I studied her face momentarily. I could see she was concerned about Rhys. And I couldn’t really blame her. The sheriff was acting strange. Even for him.
With a sigh, I reached for her again. “Fine. When you get off work, we’ll go talk to him.”
She seemed to process that information and then nodded curtly. I wasn’t sure what she was thinking, but I wasn’t about to get into it with her here. It was my fucking birthday, damn it. Why the hell did everyone want to start a damn fight tonight?
Two hours later, we were closing down the bar. Literally.
I waited for Reagan and Amy to finish up, lock the doors, then join me outside. The two women spoke quietly, then Amy came over to where I stood by my truck.
“You ready?”
She nodded, but I noticed she wasn’t smiling.
Placing my hand on her lower back, I walked her around to the passenger door, then helped her into the truck. What I wanted to do was strip the woman naked right here in the parking lot and spend the next hour of my life feasting on her.
Instead, we were likely going to get into an argument when Amy realized I wasn’t going to go chasing after Rhys. I'd considered it for a while, but then came to the conclusion that we both needed some space. If the man wanted to talk, we could do so tomorrow. After we’d slept on it for a little while.
“Did you have a good birthday?” Amy asked as I was pulling out of the parking lot.
“I did.”
She was silent for a few minutes, her eyes scanning outside. “I thought we were gonna go talk to Rhys.”
I shook my head. “He said he didn’t wanna be bothered. He’s gotta work in the mornin’.”
Amy’s eyebrows lowered, her eyes locked on me.
I cast a sideways glance her way, then turned my attention back to the road.
“I think we need to go to his house.”
“And what?” I asked, my tone rougher than I intended. “Beg him to give me the time of day? Not interested.”
I felt as though Rhys was purposely trying to push me away, and if that was the way the man wanted to play it, then I could certainly oblige him.
“Did you stop to think about how he felt tonight?”
Jerking my attention to Amy, I tried to process her question. “What?”
“At Reagan’s. When he was sitting on the opposite side of the room. Alone.”
Rhys hadn’t been alone, he’d been…
Son of a bitch.
Sighing, I pulled the truck off onto the side of the road. “What are you sayin’?”
She was staring at her hands clasped tightly in her lap. “He was by himself, Wolfe. While you were with your family. And me.” She met my gaze in the dark cab of the truck. “Do you know the lengths he went to help set up that party? It wasn’t just me. I played a role in getting people together, convincing them to keep their mouths shut.”
Tightening my grip on the steering wheel, I stared out the window. Honest to God, I hadn’t even thought about it tonight. I'd been happy that Rhys was there, but I truthfully hadn’t considered what it felt like for him to keep his distance. I'd thought Rhys was doing it on purpose, not because he felt he had to in order to keep this thing between us out of the public eye.
“Fuck.”
“You need to go talk to him.”
Amy was right. I did need to talk to Rhys.
And I knew exactly what I needed to say to the man.
