“Troy…”
Why did they keep saying my name like that? The weight of their collective gaze, I could almost feel it physically. My jaw tightened, my teeth grinding together. Expectations, everyone always had expectations.
And I was forced to live up to every single one of them.
“Don’t worry about dinner for me,” I said, striding over to the front door where my jacket was hanging on its hook. Shoving my arms into the sleeves, I then dragged out the car keys before tossing them in my hand. “I’ll grab something at the pub.”
“I wanna go too,” Billy said, grinning at Bronson. “If only to watch Troy beat the shit out of that smarmy prick.”
“No beating the shit out of anyone.” Charlie shot me a meaningful look. “Not after last time.”
Last time I was in my early twenties and had only just buried my mother after a long, horrible illness. Last time I saw red, rearranging Beau’s face so that even now, his nose was set a little crooked. Because last time, I’d come home to discover my sister standing there, her face milk pale except for a red palm mark across one cheek.
They had been dating, and while he wasn’t who I’d choose for Charlie, I accepted that she knew her own heart. Of course, when my sister found out that their relationship wasn’t as exclusive as Beau had made out, she hadn’t taken it well. The argument between them got heated, and the fucker thought he’d end it by slapping her across the face. Our Charlie popped him right in the jaw, then kneed him in the nuts for good measure.
But it wasn’t enough for me.
I’d found Beau in the pub, joking and talking himself up, so I made sure everyone knew the truth. Taking it outside was thenext logical step. Some part of him wanted to take me on. He was like one of those little yappy dogs, always posturing to seem bigger, but I hadn’t bothered with countering a single shitty thing he had to say. Just stepped up to the prick and started beating his arse for having the temerity of thinking he’d lay a hand on a woman.
And I’d do the same thing tonight, if I had to.
“If Beau doesn’t step out of line, I won’t have to kick his arse,” I replied, walking out of the house.
“Troy…”Vance had come out from behind the bar the moment I walked into the pub, intercepting me before I got to the bar. “If there’s gonna be any trouble tonight, you need to take it outside.”
“Don’t anticipate there being any trouble,” I replied, heading over to the bar.
Leaning on the wooden surface, I looked over to see Beau was in full flight. His back was to me, but I heard it all.
“We own the biggest horse stud in the whole of Victoria,” he told her. “The last few Melbourne cup winners all came from lines we bred.” God, the man had all the self-awareness of a cow pat. Couldn’t he see the way Mackenzie’s eyes were glazing over? Did she even know what the Melbourne cup was? There was no way for her to ask, because he kept on monologuing. “We import Arabians from the peninsula ourselves, as well as American thoroughbred lines from Kentucky. You would have heard of Ashford Stud?”
“Kentucky is in a whole other part of the US,” she said, but the words didn’t register.
“Quarantine is a bitch and expensive as hell. The horses have to do fourteen days of pre-quarantine and then another fourteen days of post-quarantine…”
And she didn’t give a shit. I straightened up, peering over Beau’s shoulders and then winked when I caught her eyes. There it was. That shine I saw this morning as we came over the crest of the hill. It was like the life flowed back into her, forcing her lips to twitch, wanting to smile right back at me. As she thinned them back down again, she nodded dutifully, making a show of listening to Beau.
“Your beer.”
Vance pushed a glass brimming with amber liquid my way and the old prick’s smirk made clear he knew exactly what was going on.
“Thanks, Vance.” Apparently that was what it took to shut Beau up. He turned around slowly, looking shocked to see me for just a moment, before replacing that expression with a shit-eating grin. “If you could put in an order for?—”
“A parma with vegetables, no chips?” he said and I nodded. “You gonna stay and eat it this time?”
“Nothing in this world could stop me from eating one of your delicious parmas,” I replied.
“C’mon, Mackenzie.” My teeth were back grinding against each other when Beau’s arm went to go around the girl’s shoulders. My smile faded as I watched his hand rise in slow motion, ready to land on the bare skin of Mackenzie’s shoulder. “Let’s go somewhere more private.”
But she side-stepped Beau, evading his grasp and then picking up her Coke and holding it close to her chest, as if that was enough to ward him off. That had my grin returning with a vengeance.
“A table over here?” she said, making for one of the empty ones.
“I was thinking a booth…”
Turning on my stool, I watched her ignore his suggestion, going to pull out her own chair, only for Beau to rally fast.They both gripped the back of the chair, then he got control of it before pulling it out. When she sat down, when he tucked it under her, his hands on the back, all the fun went out of me.
I wanted to tell myself it was because I didn’t want any woman within ten feet of Beau fucking Argyle, but that wasn’t what I was thinking. Cursed to see everything all too clearly, I imagined being the one standing behind Mackenzie. Did Beau smell that faint floral scent of hers? Did his mouth water, wondering if she tasted like flowers too? That was enough to have me turning around to find Vance watching me, patently amused.
