I could consider it good luck that he was there alone. Kim, her husband, and Mr. Rockland had yet to arrive. At least this confrontation, if there was one, would have a limited audience.
“That’s him,” I whispered, before forcing a smile I didn’t feel and saying, “Hello, Jerry.”
“Sarah.” His gaze went to Boone. One of his brows twitched up.
Ha! Yes, I could get a hot young guy as my date, you old bastard.
I kept that to myself but it was with glee that I could say, “Jerry, this is Boone Morgan . . . my boyfriend.”
Now his brows really did shoot up. Jerry stood and offered a hand to Boone. Boone took it, and when he didn’t throw Jerry into some sort of pro wrestler body slam, I thought I was in the clear.
Then Jerry leaned in and said softly to Boone, “You know, I had her first.”
I watched as, just for a second, confusion and then realization dawned in Boone.
He squeezed Jerry’s hand tight, not letting go even when Jerry tried to pull away.
Amazingly, Boone smiled as he said, “But I've got her last. And as you can see, her taste has improved greatly since you.”
Only then did Boone drop his hold still showing a good amount of strong white teeth.
To an outside observer, the interaction would look cordial enough. But I knew Boone better.
Jerry didn’t know how much danger he was in. I’d finally spent some time with Boone on the farm. I knew that he threw around fifty-pound bales of hay on a regular basis. He roped and wrangled cows. He split firewood and dug fence post holes by hand. He’d have no problem making Jerry pay for his comment with his bare hands.
I was still spinning that Jerry had actually told Boone about that one night of poor judgement on my part when Boone said, “If you’ll excuse us. There are some important people we need to talk to.”
Jerry’s eyes narrowed at the insult as Boone pulled me away from the table.
Boone seemed calm . . . on the outside. But I had a feeling he was seething on the inside. The speed with which he marched us away from Jerry was indication of that.
When we were well out of earshot and out of sight, Boone stopped our retreat and turned me to face him.
“You seriously slept with that douchebag?” He kept his voice low, but I still felt the force behind it.
I should have known a mistake that epic would eventually come back to bite me in the ass. Now that pigeon had come home to roost. It was my day of reckoning. It could cost me Boone.
My heart pounded until I felt sick to my stomach.
I forced myself to meet Boone’s gaze. “It was not even a month after Greg dumped me. I was in a bad place. Jerry was brand new at the company. He hadn’t even been there a week yet. He definitely hadn’t shown his true colors yet. He invited me out for a drink after work. I went. I drank. I took him home. Only that one time. I wasn’t going to repeat it anyway, but I really wasn’t going to once I found out he still had a serious girlfriend back where he’d moved from. I guess he figured he’d keep a long-distance thing with her and have me on the side. He was wrong.”
“Son of a . . .” Shaking his head, Boone cut off the sentence even if we were nowhere near the swear jar.
“Anyway, I’m so sorry. It was months before I met you. It was a huge mistake. And I’ll regret it forever.”
“I get it. We all have stuff in our past we’d rather forget. You don’t have to apologize to me—”
“Yeah, I do. I do, because . . .” I swallowed hard and then said, “I love you.”
A mix of emotions crossed his face at my confession. I bit my lip as the agonizing seconds passed.
Finally, he smiled. “That’s really good to hear. Because I’ve loved you for a long while now.”
All of the stress and worry flew out of me in a whoosh on my exhale. “Why didn’t you say it?”
He tipped his head to one side. “I had to be sure you were in the right place to hear it.”
Again, Boone had proven to be one of the smartest people I knew.
“I’m ready now,” I said.
“Good. Because I plan on saying it often, everywhere and in front of everybody in hearing distance.