Page 24 of The Widow's Dom

“Nick and I were in the Navy together. We fought a lot of bad people. Thankfully, we made it home. Some of our guys didn’t. We all decided to settle here, and Nick and Janessa immediately hit it off.”

“You’re going to live here?” Henry asked.

“Yes, all five of us. So, I’ll warn you now that little Janessa will have a lot of badass men looking after her. You might warn anyone who thinks he has a chance at her. Tell them we know a hundred ways to kill a person, cut them up, and hide them so no one would ever find them. If you have any questions about Nick, talk to him, but a warning, he’s already possessive of her, so I’d watch what I said if I were you.”

Janessa watched Henry turn several different colors. Pink when he was embarrassed, white when he learned about the men in town, and red when he knew there was no chance of ever getting her.

Henry abruptly turned and stormed off.

Jake turned back to her. “You’re okay?”

“Yes. Thank you. I was about ready to throw a can of dog food at him. With my luck, it would have connected, and I’d be charged with assault and put in jail.”

Jake grinned. “Nick would have never allowed that to happen.”

She had no idea what he could have done about it. He’d just moved to town. “Fortunately, he won’t have to deal with it.”

“Do you need help with those bags?”

“No, and thank you for your help with Henry.”

“You’re welcome. Take care,” Jake said and walked off.

Within the hour, she had the feed in the back of her truck and was headed to the Jenkins place. She saw a car and Nick’s truck and parked beside it. She heard their voices in one of the back rooms when she entered the house. Janessa couldn’t believe how sweet and flirty Val sounded and was looking forward to seeing her expression.

Val was giggling about something when she walked into the room.

“Hey, guys, sorry I’m late.”

Nick turned with a grin and his hand out, and Val’s mouth dropped open. Janessa walked to Nick and took his hand. She was pleased when he immediately bent forward to kiss her. Nick then wrapped an arm around her waist.

“What did I miss?” she asked.

“You’re right on time. We’ve only just started looking,” he said.

Val’s mouth snapped shut when Nick looked her way.

Val sputtered, “How long have you two known each other?”

“Oh, my. It’s been a while,” Janessa said and smiled up at him.

“Not long enough. I feel like I’ve looked for her forever, but I’m just glad I’ve found her.”

“I am, too.”

Val grunted. “Well, that’s a sweet thing to say.”

“Do you and Janessa know each other?” Nick asked.

Val nodded. “Yes, we went to school together.”

“Oh, so you could tell me some crazy stories about her, I imagine,” Nick said.

“They’d be boring. She was always such a goody-two-shoes, and everyone loved her.”

Janessa had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. She could tell it hurt Val to say anything nice about her, or maybe she thought she was insulting her.

“Nothing wrong with that,” Nick said.

---