Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
TWO WEEKS LATER…
D eke ducked into Books—N—Brews just as the rain started coming down. The weather fit his mood. He’d been in a foul mood since Thanksgiving the past Thursday. Sabre got together to feast like they always did. Deep Dive, the bar Reid owned below the warehouse he’d converted into Sabre Security’s office, was where they all met every year. The guys handled the meat. The women took care of everything else.
It was a huge mix of friends. The Musketiaras, family, and even some of the Darling police all joined together to celebrate the day.
Every year since she’d gotten back from college, Suzi was one of the people who joined them. Until this year. This year, Suzi wasn’t there. He’d asked Georgia and Tazzy where she was. They exchanged a look and made some excuse for her absence.
But Deke wasn’t stupid. She didn’t come because of him. She’d been avoiding him for weeks.
He’d done the right thing. He had to keep telling himself that so that he could keep moving. He had never realized how many times a day he would scan the area to see if he could spot her anywhere. His heart warmed every time he saw her.
Now he never saw her. Not in Books—N—Brews. Not across the street at Gage’s house visiting Breezy. Not anywhere. His heart was never warm now.
But he’d done the right thing.
When The Daily Nugget made the stands last week, there had been no mention of drugs or the thugs who peddled them. She’d stuck to filling the pages with Thanksgiving memories people had sent in.
Almost every stand in town had half the papers go unsold. He couldn’t stand the thought of her losing money doing what he’d made her do, so he went around and bought every paper that hadn’t sold. Cost him a fortune, but he didn’t care. He had to look out for her, even if she never knew he was doing it.
He’d seen her around town several times. Whenever she saw him, she’d get this panicked look on her face and go the opposite direction. What she did not do was approach him. Not even close. Ever.
And it was kicking his ass.
He also hadn’t realized how often he used to find reasons to talk to her. Even better, she’d found reasons to talk to him. She’d smile, and those dimples would shoot straight to his dick.
He’d tried not to wonder if her dimples would show when her mouth was wrapped around his cock. He could probably have tried not to wonder a little harder, but it got the better of him every time.
She didn’t smile when she saw him now. Never.
But he’d done the right thing. Fuck.
He was staring at the menu board, trying to figure out what new flavor Tazzy had added this week, when Suzi’s voice grabbed his attention. She stood at the front of the line, wringing her hands.
“I’m sorry, Tazzy,” Suzi said. “I thought it would help. I would never have printed it if I’d known you wouldn’t like it.”
Deke couldn’t have held the smile back if he’d tried. It felt rusty on his face. He didn’t smile much these days, either. There had been a recipe in the latest paper for some kind of Halloween coffee concoction. He hadn’t paid much attention, but it appeared Tazzy had.
“It had a special name and everything. Monster Mash Mocha was pituitary, Suzi,” Tazzy said, glaring at her from behind the counter.
“Um, I think that’s proprietary,” Suzi corrected. Deke shook his head. That was his Rosebud. She was a walking, talking thesaurus.
“If you know what I mean, why correct me?” her friend practically shouted.
Deke lost his smile when Suzi’s shoulders dropped. Tazzy needed to lighten up. It was just a coffee recipe. Anyone could’ve made the mistake his girl had.
At least, she used to be his friend.
It would be just like Suzi to print that recipe thinking it would help Books-N-Brews. Tazzy should know her well enough to give her the benefit of the doubt. He’d be having words with her when he got to the counter.
“Hey,” some tourist called from somewhere behind him. It had to be a tourist. No native of Darling got in too big a hurry at Books-N-Brews. “If you two could wrap it up, I’d like to get one of those Monster Mash drinks you’re arguing about.”
“Hold your horses,” Tazzy shouted. “I’ll be with you in a minute.”
Deke turned back and scowled at the man. Yep, tourist. The man flinched and took a step back. He held up his hands, letting Deke know his message had been received.
By the time Deke faced the counter again, the girls had worked out their differences. Suzi was bouncing on her toes and clapping her hands. At least Tazzy could lighten her spirits. And no, that was not a stab of jealousy knifing his chest.
He almost laughed when, for no apparent reason, Suzi threw both hands in the air, fists tight, as if she’d just won a championship or something. She was in her head again. He loved it when she would tell him some of the things that went on in her imagination. She would get sucked in and forget where she was, caught up in some scene only she could see.
“Um, Suzi?” Tazzy broke into her thoughts. “What are you doing?”
Suzi froze, both arms straight up in the air, knees bent, preparing to take another victory jump. She glanced around the shop, reentering this dimension. He could see her cheeks flaming from where he stood.
Straightening, she smoothed her clothes and combed her fingers through her tangled hair. “I’ll just go sit down and order once the morning rush is over,” she told Taz.
“That sounds good,” Tazzy said with a grin.
Without looking at the people in line, Suzi crossed to the couch facing the fireplace and pulled out a ball of yarn and some crazy-looking needles. She slid down, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. He wanted to tell her she was beautiful and not to worry about what people thought.
But the only reason she was still here was that she hadn’t seen him. He wasn’t ready for her to leave, so he stayed in line until he got his regular large black coffee. He glanced back in time to catch her swiping at her eyes.
Was she crying? Shit, why was she crying? Glancing to either side, she reached into her bag again and pulled out a small toy. Wait, was that a stuffie? One more proof that she was a Little.
It looked like she had a small stuffed rabbit that was all ears and feet. She stroked it a time or two, then rubbed it across her cheek. Her body language said that her stuffie calmed her. She repeated the motion to her other cheek, then slid her rabbit back into her satchel.
Several people still stared at her like they were waiting for a pony to do its next trick. He growled louder than he’d meant to, and those closest to him took several steps back, eyes wide.
She’d just started to calm down when a large man forced his way between her and the coffee table in front of the couch. Jeez, the asshole knocked her planner to the floor as he scooted by. Without so much as an apology, he sat down so close to her their thighs touched.
Um, hell to the no. That wasn’t happening. She was obviously uncomfortable. What a jackass.
The man leaned even closer to her and said, “You don’t mind if I sit here, do you, doll?” The douchebag wiggled his eyebrows at her. Who in the fuck wiggled their eyebrows like that? It made him look like Groucho Marx minus the mustache and cigar.
This guy needed to learn a thing or two about personal space, and Deke was just the one to teach him. He forgot all about not making Suzi aware of his presence, stepping to the end of the couch in time to hear Suzi say, “Well, actually–”
“Thanks, sweet cheeks.” The man cut her off before she could tell him to get lost. He was going to rip this guy’s lips off and stuff them down his throat.
“If you want to sit in someone’s lap, there’s a Santa Claus posing for pictures two corners down,” he growled. If this guy did not move the fuck away from Suzi, Deke was going to haul him up and throw him in the fire blazing in the fireplace.
Suzi froze. Yeah, she definitely hadn’t known he was there. She closed her eyes like she could wish him away, but when she opened them and gave him a glimpse of those baby blues, she frowned.
Before she could tell him to leave, the man beside her proved he had a death wish when he grinned and winked at Deke as if he were letting Deke in on the joke. “I’m good where I am. Why don’t you just move along now?”
Oh, hell no. This guy must have a death wish, which Deke was more than willing to accommodate.
Suzi’s eyes never left him. Deke knew his physique could be daunting. That was one of the things he’d always admired about his Rosebud. She wasn’t intimidated by his size at all. Her gaze raked up and down his body. It did his heart good to see the pulse in her throat kick up a notch.
Then she ruined it by turning to the asshat beside her. “Pay no attention to the angry giant,” she told the man. “He gives me grief all the time, too. According to him, my newspaper is trash.”
Now hold the fuck on. “I never called The Daily Nugget trash. I said you should be more careful with what you print.”
What was she playing at? Why was she talking to this stranger? Could she not see that he took her words as encouragement? The man practically had his tongue hanging out.
“I fail to see the difference,” she told him, then turned to the tourist again and said, “Do you?”
The man shook his head. Stupid tourist.
She made it sound like he thought she couldn’t do anything right. When she put her hand on the man’s knee, he almost lost his mind.
“He said if it were up to him, there would be no newspaper at all. Can you believe it?”
If this guy didn’t stop shaking his head he was going to throw up. It would serve her right, too. He jumped when she gasped. Did that doofus touch her? Deke was going to kill him.
Suzi kept talking. “What if he can’t read? Maybe that’s the problem. I should have pity on him, right?”
The idiot to her left shook his head again before realizing that was the wrong answer and changing to a nod.
When she spoke again, he knew she had slipped back into her head. He tried to stop her, but knowing she wouldn’t pay him any mind, he leaned back to enjoy the show. “I need to kidnap him and take him to that little cabin he owns in the middle of the woods. He can chop wood while I watch him, all sweaty and flexing those powerful, cut-from-granite muscles he has.”
Yeah, she had no idea what she was saying. He should feel bad, but he was enjoying this story more and more.
“Then I can work with him on phonics and cook our food over the open flame roaring in the fireplace. And then, when he finally learns to read, he will be so thankful he’ll give me a big hug and stare down into my eyes, and–”
He stood up, snapping his fingers near her ear and breaking into her daydream, which was a shame because he liked where she was going. The trouble was the douchebag tourist was enjoying it, too.
She blinked up at him and scowled. Most likely because of the grin now residing on his face. She was an absolute delight. And her daydreams were sexy as hell. No wonder she spent so much time in that beautiful head of hers.
The man sitting next to her decided to take his life into his own hands. Again. He ran his eyes over Deke from top to bottom then snorted. Snorted! Like what he saw standing, there wasn’t a lethal weapon.
This man was about to die. “I can tell by the smell of that cologne you bathed in that you’re on the prowl. Word of advice, friend. You aren’t going to find it here. Now move the fuck on, or I’ll move you myself. Get me?”
The entire room quieted as if waiting for the man’s reply. It stretched on for way too long.
Opening her planner, Suzi held it open like a play script and bumped the man with her shoulder, whispering, “Yes, sir, I get you. Thank you for not ripping out my tongue and beating me over the head with it.”
The man twitched and turned to her. “Wh-what?”
“That’s your next line. It seemed like you couldn’t remember what you were supposed to say.”
He cast another glance in Deke’s direction, then nodded. “Right. What she said.”
Then he jumped up, spilling his hot tea– because he couldn’t just drink a cup of hot, black coffee like a real man— and raced as fast as he could out of the shop.
Without another word, Deke took the man’s vacated spot on the sofa beside her. Time to clear the air with Rosebud.
Glaring at him, Suzi spoke first. “I need to go,” she said as she reached for her satchel and stood up.
That irritated him. He hadn’t seen her in weeks. Not even when he dropped by the places she normally would have been in order to mend fences.
It was becoming increasingly awkward. They had to work this out. It wasn’t like it was just the two of them living on an island. Darling was a small, close-knit community. Sabre and the Musketiaras were connected now because of Hutch and Georgia.
And whether Suzi wanted to admit it or not, Deke did come in handy at times, like the uncomfortable situation he’d just rescued her from. That guy could have annoyed her the whole time she was in Books-N-Brews or followed her to wherever she was going next. He could have done who knew what to her.
Come to think of it, he needed to find that guy and explain exactly what would happen if he ever did so much as look in Suzi’s direction again. The more he thought about what could have happened, the more it irritated him.
He couldn’t take it anymore. Enough with the silent treatment. She had to see by now he’d only been trying to help.
He rose from the couch and stepped in front of her, blocking her access to the door. “We need to talk, little girl,” he said, and she flinched. Her gaze bounced from the floor to the fireplace to the chair by the front window. She looked everywhere except at him.
“Eyes to me, Suzi,” he demanded in the deepest Daddy voice he could muster.
Her eyes snapped to him. “Oh, sorry. I have someplace I have to be, so I can’t talk right now.” She tried to step around him, but he shifted his stance, continuing to block her path.
“It won’t take long,” he told her. “I just wanted to see how you were doing. We haven’t talked in weeks. I don’t see you around here or Deep Dive anymore. When was the last time you went to Defenses to work out?”
“I’ve been busy.” She rubbed her arm with the opposite hand, looking at the floor, the fire, the other table. Still anywhere except at him.
“Look at me, Suzanna.” Their eyes met, his watchful, hers guarded. “We need to clear the air between us. Are you still upset with me?”
“Who, me? No,” she said much too easily. “I’ve been busy, that’s all. News stories don’t gather themselves, you know.” She drew the long strap of her satchel over her shoulder.
“You can’t keep avoiding me, little one. We need to settle this between us so it won’t be awkward.”
Her eyes darkened as they narrowed. “I’m not avoiding you. And even if I was, why do you care?”
Why did he care? Was she serious? Did she think he threw down like he did with her two weeks ago with people he didn’t care about? He was trying to hold on to his temper, but she was making it hard.
“I care about you, Suzi. I’ve thought a lot about what I said to you and what you said to me. I should have handled things differently.”
“Oh, you think?” Her eyes burned with anger.
At least she’d lost that vacant expression. That was something. Maybe he could get her to listen.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt you, babygirl. This is why we need to talk. We have too many friends in common to avoid each other. We are friends–’
“We aren’t friends anymore,” she said, and the raw pain in her voice confused him. Where was that coming from?
Yeah, he’d been a dick, but that should have outraged her and made her react. What he saw in her eyes was different. Something had cut her deep. So deep it still hurt. He didn’t think it was what he said. Before he could ask, she kept going.
“You are mean. And judgy. And, and mean. I am not friends with people who treat me the way you did. You didn’t know what you were talking about then, and you don’t know now. But you knew it would hurt me, and you said it anyway.”
“Suzi, I–” But she cut him off again.
“NO!” She covered her ears with her hands. “I don’t have to do what you say. You aren’t the boss of me. Why should I care what you say? You don’t even like me. If you did, you couldn’t have hurt me like that on purpose.”
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
“Oh yeah? Do you want to help me? Fine. Then leave me alone.” With that parting shot, she shoved past him and ran from the shop.
What the fuck?
He had obviously broken something inside her. That spark of fire she’d always had wasn’t there anymore. But damned if he knew why.
He sank back onto the couch, elbows to knees, face in his hands. He had no idea how to fix this. He only knew his chest ached, and his gut was twisted into knots.
“Oh dear,” a gentle voice said. “That didn’t seem to go very well.”
Vivi stood before him, dressed as always in her soft cardigan sweater.
“Mind if I sit down?”
He tried to huff out a laugh, but it came out as more of a groan. “It’s your shop,” he said and helped her to sit on the sofa beside him.
“Suzi seems to be having a hard time these days,” she said. “But then, I think you already know that. Am I right?”
“Of course you are, Vivi. Are you ever wrong?” Somehow, she brought a smile to his face.
“Hm, I’ve definitely made my share of mistakes. I couldn’t help but overhear. Suzi wasn’t exactly using her inside voice.”
“Oh, she had her reasons,” Deke said. He wasn't sure what they were, but he had obviously done way more damage than he'd realized.
Vivi's eyes twinkled. "I have no doubt. Let's see if I can clear a few things up for you. I haven’t heard her speak that way in a very long time. You probably never paid much attention to her mother, Terri Daily. She was stunning to look at– tall and willowy with midnight black hair. Beautiful. She always reminded me of an exquisite bowl of fruit. Perfectly delicious from a distance, but if you took a bite of that lovely fruit, you found it was made of wax. It wasn’t real at all. That was Terri Daily.”
Damn. You didn’t often hear Vivi speak ill of people. Suzi's mother must have really been a piece of work.
Her words slammed into him like a freight train. That vise squeezing his heart tightened another notch. “So, not someone you’d want to be compared to then,” he said.
“Good heavens, no,” Vivi said. “The woman had the sparkle and fire of a brilliant diamond, but she was as hard as one, too.”
Fucking fantastic. No wonder Suzi hated him now. He’d known that Terri Daily was an ambitious person who put her career before everything else. But he’d never really thought about how that might play out in Suzi’s life on a day to day basis.
Guilt stabbed through him. He should be horse-whipped. Suzi didn’t need to worry about anyone else hurting her. He’d been able to take care of that single handedly.
“As I said,” Vivi continued to speak in that slow, southern drawl. “You weren’t here. You left for the military when little Suzi was, what, four? I’ll bet you remember Suzi’s father though. His stage name was Cooper Reeves.”
That name rang a bell. “Cooper Reeves, the country music singer? I used to listen to him. Hell, I met him once or twice around town. He seemed friendly enough.”
“Oh, he was. Very talented and so nice. He was on tour a lot, so Suzi didn’t get to see much of him, but he adored her. And she loved him back just as hard. I think it was shortly after you left town when his plane went down on the way home from an event he’d performed at. They found some of the wreckage, but they never found Cooper’s body.”
Deke couldn’t let himself picture a tiny Suzi waiting for her father to come home. She couldn’t have been old enough to understand. “Were Suzi and Terri okay?”
“Well, that depends on your definition of okay. Money wise they were set, but Terri was lost without Coop. She threw herself into blocking the pain with her career. She was good and willing to do whatever it took to get ahead. It didn’t take her long to outgrow Darling. I don’t think she’s changed a lot.”
“What about Suzi? If Terri was her mother, how’d she wind up living with her Uncle Harvey? Didn’t Terri take care of her after her father was killed?”
Vivi sighed and shook her head. “Well, she did the best she could, I suppose. She was here. She started The Daily Nugget . I thought that was a clever name, what with her last name being Daily and Darling being originally founded during the Tennessee gold rush. Terri is a clever girl. And I think she loves Suzi, as much as she knows how to, anyway. I know she loved Cooper. When he died, well, it just did something to her heart.”
“What, so she didn’t do right by Suzi?”
Vivi grew more pensive. “Do you know when I first met Suzi?”
Deke tried to be patient. It felt like they were talking in a circle. He knew better than and try to hurry the conversation along. Not with Vivi. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d heard her tell Georgia, “A southern lady takes her time, child.”
“No, but I’d love to hear about it,” Deke said and made himself comfortable.
“Vivi!” Tazzy called out from behind him. “You can’t be supplying the enemy with more ammunition to use against a fellow Musketiara!”
“My sweet child,” Vivi said with a smile. “I would never do anything to hurt our precious Suzi. But I’m not sure Deke is actually the enemy. Now you go on back to work and leave me to my story.”
Tazzy did as she was told, but only after she gave him the stink eye.
“Where was I?” Vivi asked. “Oh yes, I first met Suzi when she started preschool. I was working for a sweet little school called the Little Schoolhouse. Terri enrolled Suzi, but there was a minimum criterion that a child had to be able to go to the bathroom by themselves and tie their own shoes. We didn’t think Suzi would make it, but then we looked out into the play yard, and all the children were lined up. Of course, we investigated and found them waiting in line for Suzi to tie their shoes for them. Needless to say, she was allowed to enroll.”
“Well, that’s good, but I’m not sure why I needed to know.”
“Son, she was two years old at the time.”
“Holy shit, I mean, sorry, Vivi, holy cow.”
She grinned. “That’s all right,” she said. “You can make it up to me by getting me another coffee.”
“I can do that,” he said.
“I take mine Irish,” she said with a wink.
By the time Vivi had finished her stories of Suzi’s childhood, Deke was two and a half hours older and a hell of a lot wiser as to just how deep a hole he had dug for himself by making Suzi think, in his opinion, she was just like her mother.