush if ever I saw one.”
Her face grew even warmer and there was a “Nailed it!” from Hallie and a squeal of excitement from Noelle and a gasp of disbelief from Belle—no doubt because Liberty hadn’t told her—and a worried sigh from both Cloe and Sweetie.
“We didn’t have sex!” Liberty yelled so loudly the people sitting around her stopped talking and stared at her. She stared right back. “What? Haven’t you ever heard a grown woman talking about sex before?” They quickly turned away and she looked back at her laptop.
“But you want to have sex with Jesse,” Noelle said.
“Yep, she does,” Hallie joined in.
Thankfully, Belle came to her rescue. “That’s none of our business, Elle and Hal. There are some things sisters should keep to themselves.” Liberty couldn’t help being surprised. Belle had confided everything to her . . . hadn’t she? “Now let’s get back to the issue at hand.” Belle continued. “Do you think Jesse can convince Corbin to let Rome pay off the loan?”
Liberty didn’t even hesitate to answer. Jesse might have ghosted her, but he wasn’t the type of man to renege on his word.
“Yes. The man is extremely persuasive.” Her sisters all sent her knowing looks and she rolled her eyes. “Moving on. Is there any other issues we need to discuss?”
Cloe held up a photograph. “Does anyone want to see your new niece?” Everyone started talking at once as Cloe moved the blurred ultrasound image closer to the camera. It looked like a tiny withered potato. While Cloe talked about how Rome had cried when he’d seen the ultra sound of his daughter, Liberty tried to keep a smile on her face and not give in to the hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach.
It was a losing battle.
It seemed that talking to Jesse the other day at the party had opened up the internal safe Liberty had locked all her secret desires in. Now there was no more pretending that she didn’t want children or a husband who cried over ultrasound images. But very few men would be willing to get into a relationship with a woman who couldn’t have children. Even men like Jesse who acted like they didn’t want kids. He might not want kids, but he wouldn’t want that choice taken from him.
Maybe that’s why he’d ghosted her. Maybe he was completely turned off by the fact she was defective.
The more she thought about him ghosting her all because she couldn’t have the kids he didn’t even want, the madder she got . . . and the more she downed the two margaritas the barmaid had brought her.
By the time she was finished Zooming with her sisters, both of her twofer margaritas were gone and she was madder than a wet hen. Or possibly a tipsy hen. She fired off a quick text to her ghost and pushed send, then jumped up from her chair and yelled, “Who wants to dance!”
A lot of people took her up on the offer—men and women. She discovered why once she was out on the dance floor. It seemed word had gotten out about Pip’s party and now everyone wanted Liberty to plan their events.
“So I’m in a bit of a pickle,” Mayor Deidre Sims said as she whirled Liberty under her arm flab, then continued the jaunty polka they were doing. “Carol Hyde always takes care of the Memorial and Fourth of July activities, but after hip-replacement surgery, she just can’t do it.” The mayor leaned in closer. “And just between you and me, Carol never did have a flair for decorations. Last year, she decorated the Miss Soybean float with orange flowers. Not red, white, and blue for Fourth of July. Not white, pink, or purple for the soybean flowers. Orange. I have never had so many hate emails in all my born days.”
Liberty giggled, which proved how drunk she was. She did not giggle.
“I know you have a flair with decorations,” the mayor continued. “When you were in high school, I knew I could count on you and your sister to make every homecoming and prom look like the set of a teen movie.” Mayor Sims had been the principal of the high school before she had been elected mayor. Which was why Liberty couldn’t tell her no.
That and the warm glow in her belly from the margaritas.
“I’d be honored to be in charge of decorations and fes-tible—fe-sis—activities for the Memorial and Fourth of July celebrations.”
“Great!” The mayor handed her off to Danny Bell, who told her all about his daughter who wanted a fancy wedding on a postman’s budget.
By the time she’d danced with what felt like the entire town, she had agreed to help plan two weddings, a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, a prom proposal for a shy sixteen-year-old, the Memorial Day and Fourth of July celebrations, and a funeral for a beloved hunting dog.
She was now sober and thoroughly pissed at Bobby Jay for making his margaritas so damn strong. Before she got any more jobs, she grabbed her phone and laptop and started for the door. But halfway there, the town bully stopped her.
“Hey there, beautiful.” Cob Ritter hooked an arm around her waist. “Where you goin’? The night is still young.”
“I’m not in the mood for an idiot tonight, Cob. So before I do what Cloe did last time you accosted her and relocate your balls between your ears, you might want to let me go.”
His smile faded and his beady eyes narrowed. “That won’t happen again. I’ve learned the Holiday sisters need a firm hand.” He tightened his grip and tugged her so close she couldn’t move her legs. “Now, honey, you don’t want to hurt the goods before you’ve gotten a sample, do you?”
Before she could grab the beer bottle sitting on the bar and bust it over Cob’s head, a deep voice spoke behind him.
“Let her go.”
Liberty peeked over Cob’s shoulder and saw Jesse standing there in his crumpled hat. He wasn’t wearing his usual cocky smile. He looked pissed. Real pissed. And Liberty wasn’t so happy herself.
“Well, if it isn’t the Ghost of Jesse Cates.”
He didn’t reply. His gaze remained narrowed on Cob who had turned around, but still had a firm hold of Liberty’s arm. “I said let her go,” Jesse repeated.
Cob grinned. “I don’t think—” He didn’t even get to finish before Jesse punched him in the jaw. Cob released Liberty and wavered on his feet for only a second before his eyes rolled back and he landed in a heap at her feet. Before Liberty could get over her surprise, Jesse took her hand and pulled her toward the door.
Once outside, she jerked free. “I don’t need you showing up and playing hero, Jesse Cates. So go on back inside and seduce all the women you want. Isn’t that what you’re here for? To find an easier woman to get into your bed.”
“I’m here because you drunk texted me.”
“I did not drunk text you.”
He pulled out his phone, tapped it a few times, before he handed it to her. “So you meant to call me an egg testicle jerk?”
She read the text.
Boy was I wrote about you. You’re nothing butt a shellfish egg testicle jerk. Ass far ass I concert you can go straight to Jell-O.
She cringed. Damn autocorrect . . . and Bobby’s margaritas. And damn the arrogant cowboy standing in front of her.
She handed his phone back. “I meant every word. Once you found out I wanted kids—or maybe once you found out I couldn’t have them, you called off the bet and ran off like an . . . egg testicle jerk!”
His eyes widened. “That had nothing to do with me calling off the bet.”
“Then why did you ghost me?”
He opened his mouth, but then closed it. “Come on, I’ll drive you home.” He went to take her arm, but she pulled back.
“Didn’t you hear me? I don’t need your help. In fact, I don’t need anything from you. I don’t need you to go swimming with me. I don’t need you to swing with me. I don’t need you to climb trees with me.” She leaned in closer and got right in his face. “I—Don’t—Need—You.”
Jesse stared at her for a long moment before he wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged her close. His eyes held a hunger that made her stomach drop and her heart thump and all her breath leave her lungs in one fell swoop.
“Well, that’s too bad, darlin’,” he said. “Because, this last week, I figured out that I need you.”
He kissed her. This kiss wasn’t the slow, seductive kind he’d given her out at Cooper Springs. This kiss was hungry and devouring and . . . thought stealing.
Liberty couldn’t think. All she could do was feel. What she felt was uncontrollable desire. She didn’t care that he’d run off and ghosted her. She didn’t care that he would probably run off and ghost her again. All she cared about was that he was here now. Making her feel things she’d never felt before.
When he lifted her into his arms, she hooked her arms around his neck and held on tight as he carried her to his truck. Once there, he put her down and pushed her back against the passenger door, his lips hot and scorching as he kissed his way along her neck.
“Tell me no,” he whispered against her skin. “Stop this before it’s too late.”
Her head lolled back against the truck to give him better access. “You stop it.”
He nipped on her neck, sending a shower of sparks through her body, before he drew back. His eyes held desire and pain. “I can’t.”
She cradled his face in her hands, wanting to soothe that pain. “Then I guess this is happening because I can’t stop either.” She kissed him.
They stood there exchanging heated kisses until a group of laughing people came out of the bar, then Jesse helped her into his truck. She hadn’t liked the obnoxious vehicle until she discovered how well the bench seat worked for a horny woman. Without a console, she could cozy right up next to Jesse and slide her hands over all the muscles she’d only dreamed about touching.
“Lib-by,” he groaned as she slipped her hand inside the shirt she’d just unsnapped and brushed his nipple with her thumb. “Behave.”
But she couldn’t behave. Not when her body hummed with the need to touch and taste every inch of the man. She cradled his bunched biceps and ran her hands over his thick thigh muscles. She counted his twin stacks of abdominal muscles and cupped the hard slabs of each pec. When they reached the secluded dirt road that led to Corbin’s trailer, she finally slid her hand over the bulge beneath his fly.
The truck veered off the road, its big tires rolling over rocks and flattening sagebrush.
“Jesus, woman!” He corrected his steering and got back on the road before glancing at her. “Are you trying to get us killed?”
She smiled as she slid her hand back over his erection. “Am I distracting you, cowboy?”
He closed his eyes and groaned. “I knew you were going to be a hellion the moment I met you.”
He gunned the truck and gravel flew. Within seconds, they were pulling into the dirt lot in front of Corbin’s beat-up trailer. It looked a lot more pathetic than Liberty remembered. But she barely had time to take in the rusted siding and the cracked windows before Jesse had her on his lap. His smile was evil as he leered at her.
“You teased me, darlin’, and now it’s time I teased you.” His fingers slid beneath her skirt, leaving behind a trail of tingling heat. “I’ve been wondering just what you have on under this skirt.” His hand stopped on her upper thigh, his index finger brushing her skin in tiny circles that made her breath hitch. “I’d bet Liberty Holiday wears tiny little silk designer panties. But Libby Lou wears something more comfortable and country—cotton panties with tiny little hearts. Or maybe flowers.”
She held her breath as his hot fingers moved higher, tracing the leg elastic of her panties in a back-and-forth motion that made her heart race. “Shall we see who’s sittin’ on my lap tonight, darlin’?”
But he didn’t pull her panties off to check. Instead, he used just his fingertips and brushed over the front of them, stroking the throbbing spot between her legs.
“Cotton,” he whispered in a husky voice. A smile bloomed on his handsome face. “Hey, Libby Lou. I was hoping for you.” He leaned in and kissed her slow and deep as he slipped her panties down her legs that were stretched out on the seat. He stopped when he reached the roper boots he’d bought her and drew back from the kiss. “Nice boots, by the way. Now can you lift one so I can get your panties off? I need to have a little more working room.”
She didn’t know what he meant until her panties were off and he scooted across the seat with her on his lap to the passenger side. Then he turned her facing away from him and tugged her skirt up around her waist.
“There,” he whispered in her ear as he spread her legs and hooked them over his knees. “Isn’t that better?”
Before she could say that she felt a little exposed, he slid a hand up her inner thigh and proceeded to explore. The feel of his calloused fingers slipping between her moist folds had her groaning aloud as her head dropped back on his shoulder.
“That’s it, baby,” he whispered. “Just lie back and enjoy.”
She did enjoy. She enjoyed every stroke and thrust of his talented fingers. When he had her practically weeping with pleasure, he located her clitoris and strummed it in a back-and-forth rhythm that sent her right over the edge. She lifted her hips and cried out in an embarrassing run-on sentence of cusswords and praise for how good he made her feel.
He was talented. He knew exactly what to do to draw out her pleasure until she sagged against him in a limp mass of satisfaction.
Jesse pulled her close and kissed the side of her head. “Now don’t get too comfortable, darlin’. I believe I promised you three orgasms and I’ve always been a man of my word.”