Sheriff Daddy (Montana Daddies Book 10) by Laylah Roberts (good book club books txt) 📗

them lately. Unfortunately, we don’t have a clue who is behind them.” He shook his head. “Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, Kiesha and the others are coming to visit. So we’ll have to put off the shopping for now.”

“They’re coming right now?”

“Yep.”

“Daddy! I can’t have visitors!”

“Why not?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Because I have a bare bottom! And there’s a plug in it!”

His lips twitched. “Well, I was going to let you get dressed properly, Georgie-girl. Unless you’d like to stay like that.”

“Daddy!”

30

Georgina opened the door with a smile.

She didn’t know why she was so nervous. Maybe it was because she’d never really had friends over. She’d changed out of her onesie, putting on some of her drab and boring clothes.

“Bestie!” Kiesha cried out before hugging her. “Are you all right? Ed treating you well? Do you need me to kick his ass? I can, I have a black belt in karate.”

She did? Wow, that was impressive.

“I’m fine, he’s treating me well.”

“Hey!” Isa called out. “Let the rest of us hug her.”

Kiesha let go of her with a grumble and Isa hugged her. Then Cleo. To her shock, even Juliet, who had her hand wrapped up in Cleo’s shirt, hugged her.

Then she froze as she saw a massive bunch of flowers moving towards her, a pair of jean-clad legs beneath it. She couldn’t see who was holding them, the flowers kept him hidden. She was guessing it was a man due to his huge hands.

“Loki has come to apologize,” Isa explained.

Oh, right. She’d actually completely forgot about that encounter. The flowers were placed on the porch and then Loki stared up at her pleadingly. His hands were in the prayer position.

“Please, wonderful, lovely, beautiful Georgina, won’t you forgive Loki?”

“We’ve all told him off,” Isa told her. “Even Juliet.”

She gave Juliet a surprised look then turned to Loki. “It’s okay, Loki. I forgive you. As long as you promise not to do that again.”

“I won’t, kind lady.” Suddenly, he stood and she was enveloped in a hug so tight she couldn’t breathe.

“What is going on? Loki, let her go now!” Ed barked.

Loki let her down and then she was drawn back against Ed’s chest, his arms wrapped around her front. “Mine. No touching.”

“Ed!” She went bright red. “You’re embarrassing me.”

Loki nodded. “I understand, sheriff. Hands off. Loki is going to leave now. Lady, I owe you a favor. Loki always pays his favor.”

He paused as though waiting for something.

“Um, okay, thanks.”

It seemed to be enough of a reply for Loki as he nodded and then took off.

Kiesha shut the door behind him then grabbed her hand. “Shoo, Ed. Girl time.”

Well, there hadn’t been much point in brewing coffee she realized fifteen minutes later once Kiesha had poured everyone a glass of bubbles. Except for Isa, who was driving. And Juliet, who had club soda instead.

“Cheers!” Kiesha cried.

They all had several sips. Georgie wasn’t used to drinking and she definitely wasn’t used to drinking this early, but she went with it.

Cleo raided Ed’s cupboards. “Damn, the sheriff doesn’t believe in junk food, does he?”

“That’s why I came prepared!” Kiesha drew a bag of double-chocolate cookies out of her handbag. Soon they were all eating, drinking and giggling at Cleo’s stories about O’Ryan.

“All right, let’s cut to the chase.” Kiesha leaned forward to stare at Georgina.

Georgie was already on her second glass of wine and had a nice buzz going. So she leaned forward too. “Okay.”

“Have you and Ed done the nasty?”

She blushed. “Umm, that’s a bit personal isn’t it?”

Is this what friends spoke about? Maybe it was. What did she really know?

“Come on, you can tell us. Lips sealed.”

“Kiesha,” Isa said warningly.

“No, we haven’t.” Was that weird?

“Damn it.” Kiesha slammed her fist down on the table, rattling Juliet’s glass. “I lost the bet.”

What bet? Wait, was that why she was asking? Because they were betting on . . .

“You were betting about when I would have sex with Ed?” she asked. Hurt stabbed deep. She thought these women liked her. “Why would you do that?”

“I told you it was a bad idea,” Cleo said.

Juliet nodded, frowning fiercely at Kiesha.

“But it was just for fun,” Kiesha said. “We make bets for lots of things.”

“It’s only fun if everyone enjoys it,” Cleo pointed out.

Isa bit her lip. “Please don’t be upset, Georgie. We didn’t mean anything by it. Really.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

“I’m so sorry,” Kiesha told her, reaching for her hand. “We really didn’t mean to hurt you. Damn it, this is my fault. Sometimes I don’t think.”

She started hitting her palm against her forehead.

“Whoa, okay. It’s not worth hurting yourself over.” Georgina jumped up and grabbed her hand, pulling it away from her head. “It’s all right, maybe I overreacted. See, I’m not used to having friends. When I was in high school, the only reason girls ever wanted to be friends with me was because they wanted to get close to my brothers. As soon as they didn’t need me, they’d turn on me. I know we’re all adults, but I guess I’m still waiting for you all to tell me this was just a joke, that you don’t really want to be friends with me.”

Kiesha jumped to her feet and wrapped her arms around her. “Of course we want to be friends. We love you!”

Everyone else gathered close, even Juliet, hugging her. And that edge of hurt was soothed.

“We’d never do anything to hurt you,” Isa told her. “It was a stupid bet.”

“No more bets,” Kiesha declared.

“Thank God for that,” Cleo said. “Because that bet about when O’Ryan and I are getting married is dumb.”

They all backed off and Kiesha rolled her eyes at Cleo. “Oh yeah? Then how come you placed a bet on a date?”

Cleo shrugged. “They were good odds.”

They all laughed.

She looked out at the increasingly dark clouds moving across the horizon. The girls had left a couple of hours ago and she’d just woken up from a nap.

It would get cold soon. She glanced