Chapter 12 #2
Tipping my head, I don’t smile back. When her smile falters because of my rudeness, I squeeze my linked fingers together to give myself something to think about instead of the guilt squeezing my gut.
Kinley asks her about her car and how things are going. I pretend I’m not interested, but I’m hanging on every word.
Nora’s attention is back on Kinley, and she groans. “It’s such a mess, so much so that Ryder tried to get me to buy a new car, but I just can’t part with mine. The parts are backordered, so right now I’m just waiting.”
I haven’t checked in with Ryder about her car, but I make a mental note to call him to get an update.
Trudy walks up behind Nora with our drinks and a guy from the kitchen with a large tray holding our plates of food. She huffs as she quips, “Why are you in my section? Don’t you have enough to do in your own?”
Nora flinches and quickly moves to the side so Trudy can take her place to set our drinks on the table.
Kinley’s smile falls as she narrows her eyes at Trudy like lasers, and her friendly voice takes a one-eighty in seconds. “I called her over here to say hi, do you have a problem with that?”
Good. She deserves it.
Trudy straightens, her shoulders squared and looks at Kinley with forced politeness. “Of course not. She has a tendency to wander, so I made the mistake of assuming.”
Nora’s eyebrows pull together in confusion, and she looks at Trudy like she wants to call her a liar. Instead, she looks back at the table with a tight smile, her eyes avoiding mine, and excuses herself.
Narrowing my own eyes at Trudy, I control the urge to tell her what to do with her assuming. I’ve never wanted to hit a woman so much in my life.
After Trudy walks away and everyone has their plates of food, Kinley shakes her head. “What a bitch. I’m only tipping ten percent.”
For the next thirty minutes, I passively watch Nora while listening to the conversation at our table.
I never contribute much to conversations, especially when I’m trying to eat my dinner.
I keep telling myself that I’m not sure why I even came tonight, but then I answer myself with a firm ‘yes you do, you wanted to see her’, which just pisses me off.
Pushing my empty plate away, I lean back in my chair and look across the room to find her, but I don’t see her in her section. Then I hear her voice, it’s raised and angry. “Stop!”
Looking in the direction it came from, I scan all the heads in that area and find her near the bar where the girls pick up their drinks. She’s looking at one of the loud, drunk guys who have been taking shots like they’re candy.
He holds his hands up with a laugh. “Hey, sweetheart, just a little fun, no offense.”
Red mists my eyes, and my chair scrapes across the floor as I stand and step around the table and my family. Somewhere in the distance, behind the anger beating in my ears, I hear the other chairs at my table scrape the floor as well.
It takes me seconds to cross to the bar, ignoring the shooting pain in my leg from walking so fast from a sitting position. Nora’s eyes jump to me, and her eyebrows move up her forehead when I grab the guy by his collar and pin him against the bar.
All the anger I’ve felt for the past year swirls in my chest, forming a dangerous mass of destruction. Everything in me wants to hurt the man in front of me for touching her. Instead, I fist his shirt and squeeze it hard around his neck.
“What the fuck, man!” The guy tries to yell, but my hands are pulling his shirt so tight around his throat that it comes out as a croak.
My nose is just inches from his, and in my periphery, I see his friends start to move toward me, but they stop.
I’m assuming they see all the muscle standing behind me, and they take a step back.
I also see Stony reach for something under the bar across from me, and a fleeting thought in my head wonders if it’s for me or the guy in front of me.
“Where did he touch you?” I growl at Nora, keeping my eyes pinned on the piece of shit in front of me. His hands are wrapped around my wrists, trying to pull me off him, but he might as well try to bend steel right now.
She hesitates, and I turn my attention to her. I realize she is responding to the anger she sees on my face and hears in my voice, her arms are crossed over her stomach, and her wide eyes are locked on me.
Just looking at her soothes some of the anger sparking off me like a Fourth of July sparkler, and I soften my voice. “Where’d he touch you, sugar?”
Shaking her head, she takes a deep breath. “He grabbed my ass and laughed about it when I told him to stop.”
My hands squeeze his shirt tighter, and as I turn back to him, he tries harder to pull me off him. His face is turning red when he croaks, “Only the once. I wasn’t going to do it again.”
One of his friends pipes up at my side. “You’re choking him, man. He won’t do it again.”
“Apologize.” I growl.
He gasps and chokes, his hands tight around my wrists. My hold on him won’t let him move his head, so he looks at her in his periphery. “Right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have touched you.”
Moving my head slightly so I can see her, I ask, “Anything else?”
Her wide eyes flick from me to him before she shakes her head.
Leaning closer to him, a deep growl escapes my chest. “You should probably leave. If you stay, I’ll have to clean the fucking floor with your face.”
Nodding his head, he croaks, “I’ll leave.”
Tamping down the urge to pummel him anyway, I say, “Good idea,” letting him go with a shove as I take a step back.
He sucks in a deep breath, and his hand goes to his neck where his shirt was pinching his windpipe. His eyes move over my shoulders, probably looking at the team guys behind me, and then looks around at the audience before he turns to his friends. “Let’s go.”
Standing still, I watch them cash out, their good time coming to an end, before I turn to Nora. She’s frozen in place; her eyes are still on me.
Closing the distance between us in two steps, her head tips back and those green orbs are fixed on me. All my anger drains away and is replaced with the soothing softness that is her. “You okay?”
Her eyes volley between mine and I curl my fingers into my palms to stop myself from touching her. She clears her throat. “Yes. Thank you.” It’s a soft whisper, but I hear her.
I don’t want to leave the calm that seems to stroke the animal in me when I’m around her, but I nod my head and force myself to step away and walk back to my table.
Mistake.
Kinley and Marley are standing arm-in-arm with Sloane next to them, and they are smiling. Taking a deep breath, I bark, “What?”
Kinley lifts her finger with a smirk and moves it in a circle like she’s drawing around my face. “You like Nora. I saw you watching her before.”
Pulling my wallet out of my pocket, I grab a few small bills and toss them on the table without looking at the hormonal, preening sisters in front of me. “Don’t be fucking ridiculous.”
Marley moves her head closer to Kinley’s, her smile soft, without taking her eyes off me and says just loud enough for me to hear. “Yep, he definitely likes her.”
Cupping my mouth with my palm, I slide my hand down my chin as we have a stare-off. Both of my sisters are smirking at me, eyebrows cocked, but I’m not having this conversation with them. Sliding my wallet back in my pocket, I grab my hat as I walk around them and leave the pub.