“Alone at last.” He flopped back onto her couch, putting his feet up on her coffee table.

She bustled into the room and pushed his feet off with her bare one. “Get your feet off my table.”

He grinned. “Sorry. Come sit here with me. I’m lonely and I’ve wanted to kiss you all night.”

“Matt, I’m so tired.”

He saw the edge of fear and panic on her face. She needed comfort and didn’t want to need it. She broke his heart sometimes. God how he loved her.

Standing, he moved with purpose to where she stood and encircled her with his arms. “I know, sweetness. Let me. Let me ease it for you. Lean on me.” He spoke, lips against the pale, cool silk of her hair.

“Why are you doing this?”

“I told you. I love you, Tate. Let me love you.”

“You can’t love me. You don’t love me. You just feel sorry for me.”

He sighed and walked her to her bedroom, turning off lights as he went.

“You talk too much about stuff you can’t possibly know about. I know what I feel, Tate.”

“I need to be alone, Matt.”

“No you don’t. You need to be held. I want you, yes. But tonight, let me hold you. I want to sleep with you against me. Will you let me stay here tonight?” He searched her face tenderly, loving the surprised and slightly confused flutter of her lashes.

“I don’t know…”

“I do. Please, Tate.” He’d never actually begged a woman to let him sleep in her bed, not even to f**k her, before. He needed her as much as he knew she needed him.

“All right. All right. I can’t argue with you over it. I don’t want to.”

He smiled, leaning down to kiss her gently.

Damn that Matthew Chase! Tate couldn’t help but smile as she pushed her cart through the grocery store several days later. No matter how much she tried to push him away, he was there. Always there.

So thoughtful, too. She’d come home two nights before to find a new flower bed dug and planted. He and Kyle had spent part of their day doing it. All because she’d told him how she kept planning to do it but never had the time.

Reaching up, she touched the small silver Venus pendant he’d brought to her that morning at the shop. Said he’d seen it and it reminded him of her, wanted her to wear it against her skin and think of his lips there.

A shiver of delight headed up her spine.

All her delight evaporated as she turned the corner and saw Melanie standing there with Kendra Fosse and some other twit, Dolly somethingorother.

Melanie caught the cart as Tate attempted to steer around them.

“Go on then, say your piece and then move.” Tate glared at Melanie.

“I shouldn’t need to point out to you that you’re in over your head, you gold digging whore.”

The look on Melanie’s face was pure hatred and Tate had seen it more than once. She could never quite figure out why Melanie Deeds hated her so damned much. But they all treated the Murphy kids, especially Tate, badly. Because they could, she supposed. Where most of her siblings were tall and thin, her sisters were gorgeous and her brothers all hale and handsome, Tate was short, pale and fluffy. That made her otherness the biggest target.

“Excuse me? I take it this little scene is sour grapes because Matt and I are seeing each other?” Short, pale and fluffy or not, she wasn’t about to take any guff from the likes of a snotty bitch like Melanie and her little cabal of mean girls. Mean girls way past thirty. She snickered.

“Seeing each other? Is that what you call it?”

“Get to the point, Melanie, the shrillness of your voice makes my teeth hurt and your fake tan is giving me a headache. Oh and do your roots for cripes’ sake.” Hee! That hit home. Melanie’s pretty face crumpled on even more ire. Tate hoped she got a wrinkle Botox couldn’t clear up.

“You keep your cheap, fat ass on your side of town. Matt Chase isn’t meant for the likes of you.”

Tate raised an eyebrow, a naturally blonde eyebrow. “Ahh, that’s what this is about. Can’t take it that he dumped you and came to me. Oh, that must sting that shriveled up, black heart of yours. All the money and good shoes in the world can’t lure Matt from my bed to yours. I may be fat and cheap but I’m the one getting laid by Matt Chase. Guess you’ll have to find some other guy because Matt is taken.”

Melanie pushed the cart but Tate was stronger than she was and she pushed back, making Melanie step backward.

“Don’t you push me, Melanie Deeds. You said your piece now get your ass out of the way or I’ll run you over and smile while I do it.”

“We’ll see how funny you think this is when me and my friends boycott your ratty little salon.”

Tate whipped her head around. “Oh no you did not just insult my salon! Look here, you stupid bimbo, you’d better have a salon visit somewhere in your future because your roots are so bad you look like you’d be at home next to my old trailer.” She turned to Kendra who’d been smirking at Melanie’s little tirade. “Although I’m sorry we can’t help you. We don’t do Botox.”

“You slut! Just like your mother. You’re not good enough to be a Chase, you just remember that. Matt Chase will get tired of you soon enough and you’ll run back to your tacky little house and your cheap, buy-one-get-one free life with your cheap shoes and knock off bags. You’re a nobody, Tate Murphy. A fat nobody who doesn’t even know who her dad is.” Melanie’s face was red but Tate was the one who saw red.