Page 23 of Deacon

“I got hungry and thought you guys probably were too, and after today I didn’t want you to have to worry about cooking. So, I picked up food.”

“What did you get on it?” Lisa asked without moving.

“One for each of us, that way you’ll have more than one meal, and I got each of us our favorites. There’s also garlic bread sticks and sodas.”

“I don’t want a soda. I want a beer.” Lisa didn’t bother to pull away from Deacon as she spoke.

“I thought about that, but I don’t know what you prefer anymore,” Cowboy said with a shrug.

“There’s a twelve pack in the fridge. If you don’t mind getting those. I would, but we just settled in, and I don’t want to disturb her.” Deacon shot a pointed look at Lisa still snuggled under his arm.

Cowboy shot him a scowl, but headed for the kitchen.

“Do you have paper plates for the pizza?” he called as he disappeared into the kitchen.

“In the cabinet to the right of the stove,” Lisa called back. “There’s cheese in the fridge and red pepper in the cabinet to the left of the stove.”

A moment later he came back, arms full. He handed Lisa a bottle, then another to Deacon, then went back to the coffee table to start serving food.

Deacon twisted the top off his bottle, then gave it to Lisa, taking hers and doing the same before tipping it back.

“I’m still not sure I like this.” Cowboy used one hand to motion to the two of them.

“I don’t really care what you like,” Lisa said after taking a drink from her bottle. “I’m an adult and I get to be happy just as much as you do. How would you like it if I came along and gave you a list of reasons you couldn’t see Ava?”

Cowboy scowled, put a slice of pizza on a plate and handed it to Lisa. “I wouldn’t like it.” He closed that box and opened another, repeated the process, and handed that plate to Deacon before going through the whole thing again. Once they all had food, he moved to the chair not far away and sat.

“Why does it have to be him though?”

“Why does it have to be Ava?” Lisa countered.

Deacon decided to let the two of them discuss it and only step in if he felt it was getting too heated or the discussion devolved to the point they were getting nowhere.

Cowboy opened his mouth to say something then stopped. He tilted his head to one side and watched the two of them for a moment then looked away and took a bite of his pizza. After several minutes he turned and shot the two of them a glare.

“You knew how I would feel about this, I don’t know how you let it happen.”

Deacon started to say something, despite his decision to let them work it out, but Lisa put a hand on his leg and spoke instead.

“Did you even consider how I would feel when you started seeing Ava?”

“No, why would I?”

“That’s my point. I’m not in the middle of what’s between you two. You are not in the middle of what’s between us. And I would never come between you and Deke’s friendship. Just to put things into a better perspective, how would you have felt to discover Randy as your brother-in-law?”

Deacon watched Cowboy’s jaw bulge as he clenched his teeth to keep from saying something they would all regret.

“Not good,” he said through clenched teeth. “Especially if he was as abusive as he came across.”

“No way to know now, but wouldn’t you rather have someone you like sitting at your table for holidays? Someone who was almost family anyway?”

Cowboy’s shoulders slumped. That one gesture told Deacon she’d won. There might be a few battles yet, but the tide of the war was over.

“You and I are going to have a talk,” Cowboy said to Deacon.

“You go right ahead,” Lisa said, her tone sweet as syrup. “Just remember if you get to threaten Deke, I get to do the same to Ava.”

“You better not.” Cowboy scowled.

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