Are you kidding me right now? Oh, hell no! In a move that surprised her, Lydia narrowed her eyes and stepped forward to grab his drink. He gave her a questioning look, still not seeming to realize how close to getting his ass kicked he was. She shifted as if bringing the glass to her lips before abruptly dumping it onto his head at the last minute. “How was my day?” she parroted over his gasps as the cold liquid ran in rivulets down his face and dripped onto the floor. “Well, let’s see. I dragged myself to the office at the butt crack of dawn this morning after having basically no sleep last night worrying about Casey and you. Then your boss pulls me aside to assure me of how much you love me, which I know can’t possibly be true since you practically broke out in hives in front of me last night when I told you how I felt. But against my better judgment, I started buying into it.” Gesturing wildly with her hands, she continued her epic rant. “I found myself thinking absurd things like maybe you’re just shy, which is laughable when you’re a self-admitted manwhore.”

   “A what?” Jake sounded strangled as he gaped at her.

   So fired up she couldn’t stop now even if she wanted to, she snapped, “You heard me, whipper zipper! You have a woman in every port. Love ’em and leave ’em. But silly me, I fell for you anyway. And I thought we had something good going. I mean sure, you shift around like your pants are full of bees when I try to have a relationship talk with you, but otherwise, it’s smooth sailing. Plus, we certainly can’t keep our hands off each other. I didn’t figure there was any way you were seeing anyone else with us going at it like bunnies.”

   “Lydia.” Jake glanced around wildly before looking back at her. “Honey, I need to tell you—”

   She was determined to finish unloading, so ignoring his pleas, she said, “But the absolute suckiest thing you could have done was to leave me at the office all day without answering my calls or texts.” She reached forward and poked a finger in his chest for emphasis. “I’m Casey’s stepmother and your wife. But I had to call the freaking hospital to find out if she’d been released! I love that little girl, and it killed me to be pushed to the side when she was hurt.” Tears filled her eyes as her emotions took a turn in the opposite direction. “Do you have any idea how that made me feel, Jake? I should have been there last night, and you damn sure should have kept me updated on her condition. If you cared about me at all, you would have wanted my comfort last night instead of Chris’s! I swear I could just choke you,” she finished weakly, suddenly exhausted.

   “Well, it certainly sounds as if he needs a good butt kicking to me,” said a voice somewhere behind her.

   Lydia stiffened and then whirled around. “Who?”

   At some point, Jake had grabbed a towel and was now wiping his face so his speech was muffled when he said, “Honey, these are my parents, Ada and Joe Hay.” Looking past her shoulder, he added wryly, “Guys, this is my wife, Lydia.”

   Well, this couldn’t possibly get worse. Utterly humiliated, she turned to face the couple standing near the stove. His mother was stirring a pot and his father looked as if he was seconds away from rolling on the floor in laughter. Jake’s mother put a lid on the pot then wiped her hands on a dishcloth before coming to a stop in front of Lydia. The older woman surprised her by throwing her arms around Lydia and hugging her tightly. “Nice to meet you,” Lydia squeaked out against her shoulder.

   Ada Hay pulled back and Lydia didn’t know whether to be horrified or relieved that she was grinning broadly. “I always knew that any woman who married one of my boys would need a backbone. They’re both stubborn, but Jake is probably the worst.”

   Jake’s father snickered while Jake called out, “Thanks a lot, Mom.”

   “Um, did you hear all of that?” Lydia asked, hoping to God that they’d just caught the last of it.

   “My favorite part was the ‘whipper zipper.’” Ada giggled. “Don’t get me wrong, no mother wants to know that her son spreads it around town, but I have a feeling that won’t be happening anymore.” Then she fixed a glare on her son. “You haven’t phoned your wife today? I won’t even go into why you’d need to call her when she had every right to be there with you.”

   Jake fidgeted uncomfortably before admitting, “Chris broke my phone this morning, and I haven’t had a chance to get another one yet.”

   His father looked at his wife and nodded. “I told you I heard something when we were taking Casey down for ice cream. Remember, I went back to get my hat but changed my mind when I heard Jake and Chris arguing. As I was walking off, I heard a crash but figured the boy could handle it.”

   Puzzled, Lydia asked, “Why would she break your phone?” Considering Chris had been acting like an angel lately, that seemed a little strange, even for her.

   Sighing, he admitted, “Because I called her out on her behavior at lunch the other day. Incidentally, she also confessed that she doesn’t have a boyfriend and she just wanted to make me jealous. So we had the talk where I told her that I loved my wife very much and she and I would never be anything but the mother and father of Casey. She got angry and my phone was sitting on the bedside table in the hospital room so she threw it on the floor and then stepped on it for good measure.” Despite the angry words she’d hurled at him, he looked deeply apologetic as he said, “Things got crazy after that. Casey was released and I had to deal with Chris acting like an all-time bitch. But that’s no excuse. I should have found a phone to call you.”

   Lydia barely heard the explanation about the phone. Her attention was focused on the words he’d spoken before that. He’d told Chris that he loved her. Did he mean it or was it just a way to get her to back off? As she was struggling with what to say, his mother cleared her throat. “Your father and I are going to run to the store. I need a few more things for dinner.”

   “What could you possibly have forgotten?” Joe asked, looking bewildered. “We damn near bought out the entire supermarket not an hour ago.”