Love Under Two Montanans [The Lusty, Texas Collection] by Cara Covington (10 best novels of all time .txt) 📗

they were going to be talking about. She looked over at Ari and her husbands, and she knew they read the question in her eyes.

Jackson waved his hand. “You’re family,” he said. His words had been off-hand and casual, but the look in his eyes was not.

Ari beamed, and Cord nodded, his way of confirming what his brother had said.

Jenny felt her smile bloom. She’d never been a social butterfly. She’d spent her adult life mostly keeping to herself. It had always been her nature to be focused on what needed doing and to fade into the background. Jackson’s words were the nicest thing anyone had said to her in a very long time.

“We spoke to dad on the phone this morning,” Cord said. “He told us the fallout has been equally bad for Liz as it has been for Norah. There’ve been some victim advocacy groups in the area that have been very vocal on social media about the damage those two women have done.”

“Any woman who’s ever been molested would be furious. Cry-wolf claims just diminish the value of speaking up,” Addison said. “When some women lie, the result is that other women—women who are speaking the truth—are not believed.”

Jenny understood Ari wouldn’t say anything. She’d spoken up a few days ago at the roadhouse. But she didn’t know these new Benedict cousins that well. She wouldn’t feel free to speak out. So, Jenny did it for her. “I agree. Especially with all that’s been in the headlines lately?” Jenny shook her head. “Social media has changed everything. It’s put everyone on a stage, in a way—and on notice.”

“It has,” Shar said. “No offence to you guys.” She looked at Parker and Dale. “There are cell phones everywhere. How many times have we been treated to the captured image of people doing stupid things on Instagram and YouTube? My advice to everyone is, if you think no one’s watching, that is probably not true.”

“No offence taken,” Parker said. “You’re absolutely right.” Then he looked at Colt. “Did Uncle George happen to mention the rest of the family?”

Jackson nodded. “He did say he ran into your folks in town yesterday. He said he made a point of letting them know how grateful he was that you two did what you did, that you’d done the right thing.”

“They think it’s about them,” Dale said. “They all do—well, most of the ones that are left there do.”

“And it’s not about them at all.” Parker sounded pissed.

“The other news is that Norah’s lawyer quit. Dad isn’t happy about that because he wanted this to be a done deal. He wants to move on, and he can’t until this is handled.”

“I feel bad for him,” Ari said. Before her husbands could say anything, she put a hand on each of them. “Yes, he’s guilty of having blinders on, all the years y’all were growing up. He should have seen the way Norah played divide and conquer. He sure as hell should have noticed that Veronica was being bullied.”

“We hold some responsibility there, too,” Jackson said. “We were too focused on our own lives.”

“Y’all have beat that horse to death,” Shar said. She shot each of her husbands a look. “That goes for you two, as well. You’ve all apologized, and you’ve all been doing your best to make amends. Bottom line, your parents were the ones who should have shut it all down when you were kids. I’m not being sexist when I say the blame was squarely on Norah’s shoulders for the most part. It was. She was deliberate in her actions then, just as she is now. And now she’s paying the price for her selfishness, even if she isn’t aware of the coins leaving her account.”

“You’re right, Shar.” Cord looked at Jackson then his brothers and his sister. He nodded then switched his gaze to Parker and Dale. “Moving on to one more piece of business before we eat. Did you guys come to a decision about our offer?”

Jenny looked from Parker to Dale. “A decision about what offer?”

“We’ve asked these two to make their vacation here permanent and come and work with us.” With us, not for us? Jenny knew the cousins had arrived for a visit, to get out of the heat after posting that video to YouTube. She hadn’t realized there was a possibility of their staying.

“When we left Montana, we were only planning on a three-week visit,” Dale said.

“But we were looking for work when we left. We’ve talked it over. We have concerns, because we’ve worked with family all our lives and it hasn’t been a walk in the park.”

“Yeah, we know. Trace and Lucas filled us in on how bad things had gotten up there.” Jackson’s tone didn’t give anything away, but Jenny wondered if maybe he wasn’t bracing himself for bad news.

“But we already sense a difference between the concept of family business here, as opposed to back home. So, we’re willing to give it three months. That should be long enough for us to get a sense of things, of how it could be.”

Parker looked at his cousins, and then, to her surprise, he looked at her. “So far, we really like what we see here—but time will tell.”

“I think you’re both going to fall in love…with Lusty.” Jackson’s sly look, aimed directly at Jenny, made her want to squirm in her chair.

Huh. Fight or flight has a first stage called respond or ignore. Who knew?

Jenny stood and didn’t look at anyone except Ari. “C’mon, girlfriend, I’ll help you put the food on the table.”

Chapter Four

Jenny felt the vibration of her cell phone and pulled it out of her pocket. She’d just arrived at the roadhouse for her Friday shift and had been in the process of stowing her purse in the small employee room off the kitchen.

She recognized the number on the screen, of course. She wasn’t altogether certain she wanted to talk to her mother while she had yet