The interplay was interesting, fiery, yet Jethro could detect the respect and bonding Mac and Keiley had developed over the years. It made him ache. Made him want to be a part of it even though he knew it was never going to happe
n.
“Keiley, I’m not letting this bastard steal this from you. ” Mac’s voice suddenly softened as he stared back at her profile. “We’ll go to the meeting and then catch dinner in town. We’re not hiding. ”
“Delia will be there. ”
Jethro watched her fist clench on the counter.
“So Delia will be there. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pretend you’re not my fucking wife for that bitch. Get that off your mind. If she hasn’t accepted the fact that it’s not going to happen between me and her in fifteen years, then you can pretty much bet she’s not going to figure it out, and you can go on with your life. ”
She looked over her shoulder at Jethro. “She’ll be rude. ”
“And then me and Victoria will have a little talk about the nature of the Bureau and exactly what she doesn’t want my friends looking into. ” Mac shrugged then. “Big deal. Do you want to hide for the rest of your life from the likes of her?”
Keiley muttered a little curse that had Mac’s brow lifting and a smile tugging at his lips. “That’s my girl. I’ll be back in a little bit. Mind Jethro. He’s an asshole, but he knows how to protect you. ”
“Thanks for the reference,” Jethro growled.
“Welcome, bud. ” Lifting his hand, Mac punched in the alarm code before opening the back door, calling Pappy to him, and leaving the house.
Moving behind him, Jethro reset the code and turned slowly back to Keiley.
She was dumping the vegetables into a large bowl of water, her back still to him, the knife laying harmlessly on the counter.
“Would you really use the knife?” he asked her.
The look she gave him wasn’t a compliment. It was the look a woman gave a man she considered less than an imbecile.
“No. I wouldn’t use the knife on you. ”
“Mac seemed worried enough about it. ”
“Because Mac knows I’ll brain him for being a moron,” she snapped. “I don’t handle the big strong male being stupid very well. ”
“I was being stupid,” he agreed.
She stared back at him silently, her expression pulled into lines of weary acknowledgment.
“Maybe I deserved it,” she finally whispered as she turned back to the sink, dampened a cloth, and began wiping the counter down.
She didn’t deserve it. She deserved a man who recognized what a treasure he had. A treasure that wasn’t meant to be shared.
“Why do you say that?”
He watched as she breathed in deeply before turning back to him.
“I knew about Sinclair’s Club before I married Mac. ” She shrugged, the cloth clenched in her hand. “After I learned he was a member, maybe I let my own fantasies weave around it too much. ”
Jethro felt his expression flinch. “What are you saying?”
“I knew about you and Mac,” she snapped angrily. “I heard the rumors about the two of you, then I heard the rumor that he was a part of the club. Mac didn’t force me into this, Jethro. Mac hasn’t made me fantasize about it. And he didn’t pawn me off like an old shirt. I knew what I was doing. ”
“You fantasized about me?” That surprised him. He hadn’t seen her since the first months after her marriage to Mac, and he had made certain not to so much as flirt with her during that time.
“Sometimes. ” Her shoulders shifted defensively. “Look, Jethro, I love Mac. Heart and soul. He’s my life—”
She broke off, her teeth biting at her lower lip as she quickly turned away.