Her hands went away from her face and just her head bent up so her eyes could find his.

“He called me his woman?”

“Yep.”

“To you?”

“Yep.”

“And you’re sure he wasn’t talking about, say, some other woman who is absolutely not me.”

“Yep.”

She stared at him.

Then her head fell back as her hands came down hard, her arms and palms slapping the bedclothes.

“That f**king f**ker!” she snapped to the ceiling.

Mike stared at her.

It appeared he’d made another erroneous call about Dusty Holliday.

Fuck.

He walked to the bed and entered it, settling on a hip with one hand to her stomach, the other hand in the bed. Looming over her he watched her glare at the ceiling.

“I take it he’s full of shit,” Mike muttered and just her eyeballs rolled to him.

“Yeah, Mike, Beau is full…of…shit.” She paused then snapped loudly, “Shit!”

Then she suddenly knifed up and leaned to the side. Reaching out, she snatched her phone off the nightstand. Then she sat back and Mike fell to a forearm as he watched her finger sliding and jabbing on the screen of her phone.

She put it to her ear, waited as she crossed her legs then irritably started bouncing a cowboy-booted foot and within seconds began talking.

Or, more to the point, hissing.

“Are you f**king nuts?” Pause then, “No, Beau, don’t answer that. I know you are. First, my brother is dead, it isn’t even seven in the morning my time, in Texas it’s earlier and you’re phoning me?” This ended in a question but she didn’t give him time to answer before she continued sarcastically. “You think, maybe, if I’m sleeping, I might want to sleep instead of getting a phone call from my ex-boyfriend who didn’t catch the big, honkin’ clue I shot his way when I kicked his ass out that we…are…over?” Again, she didn’t wait for a reply, she kept going. “And second, we’re over! For the last time stop calling me!”

Then she took the phone from her ear, jabbed her finger at the screen, hit a button on the side then twisted her torso and tossed it over Mike to the chair. It bounced on her clothes and bag and settled.

She flopped to her back in front of him again, her body bouncing too before it settled.

Then she grumbled, “He ruined Hilligoss goodness shared with a hot guy.”

Mike couldn’t help it. Five minutes before, he was pissed and convinced he’d been played.

Right then, he thought she was f**king hilarious.

So he burst out laughing.

When he was done and looked down at her, she surprised him again. This was because she no longer appeared pissed, she was grinning.

“So I take it you and that guy are over,” Mike drawled and then he got to watch as Dusty burst out laughing.

Fuck, her laughter was as musical as her voice. He’d forgotten that too. Until last night when he got that gift back. And just like everything about her, with maturity, it had gotten a f**kuva lot better.

He settled his hand on her stomach again, felt it tremble with her laughter and watched her hilarity play out, enjoying every second.

Still chuckling, her eyes came to him and she confirmed, “Yeah, babe, Beau and me are over.”

This was good news.

But what went down that morning was not and he wasn’t thinking about his again jumping to conclusions but Beau whoever-the-fuck acting like a psycho.

“Do I need to be worried about this?” he asked quietly and, with regret, watched the humor die from her eyes.

“I wanna say no,” she answered just as quietly. “But, it kills me, this shit this morning, he called yesterday and asked if I wanted him to come up to be with me…I’m not getting a good feeling.”

Mike wasn’t either.

She got up on her elbows and gave him her entire focus which included her openness.

“We were together a while, two and a half years. Part of that, he was moved in with me. It went bad a while ago. I’m not getting any younger, I want kids and in the beginning, it was good. I fought for it. Beau’s clueless and he didn’t. I kicked him out four months ago. That woke his shit up but it was too late. It was just over and I was moving on. I wasn’t going back. I’m not going back. He’s not getting that. He can be stubborn and I know he cares about me so, at first, it was just a nuisance. Now, it’s getting a little crazy.” Her gaze drifted to her phone. “And this morning, whacked.” Her eyes came back to him. “He really told you I was his woman?”

“Pissed I answered the phone. Didn’t hide it. Told me he was your man and you were his woman. So yeah, he made it clear in a thirty second conversation and he did it three times.”

Her eyes went unfocused and she whispered, “Damn.”

Mike’s hand pressed lightly into her stomach and her eyes refocused.

“He called three times,” he explained. “Three times in less than ten minutes. I wouldn’t have answered, honey, but I was worried it was an emergency.”

Her eyes held his but they went soft and unbelievably f**king sweet when she said something that felt unbelievably good to hear.

“I get that you think I care you answered my phone, babe, but I don’t. Got nothing to hide. Just sorry he fed you that bullshit.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” he told her and her fast grin came back.

“Did it all the same,” she replied.

Mike moved his hand to the side of her neck as he leaned into her, giving her some of his weight and taking her off her elbows. The instant his weight settled on her, her arms wrapped around him.

“Don’t know it all but this doesn’t seem like healthy behavior,” Mike warned carefully.

“I’m thinking I agree but I’ll be okay,” she assured but Mike didn’t feel assured.

She was confident, that was clear. She was honest and had no problem speaking her mind, even in a confrontation. That was clear too. But she was also a single, five foot six woman. She was not skinny. She had a great ass, great tits and they were abundant in a good way. What they weren’t was packed with power.

So he started, “Dusty –”

He stopped when her arms gave him a squeeze.

“I’m tight with a local cop, Mike,” she told him softly and grinned again. “He’s an anomaly. Married to one of my girls, a good guy who got himself a decent woman. He knows Beau. I get home, I’ll go to their house, have a chat. Give him a heads up. Knowing Hunter, he’ll take some time, find Beau, have a quiet word.” Her arms gave him another squeeze. “That doesn’t work, again, knowing Hunter, he’ll round up a few of his buddies and have another one that’ll be harder to ignore. It’s okay, honey. I’m good.”