Cash stood on the front stoop, hands shoved in his pockets, huddled against the chilly night. His blond beard looked scruffy and his blue eyes bloodshot. He wore scuffed cowboy boots, faded jeans, and a ratty T-shirt with a drawing of a pig standing at a barbecue that said I like my pork pulled and my meat rubbed.
Classy guy.
“Listen, buddy. She doesn’t want you here. So take your drunk ass and—”
“Who the fuck are you?” Cash lurched drunkenly, looking him up and down. “Is she banging you already?”
Zy itched to punch him. “I’m here to protect her. Watch your fucking mouth.”
“You don’t tell me what to do!”
“Do you want to see Tessa again?”
“Of course. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Do you want to meet your daughter?”
Cash looked less enthusiastic about that. “Well, yeah.”
Zy bit back his opinion that the asshole didn’t deserve either of them.
“Then you’ve got to start playing by the rules. You scared Tessa the other day, and she got a restraining order. Because she’s afraid of you. So now’s the time to back off and give her space. Maybe you can text her your apology.”
“She blocked my fucking number.”
He was glad to hear it. “Then she’s telling you that she’s not ready to talk, and you trying to force the situation isn’t going to change anything. It’s only been a few days since you busted out her window and threatened her. How was that supposed to reassure a new mom?”
“I didn’t think about it like that. But…but”—he sputtered and shivered with a gust of wind—“why is she pissed? I just pointed out that her body was looking smoking hot again, and since the baby, her tits are an upgrade. I didn’t say anything offensive.”
Oh, not at all. Dumb ass…
“Well, she found it offensive.”
Cash let loose a long-suffering sigh. “Why are women so touchy? Jesus, you can’t even compliment them anymore without them getting all weepy and insulted. I just tried to say something nice—”
“If you’d mentioned her eyes or her smile, she might have appreciated that more. But you haven’t seen her since you ran out before she gave birth to your daughter, and the first thing you mentioned was her breasts.”
“Because they were the first things I saw!”
There was no hope for this guy, and Zy was done wasting his breath. “Well, she’s not going to see you tonight, so you need to turn around and—”
“Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do?” Cash poked him in the chest.
Zy glared down at the asshole’s finger. “Don’t touch me.”
Cash did it again. “What are you going to do about it?”
Squash your drunk ass like a bug. But Zy refrained. “I’m here to protect Tess—”
“From what?”
“You.”
The guy scoffed dismissively. “You can’t touch me.”
“If you try to barge in here and force Tessa to see you, I will. So you can either leave peacefully…or you can leave in pieces. Your call.” Zy smiled tightly. “Make good choices.”
He looked shocked. “This is bullshit! Women claim they want honesty, but when I was honest with her—she totally looked like the side of a barn before the baby was born—she got all pissy. Was I supposed to lie?”
“Did Tessa ask you for your opinion about her body?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Then maybe there’s a good tip for future reference. Don’t volunteer your opinion, especially about something so personal. Be honest when she asks you something. Use more discretion when she hasn’t.”
Cash nodded like he was considering that. “Okay. I’ll put that tip to use.” Then he scowled. “You never answered me. Are you banging her?”
Before Zy could reply, a familiar voice beyond the halo of the porch light answered. “He’s bodyguarding.”
Tessa’s drunk ex whirled around so fast he almost lost his balance. But the footsteps in the darkness finally brought the unseen man closer, and Caleb Edgington stepped into the light.
“Why are you here? You’re her bo—” Cash shut up for a blessed but too-short moment. “Oh, this asshole is one of yours?”
“Yes.”
He looked Zy’s way again. “You’re one of those dangerous guys who supposedly knows twenty ways to kill me with your bare hands?”
More than twenty. “There’s no supposedly about it.”
“Exactly.” Caleb gave the guy a friendly pat on the back. “Time for you to go.”
“Not until I see Tess.”
“Now.” The colonel squeezed the back of Cash’s neck until the drunk stiffened.
“Okay. Okay.” The asshole twisted and shrugged until Caleb let go. “I’ll go. Tessa has a nice ass, but her piece of it isn’t worth all this. And I don’t know who the fuck you are, but if you’re banging her, she’s all yours.”
With a curse, he shouldered his way past the colonel and headed toward his truck at the curb.
Zy opened his mouth to say something, but Caleb shook his head. “Don’t worry. After Tessa called me, I called the cops. They’ll stop him before he drives anywhere.”