“A career change? And this is what you’re choosing to do?”
“I don’t appreciate that tone of voice. There’s nothing wrong with serving a hungry crowd,” she snapped.
“Yeah, but something tells me you aren’t the waitress type.”
“I don’t like to be pegged. And I most assuredly don’t want to talk to you about my personal life or my choices. Make yourself scarce. I have a job to do.” She tried to edge around him.
“I don’t think so, Alyssa. I asked a question and I expect you to answer it.” He grabbed her arm and tugged her back to him, then boxed her in against the truck.
“Just like you kept pushing when we were on the plane? You don’t know when to quit.”
“You’re certainly right about that.”
“You can’t force me to speak to you, Jackson!”
“Ah, so you do remember my name,” he said, a satisfied smile appearing on his lips.
“I . . . I . . . Just go away.” This was not good. She was starting to unravel, and that was no way to deal with a man like Jackson.
“Not gonna happen. I want to know what you’re doing here.”
“Do you own this town?”
“No, but I do own the bar you’re working in,” he said—quite smugly, in her opinion.
She was really hoping she’d heard him wrong. There was no way he could be her boss. She’d been working at the Country Saloon for nearly four months, and she hadn’t seen a sign of him.
“No . . .” Alyssa’s anger started to diminish as worry set in.
“Oh, yes, Alyssa. Just took ownership last week. I wasn’t too thrilled about it, but now . . .” He paused to crank up a deadly smile. “I’m beginning to grow attached.”
“We had one night together, Jackson. One. That doesn’t mean we’re going to be friends. It doesn’t mean we even have to talk to each other. As a matter of fact, you said you didn’t do commitment. Top all of that off with my being drunk that night and doing something completely out of character, and let’s just say that it was fun, but then be on our way.” She hadn’t been drunk, but she’d rather he thought she had been.
As he stood in front of her, so tall and broad, his smile not faltering in the slightest, she began to chew on her lip. What was she going to do now? This was a nightmare. Sterling was a small town, a town where everyone knew everyone else.
The nearest serious city, Billings, was only thirty or forty minutes away, but that was a lot of commuting, especially when the roads were covered in snow. Granted, people did it all the time, but she was deathly afraid of traveling over ice. Besides, her car wasn’t up to driving in bad conditions.
She could get a place in Billings, but she was trying to save as much as she could before she had to take time off from work. Of all the people in this huge country . . . Yeah, just her luck. The one man she’d had an insane fling with happened to be from the unbelievably small town her parents had decided to move to.
“Are you going to give me the silent treatment now, Alyssa?” No one could have missed the irritation etched on Jackson’s face.
“I wasn’t the one who demanded a conversation. I have nothing to say to you—nothing at all. Why don’t you take a hint and disappear?”
She felt horrible when he flinched. But she must have imagined it, because just as quickly as she thought she’d stabbed him with her words, he grinned at her and winked.
Bastard.
“Fine, Alyssa. You want to pretend we didn’t add to the New Year’s fireworks, be my guest,” he said as he released her from the cage of his arms.
She wasn’t sure whether he was letting her leave or not, but she took a tentative step away, and then another, and then picked up her pace when he didn’t follow.
“We could make those fireworks again—one more time,” he called out after her, and she hated herself a little when her stomach turned cartwheels at the thought.
After rushing back inside, she made a beeline for the tiny bathroom in the private employees’ lounge. She could hardly fit in the thing, but at least she wouldn’t have to worry about customers knocking on the door and yelling about how badly they had to go.
She barely made it in time to empty the pathetic contents of her stomach. When she was finished, she washed her face, then slid down a wall and sat on the floor with her head in her hands.
This wasn’t in her plans. None of this. How could her life have changed so drastically in one freaking day? She’d already lost her job, her money, her pride. And then she’d decided to sleep with a complete stranger. He’d worn protection, dammit! How could she have gotten pregnant?
None of that mattered. The reality was that she was carrying Jackson’s baby, and within another month at most she wasn’t going to be able to hide that scandalous fact.
Her fingers moved down over the tiny bump that was just beginning to show on her lower abdomen. No one knew for now, not even her parents. Or did they? She was beginning to think that her mother might actually suspect more than she was letting on.
Alyssa had thought she was being quiet and careful when her morning sickness had made its grand appearance, but lately, her mom seemed to be trying to force-feed her. At least Alyssa hadn’t been called on it, and she was grateful for that. She didn’t know how to explain herself just yet.
Her parents were going to be so disappointed in her. She’d left home thinking she was going to be a star, and instead she’d come back with nothing—okay, that wasn’t true. She’d come home with an unplanned pregnancy.
And now the father, whom she’d never planned to see again, who was supposed to be a stranger passing in the night, was here, right in the middle of butt-freaking nowhere. And he’d made what he thought about marriage and families more than clear during their night together. He said he wouldn’t bring another child into this world. His ex-wife had done a number on him.
When the dizziness passed, she sat back and thought about her dumb luck of finding him at the Whitman table . . . Then she froze and felt the color drain from her. She crawled back to the toilet and heaved again.
Jackson Whitman.
His family and the Winchester family controlled Sterling in its entirety. Yes, it was a small town, but the Whitmans’ bank accounts were anything but small. Their oil plant provided employment for most of the small town and surrounding areas. Hell, her own father worked for them. As she sat there thinking, more unhappy details rushed in, overwhelming her.