Cowgirls Don't Cry(111)

He held her, hugging her back to his chest, attempting to contain her. “Jess. Baby. Calm down.”


“That f*cking bitch attacked me,” Lydia said as she picked herself up off the floor. “You all saw it.”


Everyone who’d gotten closer to watch the catfight walked away. Not a single person stuck around to back up Lydia’s claims.

Brandt figured they’d best leave too. He loosened his hold on his surprising hellcat.

Mistake.

Jessie broke free and loomed over Lydia, who finally had the good sense to cower like a whipped pup.

“Stay away from him, do you hear me? I will f*ck you up if I ever see you looking at him again. And if you ever touch him, I swear to God I will—”


“And…we’re done.” Brandt picked Jessie up, snagged their coats off the chairs and carried her out of the bar.

As soon as they were outside, she thrashed and said, “Let me down.”


“Only if you promise me you ain’t gonna make a break for it and go back inside.”


“Bitch would deserve it,” she muttered.

Brandt didn’t release her until they reached his truck. He tossed her the long duster and slipped on his jacket. “Get in.”


“No. I’m too f*cking mad.”


“If you wanna try scream therapy again, we need to get out of town first.”


“I just wanna punch something. Or someone. But since you won’t let me do that…” She kicked a clump of dirt. Tracked down another and kicked it too.

Brandt watched her, unruffled by this violent side of his sweet Jessie, mostly because he understood it. “Why did you go after her like that?”


“Because she had her hands on you. Because she was kissing you. God. She had no right. Are all women so desperate? Didn’t she know better than to throw herself at another woman’s man? In public, no less.”


He froze. His brain backtracked. Wait a second. Jessie hadn’t gotten pissed off because of what Lydia had said about her or Luke, she’d gotten pissed off over Lydia lumping him in with all other cheating men in the world. Hope like he’d never experienced filled his chest. Somehow he managed to keep his tone even when he asked, “So do you make a habit of this?”


Jessie snorted. “Fighting? Not hardly. I’ve never wanted to kill anyone with my bare hands as much as I did the second I saw her plastered to you.”


“That’s interesting.”


“Why?”


“Because I’ve never had a woman fight over me.”


“Well, I’ve never had a man worth fighting for.”


Brandt erased the five feet between them, forcing her to look at him. “Run that by me one more time.”


Jessie, his sweet fiery Jessie, didn’t stay passive. She slapped her hands on the sides of his face and locked her gaze to his. “You are the one man in the world I will fight for, Brandt McKay, because I love you.”


“You do?”


“Yes. Before you jump to the conclusion that I’m telling you this now when Landon isn’t in the picture, you’d be partially right. What I didn’t say earlier today before Landon left with his mother was that I’d never make you choose. But now that he’s gone I was afraid that you don’t need me anymore—”


“Since all I wanted you for was Landon’s childcare?” he demanded. “And all you wanted me for was sex?”