Page 14 of More Than Anything

Bob snickered. “Yeah. DanetteMoyers.”

Avery’s eyes went wide. “Who told you that?”

Bob laughed out loud. “I was sitting in the back of the sanctuary! I saw what was going on!”

“Oh, lord. I’ll never live this down,” Avery moaned as he dropped his head and shook it. Mac and Kevin were laughing too.

“Oh, and we heard all about your visitor.” When Avery’s head snapped up, Bob added, “LydiaKinsey?”

Avery snorted. “Yeah. This is a small town, huh?”

“Don’t let her rattle you,” Mac said. “She’s hell on heels, but there’s some stuff going on there that nobody knows about, I can just feel it.”

“That’s what WalterCox told me.”

Kevin nodded. “Walter’s right. We just don’t know what it is; well, we know part of it, but that’s for her to tell, not us. Just know that the blond in the white BMW has been tearing up jack since she was old enough to talk and that ain’t gonna change.”

“And she’ll rip you a new asshole if you let her,” Mac threw out.

“She’s not gonna get that chance. I’ll put a stop to it,” Avery assured them.

“Good luck with that.” Kevin grinned as he spoke. “We’ll all be rootin’ for ya. But I have this feeling it’s going to be a whole lot harder than you think.”

The rented livestock trailer rode well behind Avery’s truck, and he was pretty pleased with himself. He’d picked up twenty Angus heifers ready to be covered in the fall, and the guy who’d sold them said he’d be able to come up with a bull by then. He was more excited in that few hours than he’d been in a long, long time. The auction house was fifteen miles away and he’d had to make four trips with the trailer, but that was okay. He’d gotten a good deal on the cows and it was worth it.

When he pulled up with the last trailer full, there was a surprise waiting for him. Out in front of the house, her ankles crossed and leaning against that sleek BMW sedan, was LydiaKinsey, and she looked pretty damn pissed. Avery just drove right on by her and waved as he went, pulling into the corral area in front of the barn where he’d been unloading the cattle. Once he’d jumped out and gotten the gate closed, he opened the back of the trailer and started shooing the cattle out until all five were on the ground. All twenty home safe and sound. He closed the trailer door and then drove the cows through the secondary gate into the pasture before he even bothered to turn back toward Lydia.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she yelled at him from the front gate.

“What the hell does it look like I’m doing? Unloading cattle. What the hell are you doing here?” he called back, more amused than angry. His grin was huge, and he knew it would just infuriate her to see it. That made him smile even bigger.

“You know, you shouldn’t be doing that. You’ll just have to find homes for them when I take this place back,” she spat back at him.

“Good luck with that. My title’s legal and you can’t do a damn thing about it.” Avery just stepped back into the barn and grabbed a broom, then marched right into the trailer and started sweeping cow manure out of it so he could hose it out when she left.

“I’m getting this farm back, AveryHolcomb, you mark my words.”

“Oh! I see you found out my name. Would’ve been nice if you’d been polite enough to at least ask it the first time you came out here threatening me. And by the way, my attorney told me to let him know if you showed up here again and he’d slap a harassment suit on you,” Avery said, his voice measured and steady.

“Is that right? I wish him luck on that, charging me with harassment on my own land,” she growled.

“It’s. Not. Your. Land. Why can’t you get that through your pretty little head?” Avery growled back. He didn’t have to turn around and look to feel the icy daggers she was throwing into the flesh of his back with those piercing blue eyes.

“Because it IS my land. My family’s land. That old son of a bitch didn’t have any right to sell it to you.”

“Hey! Speak of your elders and the dead with respect, half pint!” Avery barked.

Lydia’s stare was smoldering. “How dare you talk to me like that! You don’t know me well enough to take that tone with me!”

Before she could even flinch, Avery was in her face, less than an inch from it and glaring down into her eyes, his big hazel ones bright and challenging. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with, shorty. You’d better back off.”

“You threatening me?” she hissed out in a superheated whisper.

“No. Simple statement of fact.” He didn’t move an inch, and he knew she was intimidated, but she’d die before she’d show it. And he loved it. “I’ve chewed up and spit out women twice your size, and twice as smart too.”

“I don’t thinkyouknow whoyou’redealing with,” she snapped back.

“Oh yeah? I know you want something you can’t have. And I’m not going to even begin to tell you what that is.” The tension between their bodies was electric, and Avery had never felt anything like it before. It was damn near intoxicating. “But you and I both know what I’m talking about,” he added.

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