Chapter 12

Forrester

Forrester watched Elle walk back around the bar to her friend. He still didn’t know her name but something about her told him that she was going to be an important part of his life, at least for the immediate future. He’d always had an intuition for such things, and the look in her eye, the intensity of the gaze they’d shared, it meant something.

He watched her perfectly formed ass sway back and forth as she left him, and when she took her seat next to her friend, he looked right at her, making zero effort to hide his interest.

She was going to be his. She had to be. He had no doubt.

In fact, maybe she was the reason he’d come back to this town at all. Only God knew. Before he’d left, Faith and Lacey had given him plenty of reasons not to ever come back. In fact, they’d practically forbid it. But he’d insisted. He’d felt there was a reason.

Was it this girl?

She sure wasn’t like anyone he’d ever seen before. There was a secret strength in her, a quiet confidence beneath the surface. On the surface she was sweet and beautiful and lovely, but he knew that inside her there was something bolder, something more ferocious, something he could love. Call it a hunch, but he knew that once she knew the truth about him, once she knew everything he’d been through, she’d be the girl who could love him too. The one who could truly love him. And if he found a girl to love him, who knew, maybe she’d even give him a child.

He looked across the bar at her and shook his head. He couldn’t believe it. Here, of all places, he’d found a girl with the fire in her gaze that he’d been searching for his whole life.

Forrester ordered another whiskey and sipped it while one of the idiots from the booth put a song on the jukebox. Forrester recognized it vaguely, some stupid pop song from a few years back.

The guy who’d put it on then walked over to the girls and addressed them by name.

“Kelly, Elle, what do you say we get this party started?”

Forrester watched as the girls rolled their eyes and gave each other a look of disdain. He knew that neither of them was interested in dancing with the boy. He’d also gathered that they were the sons of important local politicians, and that that was the reason the bartender couldn’t do anything about them.

He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t stepped in yet to get rid of the boys. He didn’t like seeing women being harassed. He wasn’t the least bit afraid of the boys’ fathers. There wasn’t a thing in the world people from a town like this could do to harm him. Together with Jackson, Grant and Grady, he knew that there was no amount of trouble in a place like this that he couldn’t handle.

But something kept him from acting. He realized that it was his own curiosity. He wanted to see what the girl, Elle, that was her name, he wanted to see what she would do? What kind of a person was she? Would she put up with them? Would she ignore them? Would she ask for help? Would she give them what they wanted? There were so many ways she could play it. Forrester doubted that she herself even knew yet which way she would go.

Elle, he said to himself, rolling the word over his lips. He liked the sound of it.

The jerk, as well as his three friends, were now standing right next to the girls’ seats. One of them took Kelly’s hand and tried to pull her from her stool. Two others took Elle and, working like a wolf pack, the boys cajoled the girls to the dance floor in front of the bar.

Forrester took a sip of his drink. He was still waiting. If you wanted to know about a person, you watched them.

What would Elle do? Who was she? Was she the girl for him?

“You ever been with a real man?” the ringleader of the boys said to Elle.

“Like you’d know the difference,” Elle said.

Forrester grinned at her answer.

“Oh come on baby,” the ringleader said, putting his arm around her waist. “Let me show you a good time.”

“You wouldn’t know how to show a girl a good time if your life depended on it.”

“You’ve got sass girl.”

“You haven’t seen the half of it,” Elle said.

She drew back her hand and made to slap the boy across the face. The boy caught her arm in mid flight and overpowered her, forcing her arm back down to her side.

“Feisty little one, aren’t you?”

Elle smiled at him innocently, and then, in the blink of an eye, pulled up her knee right into his groin. He doubled over in agony.

Forrester laughed to himself. He’d seen enough. He didn’t have to let this son of a bitch go any further to get a read on Elle. She was a straight shooter, she called them how she saw them, and that’s all he’d wanted to know.

Because of what had happened when he was a kid, Forrester had trust issues. He’d learned to cope by watching people closely in stressful situations, and seeing what sort of decisions they would make. It was amazing what this told him about people.

He could see, for instance, that while Harry was a good man who wanted to do the right thing, he lacked the courage to push the limit when it was clear that he might lose everything if he did. Kelly was rolling her eyes and trying to discourage the boys, while avoiding doing anything that would make them mad. She had a past with the twerp named Phil. Forrester could tell from her body language. She was also trying to protect other people. That was the main reason she didn’t stand up to Phil and his friends. She didn’t like what they were doing, but she was too scared about what would happen to the people she loved, her family, Harry, her boss at the diner, to do anything openly confrontational.

Elle didn’t have the same hangups. Forrester watched as she shoved Phil across the dance floor and made her way back over to the bar.

“Come on, Kelly. Let’s get out of this place.”

“Not so fast, hot stuff,” Phil said.

Forrester stood up. “Hey, bartender,” he said, “I’m really sorry about the mess.”

“What mess?” Harry said.

Forrester left a hundred dollar bill on the bar. “This mess,” he said, and he picked up a bar stool and brought it crashing down on the bar, smashing it into pieces.

Everyone in the bar went silent. Harry’s jaw dropped. Elle and Kelly looked over to him with a mixture of worry and relief. They could see that someone was finally going to do something, although they’d already been wondering what the hell was taking him so long.

The four boys were apprehensive because of the way he acted, and yet were itching for a fight. They were practically snarling.

“You,” Forrester said, pointing to Phil. “I think the lady told you to get the fuck away from her.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Phil said, puffing out his chest.

Forrester had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. It wasn’t polite to roll your eyes before you beat the shit out of a guy. “I’m her friend.”

“Well, friend, I’m going to give you five seconds to get your ass out of here, before we put it in the emergency room for you.”

Forrester walked right toward him. Phil took a step back before regaining his courage. As Forrester passed the other boys, one of them swung a punch at him. Forrester grabbed the fist in mid-flight, without even turning to face the guy who’d thrown it, and began to squeeze. The boy cried out in pain and fell to his knees before Forrester released his hand.

“I think it’s time you four cocksuckers got out of here,” Forrester said, “before someone gets hurt.”

“Before someone gets hurt?” the ringleader said. “Come on, buddy. There are four of us.”

Forrester looked down at the guy whose fist he’d just crushed. “I count three,” he said.

“Three of us then,” Phil said, his voice faltering.

At that moment, one of the other boys leapt forward at Forrester. Forrester took a step back so that the boy’s lunge missed him. Then he brought his arm down on the boy’s back as he stumbled past. He fell, crashing into the stools at the bar.

“Two,” Forrester said.

“Who the fuck are you?” Phil said.

Forrester grinned at him. “I’m Forrester Snow,” he said. “I’m from these parts. You might have heard of me.”

Phil was silent for a moment while he thought about it. The name was obviously familiar to him. Then he made the connection. “The pit bulls. The funeral. You’re back.”

“I’m back,” Forrester said. “And if any of you dipshits so much as look at this bar again, or at the diner, or at either of these girls, they’ll never find your bodies. Do you hear me?”

Phil looked at his friends and motioned for them to back off. “Come on fellas,” he said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Forrester stood where he was, in the middle of the dance floor, until the boys had gathered up their things, settled their bill, and left the bar.

“I apologize again for the mess,” he said to Harry.

Harry just shook his head. He wasn’t sure what to make of what had just happened. He was worried that the repercussions of this were going to fall back on him, but Forrester would make sure they didn’t. If he was anything, he was thorough. He wouldn’t have started a fight like that in a town like this if he wasn’t willing to stick around and see it to its conclusion.

Everyone was silent. Forrester gave a little nod to Kelly. “Sorry for ruining your night, miss,” he said.

Kelly just shook her head. She didn’t know how to respond. “That guy was my ex,” she stammered.

Forrester nodded.

“He was a shitty boyfriend,” Kelly added.

Elle was looking at him but he said nothing to her. He turned and began walking to the door. Elle watched with her jaw wide open. When he got to the door he turned to her. She was still looking at him, her big eyes full of admiration. She was his. He knew it.

He smiled at her. “Aren’t you coming?”