Page 100 of Kiss and Tell

Levi glanced her direction. “You okay?”

She nodded.

“Lucy,” Scottie tried again. “Why are you acting like this? I know you have feelings for me. The way you always hung out at my house when we were kids. How jealous you were of the girls I dated in high school. The way you tried to get my attention by dancing with those guys then leaving town with them. You didn’t stay withthem. You came home. Because you wantme.”

Was that how Scottie viewed their past?

Lucy took a deep breath, fighting like the devil to calm down. It didn’t work. She’d never met a more self-centered person in her life because he genuinely seemed to believe he was at the center of everything she’d ever done. “I’m only going to say this one more time, Scottie. I am not your girlfriend. I’m not interested in dating you. I don’t evenlikeyou. We. Are. Nothing.”

For the first time, Lucy got the sense her words were actually sinking in.

“But… I… You were always so nice to me.”

“I’m nice toeverybody!” she shouted back.

“No.” He shook his head. “I was different. I was special to you.”

It occurred to Lucy that Scottie’s parents had always lifted him up on a pedestal, told him he was the most important person in the world. As such, he didn’t hear the word “no” often. He also wasn’t accustomed to not getting something he wanted.

Neither of those things gave him the right to come at her the way he did, and she refused to think about how bad things could have gotten if Levi hadn’t shown up. Lucy really hadn’t been able to break free from his grip.

“Did you hear what she said?” Levi asked, keeping a firm grip on Scottie’s shirt. “Mayor or not, you’re not welcome on this property. Show your face here again and I’ll have the sheriff arrest you for trespassing.”

Scottie looked from Levi to Lucy, then back to Levi.

“Fine,” he said stiffly.

Levi released his shirt, and Scottie ran his hands over the front of it, trying to press out the creases with his palms, then he rubbed his injured jaw again. Finally, he turned to her, lifting his chin in that way he had that let people know he was looking down his nose at them. “You’re not worth the trouble.”

Levi reared his fist back, but Lucy grabbed her cousin’s arm, holding on tight.

“He’s not worth it either,” she told him.

Scottie sniffed. Then—wisely—he walked away.

Levi cupped her cheek, doing a quick visual scan of her face. “Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head. She was definitely going to have bruises on her arms and ass, but Levi was still a man on the edge, so she thought it wise not to bring that up, lest he chase Scottie down for round two.

“What the hell was that about?” Levi raked his fingers through his long hair, shoving it out of his face.

“Scottie seemed to believe we were a couple.”

Levi snorted. “Right. As if you’d settle for a douchebag like that.”

She smiled. “Thanks for coming to the rescue. For a paper pusher, he’s surprisingly strong. I…” She stopped when her voice quivered at the end.

Levi heard it, of course, because the big teddy bear of a man reached out to pull her in for a hug. She wrapped her arms around him, soaking in the comfort.

“Is Scottie the reason you’ve been out of sorts since coming back?”

Lucy took a step back, then shook her head before realizing her negative answer would require her to come up with another.

“Are you out of sortsbecauseyou came back?”

She blew out a long, slow breath. “Yeah.”

“Always suspected if you ever left the farm, you wouldn’t want to return.”

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