He lifted his hand and I clenched my jaw, refusing to even duck what I knew was coming. The moment I tensed his hand changed so that his finger just pointed at me.
"That says more than you know, girl." Then he leaned a little closer. "I'm right pissed, but I wouldn't ever hit you. Just so you know, that's not what real men do. You played me, and pulling my little girl into this was a real low blow, but I'm enough of a man that Istillwon't lay a hand on you. Now get the fuck out of my house."
"I can help you with Faith," I told him. "Please, Luke, just listen to me?"
"I'm done with that. I'm listening to her, and she says she's fine. I think she's the one who'd know." Then he thrust his hand over my shoulder, the movement clearly the one I'd expected to be a blow. "Get the fuck out and do us both a favor. Don't come back."
I still didn't move. "You were supposed to be different, Luke. I know you're scared, but I'm not the bad guy here."
"No?" A muscle jumped in his cheek as he clenched his jaw. Those green eyes of his had turned completely cold. "For the rest of my life, I will have to live with the things I did in your house. You took everything I held dear, and you used it all to destroy me. You, Violet, might have figured out how to make yourself pretty on the outside, but you can't fix all the ugly on the inside. There ain't no makeup to cover that up."
He wouldn't even give me the chance to explain. He had no interest in hearing what I had to say, so what more could I do? I stood there for a moment longer, my eyes jumping between his, but I could feel the burning in my tear ducts. My throat was getting more and more tense by the second. This man was supposed to be my hero, but he'd just punched me in the gut with his words.
"So you know," I told him, "I do have feelings, and maybe you won't raise a hand to me, but that's not the only way to hit someone hard, Luke. Be careful before you start burning bridges, because some of them can't be rebuilt."
Then I turned and walked out, doing everything I could to make sure that I looked just as elegant as I had when I'd walked in.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Ihad to walk carefully down the rickety steps from his door. It was harder with my vision all blurry, but I refused to acknowledge it. I paused when I reached the last one, looked up at the sprinkling of stars in the sky, and pulled in a deep breath. A few blinks let me see again, so I turned for my car - but a flash of lights swept across me.
I was almost to the driver's side door when I realized the tiny little lights were on a golf cart, and it was headed right toward me. Letting out a heavy sigh, I waited, simply because I was not going to tuck my tail between my legs and run. Sure enough, Paul Simmons pulled his golf cart around, all but blocking my car in, with him on the near side.
"Looks to me like you're trespassing," he drawled.
"I do not have time for your shit today, Paul," I warned him. "Just came to talk to Luke."
"That boy knows better than to bring your kind here." He heaved himself off the seat and stormed toward me. "Starting to get desperate, Miss Dawson?"
"About what, Paul?" I asked, forgetting to put any sweetness in my voice. "Haven't you given up on my land yet?"
The man stopped right in front of me. "No one around here's going to work for you. I made sure of it, and your prissy little helpers don't have the first clue how to survive in the real world."
"Don't know how to break it to you," I said, lifting my chin to face him down, "but the world is a lot bigger than Cats Peak. I don't know what crawled up your ass and died, but today is not the day."
He leaned in. "I tried to make it easy for you. Just sell me the land and you can walk away, right back to wherever you came from. But if you try to fight me, it might just come out that those women were a whole lot more than friends. Now, we wouldn't want to have people talking like that, would we?"
I just laughed, forcing it out to make the point. "You think this whole town didn't know they were lovers? Or am I supposed to be ashamed of the fact that my grandmother was actually brave enough to chase her own happiness? Go ahead. Tell everyone in town. Tell the fuckingworld!"
"There's no way this town will let you make a fucking whorehouse for those kinds of freaks!" he snapped. "Around here, we happen to believe in the Bible."
"Well, that's too bad." I pressed a hand into his chest, pushing him out of my personal space. "That's my land, Mr. Simmons. Bought and paid for by my grandmother. Taxes are paid, and the deed is transferred. It's mine, and you can't change that. So if I want to make a gay commune, a Muslim retreat, or anything else, you're just going to have to deal with it."
"LikefuckI will!"
"Oh, I see how it is. You people always want others to keep their nose out of your shit, but you think you have the right to push yours in mine? Not how it works, Paul. If you don't like what I do, then don't fucking look."
"Sure, if you're somewhere else, but I remember what those fucking heathens used to do. They trashed this town. They chased my damned cattle!"
"That was your son!" I shot back. "The same son that you begged Gran to take so he wouldn't have a record. Seems them being lesbians wasn't a problem when you needed some help, was it? Or are you just pissed that they did a better job of raising kids than you ever could?"
He stood there for a little too long, just breathing hard. I could tell the man was mad, but too bad. So was I. He'd picked the wrong day to throw down with me, and I was not about to back off from this. Luke was gone, and that meant Southwind was the only thing I had left.
Maybe I was clinging to that because I didn't want to deal with the things Luke had said. Most likely, I was letting my anger control me. I also didn't really care, because this man had no power over me, and I wouldn't let him think otherwise. Not anymore. I was done. I had no more reasons to play nice, so he could bring it for all I cared.
"Well, hope you like it when your taxes go up," Mr. Simmons finally sneered.
"I'll just do another photoshoot," I said. "Two hours of work and the whole year is paid. Keep fucking trying."
