17. 17
Deacon worried about Lisa. She didn’t seem to have reacted to everything that had happened, and especially with that blow to the head she’d taken, he was worried she was in shock. The question was, what could he do to help her process all of this? He paced her bedroom while she was in the shower, trying to come up with something.
He”d heard that women often didn’t want their men to fix the problems, but to listen and be there for them. Deacon didn’t know if he could do that. Well, of course he would be there for her, but he wanted to be able to fix things. To make sure nothing bad happened to her ever again.
It was ridiculous and unrealistic, he knew, but that didn’t make the desire to take care of her vanish just because it wasn’t possible. The water in the shower shut off, sending him into the other room. He didn’t want Lisa to feel like he was hovering, even though he was. Deacon couldn’t help it. He was worried about her.
A few minutes later, Lisa shuffled into the living room wearing a pair of sweatpants and an oversized sweatshirt, despite it being June. He didn’t say anything about her clothes, instead pulled her into his arms and held her for a moment, enjoying the reassuring feel of her there, pressed against him.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. What sounds good, I’ll order us something to eat,” he spoke softly, so he wouldn’t startle her. He didn’t want her to move away.
“I’m not sure. Let me think about it for a few minutes.” She pulled away but took his hand and tugged him to the sofa where she sat and pulled him down beside her.
Deacon took the phone from the front pocket of his jeans and sat, setting his phone on the arm of the couch, as Lisa lifted his other arm and snuggled against him before pulling his arm around her. She laid her head against his chest and wiggled for a moment before settling in.
“Comfortable?” He couldn’t help the amusement in his tone as he asked.
“Yep. This is exactly what I wanted. I’ve been looking forward to this most of the day, even before you found me. I didn’t know how, but I had no doubt you would find me. Having you here like this makes me feel safe.” She sounded happy and content, sending spirals of heat through him that settled in his belly.
What more could a man ask for than to have his woman tell him that he makes her feel safe? At the moment, he couldn’t think of much. Though, knowing Randy was going to prison for a long time would be nice too.
The doorbell rang, sending a chime off on her phone and his.
He picked up his phone and hit the notification.
“It’s your brother.”
She sighed. “He can come in, but I’m not getting up, and neither are you. I just got comfortable.”
“It’s open!” he called loud enough to be heard on the other side of the door.
“You know, you can hit that button right there.” She pointed to the screen on his phone, “And talk through the doorbell. You don’t have to yell.”
“Good to know.”
“It works even if you’re not home. As long as you have data signal you can see who’s at the door and talk to them, even from other countries,” she explained as Cowboy let himself in.
“One might think, with everything you’ve dealt with today that you might lock the doors,” Cowboy said, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he set three big pizza boxes on the coffee table and a bag of other things beside it.
“I’m here. I’ll lock it before we go to bed. Besides, I thought you might stop by,” Deacon didn’t bother to move as he scowled at his best friend.
“I got hungry and thought you guys probably were too, and after today I didn’t want you to have to worry about cooking. So, I picked up food.”
“What did you get on it?” Lisa asked without moving.
“One for each of us, that way you’ll have more than one meal, and I got each of us our favorites. There’s also garlic bread sticks and sodas.”
“I don’t want a soda. I want a beer.” Lisa didn’t bother to pull away from Deacon as she spoke.
“I thought about that, but I don’t know what you prefer anymore,” Cowboy said with a shrug.
“There’s a twelve pack in the fridge. If you don’t mind getting those. I would, but we just settled in, and I don’t want to disturb her.” Deacon shot a pointed look at Lisa still snuggled under his arm.
Cowboy shot him a scowl, but headed for the kitchen.
“Do you have paper plates for the pizza?” he called as he disappeared into the kitchen.
“In the cabinet to the right of the stove,” Lisa called back. “There’s cheese in the fridge and red pepper in the cabinet to the left of the stove.”
A moment later he came back, arms full. He handed Lisa a bottle, then another to Deacon, then went back to the coffee table to start serving food.
Deacon twisted the top off his bottle, then gave it to Lisa, taking hers and doing the same before tipping it back.
“I’m still not sure I like this.” Cowboy used one hand to motion to the two of them.
“I don’t really care what you like,” Lisa said after taking a drink from her bottle. “I’m an adult and I get to be happy just as much as you do. How would you like it if I came along and gave you a list of reasons you couldn’t see Ava?”
Cowboy scowled, put a slice of pizza on a plate and handed it to Lisa. “I wouldn’t like it.” He closed that box and opened another, repeated the process, and handed that plate to Deacon before going through the whole thing again. Once they all had food, he moved to the chair not far away and sat.
“Why does it have to be him though?”
“Why does it have to be Ava?” Lisa countered.
Deacon decided to let the two of them discuss it and only step in if he felt it was getting too heated or the discussion devolved to the point they were getting nowhere.
Cowboy opened his mouth to say something then stopped. He tilted his head to one side and watched the two of them for a moment then looked away and took a bite of his pizza. After several minutes he turned and shot the two of them a glare.
“You knew how I would feel about this, I don’t know how you let it happen.”
Deacon started to say something, despite his decision to let them work it out, but Lisa put a hand on his leg and spoke instead.
“Did you even consider how I would feel when you started seeing Ava?”
“No, why would I?”
“That’s my point. I’m not in the middle of what’s between you two. You are not in the middle of what’s between us. And I would never come between you and Deke’s friendship. Just to put things into a better perspective, how would you have felt to discover Randy as your brother-in-law?”
Deacon watched Cowboy’s jaw bulge as he clenched his teeth to keep from saying something they would all regret.
“Not good,” he said through clenched teeth. “Especially if he was as abusive as he came across.”
“No way to know now, but wouldn’t you rather have someone you like sitting at your table for holidays? Someone who was almost family anyway?”
Cowboy’s shoulders slumped. That one gesture told Deacon she’d won. There might be a few battles yet, but the tide of the war was over.
“You and I are going to have a talk,” Cowboy said to Deacon.
“You go right ahead,” Lisa said, her tone sweet as syrup. “Just remember if you get to threaten Deke, I get to do the same to Ava.”
“You better not.” Cowboy scowled.
“I get to say anything to Ava that you say to Deke. Remember that.”
“What you don’t know can’t be repeated.”
“Do you really think I don’t have ways to get him to tell me whatever I want to know, should I be determined to find out? Do I need to remind you of all the things you talk to her about that you don’t tell anyone else?”
Color drained from Cowboy’s face. “Has she been telling you things I’ve said to her?”
“No. But I’m not a kid just discovering life. I have a bit of experience and know more than you’ll want me knowing.” She held out her plate. “Can I get another slice?”
Deke watched as Cowboy got up and served her another slice, handing her the plate and the cheese before holding his hand out for Deke”s plate.
Wow. He must be feeling bad about what happened to Lisa today because he served them both without argument or complaint. He went back to his chair, and they continued to chat about different things. Deacon was on guard that Cowboy didn”t ask for more details about today. Lisa had been over it enough and while they would likely talk about it more, it wouldn’t be tonight.