“I don’t care,” Frankie cried. “I’ll sleep in the yard. I’ll sleep with Mrs. Greenberg’s cats. I’ll curl up under Athena’s cage. You’ve made me the happiest man in the world!”
“With amaybe,” I reminded him, but he was enthusiastically kissing me again, and I felt it swirl around me again, that old magic, maybe a little tarnished and battered now, but still there.
“Well, isn’t this nice?”
I heard a hard voice from behind me. “Good luck with this loser, Jillian.”
Frankie stumbled to his feet, but it didn’t ruffle me.
“Go away.”
“I’ll give you one more chance,” Cash said, tightening his lips. There were little lines of anxiety around his eyes, and I could tell despite what he was trying to pretend, he was very upset. “Let Frankie deal with the baby. He can change the dirty diapers and get up in the middle of the night. Come away with me.”
“No.”
His cheeks flushed and he dug a massive, booted foot into the sand.
“Fine. I’d never want to raise another man’s spawn anyway.”
“Asshole,” I said, but Frankie was already spitting angry beside me.
“How dare you!”
God, he was going to get crushed like a bug again, wasn’t he?
And Cash was prepared, I could tell he wanted this fight, watching contemptuously as Frankie stumbled to his feet.
He took a swing at Frankie, but the smaller man moved, dodging the blow.
“You lost, little bitch,” Cash taunted. “All these businesses are going to get crushed and I’ll leave this town filthy rich while you’ll still be living in a room with 10 cats.”
“Hey, those cats aren’t so bad,” Frankie retorted.
Shuffling sideways, he suddenly turned with an uppercut and pasted Cash right on his square jaw.
Well, damn.
Heads started popping out along Main Street again, but this time they weren’t cheering on Cash.
“Pick on someone your own size!”
“Go, Frankie! Get him!”
“Get the big lug!” Mrs. Greenberg called out. “I’d rather be led by a blithering idiot that a vile betrayer!”
Cash swung another fist, and Frankie darted away fast enough that it only glanced by his ribs.
Frankie’s elbow connected with Cash’s mouth, in a fast enough blow that the bigger man had to stagger back.
“Leave this town alone,” my husband said.
But I heard a noise in the distance. It was too late!
“Oh, look, it’s the developers,” Cash said, smiling through his split lip.
I turned in trepidation to see a big limo roll down main street, with the words Beachy Peachy Dreams Corporation emblazoned on it.
My heart sunk. Shit, there they were. Would the bulldozers be long behind?
