The Bride (The Bride #1)(21)

As I previously mentioned, I was mostly liked by people but let’s face it, it was high school and the weird kid was always separated from the herd. Weird enough I had no mom going in to high school. Now no father. Weirder still I had a husband and everyone knew it. I suppose they had been giving me an obligatory amount grieving time before dismissing any considerations for my feelings. Now the gloves were off and I, the weird married high school student, was fair game.

“Although I don’t get it, is Jake not doing a good job of plowing you every night? Or is that even legal? I mean you’re his wife, but you’re also still jail bait. What’s a guy to do?”

“You’re disgusting. And you’re not worth my time.”

I turned back to my lunch and ignored him. Or at least pretended to.

“Every guy in school knows you’re fair game now, Mason. That you’re hot for it.”

He’d said it quietly in my ear. Like it was some kind of threat. Yeah, most people liked me because I got along with most people.

Not with Bobby. Because he knew I didn’t buy his bullshit and because I called him by his fucking name.

“You’re a dick, Bobby. Go be it somewhere else. You’re ruining my appetite.”

After that I continued to ignore him until he left.

“Are you okay?” Chrissy asked.

“He’s such an asshole,” Karen added in support of me.

Lisa didn’t say much, because I knew Lisa secretly still liked Bobby. That’s who she had given it up to for her first time. He’d taken her virginity and then dumped her a week later.

Asshole.

“I’m fine. Empty threats, but wow what a jerk Riley turned out to be.”

“They’re guys. They can’t not talk about this shit,” Karen said wisely.

“Whatever.” I said it like it didn’t matter.

Except it did. It seemed like every single guy who passed me in the hall or sat in class with me was smirking at me. Like by admitting that I wanted to have sex, I was already tagged as easy. Fair game when I wouldn’t even remotely consider doing anything with any of them.

My inner feminist wanted to tell them all that I would not be slut shamed. That as a woman I had just as much right to be interested in and want sex as boys did. But the truth was I felt a little sick at the way everyone was treating me.

Shamed.

That Scarlet Letter thing was no joke.

That afternoon, I didn’t linger at school like I normally would, shooting the shit with my girls. They understood. Instead I went home to Jake. I pulled up to the house and figured I would have to wait until tonight to talk to him—there was no way to know where he would be on the property.

I changed into my work clothes and went out back to the barn, figuring I would give Petunia a good brush. Brushing a horse was the closest thing to therapy a person could have in Riverbend.

I was about fifteen minutes into rubbing her down, after feeding her an apple which she loved, when I heard the barn door open and Jake was leading his horse Wyatt inside.

“Hey,” I said and suddenly everything made sense. The barn smelled like hay and horse with a hint of shit. Jake mucked every morning, but there was never getting around the essence of it.

And Jake.

This ranch, this barn was all him too. And he was here to have my back no matter what.

“You home early?” he asked.

I took off the hand brush I was wearing and put it back on the shelf.

“A little.”

He must have seen it on my face, because as soon as he had Wyatt secured in his stall he came to stand in front of me.

“What?”

I huffed. “I hate that… I hate that I’m upset by this.”

“Spill it.”

“Right? That’s exactly what Riley did. Why do boys do that?”

His jaw got tight and that muscle in the back of his cheek started going.

“Riley told everyone in class that I wanted to have sex, and then Bobby MacPherson was all like You’re a total slut looking for action. Slut shaming is out, Jake. Everybody should know it, but just the way he said I was fair game creeped me out. Seriously? Because I’m seventeen and wanted to have sex, now I’m a target for rape? How completely unfair is that?”

Jake pulled me against his chest and I thought about how good it felt. To be held in his arms. It wasn’t like it was with Dad. It was different, but the space felt the same.

Warm. Safe. Protected.

“You’re my husband, so I think you should beat Bobby up,” I muttered against his shirt.

“I’m going to have a conversation. That’s for certain,” he said over my head.

Which immediately had me pulling away. “Oh no. I was totally kidding. You can’t say anything to him. It will only egg him on and make it worse.”

Jake’s face was no joke. Super scary.

“Bobby was only… being mean. I should have been prepared for it. It was a bad day. I mean it, Jake. You can’t fight my battles.”

“Why not?”

“Because. Uh hello, parenting 101, I have to fight my own battles so I learn from them. In three hundred and sixty days, I’m on my own. If I can’t figure out how to stand up to the creeps like the Bobby MacPhersons of the world, I’m never going to able to handle running this place.”