Page 15 of The Billionaire Land Baron

“A little milk or cream is fine. Thanks for having me for breakfast.”

Daddy laughed and Shelby blew out a breath. Forty-two seconds. “Looks like T-ball almost had you for breakfast. What brand of stupid are you, swimming with gators? You one of those YOLO people?”

“Daddy,” Shelby warned.

But as she put a plate of eggs in front of Jake, her thoughts wandered back to the sight of him dripping wet as he emerged from the lake with his broad shoulders and all those sinewy muscles she hadn’t imagined hiding under his buttoned-up shirt. Which, now that she noticed, was a little tight over his biceps...

“Shelby! Eggs?” Her daddy said and now he was grinning at her like he knew just what she was thinking about.

“Hold your britches,” she said and banged a plate down in front of him. “A thank-you might be in order.”

“Thank you,” Jake said hurriedly.

“Oh, I didn’t mean you. You’re a paying guest.” Shelby pulled her daddy’s plate away from him. He glared at her, then smiled like a used car salesman.

“Thank you, my sweet servant of a daughter for going out of your way to make eggs just the way I like them, rather than the sissified version you gave our paying guest.”

She shoved the plate at him and made her own small plate and sat next to Jake.

Jake looked at their plates and then his own. “I didn’t mean to be trouble,” he said. “I could have eaten...that. What is that, exactly?”

“It’s eggs with chorizo and jalapeños,” Shelby said. “Didn’t know if you could take the heat.”

“Oh,” Jake said. “Probably not. Thank you. I mean it. You didn’t have to do this.”

He touched her hand lightly across the table and she jerked hers away, feeling an unsettling fluttering of nerves at his touch. He looked just as surprised, like he hadn’t meant to make contact. Daddy snorted and she gave him a fiery side-eye. That man. For all his blustering about shotguns, if she left him alone for five minutes with Jake, he’d probably try to trade her hand in marriage for their property.

That thought circled her right back to the meeting with the bank and her stomach recoiled from her food. Shelby worked to swallow her eggs. Whatever happened, until that meeting at the bank was over today, she would not be able to escape the sinking feeling.

For a few moments, the only sound was chewing and the old country station playing on the radio above the stove. It was always playing. Aside from power outages and the yearly battery change, that radio had been playing for twelve years. It had been playing the day her mama left and she kept it on her favorite station ever since. Once a year she held her breath and changed out the batteries, trying to make it in thirty seconds or less. It was superstitious, but she didn’t care.

“So,” Daddy said, “You given Rhett an answer yet?”

Shelby rolled her eyes and gave him a look, then pointedly looked at Jake. “I said no. Again.”

“Good. How many times has he asked now?”

Daddy was smiling at Jake now, clearly trying to pique his curiosity. And oh, was it piqued. Jake had his eyebrows raised and was looking between the two of them. She was going to kill her daddy.

“Five. Who cares. Moving on.”

“Asked what?” Jake said, wiping his mouth.

“Oh, the mayor’s son keeps proposing to Shelby. I mean, it’s hardly surprising. He’s not the first. He’s probably the worst, but not the first.”

“Daddy,” she hissed.

“To propose?” Jake asked.

He was looking at Shelby now. She could feel his gaze and her cheeks burned. She got up with her plate and took his, which was empty. At the sink she began washing up, hoping the conversation behind her would end and that Jake wouldn’t see the embarrassment on her cheeks. Though he looked even cuter when he blushed, she could understand why he hated it. She felt totally vulnerable on the rare occasion she blushed. It was like her body betraying her true feelings, writing them right there on her face for people to see.

But, no. Daddy went right on like he was a woman in a hair salon, sharing the latest gossip while getting a perm. “Yep. Half the town of Lucky has tried to marry her. Only a handful asked me first, though. I chased them off with my shotgun. Shelby took care of the rest.”

“Done, Daddy?” she said with an overly sweet voice.

He wasn’t, but she grabbed his plate anyway, making sure her dish-washing made as much noise as possible. Banging dishes was therapeutic. Cabinets and doors too.

Just then a voice called out from the front.

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