said get!”
Cody shook his head, completely at a loss. “Have it your way, but this isn’t over.” He paused, hating to see her shackled to an appliance, which was probably her goal. “You sure you don’t want me to uncuff you? I won’t make you leave tonight.”
Luella threw a wet dishrag at him. Good thing his reflexes were faster than her aim.
“You’re forgetting something. The only person in this world more stubborn than you is me. And I’m winning that blue ribbon this year.” Ms. Luella pointed an accusing finger at him. “Now grab that piece of pie on the table and eat up. You’re looking a little thin for my taste. How’re you going to catch the eye of that pretty Ms. Shelby looking like a starved longhorn?”
Cody looked down at his hundred and ninety pounds of tight muscle and laughed. But he’d been dreaming about Ms. Lulu’s lemon icebox pie for nearly fifteen years. Maybe just a bite. Plus, it would give him a chance to ask a few questions.
“So, about Shelby Lynn’s son, what’s he like?”
“Just like you, only smaller. And with manners.”
Cody realized he was standing with a plate in his hand and took a seat. “I think he already hates me.”
Ms. Luella’s gray eyes softened. “He’s a sweet boy. Confused and scared and wondering if you’ll like him. If he’ll like you. Had a hard time of it in his short life. And so has his mama, so you’d better be nice to her or you’ll answer to me.”
“I keep telling you, Lulu, you won’t be here long enough for anyone to answer to.”
Not wanting to hear anything else about how hard Shelby had had it while she was keeping his son from him, Cody grabbed the fork that Ms. Luella had stabbed him with, and tucked into the piece of pie she’d laid out. This didn’t mean a truce—he would get her out of there—but he might as well enjoy the pie first.
He stuck the first bite in and paused, closing his eyes to savor the moment. The tangy lemon bit at his tongue while the creamy confection melted in his mouth and the faint hint of . . . what the hell?
Swallowing down the need to gag, Cody ran to the sink and spit out the entire contents of his mouth and every bit of saliva that remained. Coughing and hacking he bit out, “What the hell is in that?”
“Soap.”
“Let me get this straight. You’re going to blackmail a Tucker, and you want me”—Gina sat forward on the edge of her intimidatingly ergonomic seat and swung her arm around to encompass the mahogany, the Ivy League diploma, the leather-bound tomes, and all that was Regina Echols, Attorney at Law—“to help you?”
Shelby, on the other hand, hadn’t stopped pacing since she’d entered Gina’s office. She knew what she was asking her friend, but she didn’t see any other solution. Not one that ended up with Jake getting what he deserved.
“Will you stop saying blackmail? I am merely exploiting his weakness for my gain.”
“Blackmail.” Gina managed to grab a dictionary from the top shelf, and flip to the precise page without even pausing. “To force or coerce a person into a particular action or statement.” Although she spoke in a monotone, her words somehow still seemed to drip with sarcasm.
Shelby stopped pacing, finally looking her friend in the eye. “You make it sound so . . . illegal.”
“It is. And it usually leads to hard time.” Gina snapped the dictionary shut and leaned back, kicking her feet up on the desktop and folding her hands behind her head. “I’m in.”
“Because it’s illegal?”
“No, because you’re going to take over the cook-off.”
“What? No way.” Shelby couldn’t imagine a more difficult situation. Living with Ms. Luella and being forced to judge her cooking against Mrs. McKinney’s. People had broken limbs to avoid this exact situation. “I have too much on my plate already. How about I volunteer a batch of my cupcakes for the auction? Plus, I heard Logan—the cook-off is your job.”
“No, my job is to make sure it gets done. Doesn’t mean I can’t delegate. I rock at delegating.” Gina scribbled something on a piece of paper and flipped it around. “Sign there,” she said, pointing to the impromptu contract, then, “It’s binding.”
“Come on, Gina. Anything else. I am so stressed out over Cody.” Shelby leaned in. “Those women will sense my weakness and swarm.”
“Then get judges. I don’t care. Just get it done. Logan offered to run the football game, but I have the pageant, dance, and auction to plan. And with yours truly heading the committee, every last Lady of Sweet has opted to pull out, leaving me with zero help.”
Shelby considered her options. Getting people to volunteer willingly would be hard but, without Gina, securing Jake a chance to grow up here was impossible. “Fine. Me and my cupcakes are at your disposal.”
Gina wiggled her brows. “And I am going to exploit those cupcakes for all they’re worth.” Wheeling and dealing with a prosecutor was always a bad idea.
Gina took out a fresh contract, this one a binding agreement between her and Cody, and spun it to face Shelby. It was an altered version of the previous one with handwritten notes in the margin.
“You were already going to help me,” Shelby accused.
“Yup. I’m tired of seeing the men you care about walk all over you.”
“They don’t walk all over me.”
But they had. And she had let them. Cody had left her pregnant, forcing her to raise their son alone, while Preston had invaded every aspect of her life, controlling her world to the point of cruelty. Over the years, he’d stripped her of any self-worth she had left, keeping her a prisoner in a loveless marriage because she was too scared to leave. But in the end she’d managed to get away and made a life for her and Jake here in Sweet Plains.
That’s why after her not-so-successful first encounter with Cody, Shelby had done her best to avoid him—and a heated replay of events. Until she came up with a new plan, one that would guarantee their place at the ranch and give Jake a shot at a relationship with Cody, she’d steer clear of him, even if it meant leaving for work at the hospital early.
Not that she had needed to. Cody had kept himself pretty scarce, which only added to her determination to find a solution.
Then, just before Mr. Lowell’s emergency appendectomy and after the removal of a Lego Star Wars figure from Scotty Grimmy’s nose, Shelby got an idea. One sparked from Faith’s comment that only a crazy person would be stupid enough to take on a woman defending what’s hers. Her new plan would take a lot of courage—and Gina’s help to make it possible.
“Okay, maybe they walked over me, as in past tense,” Shelby admitted, chin high. “But I’m a new woman now.”
Gina simply sat behind her desk, shaking her head, her mouth gaping open. “Ohmygod! You had sex with him!”
“I did not have,” Shelby dropped her voice, “sex with Cody Tucker.”
