“Red?That’s your best?”she says, voice even, mouth holding something that might be a smile if you earned it.
“It fits,” I offer, and hate how flat it sounds.
“Sure,” she lets the word fall like a door closing gently.
Anders walks up beside me with a shit eating grin on his face, "You gonna invite the pretty ladies to the party?"
I can feel Kenzie perk up beside me.But my eyes are still on the woman in front of me, like she is gravity and I can't pull my attention away.
"You are more than welcome to join.We will be at my lake house just outside of Millstream on Eagle View Lake."
Eli walks closer to her, "You can't miss his place, it's the one that screams I'm trying too hard."
Her eyes flick past me to the woman draped across my hood.“Thanks for the invite, but I’ll pass on your frat party.”
She isn't cruel or rude, but you can tell she isn't impressed.One of the girls near my truck, the one who’s been practicing her poses since we left the city, laughs under her breath.“Probably for the best.I don’t think she has what it takes to fit in with us.”
The redhead’s smile doesn’t change.“You’re right.I don’t.”She says it with so little heat the words cool as they pass, and somehow that has a harsher effect than if she’d been snarky.
One of the girls by the hood attempts a jab, "Nice boots."
She still doesn't rile or bite, "Thanks," she says, and then her eye catches on something, and I just fucking know she sees my plates that Brielle had given me as a gift,CAPTN19.She turns those navy-blue eyes on me and smirks, "Is that so they know which hockey player they are with this time?"
She doesn't let me respond, turning to Eli, she gives him a blinding smile and then, like something just clicked, she laughs out loud.It is real, and fuck does it do something to me.She pokes him in the chest and says, "Ok, so we've got Lumberjack Thor," She motions her thumb in my direction, "And the moody Captain America...ohhhh Captain Canada."
Eli shakes his head at her, but he is looking at her fondly, and I hate it.What is going on with them?
One of the girls by the truck, Tracy...Tiffany?I can't remember is about to go off on Red, I am about to cut her off when Dad’s voice cuts from the barn, low and carrying without effort.“Tessa!You got a minute?”
Tessa.
The name settles in my chest like it belonged there all along.She doesn’t look at me again.Doesn’t throw one more word into the yard.She just nods at Eli, then goes where she’s called.Boots steady.Braid swinging.Dismissal without drama.I don't even have time to take in her plump ass and legs that could squeeze...
Eli lets out a breath through his nose that’s half disappointed, half relieved, and all judgment.“Nice job, Captain.”
“Come on,” I say, the old defence rising.“I didn’t do anything.”
“Exactly.”He wipes his hands on that same rag like this whole conversation is grease and he’s done with it.“That’s the problem.You are never around, unless it suits you.Guess it suits you now.”
It shouldn’t hurt, but it does.Right under the ribs where I still store things I don’t want to touch.Kenzie’s still by my side.She’s quiet now, studying me like I’m a puzzle someone forced her to finish.“When did you become this?”she asks, not mean.The softness in her voice nearly does me in.
The easy answer is right there.The shrug.The joke.The lie.
“It’s all part of the gig,” I say, because I’m a coward when it comes to the people who tell the truth.
“No,” she says, softly.“It’s really not.”
Silence rolls in like a weather front between us.The girls at my truck are taking pictures with a dog that doesn’t belong to them, and I don't even recognize.One of the guys is wandering towards the barn like he'd follow Tessa anywhere.
I drag a hand over my jaw, the sandpaper rasp of a beard that needs a decision.“Look,” I say, aiming for light and missing.“I’ve got enough shit going on, okay?I wanted to see you.It’s Canada Day.Thought maybe you and Eli and Mom, and Dad would come out to the lake.Swim.Eat.Sit by the fire.It’s been a while.”
Kenzie watches me for a breath that turns into two.Somewhere behind the barn, a crow argues with the sky.“I’ll ask,” she says finally.Not a promise.Not a no.The only thing she can give that won’t cost her later.
“Tell ’em I’d like that,” I say.It comes out smaller than I meant it to.
“Then maybe you should tell them yourself,” she responds.She presses her mouth into a line that isn’t a smile and pulls me into another hug anyway.I hold on longer than I should.
Eli walks by with a coil of rope over one shoulder and doesn’t look at me.“Steaks are in the chest freezer,” he says to the air.“Take what you need.Leave the gate how you found it.”
