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Ouch. She’d been accused of never knowing when to quit. Sometimes, it was an excellent quality to possess. This wasn’t one of those times, yet she couldn’t let him walk out like this. Something about the moment seemed so final like she’d never see him again if he walked out now.
“He wouldn’t want that.”
“What?”
“Deke.” She straightened her shoulders and tried to speak with confidence she didn’t feel. “He was good like you said. He wouldn’t want you to hate me on his behalf.”
“You think you know him well enough to speak for him? Fuck, you’re arrogant.” He shoved the glasses to his head and made a play of rolling his olive-green eyes. Then he let out a half grunt, half laugh. “Must run in the family.”
Her heart skipped a beat. A joke? A softening in her direction?
He glanced out into the yard with a sigh for what felt like an hour but couldn’t have been more than twenty seconds. “Why are you here?” he asked.
She opened her mouth, but he held up a hand.
“The real reason. Not some bullshit about wanting to get to know your brother or me. Why are you really here?”
Panic flashed through her. How much should she tell him? Not the truth. He’d either send her packing or take her problem on for the club out of some obligation to her brother. Neither option worked.
“I, uh, ended my engagement.”
“Of fucking course. So why’d you come here? Daddy mad he lost his wedding deposits?”
She tilted her head and smirked so she wouldn’t cry. “I didn’t tell my father. He’d side with my fiancé over me as always. Deke wasn’t the only recipient of his displeasure.”
Something flashed in Scott’s eyes. An understanding? An inch of give? Maybe a hint of compassion? But it disappeared as quick as it came, leaving nothing but a hardened expression and cold gaze.
“Calling your father’s feelings toward Deke displeasure is like saying Florida is a tiny bit warm.”
“Yeah.” Where did she go from here? Clearing her throat, she said, “Uh, my fiancé and I had been together since I was nineteen. Our lives were completely merged.” She shrugged as she shifted her gaze to Ray. “I needed to get away for a while. Figure out my next steps.”
“So you came to slum it with bikers in Florida?”
Anger flashed through her. Would it kill him to spare her one ounce of kindness? “No, Spec, I came to meet the man my brother said was his very best friend. The man who always had his back. The one he said to go to if I ever needed anything, and he wasn’t around.”
Her words hung heavy in the air. Even Ray seemed to pick up on the weight of the moment. He whined and nudged Scott’s hand with his snout.
Scott exhaled, muttering something she couldn’t make out and probably cursing her name. Then he walked over to where she sat and plopped down on the empty lounge separated from hers by a small end table. Her breath caught in her lungs. Was he staying?
“So what do you need?”
“From you? Just to know more about my brother, to know the man you knew.”
He was quiet for a while, so long she wondered if he’d fallen asleep beneath those sunglasses.
“Deke ever tell you about the time he hooked up with a chick who robbed him while he was asleep?”
She chuckled, trying to ignore the fluttering in her belly caused by the timbre of his voice. “No, but I’d really like to hear that story.”
He side-eyed her before saying, “I’ll stick around until Curly gets back. You shouldn’t be here alone anyway.”
“He said I’m safe here by myself.” She’d love it if he stayed. Being afraid all the time was exhausting, and with him there, she didn’t have to worry.
Scott just grunted. He didn’t face her but instead focused on the dogs running around the yard. “So, one night, Deke left with this totally whacked-out woman he met at a popular Army bar right outside the base. She had a purse with a stuffed cat that she talked to like it was real.”
Olivia’s eyes widened, and she laughed. “For real? Why would Deke go for her?”
“She was hot as fuck,” he said as though it was an obvious conclusion.
She snorted. “Typical.”
A shrug was all she got. “Anyway…”
As he spoke, the tension she felt began to bleed from her system. His voice was intoxicating when he wasn’t using it to bark at her. It made her feel safe. His whole presence did. So she settled in to listen to a ridiculous story about her brother and pretend for a bit that her ex-fiancé wasn’t hunting her and Scott didn’t despise her.
This wasn’t a declaration of friendship or even a ceasefire, but she’d take what she could get from the troubled former soldier.
