Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
FALLON
He’s Back
I see him sitting at the end of the bar as soon as I walk into O’Reilly’s. Shoulders hunched, head down, and ignoring the world around him, Jay is the embodiment of a man who wants to be left alone with his thoughts. Too fucking bad.
I push through the line of people waiting to get their drinks and get Ben’s attention.
“Hey, man. Long time,” he says when he sees me.
Ben is a good man and a good friend to Aurora.
After he lost his wife, Aurora stepped in to help lessen his burdens.
Little things like babysitting his daughter or making sure his fridge was stocked with meals that he didn’t have to cook and could quickly reheat.
Aurora also did a little matchmaking and introduced him to his current wife, Renee.
My sister is tough as nails, but her heart is as soft as dandelion fluff.
I have to raise my voice over the noise of overlapping conversation and a baseball game being played on the widescreen. “Just got back into town.” I jerk my head in Jay’s direction. “How long has he been here?”
“Couple hours. When he first came in the other night, I thought he was Julien.”
“Twins.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“How much has he had to drink?”
Jay and hard liquor are old friends. Ry said it got really bad during the year and a half Elizabeth was missing. The night he left town, he got drunk and attacked Elizabeth. I had to kick the damn front door down to get inside the house to get to her. I’ve never been more terrified in my life.
“Nothing. He orders a beer but doesn’t drink it. Just sits there for a few hours, then leaves. He tips well. Want anything?” Ben asks.
“I’m good. I’ll let you get back to work. Busy night.”
“Never knew one that wasn’t.”
O’Reilly’s is a Highland tradition and has been since it first opened fifty years ago. When Ben bought it, he didn’t change much. Why mess with something that’s already good? The food is much better, though.
Keeping Jay in my sight, I navigate through the throngs of people and sidestep waitstaff rushing to take food to tables.
“Move,” I tell the guy sitting on the stool next to him.
He glances up, and without a word, takes his beer and slinks off.
Jay sighs when I take the vacated seat. “You can fuck right off. You have nothing to say that I want to hear.”
“I disagree.” I wave off the bartender manning this end when she starts to come over.
Jay picks at the label on the beer bottle in front of him. “My day has been shitty enough. I don’t need you to make it worse.”
There has never been any love lost between Jay and me. We became rivals the second we met. He was always a pompous, possessive jackass. He thought I was an entitled, rich prick. Things only got worse when he noticed my interest in Elizabeth.
Tapping two fingers to the bar top, I study his profile. Time has not been kind. He looks like a man beaten down by life. Gaunt build, shaggy hair, sunken cheeks. He’s a shell of the person I remember from high school and college.
“Why are you here?” I ask.
“I live here, asshole.”
Not in Highland, but I let that semantic go.
“Funny how no one knows you’re back. Jules doesn’t. Elizabeth doesn’t.”
His head snaps my way, his gray eyes threatening. “And how would you know?”
“Please, fucker,” I reply with a hefty dose of sarcasm. He knows better than anyone who I am and the reach I have. I can find out every detail of a person’s life with just a phone call—and ruin it just as quickly. “She doesn’t need you traipsing back into town and messing with her head.”
Abruptly standing, he tosses a twenty-dollar bill on the bar. “Liz is none of your goddamn business.”
“Yeah, she is.” He’s the man who shattered her heart, and I’m the guy who’s trying to put it back together.
His hands curl into fists at his sides. He wants to get physical, I’m all for it. It’s been a long time coming. I would love nothing more than to lay him flat on his ass.
“Stay away from her. You’ve hurt her enough.”
Is he serious? “So have you.”
Grief takes over the rage, and he drags a tired hand through his hair. “What do you want, Fallon? You obviously tracked me down for a reason.”
“I want to know why you’re back.”
“Why are you?”
We both know the answer because it’s the same one. Her.
“Does she know?” he says.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
He doesn’t retreat this time but takes an ominous step forward. “You know exactly what the fuck I’m talking about.”
Something ugly slithers its way up my spine at his vague recrimination. I carry a lot of demons when it comes to Elizabeth, but I have a feeling he’s insinuating about one in particular.
Jay ends our standoff by walking away.
“Jay.” He doesn’t stop, leaving me no other choice but to go after him, something I absolutely despise doing. I catch him as soon as I step outside of O’Reilly’s. “Jay.”
“For fuck’s sake,” he mumbles, then faces off with me. “What?”
“If she finds out you’re in town and didn’t try to reach out, it’s going to break her heart. And I think we both can agree that her heart has been broken enough.”
I can’t believe the words that come out of my mouth. I should be threatening him to stay away from her. Jay has the power to destroy everything. If anyone still has a hold over her, it’s him.
The door to the bar opens when a couple comes out, spilling noise into the night. I step out of the way to let them pass.
“I saw him today. Ry.”
He was at the house? When?
Before I can ask, we’re interrupted.
“I thought that was you,” Marcus says, his arm around a petite redhead. “Is Mom here with you? Hey, Uncle J—” he starts to say. In a blur of motion, Marcus has Jay shoved back against the brick exterior of the building. “You son of a bitch!” He lands a solid punch to Jay’s face. Then another.
“Marcus!” his date yells, not understanding what’s happening.
Trying to pull him off Jay is almost impossible, and I get sucker punched with an elbow to the ribs in the process. Seeing no other option, I shackle his wrists and wrench them behind his back. “Marcus, stop.”
He struggles against my hold. “Dad needed you! Mom needed you! How could you do that to them?”
Jay’s face crumbles. “I’m sorry.”
“Fuck you!”
Several nosy bystanders stop to watch the drama unfold, their phones out to record it. Why can’t people mind their own business?
“We have an audience, and you’re freaking your girl out. Calm the hell down.”
Marcus ceases his struggle, and I let him go. Big mistake. He lunges for Jay again.
His girl is either really brave or very stupid. She plants herself between them.
“Look at me, not him. Focus on me,” she says, her hands on his chest gently guiding him a few steps back.
“Marcus, I’m so sorry,” Jay rasps, wiping blood from the cut on his mouth.
A muscle tics in Marcus’s jaw, his breathing ragged with fury. The nearby streetlights enhance the harsh shadows on his face and accentuate the storm raging behind his amber eyes. “Save it. Your apology means shit.”
I was under the presumption that Jay never met Ry’s kids, but he and Marcus seem to know one another.
Marcus’s date’s small frame is a surprising barrier to his anger. Her fingers press firmly against his chest, her voice steady. “Marcus, please.”
Jay exhales sharply. “I want to make things right. I want?—”
“Shut up,” Marcus snarls. “Just shut the hell up. I don’t care what you want. You sure as hell didn’t care about Dad. I begged you—” Marcus tries to move forward to get to him, but his girl holds him in place.
“Jay, walk away. Now.” If he has any common sense left, he’ll listen.
He shifts uncomfortably, blood smeared at the corner of his mouth. His eyes flick between Marcus, then to me. For a second, I think he’ll argue. With a reluctant nod, he turns and disappears into the night.
“What’s your name?” I ask the brave redhead.
“Hannah.”
“Thanks for stepping in, Hannah.”
She exhales shakily. “Someone had to.”
Marcus will have his hands full with this one. Hopefully, he’s not an idiot and sees her for what she is: a strong woman willing to stand by him and fight his battles.
The tension in Marcus’s shoulders slowly abates, and he takes a deep breath before exhaling it in a rush. “Why is he back now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does Mom know?”
“No. She has no idea.”
Marcus swears under his breath and drags his hands over his face.
He stares down the street where Jay vanished.
When his gaze returns to me, fear erases the anger in his eyes.
Because he knows as well as I do that Jay isn’t just some guy from Elizabeth’s past. I’ll be damned if he waltzes back in after twenty years and wrecks her again.
“I need to tell her.”
“I’ll do it. I was heading back to the house anyway. You enjoy your date with Hannah.”
Marcus doesn’t look convinced. “You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“What about Uncle Julien?”
Shit’s about to get real, and I have an ominous feeling that I may not be the last man standing when the dust settles.
“Let me talk to Elizabeth first. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.”
“Shit. Okay. Goddammit .” Marcus takes me in a back-slapping hug. “Thanks.”
“I will always protect your mom.”
Even if it’s from myself.