He further made his statement verbally.
“Not a big fan of being summoned, brother,” he said quietly.
“Cher’s made the calls,” Colt clipped. “All hands on deck with her girls bringin’ dresses to J&J’s she can look over tonight and pick one for her date with you tomorrow at Swank’s.”
Fuck, he needed to call to get a reservation.
He made note of that even as he felt his lips curve at Cher doing what Cher did.
“I see that pleases you,” Colt remarked, not sounding pleased, and Garrett focused on him again. “Probably please you more she made a date for a weekday sleepover for her boy at Meems’s. So rest up ’cause you got all night to tap that real good, brother.”
His tone was cutting.
His words were incendiary.
Garrett battled the burn as he pushed away from the door. “Watch yourself, Colt.”
Colt’s brows went up. “You’re playin’ with my girl and you’re tellin’ me to watch myself?”
“No, I’m takin’ my girl out to dinner and I’m tellin’ you, even though I know you’re makin’ a point, you need to watch your mouth when you’re talkin’ about her.”
Colt’s eyes went intense.
“Your girl?” he asked.
“Learned from her, not your business until she makes it. You two are tight. You and me are tight. For her, what she’s got with you, that wins out. So she makes this your business, that’s hers. What you need from me, respect to you as my brother, respect to you as the man who gives a shit about her, I’m havin’ a care. You got my promise on that, Colt. Now, the rest of it, you need to have a care.”
“I told you—”
“Her son’s daddy and his bitch are thinkin’ of makin’ a play for her boy,” Garrett cut him off to say. “I found that shit out for her so she could shut it down.”
“She told me that, but—”
“This mornin’, a man walked up to her door and offered her a thousand dollars to talk about Lowe.”
That made Colt push up from the table.
“I shut that down too,” Garrett told him. “This is not play. This is not a hookup. This is not about Mia. This is not dick but me and a woman I have feelin’s for, explorin’ what’s goin’ on between us. It’s time she started her life again after Lowe interrupted it. She’s doin’ that with me.”
He crossed his arms on his chest, held Colt’s gaze, and kept going.
“I have no clue how this is gonna roll. I got shit I gotta deal with. She does too. But right now, we’re lookin’ at doin’ it together. We can tough it out, I see good things. We can’t, we can’t. But that’s ours. Not yours because you want to cushion her from any hits life might land. Not anyone’s. I gave it time because I needed that time to know exactly where I was before I took it further. I gave it time because she needed to know I gave it that time for her and her kid. I’m all about doin’ this right and that’s also for Cher and for Ethan. That’s said, so now you need to stand down, Colt. If not for me, wantin’ me to have good in my life, then for her.”
“You better—” Colt kept trying.
But Garrett was done with this shit.
“Don’t say more. Don’t threaten me. Don’t warn me. Don’t do shit, Colt,” Garrett interrupted him again. “Not shit you can’t come back from. You know I’m only givin’ you what I just gave you because of what she means to you. You don’t cut me some slack, we got problems, and straight up, man, I do not want problems with you when my attention needs to be on sortin’ my shit so I can bust my ass to make a good woman happy.”
Garrett knew he finally got to Colt before he watched his friend’s eyes narrow as he asked, “Some asshole walked right up to her door to get to her about Lowe?”
Garrett nodded. “She says it doesn’t happen much anymore, but it happens.”
“He didn’t call first?”
“He called. Cher didn’t take his calls, so he decided on a face-to-face.”
“Fuck,” Colt hissed.
“Rumor’s spreadin’, seein’ as this guy probably has a hit list and Cher was just his first, and Ryker’s heard.” Colt’s face froze, but Garrett kept talking. “You know how protective Ryker is about the citizens of this ’burg, so I think Walter Jones might soon feel induced to find his way to the town limits.”
“Shit, Cher’s never learned, you got a problem, you court it gettin’ bigger if you don’t tell somebody. She could have told me about the calls and I could have had a chat with this moron over the phone and convinced him a trip to the ’burg would be a waste of his time. Instead, she didn’t take his calls, you were there when he made his play, and now I don’t know what’s worse, whatever Ryker’s gonna do to ‘induce’ this guy to take a hike or you bein’ a bigger lunatic than Ryker because you know he’s a lunatic and you set him on this guy.”
“And you would have played it how?” Garrett prompted.
“My play would have been personal,” Colt returned.
And that was why Colt and February didn’t catch this shit.
“Yeah, and that gets messy. The cap, every one of your brothers, every man and woman in this county, and every judge at the courthouse would see your play because they’d play it the same way. Lowe spent decades where he existed only to destroy your life. He nearly succeeded in that. They’d get that. Me actin’ for a woman I haven’t even taken on our first date? Not so much.”