Barefoot Brides by Annie Jones Read Free Book Online

“In more ways than one.”
    â€œVery funny.” She stood, her eyes narrowed at the man she had thought she could rely upon for cover. “Thanks anyway for your concern. That’ll teach me to be more careful who I seek out whenever—”
    â€œWhenever it’s convenient or necessary for you?” He tipped his head and caught her off guard with an earnest, unyielding glare.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou’ve spent the past few minutes telling me how hard you’ve got it with your new sisters and Dodie closing in on you. All the while wasn’t that exactly what you were doing to me?”
    â€œI came to you because I was scared, Vince.”
    â€œAnd you think your sisters and your mom aren’t scared by all that’s happened? By the possibility that everything they’ve prayed for all their lives might blow up in their faces?”
    â€œI…uh…” Dodie, Kate and Jo always seemed so confident. A team. The ones in control of everything. Of every one.
    â€œThink about it.” He went back to his meal. “It might just create a little more room in your world.”
    â€œRoom? My…?” How could he say something like that to her? Something so penetrating. Something so guilt-inducing. Something so true. How could he say that, then go back to stuffing popcorn shrimp into his mouth as if he had washed his hands of the whole thing?
    He stuck the pad of his thumb into his mouth to clean off deep-fried shrimp grease and his eyes met hers. “You need anything else?”
    She needed to scream. She needed to stand there in the heart of the Bait Shack and pitch a walleyed, no-holds-barred hissy fit. She needed—
    â€œDoesn’t anyone in this town grasp the concept of moving on?” She heard the masculine voice, complete with the smarmy Yankee accent and attitude to match, just seconds before the tray jabbed her in the back.
    For an instant she thought of letting loose on the poor man and taking out all her frustrations but one glance at Vince told her he’d get far too much fun out of watching that. So she decided with a split-second’s notice to do that slopping sugar thing she had hoped to use on the man in the white muscle car. She’d be so friendly and flirtatious, so sweet and so decidedly Southern that the man would find himself helpless to do anything but…
    She turned. “Call the police! This is the man who followed me!”
    â€œThat seems highly unlikely since not only was this the place I was headed to from the moment I left my office but also since I got here before you.” He held up his tray of food as evidence of how long he’d been in the place and just what he had come for, then took a step as if to go around her and forward.
    â€œI was raised here. It is not possible for you to have gotten here before me.”
    He stared at her for a moment then looked away and groaned. “You’re the woman who was blocking the road.”
    â€œI wasn’t blocking anything. You could have gone around me. Other people went around me.”
    â€œOther people?” He tipped his head as if he had to think about that a moment. “Had to go around you? Is that like a thing with you? You have issues sharing space with, oh, say, the rest of the people on the planet?”
    Vince snickered.
    Moxie tensed. Any other day if the man had asked any other question she’d have backed down. Moxie talked a big game in her head but, mostly, she backed down. That’s why her bold and brassy new family’s, well, boldness and brassiness had such an effect on her. She didn’t have the wherewithal to stand up to them. To stand up for herself.
    Stop playing it safe. Jo’s words came back to her.
    Moxie had promised herself she would set boundaries and she didn’t see any reason not to start with this stranger barging in on her home turf demanding she be the one to move aside.
    He took a