Page 26 of Stuff My Turkey
"Are you?" Buck twirled pasta around his fork. "Y'all seem a bit... out of sync tonight. Trouble in paradise already?"
"None whatsoever," I said firmly.
"If you say so." He leaned closer, his breath hot against my ear. "But when you decide you want a man who knows how to handle more than just birds—"
"Buck." Heath's voice cut through the room like a bullwhip. "If you're done eating, I think it's time you headed home."
The table fell silent. Buck straightened, his smile not reaching his eyes.
"Just making conversation with your lady friend," he said. "No harm in that."
Heath stood. "I'll walk you out."
After they left, an awkward silence descended on the table. Dottie dabbed at her mouth with a napkin.
"Well, that was... interesting."
Knox laughed nervously. "Heath never did like sharing his toys."
I shot him a glare that could have frozen lava. The irony of Knox—who'd shared far more than his "toys" with Bitsy while we were dating—making that comment wasn't lost on me.
By the time Heath returned, the atmosphere had grown so strained that everyone made excuses to retire early. The Vickerys retreated to their luxury RV, while Knox and Bitsy headed to the guest room. Heath and I cleaned the kitchen in silence, the distance between us feeling wider than the entire 500 acres of McGraw land.
"I don't need you to fight my battles for me," I finally said as we loaded the dishwasher. "I've been handling unwanted advances since high school."
"Buck isn't some frat boy," Heath replied, his voice tight. "He's a threat."
"I'm not some damsel who needs rescuing!"
"No, you're a woman who invited a predator to dinner."
"How was I supposed to know that?" I slammed a glass down harder than intended. "You don't tell me anything! You justexpect me to read your mind, to know all the unspoken rules and local gossip."
"You could have asked instead of undermining me in front of everyone."
"Undermining you?" I stared at him incredulously. "Is that what this is about? Your male ego?"
"This is about keeping you safe!" His voice rose. "And about you respecting the fact that this is my home, my business at stake!"
"Right, because this is all just business to you." The words scraped my throat on their way out. "A transaction. I pretend to be your girlfriend, you don't press charges."
Heath's gaze locked onto mine, something raw and vulnerable flashing in those green depths. "Is that all this morning was to you? A transaction?"
The question hung in the air between us, heavy with all the things we weren't saying. It knocked the wind out of me because that's exactly what I'd been telling myself—that the sex was just physical release, that my growing feelings were just Stockholm syndrome in cowboy boots.
But standing there in his kitchen, watching the hurt I'd caused flicker across his face, I couldn't keep lying to myself. What I felt for Heath wasn't anything like what I'd felt for Knox. It wasn't the comfortable, predictable attraction I'd mistaken for love. This was something wilder, something that scared me precisely because I couldn't control it.
Before I could answer, a movement outside the window caught my eye—a shadow slipping away from the house.
"Did you see that?" I asked, momentarily distracted.
"See what?"
"Someone outside the window." I peered into the darkness but saw nothing.
"Probably just a coyote," Heath said dismissively, though his eyes scanned the yard. "They come close to the house sometimes."
We finished cleaning in tense silence. As we headed down the hall to the bedroom, the weight of everything unsaid pressed down on me. The morning's intimacy felt like a distant dream, replaced by this cold reality of misunderstandings and pride.
