Chapter Twelve #2
Rebel had grown up in Upstate New York, where his father founded the Salvation Falls chapter of the Dark Knights with his buddy, the vice president of the club, Jacob Wicked.
Rebel had fallen hard for Jacob’s daughter, Sailor, who, like Rebel, had worked at their family’s classic-car restoration company.
They’d married too young and had divorced hard and ugly.
Rebel had come to Hope Valley to escape the close proximity and be around extended family.
He never talked about the divorce, but it was clear he’d left his heart in Salvation Falls.
“Is everything okay back home, or did something happen?” Birdie asked.
“No, it’s fine. Denver and Iris are having another baby.” Denver was Rebel’s oldest brother. He and his wife already had one little boy.
“Really? That’s great news. It’s also the second pregnancy I’ve heard about today. Everyone’s having babies, and we’re just hanging out in our singledom.”
“Thank God,” he said.
“Please. You know darn well if Sailor walked through that door right now and said she wanted to have your babies, you’d be all over her.”
He gave her a deadpan look.
She rolled her eyes. “Sucks to be in love with your ex.” An idea hit her, and she gasped. “Oh my gosh, Rebel! That’s a great idea for an anti-Valentine’s Day box.” She whipped out her phone and typed a note to herself.
“Anti-Valentine’s Day? Is that a thing?”
“Everything’s a thing when it comes to marketing. We already get all the business for lovers on Valentine’s Day. This will be a whole new market.”
He grinned. “I’ve got to admit, you’re pretty smart, Bird.”
“I know,” she said cheekily, and set her phone on the bar. “I’ll have to think of some cute new-baby names for chocolates. White chocolate, of course, no caffeine or cocoa solids. What do you think about Naptime Nibbles or Tiny Toes Truffles?”
“Cute,” he said.
“I have to find out what type of filling Iris likes.”
“Chocolate à la Denver is my guess.” Rebel smirked.
Birdie laughed. “Those two have always been unable to keep their hands off each other. Wait, isn’t Cody only eight or nine months old?”
“Something like that.”
“Damn, Denver’s got some potent swimmers.
He and Iris are going to have their hands full, but it’ll be good for Cody to have a sibling close in age.
I wonder if they’ll have a boy or a girl.
If it’s a girl, Phoenix will have to give her the lowdown on escaping the eyes of her older brother. ” Phoenix was Rebel’s sister.
“Don’t let Denver hear you say that.”
“I’m going to have so much fun shopping for baby clothes.
But why did that news make your day so bad?
Don’t you want to have another niece or nephew?
Unless…does it make you feel pressure to have babies?
Because I have to admit, lately anything having to do with babies makes my biological clock tick a little louder.
You’d be such a good father.” She bumped him with her shoulder.
“That’d give Daddy Rebel a whole new meaning, huh? ”
He laughed. “I’ve got no interest in having kids right now.”
“Okay. I get it. Keep that Daddy-do-me talk in the bedroom where it belongs, right?”
“Christ, Birdie.” He shook his head.
“I’m just trying to figure out why that news would make your day so bad.”
“After telling me about the baby, Denver gave me hell for not coming home enough. He laid on guilt about too much time going by and said I don’t even know my nephew.” He signaled to Billie’s sister, Bobbie, behind the bar, for another beer.
She knew how much his family missed him, but she also knew a big part of the reason he didn’t go home very often was that it was still too hard for him to see Sailor. “He loves you, Reb. He wants you to be part of their lives.”
Bobbie appeared with his beer, her blond ponytail swinging as she set the glass down in front of Rebel. “Here you go. How’s it going, Birdie?”
Crappy, but at least I’ve got Rebel’s problems to focus on for a little while instead of my own. “Okay. How are things with you?”
“Same old, you know. I heard about the guy who hit Billie and Dare showing up at the ranch,” Bobbie said. “I didn’t have that on my Bingo card.”
“Takes balls,” Rebel said, reaching for his beer.
Bobbie arched a brow. “Or a death wish.”
As she went to help another customer, Rebel said, “That shit must be crazy. Dare was fit to be tied at church last night.” Church was what the Dark Knights called their weekly meetings.
“Can we not talk about that, please?” Birdie asked.
“Sure. Want to get whatever’s buggin’ you off your chest?”
“It’s nothing.”
He scoffed. “Why are girls like that?”
“Like what?”
“Secretive. You know, guys aren’t stupid. We can always tell when something’s wrong, but you women, man, y’all want us to guess.”
“That’s because our problems are usually about complicated things that we know you don’t want to hear about, or they’re about guys, and guys stick together like glue. Even when they don’t know each other.”
“That’s not true. I mean, the complicated things, maybe. But I always admit when a guy’s being an asshole. So spill it, cuz.”
“Fine,” she relented, but she skipped the news about Carly leaving the partnership, as promised. “Let’s say you hook up with someone, and you really click with her. Like, unbelievably, but when you wake up the next morning, she’s gone.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad to me.” He smirked.
She rolled her eyes. “Never mind.”
“Come on. I was kidding.”
“No you weren’t.”
“Listen, if some guy did that to you, then you need to forget him.”
She knew he was right, but she heard herself say, “Even if he came back and apologized and had a really good reason for taking off?”
“What kind of excuse?”
She wasn’t about to go there. “It doesn’t matter. But it was valid, and that does matter, and he was this big, delicious Viking.”
He scoffed. “Viking? Really, Birdie?”
“Shut up. He was, and more importantly, he really got me. Like the way Sailor gets you. I know it didn’t work out with her, but that could’ve been the right person at the wrong time.
” As she said it, she realized that could be her and Crew, too.
Only Rebel and Sailor could probably still make a go of it if they ever wanted to, but she and Crew were hopeless because of the situation with her family.
He fisted his beer. “You want my advice? Stop pining over the guy. The best way to get over someone is to get into someone else. Get on your Cupid Cowboy app and find another guy.”
“How’s that advice working out for you?” she challenged. Rebel was the king of pining, although he’d never admit it.
He stared her down, the muscles in his jaw flexing. “Trust me. Get on that app and rip the fucking Band-Aid off.”
“You know I hate Band-Aids. They’re sticky, and they leave that gross stuff on your skin.”
“Birdie,” he said.
She sighed and pulled out her phone. “Fine. I have a date lined up for Friday night. I just never confirmed it.”
“Then get ’er done,” Rebel said.
She thumbed out a confirmation text to Joe. As she set down her phone, a heavy arm landed on her shoulder, and Dare’s voice warned, “Better not be texting a dude.”
Anxiety prickled her limbs, but she wasn’t in the mood to be given shit, especially about men, so she gave it right back. “I’m not texting a guy. I’m in my why-choose era. I’m texting four of them.”
Dare narrowed his eyes, then barked out a laugh. “Nice try, sis, but no group of guys is dumb enough to mess with a Whiskey girl.” He clapped a hand on Rebel’s shoulder. “Right, cuz?”
“Damn right.”
Birdie rolled her eyes and reached for her drink.
“No comeback, sis?” Dare taunted.
“I’m now in my why-bother era,” she said flatly.
He moved beside her, so she had no choice but to look at him. “What’s going on with you? You look like you’ve got bees buzzing in your head.”
“Just trying not to get stung.”
“Want me to take care of them for you?” Dare offered.
She loved him so much, she had to smile, and that underscored why she needed to stop thinking about Crew. “This queen doesn’t need a keeper.”
“Hey, Dare, any more run-ins with Hendricks?” Rebel asked.
“I can’t believe that asshole showed up at the ranch,” Dare gritted out.
The pit of Birdie’s stomach burned.
“It says something about the guy that he had the guts to show up,” Rebel said.
“Yeah, that the motherfucker thinks he’s going to get absolution,” Dare seethed. “No fucking way.”
“Nice talk from a therapist,” Birdie said before she could stop herself.
Dare glowered at her. “Don’t,” he warned, low and lethal.
Birdie’s spine stiffened. “I’m just making an observation.”
“Oh, you want to observe? Here’s an observation for you.
He doesn’t get to walk into our family’s life like it’s a goddamn confessional booth and expect anything but blood.
He doesn’t get to breathe the same air as my wife and pretend he’s done something noble just because he grew a fucking conscience. ”
His anger fueled her own. “Nobody said he was noble.”
“Why are you defending him?” Dare fumed.
“I’m just saying—”
“You don’t get to say a fucking thing about this,” Dare cut in, anger spilling over loud enough to turn heads.
“Dare, chill out, man,” Rebel said.
“Fuck that. Do you not remember Billie lying in that fucking hospital bed, busted up and trying to remember her own goddamn life? If Hendricks thinks working at the ranch makes things right, he’s fucking delusional.”
He was so angry, Birdie felt sick. This wasn’t about justice. This was rage with nowhere to go, and she was sitting in the blast zone.
“I’m out.” She pushed to her feet, hands shaking, and clutched her coat.
Dare turned on her. “What the hell? Why are you leaving?”
Meeting his angry stare, she said, “I’m getting out of the blast zone before you burn everything down.”
She pushed past him, plowing through the bar, which suddenly felt too loud and too confining, and burst out the door, stalking into the night. The brisk air hit her as harshly as the truth she didn’t want to face.