Burn (Steel Brothers Saga 5)
Page 70
“Oh, God. Please.”
“That woman has such a big head. I don’t know how she got through Talon’s door. All she talked about today were her glory days of modeling. Oh, and she talked a little bit about you.”
“Me?” Jonah squirmed.
“Does that make you uneasy?”
“No. But she…” He raked his fingers through his hair. “I’m not quite sure how to tell you this.”
“You can tell me anything.”
“I know that. It’s just… Brooke came on to me yesterday.”
I shot up from the bed. “What?”
“Don’t worry. I’m not interested in her.”
“She can keep her mitts off of my man!” And then I laughed in spite of myself. “I can’t believe those words just came out of my mouth.”
He laughed. “You know, you’re cute when you’re jealous.”
“Jealous of that has-been?” Then I frowned. “I didn’t mean that. She’s kind of…sad, really.”
“Brooke Bailey was given the gift of beauty,” Jonah said, “but so were you, Melanie. And you were given so much more than she was. Now that her modeling career is over, all she has left is her vanity. Her past successes. She’s the one who’s jealous of you.”
“Why in the world would she be jealous of me?”
He guffawed. “Because you have me.”
Chapter Twenty–Seven
Jonah
She looked at me and burst out laughing.
“Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for.” I smiled.
“Oh, no, it’s just the way you said it. Poor Brooke.”
“Poor Brooke? How about poor me? She’s been stalking me over my phone.”
Melanie dropped her mouth into an oval. “What?”
“She’s been sending me texts. Saying stuff like she will have me. She wants me. That kind of crap.”
“She can stop that right now,” Melanie said.
“She sent me two this morning while I was sitting in Talon’s kitchen. Didn’t you notice her using her phone?”
Melanie scratched her nose. “I remember her using it once. Honestly, though, she could’ve used it more than once. I stopped paying attention to her after a while.”
“I came out to confront her about it and tell her to stop, but you looked so relieved to see me, I decided to just get you out of there.”
“Yeah, I was certainly ready to leave.”
“I’m sorry to drag you through that.”
“It was my decision. I didn’t want to stay here alone. I’m going to have to be okay with that from now on. I know you can’t be here all the time. You have a ranch to run.”