Page 25 of Taming His Honeydoll
Chapter 6
With trembling fingersEmma took her cell phone from Sawyer. “It’s Marlene,” she whispered, looking over at Nat.
“Answer it,” Nat ordered. “Everyone else will stay quiet. If Levi doesn’t, it’s okay.’
She nodded and set the cell phone to speaker. “H-Hello?”
“I’d like to speak to my grandson. Could you hold the phone to his ear please? I know you always keep him in that godawful playpen when you don’t want to be bothered with him, so I’ll improve his day and mine,” she purred.
Emma turned hot. “You know damned well I’m not at home, you supercilious bitch. You burned the fucking house down!”
Marlene faux gasped. “Burned the house down? Whatever do you mean? What are you talking about, you silly girl? How extensive is the damage? Do you have a place to stay? You didn’t leave one of those nasty candles burning again, did you?”
“You know damned well I didn’t leave any candles burning, and where I am is none of your fucking business,” Emma seethed. “And keep your fucking goons away from me and Levi. I’m packing serious shit and my next shot won’t be a fucking warning shot.” With that she triumphantly got the last word in by hanging up. Then she looked up to see everyone staring at her.
No one said a word until finally, Sawyer’s eyebrows lowered from their two-inch stand. “Little girl, you have a serious language problem,” he remarked into the dead quiet.
Then Chessy, Marsha and April started giggling, which got them all arched eyebrow shots from their men.
Nat finally cleared his throat. “I can see you’re going to need some phone etiquette regarding talking to the villain in this case,” he remarked, a quirk hovering around his own lips.
Marsha held one hand beside Oliver’s face and gave Emma a thumbs up sign. Chessy gave her a fist bump and April winked at her like a co-conspirator.
“I wanted her to know where I stood,” Emma retorted defiantly, tossing her head.
“I’d say you made that pretty plain,” Sawyer drawled. “What’s your temper like when you’re not fresh out of the hospital with a crazy woman stalker at your heels?”
“I don’t normally have a temper. But in case you’re worried, just don’t piss me off and you’ll be fine.”
Sawyer licked his finger and swiped the air with an imaginary mark. “That’s one.”
Oliver roared with laughter at Emma’s expression, and even Nat and Ty smirked.
“She does need a keeper,” Ty added.
Emma opened her mouth for a blistering reply but Sawyer just put his palm over it and leaned over to whisper in her ear. “I’m only giving you three freebies, baby brat, and you’re down by one strike. Only two left—use them wisely.”
Deciding to ignore him for the moment, Emma turned back to the group. “So, what are we going to do? I can’t stay with Oliver and Marsha unless I commute to Bevier every day. And I can’t let that rag intimidate me. I need my job. Plus, my semester finals will be coming up soon. I have one more semester to finish my master’s. I can’t be this far away from home.”
“You can move in with me, there’s plenty of room for you and Levi to have a suite of rooms,” Sawyer offered instantly. “I have a full-time ranch hand and my mother is itching to get to know Levi. I can work from home for as long as I need to. My ranch on the outskirts of Bevier has a setup similar to this without all the security details. It’s not easily approachable without someone noticing.”
He waved his hand around to indicate Nat’s property and then turned to Emma. “That woman you met in the park yesterday was my mother, Rachel Blackland. She put two and two together because Levi looks exactly like me when I was his age,” he added gruffly. “And she remembered your first name.”
Emma was torn. “I-I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” It did sound like a good solution, but where did that leave her and Sawyer?
