Tucker's Crossing. Marina Adair

the edge of her intimidatingly ergonomic seat and swung her arm around to encompass the mahogany, the Ivy League diploma, the leather-bound tomes, and all that was Regina Echols, Attorney at Law—“to help you?”

      Shelby, on the other hand, hadn’t stopped pacing since she’d entered Gina’s office. She knew what she was asking her friend, but she didn’t see any other solution. Not one that ended up with Jake getting what he deserved.

      “Will you stop saying blackmail? I am merely exploiting his weakness for my gain.”

      “Blackmail.” Gina managed to grab a dictionary from the top shelf, and flip to the precise page without even pausing. “To force or coerce a person into a particular action or statement.” Although she spoke in a monotone, her words somehow still seemed to drip with sarcasm.

      Shelby stopped pacing, finally looking her friend in the eye. “You make it sound so . . . illegal.”

      “It is. And it usually leads to hard time.” Gina snapped the dictionary shut and leaned back, kicking her feet up on the desktop and folding her hands behind her head. “I’m in.”

      “Because it’s illegal?”

      “No, because you’re going to take over the cook-off.”

      “What? No way.” Shelby couldn’t imagine a more difficult situation. Living with Ms. Luella and being forced to judge her cooking against Mrs. McKinney’s. People had broken limbs to avoid this exact situation. “I have too much on my plate already. How about I volunteer a batch of my cupcakes for the auction? Plus, I heard Logan—the cook-off is your job.”

      “No, my job is to make sure it gets done. Doesn’t mean I can’t delegate. I rock at delegating.” Gina scribbled something on a piece of paper and flipped it around. “Sign there,” she said, pointing to the impromptu contract, then, “It’s binding.”

      “Come on, Gina. Anything else. I am so stressed out over Cody.” Shelby leaned in. “Those women will sense my weakness and swarm.”

      “Then get judges. I don’t care. Just get it done. Logan offered to run the football game, but I have the pageant, dance, and auction to plan. And with yours truly heading the committee, every last Lady of Sweet has opted to pull out, leaving me with zero help.”

      Shelby considered her options. Getting people to volunteer willingly would be hard but, without Gina, securing Jake a chance to grow up here was impossible. “Fine. Me and my cupcakes are at your disposal.”

      Gina wiggled her brows. “And I am going to exploit those cupcakes for all they’re worth.” Wheeling and dealing with a prosecutor was always a bad idea.

      Gina took out a fresh contract, this one a binding agreement between her and Cody, and spun it to face Shelby. It was an altered version of the previous one with handwritten notes in the margin.

      “You were already going to help me,” Shelby accused.

      “Yup. I’m tired of seeing the men you care about walk all over you.”

      “They don’t walk all over me.”

      But they had. And she had let them. Cody had left her pregnant, forcing her to raise their son alone, while Preston had invaded every aspect of her life, controlling her world to the point of cruelty. Over the years, he’d stripped her of any self-worth she had left, keeping her a prisoner in a loveless marriage because she was too scared to leave. But in the end she’d managed to get away and made a life for her and Jake here in Sweet Plains.

      That’s why after her not-so-successful first encounter with Cody, Shelby had done her best to avoid him—and a heated replay of events. Until she came up with a new plan, one that would guarantee their place at the ranch and give Jake a shot at a relationship with Cody, she’d steer clear of him, even if it meant leaving for work at the hospital early.

      Not that she had needed to. Cody had kept himself pretty scarce, which only added to her determination to find a solution.

      Then, just before Mr. Lowell’s emergency appendectomy and after the removal of a Lego Star Wars figure from Scotty Grimmy’s nose, Shelby got an idea. One sparked from Faith’s comment that only a crazy person would be stupid enough to take on a woman defending what’s hers. Her new plan would take a lot of courage—and Gina’s help to make it possible.

      “Okay, maybe they walked over me, as in past tense,” Shelby admitted, chin high. “But I’m a new woman now.”

      Gina simply sat behind her desk, shaking her head, her mouth gaping open. “Ohmygod! You had sex with him!”

      “I did not have,” Shelby dropped her voice, “sex with Cody Tucker.”

      “Then why are you whispering?”

      Shelby’s eyes slid shut. “Because I don’t want the entire office to think I had sex with him.”

      “You’re lying.”

      “I am not lying.” Shelby threw Gina a stern look; too bad her flaming cheeks ruined the effect. “Fine, we may have accidentally kissed, but we did not have sex.”

      “How does one accidentally kiss? Is that like accidentally getting knocked up?” Gina made a sound that translated into “bullshit.”

      “No.” Shelby’s pacing increased with each word. “We were yelling, and then he said he was leaving. And I said no—”

      “You said no?”

      Shelby sank into the seat across from Gina. “Told you I wasn’t a pushover anymore.”

      “Right, because letting the man who left you pregnant and broke get to first base within an hour of reconnecting is such a non-pushover thing to do.” Gina clutched her heart dramatically. “Thank God, you didn’t let him leave.”

      “Actually, we rounded second. Now do you want me to finish or not?” Gina circled her hand for Shelby to continue. “He said, ‘Damn you, woman’ and then kissed me. And I mean kissed me.”

      “How very caveman of him.” Gina raised a brow. “Was it good?”

      “It was phenomenal. Better than I remembered. I think I would have let him . . . you know . . . right there on the counter—”

      Gina wiggled her fingers in a grand “big whoop” gesture. “On the counter? Wow, pretty bold for a girl who can’t say sex.”

      “Sex. And it was hot.”

      “Okay, caveman or not, that is hot.”

      Shelby felt her body heat up at the memory and dropped her face into her hands. Up until a moment ago, she had convinced herself that it was no big deal, but now, discussing it with Gina, it seemed all too real. “I know. But then we started arguing, and then Jake came in.”

      “So you argued before you got horizontal on the cutting board and after? Wow, that sounds healthy.”

      Shelby shrugged. When put that way, it sounded even worse than she had originally thought. They had never argued when they were together. Who was she kidding? Cody was too restrained to even get angry, let alone argue. That side of him had been a complete surprise. And kind of a turn-on.

      “You sure know how to pick ’em.” Gina, obviously bored with Shelby’s sex life, pointed to the contract. “Okay, truth time. Why do you want to change the terms of this?”

      “Jake needs a dad, and it’s not like he thinks Preston’s his father.”

      Shelby had waited months for Cody to come back. Preston, afraid that stress and lack of sleep would end up harming the baby, tracked him down and confronted him. He told Cody to man up and do right by Shelby. Preston came back with a black eye, split lip, and a message for Shelby: Cody never intended on marrying her, and he didn’t want a kid.

      Preston had tried to convince her to name him as the father on the birth certificate and give Jake the last name of Van Warren,