Savage in a Stetson (Crossroads #4) - Em Petrova Page 0,8

into the trash and then carried the heavy pan to the big sink to wash it up. After that, she wandered into the indoor dining area. Only six tables fit indoors, but in Georgia, most people wanted to eat at the picnic tables outside. She drifted to the glass door to peer out across her holdings.

Then she spotted someone coming out of the building across the way. Up until a few days ago, a for-sale sign had been pinned up at the window of what used to be a battery warehouse. Before that, the building served as a kitchen store. Before that… Well, she forgot all the purposes the building served over the years, but it looked as if the place had adopted a new use.

After pushing open the door with the flat of her hand, she stood watching a pair of men carry things in and then return to a box truck for more.

Whatever was going in across the street would only benefit her business. Reviving this section of town wouldn’t be a bad thing.

She settled her gaze on a wide set of shoulders belonging to one of the men carrying boxes inside. If she didn’t know better, she might guess it to be Dom.

He ducked under the doorway. Seconds later, he appeared again. She squinted against the afternoon sun, hoping to make out his features. Then he laughed at something the other man said.

Jada froze. That toss of his head when he laughed…

No, it couldn’t be Dom. She was only feeling emotional at all the progress she’d made with her life over the past few weeks and her brain played tricks on her with shoulda, coulda, woulda beens.

The men returned to the truck and carried something long between them. They leaned it against the side of the building and one pulled out a blade to remove the taped wrappings from it.

When the packaging fell away, a low scream escaped from her.

SAVAGE’S BARBECUE

“No. No way. No freakin’ way!” Every muscle, tendon and sinew in her body tensed. She thought she might have a stroke. Or one of those conniptions that her momma always talked about when she and Joss misbehaved at church on Sunday.

She only knew one Savage, and it was the man who dumped her to go off for the winning belt buckles.

Leaning forward at the waist, she stared hard at that set of wide shoulders. No. It can’t be.

There had to be a logical explanation. And she would not hyperventilate, no matter what acrobatics her lungs felt like doing at the second.

She’d heard about celebrity types always dabbling in businesses, trying to grow their fortunes into millions. That had to be it—Dom was an investor.

Did it matter who invested? Why did they think it was fine to slap another barbecue restaurant two hundred paces from hers?

She didn’t know she screamed again until the two men looked up. Oh no. Now she was starting to sing.

Her nervous habit when angered was to sing something fun and upbeat. So “Dixie” started spurting from her lips, and she knew she was in trouble.

The men looked her direction. She felt that stare on her and all the soft, jelly-like parts of her body that weren’t muscle, tendon and sinew seemed to slump over, leaving her weak.

She could feel that stare from two hundred paces. How would her body react if she marched over to him and told him off?

I’m about to find out.

She took off across the road to show her ex what she was made of.

* * * * *

Dom’s buddy Theo nudged him in the arm.

He looked up to follow Theo’s finger. A fist of surprise socked him in the guts, and the air whooshed from his lungs. The last person he expected to see at that moment paused at the edge of the main road running through Crossroads. She glanced right and left before continuing on in determined strides that made her legs appear much longer than he knew they were.

“Who’s that?” Theo drawled out.

The interest echoing in his buddy’s tone made Dom want to shove him into the building and slam the door shut.

“That’s my ex.”

Theo snorted. “Oh yeah. Jada. I see her resemblance to Cort’s wife. Good luck, bro. I don’t do pissed-off exes.”

Dom sized up Jada. Everything from the way she strode toward him to the swing of her arms told him that Theo could be right. A bee had gotten into her bonnet and she was about to give him a piece of her