I noticed him giving Bart a wide berth when he was choosing a chair, so he wound up sitting next to James. I noticed Bart had a little smirk on his face when he saw Taylor avoid him.
Remy, on the other hand, made a beeline for me but caught up short when he saw Jens. He seemed to be stunned for a second, catching Jens’s attention, who immediately burst out laughing. Remy wasn’t quite as stunned as before, because he immediately frowned.
“What are you laughing about?” His scowl got deeper the longer Jens howled.
“You’re the elf!” It was all Jens could get out before he reached down on the table for his phone and brought up the picture I’d sent him weeks ago. Pulling up the pic, he held up the phone so Remy could see it, but not take the phone. Smart move.
“Oh, hell, no! Are you Jensen? Ethan’s friend? Jesus, what are you doing here?”
Jensen handed his phone to the person sitting next to him, which just happened to be Dalton, before answering.
“I just moved here, and after talking to Connor, I’m going to work here part-time until I can find a gig doing hair and makeup. You want to show me around sometime?”
It was the boldest I’d ever seen Jensen with someone, but I knew he’d been fascinated with Remy from all the questions he’d ask when we talked. I crossed my fingers under the table that Remy wouldn’t mess this up for him.
“Uh, yeah, I guess I could. Give me your number, and I’ll text you.”
Remy handed Jens his phone, so he could enter his number in the contact, and then Jens texted himself so he would have Remy’s number. I uncrossed my fingers, thinking it was all good now. I uncrossed too soon. I saw the moment Remy noticed Dalton sitting close to Jens and when he slightly recoiled before backpedaling.
“Hey, Dalton might be better at the whole tour guide thing than me. He’s a cop and could tell you all the areas in town to avoid. Bet he’d even include me on that list.”
He grabbed his phone away from Jensen and stormed out of the bar, leaving shocked faces all around. If I hadn’t known some of his history, I’d think he was the biggest asshole on the planet. Even still, his past didn’t excuse his behavior. Glancing back to Jensen, I saw Dalton putting his number in Jens’s phone, then with a head tilt and a nod, they both walked to the bar where they ordered new drinks from Billy and talked quietly.
I looked around again at the table, and conversations were starting up again.
“Hey, Taylor, sorry about the thing this week.”
“Bart, save it, asshole. After the first few times, I thought it was a fluke, but now it’s personal.”
“It’s not personal, Taylor. It’s business. They didn’t want to do it. It’s as simple as that.”
“Bart, I swear, I’m gonna smack you the next time you’re close enough. They wanted to do everything I drew up in that plan until you came into the picture. What did you say to them to change their minds?”
“Dude, I just told them how much it would cost to take out the wall, and they freaked. It was a load-bearing wall, Taylor. It was gonna cost a fortune to take it down, and they couldn’t afford it. For the same amount of money, they decided to build a dock instead.”
“But the view of the Bay through the house would have been stunning. And you could have put up a beam to bear the load, don’t bullshit me, Bart.”
“Taylor, you know as well as I do to do that in a house on piers would have been expensive. Don’t bitch about it because you know how hard it would be.”
“Save it, Grizzly Adams. I swear you get on my last nerve. Why the hell would they want a boat dock anyway? The sunset over the water would have been beautiful in their house.”
“Well, the sunset over the water will be even more beautiful, you know, while you’re on a boat in the water?”
Taylor rolled his eyes at that and gave a little shiver.
“Nope, I don’t do the water or boats. I never learned to swim, and I’m damn sure not going out into a boat where there are all kinds of ways to drown. You can have the water. You bears love the water. You can have it.”
Bart just smirked and let the conversation go. Something was going on with those two that could explode in two ways. It would be fun to watch.
I was settling in and feeling comfortable after Remy’s outburst, and everything seemed fine. And once again, I was mistaken.
“I want to speak to the owner of this establishment, right now. It’s a police matter.”
That voice sent chills down my spine, and the same time I recognized it, I saw Jens’ back go ramrod straight at the bar. He had grabbed Dalton’s hand and was whispering excitedly with him, even as I grabbed James’s hand and did the same.
“Oh, my God, Jay, that’s Marcus. What am I gonna do? He’s here to get me. I know it!”
I was quietly panicking, but James wrapped me in his arms and pulled me close. “Don’t you worry about a thing? He can’t do anything to you here. He has no jurisdiction, and friends surround you. It’ll be okay.”
