I did it hoping Merry wouldn’t press me about who was texting me.
I also did it uncomfortable because I was no relationship expert, but one thing I did know: a surefire way to fuck one up was keeping something important from the other person. In fact, I was pretty sure keeping anything from the other person wasn’t a good thing.
Merry might not need me to share every piece of information about myself.
I just knew if he asked, I should be open to sharing.
Including whoever texted.
Especially if it was about some trouble Ryker was involved in that was happening right on my street.
I’d felt Merry gearing up to go apeshit. That feeling let loose where he actually lost it, that would be a bad thing. So I knew Ryker was not wrong.
I just hoped whatever he was up to, he’d deal with it and do it in a way so Merry never knew I even had an inkling.
And worse, didn’t share.
“It good, babe?” he asked.
I focused on Merry and not my thoughts. I did this chewing and realized he was asking about my sandwich.
“Yeah,” I answered before I asked, “You gonna let me buy lunch?”
“Women argue with their girls about who’s buyin’ lunch,” he stated. “A man takes his woman to lunch, he pays.”
I was glad he seemed to have forgotten about the texts.
But I was still uncomfortable about it.
I lifted my brows. “Is that a badass rule?”
“Nope. One of the commandments,” he returned immediately.
“You sign those in blood?” I asked.
“Yup,” he answered. “Though not ours. The man whose ass we kicked to earn membership in the brotherhood.”
“Sorry I missed the initiation ritual,” I said through a smile before taking another bite.
“It was quite the show, baby.”
I chewed and did it still smiling.
Merry took another bite and lost another quarter of filling.
I swallowed so I could laugh without choking.
I did it thinking, this is how it feels…happy.
Outside many miraculous moments with my son, which were all about lucking out by having a kid as awesome as Ethan, I had no clue.
I had no clue just sitting across from the guy who did it for you at a booth in a diner could make you so…fucking…happy.
But it did because that was what I felt, sitting with Merry, trading smartass back and forth, and eating fantastic sandwiches.
Just that.
And that’s all I felt.
Fucking happy.
* * * * *
“Shit.”
It was Wednesday evening. Darryl was behind the bar with me. He was yanking out the bins full of recyclables in order to clean them out.
When he cursed, I looked to him to see he was bent to his task but his head was tipped back, his eyes were at the front of the bar, and his face was set to displeased.
I looked that way and felt my body get tight.
She’d timed it meticulously. I was a chick so I knew that to be true. Just after six on a weekday, the bar was full of patrons who wanted to get loose after their day by throwing back a drink.
She was there at that moment because she wanted an audience. She wanted people to know she’d thrown down with me. She might even be wanting to save face.
And if she thought Merry was testing her, she wanted that shit to get back to Merry.
As for me, I was pissed she was there. I was pissed she was there with her eyes locked to me and her expression telling me where this was going. I was pissed she was bringing this to my place of work.
But I was also curious.
Not only at what she was going to say but because Tanner Layne was there to witness it. Tanner was sitting at the end of the bar in what looked to be a debrief work huddle with his buddy Devin.
They’d both been in since things with Merry and me started officially (and even when it was unofficial). I knew they both knew what was going on, Tanner probably more than anybody.
But in that time, they hadn’t treated me any differently.
Tanner liked me. We were buds.
That said, I knew Tanner had pushed Merry to get back with Mia. And he was too good of a guy to let me know to my face that he thought Merry was making a mistake with me.
Now, if that was the case or if it wasn’t, if Mia forced something, whatever that was might be unleashed.
“Cheryl.” I heard snapped, and I stopped thinking all this and focused on Mia, who’d positioned herself at the bar where there were two vacant seats.
As I did this, I noted I wasn’t the only one focused on Mia at the bar. The entire place was almost silent because everyone was focused on Mia at the bar.
“Cher.”
That was growled angrily from behind me.
I twisted my neck and looked up to see Darryl right at my back.
“I’m good, Darryl,” I told him.
Just his eyes shifted down to me.
“And I’m good standin’ right here, makin’ sure you’re good,” he returned.
Seriously, Darryl was all right.
“Fine,” Mia bit out, and I turned my attention back to her. “Cher.”
I moved closer to her at the bar and decided to start out by playing dumb.
“You need a drink, Mia?”
“No, I don’t need a goddamned drink,” she spat. “I need you to leave my man alone.”
I sighed.
Definitely making a statement she wanted to get back to Merry.
“And I need you to know I’ll fight for him if you make me,” she went on.