Christmas Kisses with My Cowboy - Diana Palmer Page 0,114
in?”
Veronica looked down at her clasped hands. “I . . . kept an eye on Perry after I left because I was worried Jason wouldn’t treat her right.”
“How exactly did you do that?”
“My old next-door neighbors hated Jason and were quite happy to send me regular updates on Perry whenever they saw her in the backyard. I couldn’t take her with me because my apartment didn’t allow pets.”
“Hard to hide a two-hundred-pound pig.” Ted nodded. “So what happened?”
“Jason kept breeding her and eventually, Perry became ill.” Veronica swallowed hard. “I ended up texting him because I was so worried, which was a terrible mistake because he’s never forgiven me for divorcing him. He said Perry wasn’t worth keeping anymore because only one of her piglets had survived.” Ted winced. “I offered to come over and take Perry to the vet to see if there was anything that could be done for her. I even offered to pay the bill, but Jason wouldn’t let me.”
“So what did you do?” Ted prompted her gently.
She raised her chin. “I went around to the house. There was no sign of Perry, which was bad enough, so I took Bacon.”
Ted considered what to say next. “So basically you stole his pig.”
“That’s what I told you in the beginning!” Veronica held his gaze. “He’s going to be furious! What if he comes after me?”
“I suppose he could do that,” Ted acknowledged. “But do you really think he’s going to come all the way out here just to get his pig back?”
“I don’t know!” Veronica said. “That’s why I came here. I thought Uncle Victor would be able to help me.”
“But Vic’s away.”
“Yes.” Veronica didn’t look very impressed with his impeccable logic or speed of thought. “I know that now. I didn’t at the time.”
“Okay, so what does this have to do with whether or not we go to bed together?”
Veronica scrambled off his lap and paced the worn rug, her arms wrapped around herself before turning back to Ted.
“Are you being deliberately annoying?”
Ted shrugged. “Nope, I guess it just comes naturally to me.”
“I’m trying to be honest with you.”
“I get that.”
“Do you not care that you might be having sex with someone who stole a pig?”
Ted looked from her flushed face down to her pink kitten socks and slowly shook his head. “I can’t say that it bothers me.”
“Uncle Victor will be so disappointed,” Veronica whispered.
Ted held up one hand. “Just clarifying that I’m not related to you, and I didn’t bring you up, so I’m not conflicted about this at all.”
She spun away from him and looked out of the window, her shoulders hunched almost up to her ears.
“Should I tell Nate?”
Ted got up from the floor. “Do you want to?”
“Of course I don’t. I wish I could go back in time and change everything that happened, and—” She sighed. “Well, maybe not all of it because I do have Bacon.”
“What else happened?” Ted asked slowly. “You stole the pig, and you don’t regret that. What do you regret?”
She drew herself up. “The stealing part, Ted? That I should have taken the time to negotiate some deal with Jason and not just . . . taken him. I panicked.”
From the way she was avoiding his gaze, Ted had a strong suspicion that she might have done something else, but seeing as his opinion of Jason couldn’t get any lower, he didn’t have a problem if Veronica had trashed the house a little on her way out.
“Do you want me to talk to Nate for you?”
“No, I’m a big girl. If it comes to that, I’ll talk to him myself.” She blew out a breath. “Thanks for offering, though.”
“You’re welcome.” Ted paused. “Anything else you want to tell me?”
She looked so guilty that he almost wanted to laugh.
“I . . . don’t know yet.”
“Well, at least that’s honest.” He waited again. “Are you sure you don’t want to spill the beans? Because you’ll probably feel much better if you let it all out.”
She reached for his hand. “I just can’t.”
“That bad, eh?”
She squeezed his fingers hard. “Maybe.” She met his gaze. “Would you prefer it if I moved out?”
“Dammit, no!” Ted frowned at her. “Why would you even think that?”
“Because I don’t want to get you into trouble.”
“For harboring a pig stealer?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I’ve ruined everything because I didn’t think things through properly. I should have kept this to myself. I wanted this Christmas with you to be special, and now I’ve made