Chapter Seven #2
Keane was a careful person. He learned not to expect much
from the world, so he didn’t get excited about things.
He was excited about her. He spent the whole day trying to
talk himself out of it since he knew it would end in heartache, but he
couldn’t. He wanted this time with her, even if it was only a week.
“Well, at the time it was private. Not technically, but if
Jack Barnes didn’t want you around, you did not get into The Barn,” the young
woman announced. “Still to this day, there are people in Willow Fork who do not
get the privilege of enjoying my dad’s homemade brews. They’re delicious. Or at
least that’s what they tell me since I’m nineteen and not allowed to drink.
Which is why I have to hostess. But one day I’ll manage this whole place. Long
in the future.”
Keane stared at that photo. Jack and Sam. They looked
younger in the photo but far more grim.
And then his gaze shifted to another photo. It was more
recent since it included Abby and younger versions of Olivia and Josh and Grim.
In the picture Olivia smiled brightly, her arms linked with her brothers. The
other couple had two daughters smiling between them. The first picture was all
about determination, ambition. The second was about joy.
Family.
Jack and Sam had somehow built a family, and they looked
happy and whole and good together. He always worried if he got what he wanted—a
family with Garrett—he would be putting their kids in a position where the
world might reject them.
But the world rejected people for any number of reasons they
couldn’t control. Was that a reason to not be here? Or a reason to build
another world.
Wasn’t that what Olivia’s dads had done with The Barn? When
the town rejected them, they built their own space, and now everyone flocked
here. They built a home and a business and a place where they belonged.
Could he and Garrett do the same? Was Olivia the woman who
could complete them?
“Thanks for the history lesson,” Garrett was in charm mode.
He leaned over so he didn’t have to yell. Someone was singing their heart out
in another part of the building, and the speakers seemed to be turned up to
full blast. “So do you know where Olivia is? We know she’s here. We’re supposed
to meet her but she didn’t tell us how big this place is.”
The young woman who was named Sarah, according to her name
tag, gave them a bright smile. “I saw her earlier in the bar with some friends
from out of town. You might check in there. It’s pretty full, but Mike might
know where she is. He’s the bartender. I’m not supposed to go in there because
I break a lot of things. Also, my dad thinks most men are perverts, so I’m
supposed to stay away.”
Yeah, he wasn’t going to get into the bar business. Men were
perverts. If he had a baby girl, he would make sure she was protected.
He had never once thought about having kids before. Maybe he
could use a beer.
He thanked Sarah as she gestured toward the big bar at the
end of the hall.
“You went green. You okay?” Garrett asked.
He could hear more clearly now. “I don’t know. I think I
like this woman. I don’t know that I like how much I like her.”
Garrett stopped him and smiled. “That’s progress, man.”
“It feels like anxiety.”
“It means you’re letting yourself actually want something
for once. I think it’s a good thing. I mean it would be if she wasn’t hiding
from us. I’m not sure what she’s thinking.”
But Keane did. “She’s pushing limits. She’s allowing herself
to be reckless for one of two reasons. Because she wants to let us know what
she thinks of us without saying it.”
“I don’t believe that,” Garrett interrupted. “What’s the
other reason?”
“Because she can.”
Garrett frowned. “Well, I don’t like that explanation
either. She’s doing it because she doesn’t have to be careful with us. She
knows damn well we’re not going to leave her or yell at her.”
“Well, I was planning on spanking her ass,” Keane admitted.
“Like that’s not exactly what she wants. Think about it. She
feels out of control. Negotiating with her doesn’t fix that. It forces her to
make choices, and she’s worried she’ll make the wrong one. She needs a nice
long session to clear her head, and she can’t ask for one. So here we are,”
Garrett said.
Keane nodded. “I can accept that explanation. So basically
we find her, smack her ass, take her home and fuck her. Not necessarily in that
order. Except for the finding her part. That does have to come first.”
“Well, hello.” A petite blonde walked up to them, a friend
at her side. “You two must be new here.”
Oh, he knew trouble when he saw it. It was wrapped up in
tight jeans and bedazzled boots and a pink cowboy hat, but it was trouble, and
not the good kind.
Her friend was a brunette. If either of them was north of
twenty-five, he would eat his shoe. She was a young shark looking for a feast,
and normally he would consider being her dinner, but he’d lost all desire for
anyone but a cranky redhead who couldn’t decide what she wanted. The brunette
winked up at him from the brim of her hat.
“Hey, I’m Lola,” she said. “You’re pretty hot. Let me buy
you a drink.”
The blonde was all over Garrett, who frowned and tried to
step back. “And I’m Amy. I think we should go and dance.”
“Sorry, I’m looking for my girlfriend.” Garrett knew what to
do in this situation. Hide behind Olivia. Even if Olivia wasn’t here.
“Me, too.” He wasn’t going to mention that the girlfriend
was the same for both of them. But he definitely wanted to get out of here.
He glanced around. No Olivia.
“Ooo, playing hard to get,” Lola said.
Keane stepped back. “I’m not playing, and I’m not hard to
get. I’m impossible. I’m here for another woman, and I have no intentions of
playing around with anyone except her.”
Garrett held a hand out when Amy tried to take his arm.
“What he said.”
She wasn’t in here. He didn’t see her or Gigi or Miranda.
They should move on.
He thought about breaking up, but now he knew the wolves
were out and they had to huddle together for protection or Garrett might find
himself pulled into a dark corner and assaulted.
Because he had trouble being impolite.
Keane did not, so he simply broke free of the hold on his
arm and started to lead Garrett away. “Let’s go see if they’re in the dance
hall.”
They walked past the dining room, and one glance around the
big open space told him there was no glorious woman with a mass of red hair
having dinner.
He would spank her and then feed her and then fuck her, and
he would do it in that order. Garrett didn’t understand how important it was to
go in with a plan and a schedule. Oh, he would adjust both if he had to, but he
always wanted to know what he was doing.
They got to the edge of the big space that served as the
dance hall. Keane would give it to them. This was the barn equivalent of
glamping. All the barn, none of the drawbacks. There was even carefully crafted
hay placed around the room. There was another bar at the back, and he could see
a stairwell that led to a catwalk. Now if he could get up there, he might be
able to spot her.
He pointed to the catwalk that started as stairs at the
other end of the hall and seemed to wrap around this part of the building. “We
need to get up there.”
An arm slid through his, and a cajoling voice made him damn
near roll his eyes. “You don’t want to go up there all alone, do you?”
Lola and Amy had followed them. Keane took his arm back.
“I told you no, and that is a complete sentence,” he said,
his voice flat. A slow song had come on, and he could hear better as couples
began to sway all around them.
Lola rolled her eyes. “Sure. Everyone knows that. Look, I’m
trying to make my boyfriend jealous. He’s here tonight and his ex is, too.
She’s a bore but she’s rich, and that dumbass seems to think he missed
something when they broke up.”
“I don’t care.” Honesty came too easy to him.
Garrett ignored the woman who had her hand on his chest.
“Boyfriend? Who is he trying to impress?”
Amy sighed. “Jason Hart. He’s a couple of years older than
us. He was a football hero around these parts. He dated this rich girl in high
school. She might have money, but her family has no class at all. He was right
to dump her.”
“Oh, he didn’t dump her. At least that’s not the way his
sister tells it,” Lola explained.
He did not want to listen to town gossip. Not when Olivia
was out there waiting. It had been a while, and she was probably wondering if
they were brooding back at her place. Or worse, if they didn’t care at all.
“Again…”
Garrett held up a hand, stopping him. “How does your sister
tell it?”
Keane took firm control of his impatience. He might be the
one in charge when it came to some things, but Garrett knew how to get
information out of people, and he had that look in his eyes. So Keane went
quiet.
Lola seemed to revel in the fact that she was the center of
attention. Her lips curled up, and she leaned in. “Well, his sister says that
Jason was at a party with a bunch of his friends. That whore was not supposed
to be at the party. She didn’t even go to our school. She’s too fancy for that.
You know they call her daddy the devil around these parts.”
Oh, there it was. They were talking about Olivia. He felt
his spine straighten, but Garrett’s eyes flashed. He wanted more information.
It hurt him, but he kept his mouth closed even when he
wanted to tell them to stop talking about her that way.
Information was valuable. Garrett taught him that. Knowing
when and how to get it was important.
This was one more piece to the puzzle that was Olivia
Barnes-Fleetwood.
“Anyway, she showed up because one of her weirdo friends
from that pervert resort place had a boyfriend there that night, and she
overheard Jason talking about how he wouldn’t have to work after he married
Liv. He would get a cushy job with her daddy and live his life in luxury while
he found a woman he actually wanted on the side,” Lola explained as though she
wasn’t discussing a man who was obviously complete trash. “That girl threw a
fit. The cops came out and broke up the party.”