Damn my kid! She adores Sarah and chatters away when she sees her, but with Noelle, she says hello and then either runs away or goes quiet, like now.
Noelle makes a face. “Don’t you think it’s time she knew?” she whispers, pissing me off.
“No,” I replybluntly.
Her eyes narrow, and she’s about to say something when Evie pulls away from me. I’m about to tell her not to go too far when she points at the woman standing not too far away. “I’m gonna go to Elena.”
Another favorite of hers. Elena rides horses, and my kid loves horses, so here we are. I let her go and smile when I see Elena crouch done and hug Evie. My kid’s adorable, and folks around Wildflower Canyon dote on her.
Elena looks at me and jerks her chin, silently asking if it’s okay for Evie to hang with her.
Since Noelle is here, I nod and mouth, “thank you.”
She waves it away.
It isn’t until she’s walking away with my daughter that I see the other woman with Elena, it’s…Sarah.
“Do you know that Duke Wilder all but bullied me today?” Noelle grumbles as she takes the opportunity to slip her arms around my waist.
I take them off of me. Did she not get the memo about not touching me around my daughter?
“Evie is here, Noelle.”
“She’s not,” she pouts. “She’s gone with Elena and…her. How can you let Evie talk to thatwhore?”
I roll my shoulders back, working out the weariness. “What happened with Duke?” I ask instead of answering her question about Evie talking with Sarah ‘cause I got zero answers.
“He wassomean,” one of her friends, Leah, says.
The other, Kiki, snorts. “Hunt Blackwood was there and Kaz Chase, and they were downrightawful, Cade.You need to talk to them and tell them they can’t treat your girlfriend like that.”
“What did you do?” I ignore them and concentrate on Noelle. I know these men, and if they said something, they had a damn good reason. Knowing Noelle, I can take a guess as to what happened.
“I was talking to Sarah…that’s all.” She looks away, her arms crossed defensively.
“Stay away from Sarah, Noelle. She ain’t any of your business.” I take my hat off and run a hand through my hair. I realize then that thisthingwith Noelle has run its course.
I gotta cut her loose.
We have decent sex. I haven’t had much sex since Jeanine got pregnant, and I miss it. Noelle was supposed to be straightforward—some easy fucking, companionship, and that’s it.
“I just hate thatshe’shere,” Noelle whispers.
“You need to tell Duke and the others what she did so they can stay away from her,” Leah mutters as she flips her hair.
“Duke said that I’m going to hell because I don’t support Sarah,” Noelle continued, her eyes wide with insult.
I’m about ready to take a hammer and hit myself hard ‘cause that would be better than listening to these three.
I should’ve gone with Evie. I could’ve hung out with Elena…with Sarah?
I let out an elaborate sigh. “I’ve got a bull sale to get to.”
“Cade, I thought we’d get a drink and hang out,” Noelle whines.
Jesus!
Yep. Time to end this.
