CHAPTER NINE
Men.
They had the power to completely fuck up a fun night with nothing but words and some arrogance. Ugh.
What had started as a celebration of all the good news, petered out into a cooler mood at the table with major people-watching and Nick doing his damnedest not to sulk but failing every ten minutes. Bash and Allie called it an early night way too early, which made Gabi and me look like we were crashing a double date.
“You picked him up in a parking lot?” I asked Lanie, for the sheer sake of lightening the mood.
She laughed. “I did. There was this condition in my aunt’s will that I had to be married in order to inherit her house—my house.”
“Except that it was all a big lie,” Carmen added.
“My Aunt Ruby was a character,” Lanie said. “And she concocted a big mess, but I didn’t know it was a mess—”
“You forgot to mention that you’d lied to her that you were already married,” Nick said.
“And living in California,” Carmen said. “Which was another lie since you were really in Louisiana.”
“Yeah, that,” Lanie said, her eyes sparkling with remembered mischief. “Okay, so maybe I inherited some of Aunt Ruby’s stretching of the truth.”
“She offered to pay me to come pretend to be her husband for a weekend,” Nick said.
“Which turned into months,” Carmen said.
“So, you aren’t from here?” I asked Nick, noticing he glanced back at the bar.
“No, I was living about four hours from here at the time,” he said. “But I’m originally from farther south, near Corpus.”
“So was my ex,” I said.
“Blankenship, right?” Nick asked, and I nodded. “I used to work construction for B&B, and I think one of the owners was a Blankenship.”
“Oh, small world,” I said.
The crowd got thicker and drunker. Louder. Especially in the middle. The far back edges held the people who didn’t know if they really wanted to stay. We ordered food from the restaurant side, scarfed down chips and hot sauce to absorb the alcohol, but the room had a definite tilt going on. Almost enough to make that microphone action look like something I might want to do. Just as I formed that thought, Gabi was suddenly up there.
“Heyyyyyyy!” she squealed, doing a little shimmy.
“Oh…” I said, waving at her. “This can’t be good.”
“We need to go get her,” Lanie said.
“Or go join her,” I said, pushing my chair back. “Come on, let’s do a ladies’ version of ‘Ride a Cowboy.’”
“I’m entirely too sober for this,” Lanie said, getting to her feet.
“I’m entirely too everything,” I said, glancing back at Leo for the hundredth time. He wasn’t looking at me. He wasn’t even looking our way anymore. It was as if he’d figured out how to block our table from his room-scanning spidey vision.
Carmen, Lanie, and I made our way up to the stage to wrap our arms around each other and a giggling, nearly-crying-with-alcohol-induced-emotion Gabi.
“Y’all,” she kept repeating. “I love y’all so much. Y’all are my tribe, you know that?”
We just barely got the song going when I saw movement to my left. Which meant nothing, really. It was like a friggin’ ant mound in there, people everywhere. Then something went lopsided as Gabi went up.
Up. In the air, as someone assigning himself the job picked her up to straddle him as we sang about saving a horse and riding a cowboy. Gabi, a few reactions too late, whooped a couple of times before realizing she was being dry-humped with strange hands on her ass.
“Hey,” I said, frowning. I let go of Lanie and pawed at the man’s hands groping Gabi. “Hey, that’s not cool. She’s drunk, man.”
“So am I,” he laughed, leering at her before burying his face between her breasts.
“Stop!” I yelled, pushing at his head.
“Put—me down,” she said weakly as he jostled her again, her face going pale.
“Dude—”
Up she went again as Sully was there, lifting her effortlessly off cowboy-man and down from the stage just in time for her to grab someone’s empty beer bucket off a table and hork for all she was worth.
“She should have puked on y—” I began, my words cut off by cowboy-man’s putrid mouth on mine and the sound of Lanie yelping and struggling next to me. Boos from the crowd replaced the cheering. I shoved at him, screaming in his mouth, but his hand held my head by my hat.
“Get the fuck off—” Lanie yelled, right as he left my mouth and landed on hers.
Use what you have. Everything slowed down, and I took inventory. I didn’t have much. I didn’t have the weapon heels or the ring, but I stomped down on his foot as hard as I could with my wedges, and as soon as he lifted his face and let go of us I swung. My left fist landed square into his nose.
The cracking noise was nasty and the blood was even nastier, but the howling was worth it. Out of nowhere two Leos appeared. Or since it was in slow motion, I realized it was a Leo and a Nick, one yanking the guy into a full twist with his hands bent painfully behind him, and one grabbing Lanie protectively with one hand over her stomach.
“You’re out of here,” Leo growled, shoving the guy into the back wall.
“She hit me!” he cried.
“You’re disgusting!” I yelled, wiping my mouth as I grabbed my hat from his still-fisted hand and looked it over. No blood. I shoved it back onto my head.
“Are you okay?” Leo asked Lanie, concern for her heavy on his face as he twisted the guy’s arms tighter.
She was already wrapped up in Nick, but she nodded. “I’m fine,” she said with a body shiver. “I need twenty showers, but yes, thank you.” She gave her husband a pointed look until he nodded reluctantly at Leo.
Leo shook his head and turned to me as a security guy took the asshole off his hands.
“I’ll sue you!” the guy yelled. “I’ll sue this whole place.”
“Please do,” Carmen said. “I can’t wait.”
“Are you okay?” Leo asked me as if no one else had said anything. He grabbed my hand, which was swelling around the knuckles, leading me off the stage without another word.
“I’m—I’m fine,” I said, following behind him like a puppy. I saw the scraped-up knuckles and the bruising, but it didn’t really hurt much. Liquor and adrenaline.
I’d just punched a man in the nose.
Me.
I couldn’t wait to tell Thatcher. He’d shake his head and roll his eyes but secretly be proud. Jackson would whistle into the phone.
Jeremy would be mortified.
“Oh, my God, I wish Jeremy could have seen that,” I blurted as we went behind the bar. Leo grabbed a towel and filled it with ice.
He looked up from his task. “Because?”
“Shit, I said that out loud?” I said, wincing when he pressed his work against my knuckles. “Ow.”
I felt it now.
“Keep that on there as long as you can tonight,” he said. “It’ll be better in the long run.”
“Punched a lot of people?” I asked.
He narrowed his eyes, letting his focus move over my body. “One or two. Are you okay, otherwise? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
I grimaced. “He kissed me.”
Leo curled his lip, and my toes tingled.
“I saw.”
“With his tongue.”
“You should have bitten it off,” said the girl with purple lipstick, back and waiting for a drink from the other bartender. The one who had had to take over when Leo went all superhero. “That’s nasty.” She then looked Leo up and down. “But him vaulting over this bar to take that guy down was the hottest thing I’ve seen in years.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “You vaulted?”
He smirked. “I don’t really remember.” Looking around in that way of his again, I felt cool, detached Leo coming back. His gaze landed on Nick and Lanie at our table, grabbing their stuff to leave, and a furrow deepened over his nose. “Shit.”
“What?” I asked. “Lanie’s okay.”
“That just had to happen with me here,” he said under his breath. “He’ll find a way to make it my fault. Say trouble follows me or something.”
“Does it?”
It was a simple question, but the myriad things that passed over his face were anything but simple.
“In Nick’s mind it does,” he said after a pause. Shaking his head as if his own mouth had betrayed him. “It doesn’t matter—”
“Hey,” I said, grabbing his arm. His skin was hot and I temporarily forgot what I was going to say. His dark eyes traveled from my hand up to my eyes. “You—you did good over there. You helped his wife. You helped me.”
A hint of a smile touched his lips, and it had to be the whiskey but dear God I went weak in the knees.
“You handled things pretty well yourself, Roman-off,” he said. “Used what you had.” He lifted the towel and gingerly touched my finger. “Would have done a lot more damage with that rock you had.” His eyes met mine with the silent question. An answer I wasn’t ready to voice. “Wouldn’t have figured you for a southpaw,” he said instead.
“Like you.”
He tilted his head slightly. “How’d you know that?”
“You’re not the only observant one,” I said. He gave a silent chuckle and nodded to the increasingly impatient cobartender who kept doing a neck jerk to indicate I needed to get on the other side of the bar. “Do I need to vault, too? Because I don’t think I can do it as gracefully or hot as you evidently did.”
He looked down at my bare legs in the mini dress. “Pretty sure it would be hot, but—”
“I’d land on my face,” I said.
“And no one wants that,” he said, not missing a beat. He pointed where to go. “Better to leave how you came. But you never answered me.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Why do you wish Jeremy would have seen you do that?”
I needed to start carrying duct tape for my mouth.
“Shock value, I guess,” I said. “Because he would have despised it.” I saw Leo’s look. “No, he didn’t do a number on me or anything to me. I’m just—”
“Telling me it’s none of my business?” Leo asked.
I pointed at him and stifled a grin. “That.”
He reached out and adjusted my hat, and I was struck with the familiarity—the intimacy of the gesture. Which zinged me back in time to yesterday’s ice-cream-thumb-to-lip escapade. Which made my tongue dart out to run along my lip before I could think better of it. Which made his gaze drop to watch. Which made me grip the counter closest to me before I swayed or swooned into him.
Holy fucking hell, I needed to get out of there.
“I’m gonna—” I said, pointing toward where my new friends for the day were leaving.
“You two aren’t driving,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
“Around the corner?” I laughed. “No. We parked at her shop and walked in anticipation of this. She can crash in my bed tonight. I’ll take the couch.”
“Don’t walk alone either,” he said. “Nick,” he called out with a wince, as if that was the last thing he wanted to do.
“Hey, don’t,” I said, grabbing his arm again. I didn’t need a babysitter, or a rescuer. Again. “I can take care of—”
“Sully,” he called out as well, making both of them turn. “Can one of you make sure these two get to the florist shop okay?”
Carmen was arm in arm with Gabi, who managed to grin while still looking a sickly shade of green.
“No problem, we got this,” Sully said.
Nick stopped walking and looked at Leo. Looked hard. As if everything he wanted to say could just be shoved out there that way. I wasn’t sure if it was Thank you for rescuing my wife, or Fuck you for thinking I would let two inebriated women wander off in the dark alone. Lanie moved in front of her silent husband, smiling up at Leo.
“Thank you,” she said.
He moved his focus to her. “Anytime. Congrats, by the way,” he said. “I’m happy for you. Does Addison know yet?”
“She does,” Lanie said, chuckling but dialing it in as she glanced to her side for Nick. “She’s over the moon to be a big sister.”
That time, it was Nick’s turn to show a flash of pain as he closed his eyes and turned his head, guiding his wife along. I’d bet that Leo didn’t notice it, and I’d double that bet to say that Nick had no intention of showing it.
I looked back to Leo, but he was already moving down the bar.
Okay, then.
Not my business.
As I made my way around the bar to join Gabi and Carmen, I glanced back to see him talking to a bored-looking woman in a suit. Talking to her, but his eyes were on me, sending heat to every nerve ending.
Nope.
Keep walking, Micah. Keep walking.
* * * *
“I can’t take your bed,” Gabi slurred, attempting to get up for the seventh—maybe eighth—time. “I need to go home. I have fishhhhhhh. That’s all I have. Just them.”
I’d heard about these fish for the past hour. This tank I never saw one gill or scale in when I was over there the day before, but now was the reason for her entire existence.
“They will be fine till the morning, Gabi,” I said. Again. “Or the afternoon, however this plays out. They won’t be fine if you wreck your car on the way home, Miss Five Corpse Revivers and a shot.”
“Mmm, all that lemonononony—”
“Yeah, you might not care for lemon much tomorrow,” I said. “So enjoy the memory.”
“I’m so glad you came to town, Micah,” she said, hugging my pillow to her chest as she careened backward into the other one and rolled over onto her face. “You’re my bestest friend, now,” she mumbled.
I giggled and covered her up as she passed out instantly. I hadn’t been anyone’s “bestest friend” in a long time. It was kind of nice, even if a bit influenced.
My hand was killing me, now that my own influence was wearing off. I looked in the baby fridge for ice, but of course there was none. All I could do was run colder water on my towel and wrap it. First, though, the clothes had to go. Dress, underwear, hat were all tossed aside for the one thing I was glad I’d put in the getaway backpack. (The irony of “getaway” was not lost on me.) My favorite comfortably tattered sleep shorts and matching tank top. Not so much for honeymoon wear, but for after the action when Jeremy fell asleep and I would lay in bed reading whatever. They weren’t meant for any other eyes but mine, but they possibly beat out root beer floats for comfort level.
I pulled them on, grabbed the afghan off the couch to wrap around me, and headed out the door to the bathroom to wash my face. Halfway down, a smallish door I hadn’t seen off the hallway to the left caught my eye. My feet made the detour before I could think.
It opened to a small, almost hidden balcony. Not overlooking the street, but over the back alley, straight into another brick wall. The view made it pretty clear why this hadn’t been presented as a selling point, but there were two lounge chairs with makeshift footstools out there. Probably Gabi’s parents’ little escape hatch.
It called to me. A little patchwork piece of privacy to think, absorb the night, and just—be. I commandeered one of the chairs and put my bare feet up on the stool, closing my eyes, hoping the quiet would soak in and dull the noise in my brain. I’d meant to ask Gabi tonight about going to Jeremy’s with me tomorrow. To be my witness and ensure that anything that was said or done wasn’t just for my eyes only. That would have to wait till in the morning, given the current state of her face-plant into my bed.
I sighed, opening my eyes to look at the shadows on the brick across from me. This was perfect. Some people might wish for a beautiful view, but to me it was like curling up in a cocoon with your own head where no one could see you. Right now nothing sounded better than that.
The door clicking behind me might as well have been a cannon going off, and I nearly took out the other chair in my flail to get to my feet. Without the afghan, which landed under the chair.
“Um,” said Leo, taking in the view of not just bricks but way too much of me. “Am I interrupting?”
“Yes, actually,” I said, wrapping my arms around myself unsuccessfully, then giving up and diving under the chair for the afghan.
“Sorry.”
“No, it’s—” I flailed again as I tried to gesture while wrapping a see-through blanket around me. “It’s fine. I just found myself a little spot, and—”
“I found it last night,” he said, sinking onto the other chair without further ado, closing his eyes before I even sat back down. “So technically it’s my spot.”
“Technically?”
“Squatters rights.”
“Well, technically, you’re supposed to still be at work,” I said, sitting back down, wishing there was enough to cover my legs. It was either top or bottom, and I was going for most necessary. “So, how was the first day?”
Leo breathed in deep through his nose and let it go. “Well, the other bartender spilled sangria on me—”
“Explains the smell.”
“And then this chick drinks too much and pukes everywhere, and I have to go save my sister-in-law and my—you—from a crazy madman,” he continued, making me giggle. “Then of course there was my sulking brother wishing I’d stayed gone. Or dead. Whatever he thought I was.”
“Sounds like a banner first day,” I said. “Maybe even normal for this place.”
“Why’s that?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Gabi said this town is weird. Things come out of nowhere, bees disappear, and something about an old man who lives in the woods.”
“I think I might work for him,” he said.
I looked his way. “The man in the woods?”
“If he’s BBG,” Leo said. “I’m doing some clean-up contract work across the pond for them and was told the owner was located remotely.”
“Hmm,” I said, closing my eyes. “Well, the two of you should hit it off like gangbusters.”
“Whatever,” he said on a tired exhale. “So, how’s your friend?”
“She’s snoring in my bed right now,” I said.
“You left her alone?”
“She won’t be moving again until tomorrow,” I said. “She wore herself out arguing with me about fishhhhhhhh.”
Leo laughed. An unexpected deep rumble of a thing that sent goose bumps rolling over my entire body, making me turn to stare at his grinning profile. Oh, my God. It was just unfair for any one man to be that hot.
“And you?” he asked, looking my way in the dark, nearly catching me gawking.
“She sobered me up,” I said. “I wasn’t that bad.”
“How is your hand?” he asked, reaching for my hand with the towel wrapped around it and turning it over. “Hurt?”
“Throbbing a little, yeah,” I said.
“Get you a freezer pack tomorrow,” he said, setting my hand back down carefully.
I saluted with my other hand, and silence fell. Weirdly, it wasn’t awkward. It was okay, like a blanket and dessert in front of a movie. Comfortable. Each in our own heads, except for the thoughts pinging around mine about how natural that felt with him. With a guy I barely knew, when eight years with Jeremy had never felt like that.
I closed my eyes and relished the fact that some of the internal noise had dissipated, and then he took a deep breath.
“I broke a promise,” he said softly, the quiet of his words cutting through the night. “To Nick.” There was a long pause, and I almost held my breath. “I broke his trust. I broke everything.”