Chapter 9 #2
I should have let Laurie go at that very moment, and looking back now, I wanted to kick my own ass for not doing just that.
Just when I was ready to make my move, Laurie called with her declarations of love, and I made my first mistake by turning down Rory’s advances.
After that, I let my past and a fucked-up sense of loyalty screw with my head for far too long.
But even then, what I was building with Rory continued to grow.
Our friendship came about organically. It was nothing like what I’d had with Laurie. She’d had to beat at my defenses until I finally gave in and gave her me. But with Rory, there was no guard, no shield. It was easy from the beginning.
When Laurie showed up two years after I’d settled in Hope Valley, I hadn’t been prepared for how seeing her would affect me.
I felt like I’d been torn in two, one part of me clinging to what I had with Rory and the other holding on to the only person who’d ever cared about me.
That was when I made my second and biggest mistake.
I chose Laurie out of guilt, throwing away a relationship that, in two years, had become stronger than what Laurie and I had been building for more than half my life.
The mistakes piled on after that. For a year and a half, I felt like I was playing a part, wearing a skin that no longer fit right. Then, seven months ago, four gunshots changed my life completely.
I might have seen the light and finally decided to right all the wrongs I’d made shortly before those bullets ripped into me, but that didn’t matter. I’d still taken too long and, in the process, hurt the woman I’d started falling for that very first night I walked into the Tap Room.
So yeah, I’d take her friendship. I wanted her friendship. But I planned to cultivate that into something so much more. I just had to do it without her noticing. At least in the beginning.
“She’s really somethin’, my girl.”
At the sound of Bill’s voice, I stopped pretending I wasn’t watching Rory and turned to look at her fully. “Yeah. She is.”
“Took a look at that broom while she was patchin’ you up. Damn metal handle’s bent clean in half.”
My neck twisted, my eyes widening as I took in the look of sheer pride on his face, and I burst out laughing.
When I was finally able to rein it in, I caught sight of Rory and found her staring at me with a dazed look in her eyes before she quickly blinked it away and scurried down the bar to deal with her customers.
“Got her mama’s spirit,” Bill continued once my laughter faded completely. “She’ll say she gets it from me, but it’s not true. I might’ve taught her to defend herself, but that fire’s all Becky.”
“Not a bad example to live up to,” I muttered.
And it really wasn’t. I knew Becky Hightower well.
On the outside, she was pure class and beauty, sharing the same good looks with her daughter.
But inside she was piss and vinegar. Sure, she could be sweet when she wanted to be, but she wasn’t a woman to be messed with.
“Takes a special kinda man to wrangle a woman like that,” he muttered, the humor that had been twinkling in his eyes earlier having faded as he spoke seriously.
“My Becky—” He shook his head—“like a mustang, that one. Wild and beautiful.” He stopped looking at Rory and turned his intense gaze on me.
“I never broke her. Would’ve been a goddamn shame to break beauty like that.
I loved her brand of wild, so I learned to hold on and enjoy the ride of my life.
Rory’s the same. Beautiful and wild as a mustang.
My girl needs a man who can hold on and enjoy the ride. ”
Bill Hightower wasn’t talking just for the sake of it. He was imparting wisdom on a man he knew wanted something more from his daughter. And if it were possible, I respected him even more for giving me that.
“Been on my fair share of wild rides in my life,” I told him, keeping my voice low so only he could hear. “Some of them good, some of them not so great, but through it all, I learned real well how to hold on.”
From the smile that split his face, I knew that was exactly what he’d been hoping to hear.
“Glad for that, son,” he said, clapping me on the back before standing from his barstool.
“Now, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna take off.
My girl here isn’t gonna cut me any slack and feed me somethin’ worth eatin’, so I might as well head home for dinner. ”
Rory heard his comment and shot him a wink before bracing her hands on the bar and giving a little hop so she could lean over and smack a kiss on his cheek. “Give my love to Mom.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled affectionately. “I’ll do that, even though you two are a pain in my ass.”
Bill took off a second later, and Rory poured me another Guinness before moving down the bar. As I sat there, pretending to listen as Hayes and Trick gave each other shit, I silently watched all that wild beauty.
Hell yeah, I thought. I can definitely hold on and enjoy the ride.