“You came back, though.”
“I knew my father would keep the agreement and drop the charges. I was hoping we could be together again, that you would see you would lose your family if you didn’t quit growing weed. Then Lisa came out with you and kissed you. You want to have a good laugh? You still want payback? I’m going to give it to you. I still was going to talk to you and tell you the truth. I was getting out of the car when you went into the diner. I was going to talk to you then, but Lisa had waited for me outside the door, and she stopped me.”
“She must have seen you. She told me to go on inside, that she needed to make a call. What did she say to stop you?”
“That I should leave, that you two were together, that you were going to get married.”
“And you believed her? You had only been gone a couple of months. You should have known I wouldn’t have married her so quickly after breaking up with you.”
“I thought so, too, until she told me she was pregnant. I knew you would marry her if she was pregnant. She begged me not to interfere, saying the baby needed a father.”
“I’m going to kill that fucking bitch. If she was pregnant, it wasn’t my kid. I used a rubber every time I fucked her,” Tate said hoarsely. He had only been with Lisa prom night and the night after she had shown up at the courtroom.
“I stayed in the same hotel you stayed with her that night. Treepoint only had the one hotel, and I was never any good with driving at night. As soon as the sun came out, I left, and you were still inside with her.”
“That was the last night I spent with her. I told her the next morning that I didn’t want to see her again. She was talking about moving in with me and the others.”
“Are you sure she wasn’t pregnant?” Sutton asked, dropping her gaze to her own abdomen.
“If she was pregnant, it wasn’t mine,” he stated again with certainty. He sure as fuck was going to have a talk with the lying whore as soon as he could step out in daylight again.
“Will you leave now? I’m tired.”
“I’ll leave, but we aren’t done talking. We have a few things that need to be settled.”
“We have nothing left to talk about. It won’t change anything and will only dredge up memories that are better left buried.”
“Secrets have a way of being dug up when we least expect them to be. I don’t fucking appreciate the way you didn’t have any faith in me. You didn’t even give me a chance.”
“I gave you a chance; you just didn’t want it. You let me walk away from you. You didn’t even fight for me. You nearly beat Mike Rodes to death for stealing your coon dog. I didn’t mean as much to you as a damn dog.”
“The dog was mine. I don’t give up anything that’s mine. I hadn’t made you mine yet. That was my biggest mistake. I knew you were innocent, and I didn’t want to push you. I shouldn’t have cared that you were a virgin and just been the asshole everyone thinks I am. I won’t make that mistake ever again.”
Sutton’s eyes widened as she lifted herself into a sitting position. “What does that mean?”
“I’m not a nice guy. Everyone in town will tell you I’m a mean son of a bitch. I should have claimed you when you were seventeen. I fucked up. I won’t do that again. I’m giving you fair warning, Sutton: you’re mine.”
“You can’t just claim me,” she sputtered angrily.
“Watch me.” He stared down at her confidently, his eyes settling on her breasts, seeing the erratic pulse beating at the base of her throat.
“You come near me, and I’ll shoot you.”
Tate walked to the door. “You can try.”
“I will,” she threatened.
“You’re mine. You can believe that,” he stressed before turning on his heel to face her again. “You want me to prove it to you now? The only reason I’m leaving is because I don’t want our first time together to be when you’re drunk, but if you’re sober …”
She hastily shook her head. “I’m drunk.”
He stared at her doubtfully. “You don’t seem drunk anymore.”
“I am!”
His lips quirked in a smile. She was the only one besides his family who could actually make him laugh.
“I’ll see you in the morning, then. Night, Sutton.”
“Go to Hell!”
“If I go, you’re going with me. I’m not letting you go. My daddy would roll over in his grave if I let you get away from me twice.”
“Your daddy was crazy.”
“Yes, he was, and he taught me everything he knew about growing pot and women.”