A Perfect Mistake (21 page)

I still wasn’t
sure they could.

But I had also kind
of had it with being told what to do, especially after my daddy
confronted me in the rectory kitchen about Billy Joe. I skirted
around the issue then, but after I’d sat down at the table, I
started to feel sick. I wanted to be with Boone. Right now, yet I had
caved into my daddy’s pressure. He hadn’t come out and
asked me about Boone. I suspected he thought I might be sweet on him,
but I wasn’t sure if he wanted to avoid disrupting Boone’s
work or he wanted my association with Boone to just go away. I’d
blurted out quite plainly that I wasn’t interested Billy Joe
Freeman and he should stop hoping for that. And, to stop pushing him
at me. Not happening. I had no interest in doing the books for the
church and stay in his pocket. I wanted to go to school and be a
fashion designer.

He got really angry,
but my daddy never shouted. His anger was always calm and controlled,
and he always found a way to make me feel ashamed. He tried again
with this “outburst,” as he always called it when I was
trying to exert some control over my life.

This time I wasn’t
sitting still for it.

I walked up to the
bar and Marcy took one look at me and scowled, narrowing her blue
eyes at me. Geez, who rained on her parade?

“Have you seen
Boone?”

For a minute she
just stared at me. Then she marched to the end of the bar and crooked
her finger at me. I stared at her for a moment. What was going on
here? I had asked her a simple question.

Warily I walked to
where she was standing. “Why don’t you leave Boone alone?
You’re nothing but trouble for him.”

“What?”
I said, a burning rising up into my gut. She was voicing my own
doubts. “How is this your business?”

“Boone needs
someone like me, not you. Why don’t you just go on your merry
way?”

I stiffened. “Do
you know where he is? If not, we’re done.”

She folded her arms
and I turned around. That’s when I saw him. I started to head
towards him when Marcy let out a shriek and grabbed my hair. I turned
as she yanked hard, making my scalp sting and my eyes water.

“Let go,”
I cried and shoved her. She tumbled backwards, hit a table, and
knocked it over.

She came up
swinging. A wild roundhouse punch that I was too slow to duck. It
connected with my jaw and pain exploded all along the nerve endings,
sending the inside of my lip against my teeth. I tasted blood.

I awkwardly blocked
another wild swing and ducked another one, stumbling backwards. She
jumped at me and we grappled.

People around us
shot up out of their chairs, eyes wide with shock. Someone yelled
“Cat fight!” above the buzz of conversation. Instantly a
circle of onlookers collected around us as we crashed into another
table, sending people’s meals flying.

I was just trying to
protect myself, my perceptions had become strangely distorted, my
vision zooming close up on Marcy and the anger blazing from her eyes.
I could hear nothing but a loud, chaotic babble of sounds—screeches
and screams and crashing.

But one thought was
strong in my head. I would fight for Boone. I was fighting for him.
This time no one was going to tell me I couldn’t pursue him or
a relationship. This time I wanted to see where it could go.

I was lucky that I
had grown up with a brother, because some of the moves I needed came
back to me. I pushed her off me, ducked a couple more times and then
punched her hard in her nose.

Then I heard a roar
in the background, something between fury and a war cry, as Braxton
Outlaw barreled into my line of vision, elbowing his way through the
onlookers who didn’t move out of his way fast enough. He
plunged through the crowd shouting at the top of his lungs, his eyes
dark and electric blue.

Then I saw Boone.
His mouth was open and he was gaping at us like he couldn’t
believe his eyes.

Then he launched
himself into the crowd and made a beeline for me. Marcy came at my
face with her fingernails, I had to do something. I grabbed her
wrists. That only made her madder. She twisted and got one hand free,
trying to claw at my face again. I fought her like a wildcat.

I was still trying
to fend off Marcy’s attack. The two Outlaw boys danced around
us, angling to get a hold of one of us to pull us apart. I would have
helped, but she still had my hair in her fist, and my inattention
cost me a glancing blow off my cheekbone.

Then Brax saw his
opening. He grabbed Marcy by her hair and around her waist, hauling
her back. At that point I was seeing stars, and I staggered right
into Boone’s arms. He gritted his teeth and cursed a blue
streak. My stomach knotted, my breath like two hard fists in my
lungs, disjointed thoughts shooting through my mind like shrapnel.
God, he looked so good. I hoped I hadn’t hurt him too much.

Brax pinned Marcy’s
struggling body against the bar. “What the fuck do you think
you’re doing!?” he shouted in her face.

She stopped writhing
and suddenly settled down. Then she burst into tears when she saw the
way Boone was holding onto me, the way he cradled me protectively
against him. My scalp was throbbing in time with my cheek and jaw.

“You’re
fucking fired. This kind of behavior in my place of business is not
acceptable. Get outta here.”

She ran then and was
followed out the door by complete and utter silence. Brax turned
around and glared at me, then Boone. “My office,” he
said. I stumbled when Boone moved and, without even blinking an eye,
he lifted me into his arms. Brax grabbed the arm of one of the
waitresses. “Clean up this mess.”

He turned to the
crowd as I passed him, snuggled up in Boone’s arms. “Sorry,
folks. Just a little misunderstanding. Everyone’s meal is on me
tonight. We’ll get this all cleaned up and get you some more
food. Bear with us for just a moment.”

Boone went through
the kitchen doors and stopped briefly, asking softly for ice. The
girl he’d asked nodded and gave me a quick glance. I was still
reeling, so she seemed to wobble a little as my vision went wonky. I
closed my eyes, trying to clear my head. Next thing I knew, Boone was
sitting down holding ice against my cheekbone, his arm tight around
me.

The door slammed and
I heard Brax shout, “Is she the fuck okay?”

“I think so,”
Boone replied, his voice subdued. I suspected he didn’t want to
rile Brax up any more than he was already.

“What the fuck
was that about?”

The door opened and
then I heard Booker’s voice. “Brax, calm down. People are
saying that Marcy attacked Verity out of the blue. Just jumped her.”

Kee-rist! Fucking A.
Boone, I’m blaming you. A cat fight in my bar. Geezus, this
will be all over town in like fifteen minutes.”

I stirred then and
struggled to sit up. “Wait a second!” I said vehemently.
“This isn’t Boone’s fucking fault.”

I covered my mouth
and swallowed hard. “Oh, God. I said fuck. Oh, God, I said it
again. I’ve never said that word. Ever in my life.”

Both Booker and Brax
looked at me like I was an adorable little puppy who couldn’t
keep out of trouble. Brax’s features softened and he strode
forward. “Well a little fuck never hurt anyone,” he said.

“Are you
really all right?” Booker asked.

I looked at him,
then at Brax. A giggle escaped my lips. Then I laughed. Then I
couldn’t stop. The whole thing was surreal. The preacher’s
daughter in a barroom brawl, and right after I had a knock down
drag-out with my parents.

Then Boone said, “I
guess this wouldn’t be a good time to see if you guys wanted to
go frogging this weekend with Henry Ducet?”

I doubled over and
laughed harder, choking.

“Geezus,”
Brax and Booker said together.

Verity

“Where are you
taking me?”

“Home,”
Boone said. He looked so unhappy, and I felt terrible.

“No, Boone.
I’m not going home.”

“Don’t
argue with me, Verity. I’m a fucking train wreck. It’s
best if you get far away from me.”

“I’m the
train wreck! Is that what you really want?” I asked, my voice
quivering.

He hit the wheel and
then hit it again.

He braked right in
the middle of the road. It’s a good thing we were on a road
that didn’t have a lot of traffic.

“No. It’s
not what I want. I fucking want a chance, but every time we turn
around, some major shit’s going down. You have second thoughts.
I saw that in your eyes this afternoon after you spoke with your
daddy.

“I know.”

“Then why did
you come looking for me tonight?”

I couldn’t
seem to breathe, so I just pushed open the door and ran to the edge
of the swamp, but tonight it gave me no comfort.

The moon cast a
silvery sheen on the trees and the mist crept soft and white across
the surface of the black water.

I had hoped to feel
better with the fresh night air, but it was heavy and warm, without a
breath of breeze. Folding my arms against myself to keep from
shaking, I just stood there. My stomach knotted with anxiety, and I
battled the weakness. So many years of being weak. Trying to live up
to an ideal that was impossible.

I had fallen so far
from who I had been.

And, I was
glad
.
I was so, so glad. Bring on the bar fights, the backbone I had grown,
and most definitely bring on Boone Outlaw!

He stepped out of
the shadows, into the silvery light, his hands in his pockets, his
broad shoulders sagging. He looked beat, drained. Part of it was that
he’d been sick and was still recovering, the other part was me.
The flu had sapped his energy and I had put that fatigue in his eyes.

“Why did you
come looking for me tonight, darlin’?”

“It wasn’t
so I could make a spectacle of myself in front of Suttontowne and
you,” I said, wryly.

He smiled and inched
a little closer to me.

He leaned in,
burying his nose into my hair, pressing his mouth against the skin
just under my ear and I rested against him.

“Why?”

“I don’t
want to be told not to care about you, Boone. I don’t want the
illusion of you. I want you. I didn’t know who you were. All
that time. All that time I wasted, when all I had to do was say no.
But I never had the courage to go against my daddy.”

His breath hitched
against my skin at my words.

“You do now?”

“I don’t
know. I just couldn’t sit there when I had promised to go out
with you. Not after seeing you spend your afternoon and how many
countless hours on that play equipment. And the heartfelt declaration
of a little boy with a pure heart who said he loved you.”

I turned to look at
him. “Take me to your house. I’m not going home.”

He took my hand and
led me back to his truck. “Who can argue with a peach pit?”

I stopped and pulled
him against me. “Do you want to argue with me anymore?”

“Fuck, no,
Verity. I want to take you home and hold you and be with you without
all this fucking madness making us crazy.”

“You make me
crazy, ever since I got back, from the moment I laid eyes on you.
You’ve always generated such intense emotions.”

“I’m not
supposed to admit to that shit, Verity.”

“What shit?”

“Emotions.”

“Right, guys
don’t get to cry or be human. Isn’t that what you said?
They just have to be strong.”

He laughed softly.
“Right. The man code. Never show weakness.”

“But here’s
the thing, Boone. That’s when you’re in the company of
other men. When you’re with me, I want you inside out.”

He dropped his head,
his voice husky. “You’ve already got that, Verity. You
turn me inside fucking out.”

“Good,”
I said softly. “That puts us on even ground.”

“There’s
nothing even about this ground.”

Our gazes met and my
heart jumped and did cartwheels in my chest. Just like in his truck
this morning, we connected and he held me in thrall. I wanted to
spend a lifetime learning the light and dark of his eyes. I didn’t
think a lifetime would be long enough. He trembled with the power of
our bond, and that rocked me. Rocked my world. Rocked me to the core.

‘Darlin’,”
he growled, and there went my heart again. “Come here.”

He folded his arms
around me and I pressed my face into the hollow of his neck,
breathing him in. It felt so good to be held to let someone else be
strong for a minute or two. Ironic that someone would be Boone.

It was easy to be
with him when everyone else faded away. My daddy, Billy Joe, his
brothers, even Aubree and River Pearl. I just needed Boone like I’d
never needed anyone before.

Once inside his
house, I didn’t even get to take a step. He pushed me up
against the door and crashed his mouth into mine. His lips were like
wet satin in the dark, traveling over my mouth in a wild, hot slide.

Wasn’t there a
saying that history had a way of repeating itself? It seemed that was
true, because here I was, engaging in the craziest, most sensual
thing I’d done since this morning, and before that in the bed
of Boone’s truck. Getting hot and naked with Boone Outlaw. But
there was a vast difference between that truck bed and now.

Now I knew Boone.
He’d let me in, and instinctively I knew that Boone wasn’t
as bad a bad boy that he’d been made out to be. He had just
pushed back at the negative wave that was always being pushed at him.
I loved his sensitivity, and that he went all mushy for a little boy
with a dead daddy, but Boone also stood up to Billy Joe without
hesitation. All those actions just added up to one hot, sexy,
heart-wrenching package. I didn’t think I was going to get
enough of the way he handled things.

The way he’d
handled Henry, the friendship they had, made me think in a private
place inside me how wonderful he’d be as a daddy. That wounded,
sucking black hole still open and raw inside me threatened to
overwhelm me. Boone had a right to know. How dare I let my fear stand
in the way of that?