Page 41 of Spiritwarrior

“She wasn’t jealous of either of those things.”

“Then what?”

“She knows I am attracted to you.”

Sophie felt the heat pour into her face.

“You’re not disregarding that possibility like you did the others?”

She stared down at her neatly trimmed fingernails. “Nothing like a woman being scorned to bring out the claws.”

“Despite what you believe, I wasn’t in a relationship with Baylin.”

“I heard you and Baylin in her apartment. Try again.”

“We hooked up, that’s it,” he said firmly.

“She thought otherwise.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I never led Baylin on. She always came on to me, and I told her loud and clear that I didn’t want a relationship with her.”

“Spending six hours in her bed with you must have given her other ideas.”

“I get that it was in her head, but other than tattooing it on my dick, I couldn’t have made it plainer to her.”

Sophie gaped at him before snapping her mouth closed. “Or, if you knew she was taking your hookups to mean something more, you could have kept your little friend zipped in.”

Jody burst into laughter.

Her hand tightened on her coffee cup.

His eyes dropped to her white-knuckled grip on the cup. “I wouldn’t,” he warned.

She loosened her grip. “I don’t know what you mean.” She glowered at him.

“Yeah, you do, but I’ll let it pass for now. It’s getting a little heated in here, and I don’t want to give you another reason to run, so I suggest you call Knox and hear what he has to say.”

Latching on to the excuse to avoid talking to him any further, she called the sheriff. She was still talking to him when Ginny walked back into the room to sit down at the table. When she ended the call, she looked at the brother and sister. “The sheriff gave me the option to press charges on Baylin. She’s offered to pay for any damages.”

Ginny gave her a commiserating glance. “What are you going to do?”

Chapter Seventeen

“Idon’t know what to do. I don’t want her to go to jail, which I guess settles it. I’m just going to sell the diner and move away.”

“What does you dropping the charges have to do with you having to move away?” Jody’s jaw clenched.

“I certainly don’t want to live next door to her or in the same building.”

“I can’t blame her there.” Ginny looked at her brother, nodding her head.

Jody nodded back. “There is another option, one that I think will be much safer and more convenient for you, anyway.”

Sophie looked at Jody. “Such as?”

“We have an empty trailer here you can live in. It’s not very large, but it’s comfortable. Also, once you start milking the goats for us, you’ll already be here. You could milk them before you go to work in the morning. It would be a fair exchange.”

“How would it be a fair exchange? Milking a few goats isn’t going to be worth the rent of a trailer.”

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