Page 15

The fun had gone out of it. I just felt like shit.

Ava-Rose came out and leaned her head on my arm, and we stood there until the dust settled.

Gus came into the laundromat on Monday.

Gus had owned the diner on Main for as long as I could remember. He came in wiping his hands on his apron, and he nodded at me the way a man nods at a dog he isn’t sure of.

“Ava-Rose, honey. You got a minute?”

“Sure, Gus.”

He leaned on her counter and dropped his voice. I heard every word.

“I’ve been thinking about your trouble. Half of Main’s saying that woman offered you money. And I’m wondering if you’re making it harder than it needs to be.”

She put down the shirt she was folding. “How’s that?”

“These people. They want a little cooperation, that’s all. Is it worth all this? Your window, your machines?” He glanced at me. “Having him sitting in here all day, scaring off decent folks? Take their money, honey. Nobody gets hurt, and the town gets some peace.”

“The town does,” she said.

“Well. All of us.” He shrugged.

“No, you mean you.”

Gus went red. “Now, that’s not what I said.”

“They’re busy with me, so they haven’t come to you. You’d like it to stay that way.” Her hands were shaking. She put them flat on the counter. “You want me to take the hit so you don’t have to, Gus. You could at least say so.”

I was on my feet. I was going to walk that old man out of there by his apron strings.

Ava-Rose looked at me. One look, and a small shake of her head.

I stayed where I was. It just about killed me.

“I’ve known you since you could walk,” Gus said. “I’m trying to help you.”

“Then here’s how you help. Next time that woman comes down Main Street, you stand in your doorway and watch what I tell her.” She had to stop for a breath, and she kept going anyway. “I’m scared, Gus. I’m scared every time that door opens. I’m still saying no. And I’m not going to be the price of your quiet life or anyone else’s around here.”

He stood there another second shaking his head, before turning around and leaving.

She held it together until his footsteps were gone. Then she went through the curtain into the back.

I found her sitting on the box she uses for hems, with her arms around her knees, trembling all over. I got down on the floor and pulled her into my lap. She put her face in my neck and cried so quietly I could barely hear it.

I’d wanted her mouth and her body and that laugh for longer than I liked to count. Sitting on her floor with her tears running down inside my collar, after watching her face down a man she’d known all her life, I knew I was a long way past wanting.

I was in love with her. I had been for years. I was so fucking done for because love was going to turn me into a dangerous man.

Preacher called church for Wednesday, after she’d closed.

I took her to the clubhouse with me. I wasn’t leaving her anywhere I couldn’t see her. She rode behind me with her arms tight around my waist and her thighs gripping mine. Out on the county road she slid her hands inside my cut and flattened them low on my stomach, and I nearly put us in a ditch.

She’d been in the clubhouse before, but she’d never walked in with a brother’s hand on her. I took her across the main room with my palm on the back of her neck, and I felt every man in the place watch me do it.

Holly was behind the bar with Elena. Holly took one look at us and poured Ava-Rose a drink she hadn’t asked for.

“Stay with them,” I said. “I won’t be long.”