Chapter Nine
Chapter Nin e
Thayne
T his evening has consisted of numerous customers coming up to the bar and asking me where “the beautiful singer” was this evening. They were disappointed when I told them that she wasn’t performing tonight and asked when she’d be in next.
The bar is a lot less busier and I can only guess that it’s the non-existent sound of Emberli’s voice that keeps them away. A small part of me hoped that I’d be seeing my sister and her friends so I could keep a close eye on them. It was known that Woo Woo Wedsnedays had a habit of getting out of hand, especially if my sister was the ringleader.
But they’re a no show.
“I was wondering if you wanted to grab a bite to eat sometime soon?” Annie Clemments sits in front of me as I dry off the glasses that have just come out of the dishwasher.
“I’m not interested, Annie. I’m sorry.”
“Come on, just two friends having dinner?”
“Annie.” I shake my head. “No. “
Annie wasn’t just a girl who’d been persistent over the years in asking me to go on a date with her, but she’d also broken Colton’s heart a while back when she cheated on him. It was the first time I’d ever seen him as heartbroken as he was and I think that’s why even now, all these years later, he often put on a mask, presenting himself as the shameless flirt around town who “doesn’t do relationships.”
“I don’t get why you won’t just go on this one date with me, Thayne!”
“So it is a date?” Billy speaks from beside her and she groans in frustration.
“Shut up. Billy.”
“Hey. Don’t talk to him like that.” I say. “No means no, Annie. Okay?”
“One date.”
“You wanna pop down to the library, Annie?” Aca appears, leaning on the bar as he peers down at her in a flirtatious manner.
She’s at a loss for words but manages a nod. This woman would do anything for a grasp of male attention, it didn’t matter who it was from.
“Yeah?” Aca chuckles.
“Yeah. Let’s…let’s go”
“Go and get yourself a dictionary. Search the meaning of no, and study it.” I grin, and Annie glances between us before balling her hands into fists and squealing in annoyance, storming away from the bar.
“When will she quit?” he asks me as he turns to the bar. I grab a beer for him and place it down in front of him.
“I don’t think she ever will.”
He laughs. “You gotta stop being such an irresistible man. Soon I’m not going to be here to save your ass.”
For as long as I can remember, Aca had always been behind me to do so, I was grateful to have a friend like him. And no matter what, he’d always been there for my family and I.
Even growing up, if I was getting in a fight with another boy from the neighborhood, Aca was right behind me, ready to jump in. And he’d done that throughout my teenage years in which I faced a lot of anger and resentment for my dad. But Aca stood by me throughout it all. The same way he stood by my brothers when the same feelings overtook them. He took good care of Willow too.
Aca was a competitive bronc rider and his rodeo season was starting up again which meant that we wouldn’t see him as frequently as we do now. He’d put rodeos on hold when Elijah left us all in shit. And yeah, it benefited us all that he was home, but I knew he missed it. I knew he was excited to get back into the arena.
“When do you go back?”
“Two weeks.”
I nod, two weeks left and then he’d be gone for ten months.
Man, was I going to miss him.
I take a sip of my beer.
“Aren’t you working?” Billy asks. That man had a habit of judging me for my poor life choices when he’d practically taken residency in my bar.
He grumbles something that sounds like ‘never mind’ when he sees the look on my face and slides off of the stool, traipsing over to his booth in the corner of the bar.
“Can I ask a favour?” Aca asks.
“Anything man.”
“Will you look after Ryker for me?”
“Of course man. You don’t even have to ask.” Ryker had come back into town early last season. Like his brother, he was a professional bronc rider, but during the semi-final of his competition, he was thrown off his horse and onto his shoulder moments before the horse stumbled over him.
I remember watching it like it was yesterday. Sally’s screams, the live TV cutting out to an overly long and torturing advert break and the image of Ryker lying on the floor unconscious before the cameras went black.
Two severely broken ribs and a dislocated collarbone later, Ryker made his way back into Shadow Peaks. He recovered physically in under three months, but you could see that it was more the mental side of it all that brought him down. Two years later and Ryker still hadn’t gone back, nor had he rode a horse since. Sally and Doug tried everything to help him and even sought therapy but Ryker wasn’t ready to help himself yet. He often resided in his own company or spent most of his time down at the ranch with Flint unless Colton dragged him out to a pub crawl.
Ryker never brings up what happened that day, so we never do either. I know all too well the feeling of wanting a memory to be long gone and buried. And although Ryker is one of Aca’s biggest supporters, I know it has to hurt watching him get on a horse and bring home championship titles. Even if he never says it.
“Thanks. I’m just worried about him, you know?”
I nod. It’s one thing Aca and I understand about each other. Worrying about others.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let him go under.”
“I know I can rely on you man.” Aca dips his head and shakes it. “Do you think I should stay?”
“Absolutely not. You’ve got a championship to bring back.”
“What if I’m leaving at the wrong time?”
“There’s never a right time, Aca. You have to go. I won’t let you be held back here any longer than you have been already.”
He nods, sliding onto the bar stool whilst I serve a few customers.
“How was yesterday?”
I swallow down the emotion that begins to clog my throat. Talking about my feelings had never been my strong suit, but my therapist had told me that it was important that I did after what happened.
“Yeah it was… fine,” is what I settle with.
“Fine?” Aca raises an eyebrow at me. “That’s all I get?”
“It was good. I dropped the flowers off at the grave after I dropped Emberli off.”
“What’s going on with that, man?”
“With what?”
“You and Emberli? The little feud you’ve got going on between you. ”
“There is no feud.” I told him. “She doesn’t like me and I don’t like her.”
“Thayne, you’re lying.”
“Yeah. Maybe I am,” I grumble.
The recurring image of Emberli’s face and the tears that ran down her cheeks as she cried kept making an appearance in my brain, causing me to get next to no hours of work done. Even though I deserved it after what I said.
The very image tortures me even now as I speak to Aca, even when she’s not in this room. Emberli is in my fucking head and she won’t leave, which is not good for me and is certainly not good for either of us, seeing as I find myself wondering when I’ll next see the woman who manages to irritate me beyond belief.
“I don’t know. I went too far and said some things I shouldn’t have said.”
Aca snorts. “Sounds like you.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I see Aca check his at the same time. It’s the family group chat.
WILLOW: SOS
MACK: What’s wrong?
I hit play on the voice note of chaos Willow sends through. “MACK! When someone says SOS that means…” There’s a chorus of screams in the background. “GET HERE AS FAST AS YOU CAN!”
The next message that shows up is her live location. She’s at the motel that Emberli is staying in.
Emberli.
I grab my jacket and slide it on.
“Where are you going? You can’t leave the bar unattended.”
Shit . Aca is right. But there are not many times when he’s wrong. Used to piss me off growing up, how smart he was. Still does occasionally now but I like to think I deal with it a lot better, like not punching him in the face.
“Shit.” I grumble. I trusted no one but Odessa and my family to help me with the bar, and given the amount of replies to Willow’s message, there was about to be a family gathering at The Hollyhead Motel.
“Everybody out!” I yell.
“You serious?” Aca asks.
“Fuck yes, now help me get everyone out.”
Despite all the groans and protests from the locals, I’m finally able to lock up in under ten minutes. I jump in Aca’s truck as he speeds through the town.
The girls are fine. That’s the first thing I take note of as Aca pulls into the parking lot. There’s a huge crowd already, members of the public, staff of the motel and a mixture of cops and wildlife officers. People were already on their phones, documenting the argument my brother was having with our park ranger from upstate.
“There was a grizzly bear here, Amos. Find it.”
Amos looks around in response, flinging his arms around. “I don’t see a bear, Mack. Okay? Maybe these girls have had one too many drinks.” Amos points his finger to the collection of empty jugs on the motel floor before nodding over at the four girls who sit on the grass whispering amongst themselves.
“A grizzly?” I ask. Mack nods in response.
I take a quick look inside where more of Amos’ men look around the room. There’s a huge indent in the wall between room fifty-one and fifty-two and regardless of the shards of glass and plaster that cover the floor, the room is disgusting. And I can’t believe Emberli’s been staying here.
There’s mold in every corner of the room and a damp smell to match it. The shower curtain in the bathroom is loose and is easily a slip hazard for Emberli.
“Are you suggesting my sister is lying?” Mack snaps .
“I’m saying, she’s probably drunk and maybe smashed a few things and didn’t want to take responsibility.”
“You’re a real piece of work, Amos.” I stop Mack, putting a hand on his chest before he reaches Amos. He’d been losing his cool more frequently than usual. I had guessed that it was because of the Elijah situation. I think he hoped Emberli staying in town would give him more information and he was just realizing that I was right about the whole thing.
It hurts to be right all the time.
“Maybe we should all calm down?” Flint suggests, his eyes flickering between our brother and Amos. “There’s no need for hostility.”
“Your brother is right, Mack. Look, let’s all just go home. There’s no point scaring the public over a lie.”
Willow straightens at this. “I’m not lying.”
The crowd murmurs at her response and she frowns, looking at me for help. “Explain all of the things that got broken. You really think I can pull a TV out of the wall? Really?” She raises an eyebrow. “And the indent of a literal size grizzly bear!”
“Maybe your friend here thought it would be funny to run through the wall.” I’d hoped he wasn’t saying what I thought he was, until his head nodded directly at Emberli.
What a fucking asshole.
I waste no time in delivering a satisfying punch to Amos’ nose, hearing it crack beneath my fist as he goes flying back onto the pavement and knocks himself unconscious.
***
“You could not have picked a worse time to punch that guy in the face” Mack tells me as we leave the station. “I mean there were fucking groups of cops, man. Dumbass. ”
I never thought I’d see the day that Mack lectured me. Usually it was the other way around.
But this time he was right.
It was stupid of me to rush to Emberli’s aid, but I couldn’t help it, nor could I do anything to stop it. It was becoming a habit as of late, and I didn’t know if I liked it or not.
Mack sighs. “Regardless, I got a call saying they found the bear. Or more, the bear found them. Rocked up to claim its room back. Emberli said she’s been hearing the noises since her first night here.”
That long? I try not to think about the long list of possibilities that could have happened during Emberli’s stay at the motel but it’s near enough impossible.
No matter what I do, I can’t seem to get Emberli out of my head.
“Where is she now?”
“Staying in a different room.”
“You let her go back?”
“Where else was I supposed to send her, Thayne?”
“Not fucking there. Did you see the state of that place?”
Mack smiles, and it’s the kind of smile that’s teasing and highly irritating.
“What?”
“Didn’t realize you care so much about our new arrival, big brother.”
“I don’t.” It’s a lie. I realize it as soon as the defensive tone leaves my mouth, but this only makes Mack smile wider.
“I knew it.”
“You don’t know shit. We may not get along but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about her wellbeing.”
“Are you trying to convince yourself or me?”
“Fuck you,” is all I can muster and his laughter circles the truck as he drives me back to the bar, where I take my own truck home and hope to get a better amount of sleep than last night.