Chapter Thirteen
Taylor
As I stepped out of the bar, my eyes needed a second to adjust to the darkness. I had heard Dalton and Eric talking, yelling I should say, and I wanted to give them some time before I talked with either of them. Eric was moping, but I had seen Dalton head out as I brought some of the wine up from the cellar. I put the wine down on the bar and hoped I could catch him before he left.
The night we’d spent together was wonderful, and I wanted Dalton to be back in our lives. If Pops thought Dalton could help us, I wanted to give him the chance to do so. Everything was such a shock, but I was glad it was all out in the open now. Except for Dalton and me. I wasn’t ready for the light to shine on us just yet.
The door closed behind me with a click. I heard some talking. Probably the staff on a smoke break.
Looking beyond the boxes at the back door, I saw Dalton’s Viper. I loved that car. I wondered if he would let me drive it. I was really looking forward to going back to his hotel with him to talk. I hoped we could figure out how to help Eric get on board with having Dalton as our partner. I knew it would be super successful when we all worked together and stopped having our egos get in the way.
I blinked my eyes for a second and then again because what I was seeing was not really going with what I’d been thinking. There was Dalton leaning back against his car and that bitch, Courtney Knight Harris, was dry humping him. Her tongue was so far down his throat, he was probably going to choke on it. If I didn’t kill him first.
Fury flamed through me. If that was what Dalton wanted, then he didn’t want what we had together. I thought it was something in the making. Hoped. Now it was a childhood dream that had been washed away. Burned. Obliterated. The give and take of two people wanting each other and taking their time with each other and coming back to a relationship that was bigger than just one of us was a pipe dream.
What I was witnessing was nothing less than sloppy seconds, and it made me embarrassed to watch. It made me feel dirty, like we had nothing special, like I was nothing special. How could we have something that shattered my world like we did last night, and now he was playing grinder in an alley? My gut flinched from the emotional punch. Tears filled my eyes and the only thing that came out was one word.
“Dalton.”
I turned and walked quickly back into the bar. Right into Peggy. I swear the woman just hovered by the back door with her cigars.
“Girlie, are you okay? You look like you just…”
I heard the door close behind me, and I guessed Dalton was standing right there.
Peggy shook her head. “It’s that type of problem. I’ve got tables to take care of, so you all just hang out in the kitchen over there and away from all the lookie loos. Do what you need to do, but not in front of the guests.”
I slammed into the kitchen as much as you can slam a swinging door. The staff stared at me, open mouthed, as Dalton walked in behind me.
“Take five,” I said.
Like children, they grabbed their cigarettes and ran off outside, sidestepping Dalton.
I turned and faced him, my hands folded across my chest. “Dalton, don’t say anything. If that is what you want, something you need to go and get out of your system for old time’s sake, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.”
He took a step toward me, and I stepped back.
I waved a finger at him. “Looking all good and trying to get me to see your way of things is not what this is about. You get angry with the Price family and you go back out and do something stupid again.”
He grunted. “I am not angry with you, Taylor. I’m not attempting to hook up with Courtney; she came on to me and I put her in her place. I promised I wasn’t going to hurt you, and I meant it.”
“Right. Meant it.”
“I do.” He ran his hands through his fine ebony hair. “Jesus, I can’t seem to do anything right today.”
And he looked utterly pathetic when he said it.
I took a step back and started to see it through his eyes. He came all the way back home, due to the death of probably his closest and only friend. The family he was cast away from because he was being such an ass hat. He tried to make it right with everyone and then everything fell apart.
And he didn’t do anything. Well, except for when he made me… As soon as I remembered last night, I wanted it again, and I wanted him now. What was wrong with me? At the same time, my emotions were all over the place. I had to deal with having a partner and a lover, keeping it from my brother, and having Kris run referee.
I started to feel a little sorry for him. Just a little.
“You are telling me that the gorgeous Courtney Knight Harris trapped you against your car, kept you from getting away, and tried to have her way with you.”
“Yes!”
I couldn’t keep a straight face anymore. The laughter just came out. “I can’t help it, Dalton. You look so lost and pitiful.”
He shifted back and forth, and he even made being uncomfortable and exposed look good. At least, he smiled back. He walked over to me and this time I didn’t walk away or step back. Dalton ran his hands up my arms and pulled me against him. I felt his strength feed into me. He cupped my face in his hands. I put my hands over his. He leaned down and kissed me softly and thoroughly. My heart jumped in my chest.
“I mean it. Someone like Courtney is not the type of woman I’ve been interested in for a very long time.” He leaned away from me. “Before you ask, I have not been a monk, but I don’t go out of my way to hurt people. I liked companionship and women, but no strings, no hurt feelings. It was safe.”
He leaned back in. “When I saw you again, it put my world in a tailspin. And I feel…”
“No, you don’t.”
“Excuse me.”
“You don’t get to tell me what you are feeling. Right now, I don’t know what to do. My brother is a wreck again. We have possibly lost our paycheck, if the bar closes, and I’m nowhere near in a good mood, especially with Courtney out hunting again from the looks of it.”
I needed time. Space. Some distance to stop my own mind from not being able to form a complete that didn’t include Dalton.
“What I need you to do right now, Dalton, is to go. Let me clear my head, let me find out how I feel, then I can listen to what you are feeling.”
He leaned over, rubbed my arms, and kissed me again. “I can wait. I’ve waited this long. I have business in the area. I’ll be gone about a week. I was going to put it off while we worked on us and helped out at the bar.
“There’s an us?”
“I hope so.” He smiled.
“Let us be one of those things I think about. After what I just saw, I’m not sure what an ‘us’ means.”
“I’ll see you in a week.”
His smile as he turned and left melted my heart. The way his tight ass looked as he walked away melted other parts of me.
I walked back to the bar as the kitchen staff came back in. A couple of minutes later, I heard the Viper roar away. I wiped down the bar just to give myself a release while I calmed down and figured out what to talk to Eric about.
“Hey, Taylor,” said Rhonda, the bar maid. “Can you bring over another box of glasses?”
“Why?”
“Your brother busted quite a few when he came back from the lawyer’s. Anything you can dish? We hate seeing him like this.”
I gave her a weird look because this was probably the only time she had ever talked to me. Even when I worked the floor, she stayed as far away from me as she could. Out of the blue, she just wanted me to tell her our issues. What was in those cigarettes she was smoking? College kids.
“Yeah, I’ll grab a box.”
I set out for the storeroom. I opened the door and walked down the middle aisle to where we kept the boxes of glassware. About halfway back, I heard someone gently weeping. I really wasn't in the mood to deal with anybody at the bar hiding in the storeroom, so they could have drunken cry fests.
I walked around the shelf, about to give someone a kind but firm piece of my mind.
What I didn’t expect to find was Kris.
She was sitting in the corner, gently crying to herself.
“Kristina, oh, my God! What is wrong? Did you hurt yourself?”
Kris shook her head.
“Is it what happened at the lawyer’s office?”
Kris shook her head once again and stood up. She wiped the tears from her eyes and steadied her breathing. “I went and took the box back to my house and I came down to talk to Eric. To see if I could help.” She grabbed some napkins off the shelf and swiped at her nose. “I hate crying. It makes me so red in the face. I waited a bit, as I saw him talking with Dalton and I got caught up talking to one of the bar girls, Rhonda. So, after I had a beer, I got up my nerve and walked down to see him. The door was opened so I just pushed it a little bit. I stopped to see Courtney, that freaking bitch, all up on Eric. I don’t know what he was thinking. I just turned away and came in here. What is wrong with him that he thinks that miserable woman has something that he can’t find with me?”
“You’ve have got to be kidding me. I just caught her trying her wiles on Dalton.”
The look in Kris’ eyes changed from hurt to pissed off. Just like that. It was like a switch had been pulled down. In a way, I was glad to get her mind off things, but in another way, I was hoping she would get pissed enough to go for Eric. Let him know. If he never knows, he might want someone like Courtney. However, looking at the fire in her eyes, I was definitely not going there. First, she tries on Dalton and then she tries for Eric. What the hell? I hear she is the woman about town, even being married, but come the hell on.”
Kris dragged me out of the storeroom. She pointed to balding George sitting in the corner.
“Would you just look at him? Worth more money than the town, married the Homecoming Queen, and he sits in a bar playing on his phone.”
“He’s always been kind of a dick.”
“The way she seems to be running around on him makes me wonder if he has one.”
I didn’t know if George was okay with that, but I did know that he didn’t seem overly bothered by her actions, so he was either dense or stupid.
Behind us, we heard the clackety-clack of Courtney’s stilettos making their way angrily down the hallway. She was not looking very happy. Her cheeks were a bright pink, and she bullied her way through us standing in the hallway without even an excuse me.
She walked over to George and started talking very forcefully to him. He showed her his phone, and she pushed it away. He grabbed her arm and pulled her in very close to him and said something unkind to her. I knew because her reddened face slightly paled. She nodded.
The door cracked open behind me, and Eric took a step out. He looked at me, annoyed, and shook his head. He went back into the office and closed the door.
I turned my attention back to the train wreck of George and Courtney. I had never seen that side of George before. Not sure what to think about that. George finished up whatever he was working out on and left, swinging the door shut behind him.
Courtney pulled out her phone and texted someone. Usually, that was followed by a half dozen of her friends in about ten. I tapped Kris on the shoulder and walked over to Courtney.
“Excuse me, Courtney, but what the fuck do you think you are doing?”
Courtney casually pulled out a compact and started patting down the shine on her nose. “What are you talking about?”
“I saw you with Dalton, and Kris saw you with Eric. So, what the hell are you trying to do?”
She paused in putting her face back together. “Two gorgeous men find me attractive. What do you care? Unless you are interested in Dalton, Taylor. That would mean Kris is into Eric. It could be the other way around. This is the Appalachians, you know.”
“Eww,” I said.
“Besides, I heard it is only a matter of time before this old eyesore will be torn down. Taxes and all.”
Kris stopped me from wanting to ram my fist in her face. “Where did you hear that, Courtney?”
She smiled like the cat that ate the canary. “I have my ways.”
“I’m not having it, Courtney. Stay out of our business,” I said.
“Your business is the town’s business. Our family, that is, George’s family, is interested in this town and everything that happens here. You’d be wise to understand that.”
At that moment, she squeed as the bar door opened and her “friends” began piling in. She stood up and they did the girly huggy thing that I never understood.
Kris and I took our leave, but I was left with more questions than answers. Why was George’s family interested in our bar, and what did it have to do with the town?