“So, do you want to tell us what inspired this get-together?” Riot asks, leaning on the counter behind him.
“I’m not complaining, but we normally grab a drink at Bob’s. What’s up?” Logan asks as he raises his beer bottle to his lips.
“I’m just glad we aren’t standing outside in the cold, and my father isn’t here,” Dillon mutters before filling his plate with food and sitting down on a stool at the island.
“How is my good friend Harold?” Carson laughs, slapping him on the back. “I love that grumpy old man.”
“I can guarantee he does not feel the same way about you,” Dillon huffs, shoving him away. “How about you stop antagonizing him, fuckface?”
Ignoring them, Riot asks, “Is this about Beck?”
The room becomes completely silent, and all eyes are now on me. Logan lowers his pizza to his plate mid-bite and places it on the counter.
I spend all day, every day listening to people and helping them work through their feelings. I can’t say I want to have the same vulnerability with anyone else. But this isn’t about me. It’s about Beck.
“There was a small confrontation last Sunday morning in front of the bakery with Braden. I didn’t love how he was talking to her. Has he always been like that?”
“A fucking asshole? Yes, always,” Dillon grumbles as he ignores his phone chiming in his pocket. “Is he giving her a hard time?”
“Is she okay?” Riot asks before taking a long pull of his beer.
“She was pretty shaken up when I took her home. Now she’s shutting me out.”
“She seemed alright at work this week,” Logan shares. “She was crazy busy trying to catch up on appointments she had missed last Friday.”
“Maybe she was too tired to see you,Pretty Boy,” Carson singsongs Beck’s nickname for me.
“Can you act like an adult for five minutes?” I ask, throwing a piece of cheese at him. He catches it midair and pops it in his mouth.
“What did Braden say to her?” Riot asks, ignoring Carson, trying to get us back on track.
“He was shooting his mouth off about how she always goes back to him and about money. She told him it had been over for a while and she was cutting him off completely financially, including the truck. That was a surprise. I had no idea she was still paying for it.” Running my hand over my jaw, I continue. “He didn’t take the news well and said some cruel things. I’m grateful Mason showed up before it escalated.”
“So where do we come in?” Dillon asks. “Want us to beat the shit out of him? I’ve always wanted to punch that fucker in the face, so you can count me in.”
“We know Logan can throw a punch,” Carson chirps, as he raises his hands to his face and mimics boxing.
“Jackson was asking for it,” Logan grunts, picking up his beer and raising it to his lips.
We had just finished dessert on Thanksgiving when Logan got into a fistfight with his brother in his front yard. Mason showed up in time for that as well.
“I’m sorry I missed it,” Dillon says, leaning both forearms on the counter.
“No, I don’t think it will come to that. Did you know that he still talks to her parents?”
“What the fuck, really? She barely talks to them,” Logan huffs out his disbelief.
“I assumed so, but she doesn’t share much about them either. At least with me.”
“Yeah, Claire told me she hasn’t talked to them much since she and Braden split,” Riot shares. “They took his side.”
“So, here’s the thing. I have to go out of town for the week for a teaching thing I can’t cancel. I hate leaving her, and I need to know that there are people watching out for her.”
“We have always looked out for her. That’s not going to change,” Riot says, furrowing his eyebrows as he removes the elastic from his hair.
“I know,” I say quickly, not wanting them to think I doubted them. “Something in my gut is telling me this is going to get worse before it gets better.”
“Just a hunch?” Carson asks curiously.
