Page 63 of Honeycombs & Homecomings

Cash looked to the loan sharks, hoping for some support or backup. They didn’t move. Only stood silently and stared. Were they for real?

Standing side by side, both holding irate, fighting red heads, Brandon and Cash exchanged looks. With no discussion, they made a change of guard. Brandon grabbed on to Allie, and Cash took Jo. For the second time, Cash was grateful for the cowboy. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

Allie, without looking at Brandon, turned in his grasp to face him, or his chest rather, her fury instantly morphing to tears. Angry tears. She buried her head in his chest and stomped her foot.

Brandon, after the initial shock wore off, patted her back.

“Look what you did, you worthless waste of space,” Jo yelled at Tony. The man tried to push himself up, but looked like he might vomit. “You made her cry!”

“I’m not sad,” Allie barked. “I’m angry!” Honey went to her and rubbed against her leg. She dropped a hand to his head. Then Honey moved and rubbed against Brandon’s leg.

Brandon rubbed Allie’s back, patted Honey’s head, and made his best impression of a deer in the headlights.

Jo shook with fury.

Cash pulled her into his arms. “Baby, calm down.”

“Did you hear what he said about my sister?” Jo asked, her hands in tight fists at her sides.

“He’ll get his due, I promise,” Cash said.

She wiped at her nose. “Promise.”

“Yes. But I’m not letting you go to jail over these reprobates,” he said.

Brandon spoke then, his deep voice cutting through the noise in the maze. He pointed toward Tony. “I’m guessing we don’t want that little cracked nut getting away, do we?”

They all turned to Tony. He was trying to crawl away. He stumbled to his feet. Brandon let go of Allie and grabbed something off the ground. Cash’s apple. Brandon hurled it across the space of smashed down stalks, knocked over bales of hay, knocking Tony in the back of his head with a loud thud. Tony swayed where he stood, dropped to his knees, then collapsed.

“Holy moly!” Jo said. “Did you see that?”

The group went quiet.

Just then, E. Morrison and Roger burst in, both fully clothed in their deputy uniforms. They glanced around. Tony lying in a heap, Cynthia scratched and disheveled hovering over her husband—fear apparent in her eyes, and the twins just as much of a mess—Allie sporting what Cash guessed would be a black eye tomorrow, and Jo a violent slash across her lovely cheek.

He kind of wished he could punch Cynthia too, but Allie had handled that, and punching Ryan had been satisfying.

“What on earth is going on in here?” Roger asked.

The twins looked around, then at one another, and burst into peals of laughter. Cash shook his head. Those were his girls. He looked at Jo. His girl.

She glanced up at him, and threw her arms around his neck, her laughter never ceasing.

E. Morrison pointed to the loan sharks. “And why are those guys dressed up like sharks?”

Chapter 21

Being as brief as possible, Cash explained to the deputies what had happened, starting from when he’d arrived in Harvest Ranch to now. Based on the blank expression they gave him; they obviously found the entire situation as unbelievable as he did. Not that he could blame them. He hardly believed it, and he’d lived it.

Even now, looking around, he was shocked. The loan sharks standing off to the side in their shark costumes. The Warners sitting together on a bale of hay, bruised, disheveled, and scowling. Jo and Allie standing with Brandon, looking at their perspective bruises. Cynthia had gotten both twins good. And Tony handcuffed face down in the stalks, drooling with Honey growling over him.

He glanced at Jo as she fawned over her sister, and smiled at the thought of her laughter when E. Morrison and Roger had shown up, and the way she’d thrown her arms around him.

“Wait,” Roger said. “So, you and Jo aren’t really engaged?”

Cash closed his eyes and laughed. “Of everything I told you, that’s what stuck?”

E. Morrison patted him on the shoulder. “In a small town like this, see what else matters more. People are gonna be devastated. The aunts already started going over the details of your wedding.”

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