“Deb.”
“Any trouble starts tonight, and I’ll have this dimwit do his job for once. You get me?”
I’m not sure why she thinks there would be any trouble. Unless…
I look around, and sure enough the fucking Gatlin brothers—well, half of them—are here, standing against the wall, glaring right at me.
I smile, lift my beer to Ryan and Deacon, and take a drink.
Idiots.
“There won’t be any on my part,” I inform her.
Jimmy groans. “Great. There goes our night.”
“Relax, I have no desire to get in a fight tonight. We’ll sit over there.” On the complete opposite side of the bar.
The Barley Beast, better known as the Beast to locals, is the only place around here where you can get pretty much any beer made. They specialize in local brews, and it’s always packed.
“Better not, Tristan,” Deb warns. “I won’t hesitate to kick all your asses. Don’t make me go into the hunting shack and sharpen anything.”
“You have my word,” I assure her.
The last thing I want to do is fight. Or maybe that’s a lie. Maybe that would be the best damn thing I could do. Work off this excess frustration. Between my father, Sadie, Lark, and my siblings, everyone is driving me to the brink of madness.
I was hoping a night out with my boy would temper that.
Jimmy and I walk to the other side and grab a table. He lifts his bottle. “To a night without drama.”
I laugh and tap my neck to his. “To no drama.”
We both drink and I lean back, letting out a deep sigh.
Jimmy takes a glance around the room and back to me. “Things all right with your dad?”
“Yeah, he’s just fighting me at every turn about his restrictions.”
“Can’t blame the man.”
“No, I can’t,” I agree. “I just wish Harper could keep him from getting in trouble. He lies to her, so she thinks she can get work done, and then I find him on the fucking roof of the barn.”
Jimmy laughs. “Sounds like your dad.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sure he misses your mom. He loved her…you know what it’s like…”
I look up, surprised he’s bringing up Emmy Jo. Jimmy, Emmy, and I were close friends, and they even dated in high school for a week or some shit. They both laughed about it because apparently it was all a way to make me angry and finally admit that I was in love with her.
It worked.
Emmy Jo and I started dating that night, and I knew I would marry her.
Even though they never loved each other as anything more than friends, they were family too. He felt her loss as hard as I did.
“Emmy and I didn’t have sixty-three years,” I say before taking a sip.
“Doesn’t mean you don’t understand what it feels like to live in a world without her.”
