Page 28 of Love Finds Home

Chapter 10

Ranger

I think the wholefucking town is at Zach’s tonight. Shit went down at Lottie’s house today. Everyone’s okay, mostly. Ginny was knocked out cold for a while, but she’ll be fine. I raced to the house as soon as I heard, grabbing a hungover Elle on the way. Davis and Trish showed up, along with Joker—who lost his shit when he saw that Ginny had been hurt. He insisted she go to the hospital when we were heading out to come to the bar. Elle and Tiny’s brothers and parents are here. Other parents are here, too. Hell, even Daniel is here. Joker works for him now, and they were together when shit hit the fan. I still don’t know what to say to him. I’m not sure I ever will.

I’ve been staying on the fringes of the crowd. Making sure Lottie is okay, smiling to myself watching Tiny not leave her side. I watch the kids for a while. They’ve taken over ‘their’ corner of the bar with Zachary himself watching over them. Zach’s story is an interesting one, that’s for sure. It makes methink about how my own situation might have turned out. I can imagine the conversation.

“Yeah, so I know you’ve called me dad all your life, but I’m really your uncle because your mom is a cheating whore who fucked my brother.”

Yes, I realize I’m fucked up, okay?

I’m seated at the bar nursing a beer when Ginny and Joker arrive after her trip to the hospital. Keith slithers in with them, looking like he’s been sucking on a lemon. He’s such a slimy asshole. I really wish I could see what Ginny sees in him. And I hope one day she realizes she could do so much better. We all hate him, and he knows it. There is absolutely no love lost between us and him. But he sticks around. And, honestly, who the hell am I to judge a relationship?

But Keith’s bad attitude isn’t what catches my attention. It’s Elle’s physical response to him. Her body stiffens, her eyes grow wide for a second, and then she’s looking down and away from him, but somehow, her eyes never leave the man. Have they really never had the displeasure of meeting each other? But her reaction to him screams she knows who he is, that she knows something about him, and she doesn’t like him.

I turn my attention back to Keith and watch him sucking up to Ginny’s parents. He knows where the money in the room is. Or at least, he thinks he does. When he figures out Elle’s family is here, he'll be jacking off in front of them for attention. When Tiny and Lottie first started realizing their feelings for each other, we joked that if her family knew about his, they’d tie him up and wheel him down the aisle, but it turns out she has her own money.

I keep my attention on the man and know the minute he clocks Elle. The only way to describe the look on his face is like a predator and their prey. That Elle is the prey doesn’t sit right with me. She should always be the predator. I shift myattention back to Elle to find her deeply engrossed in her phone. I’m not even sure she’s breathing. But her physical actions are worrying. She’s curled in on herself, her legs pulled up into the chair to make her seem even smaller. She’s not paying attention to anything happening in the bar. When Ginny comes up next to me and orders a glass of water from her brother, Keith does what Keith does best and shows his ass. He makes sure everyone in the room knows that Ginny might have gotten a little drunk last night.

Well, fuck that. They all got a little drunk last night. I had the pain, no pleasure—fuck, I don’t know which one it was—of driving Elle home. She bitched at me the entire way to the truck, where she promptly passed out. I did get a good look at her apartment and what she’s done with the place since Tiny moved out. I’ve been there before, but she’s turned Tiny’s bare man-cave into something like a work of art. The walls are covered, there are area rugs on the floor now covering the hardwoods. Pillows on the oversized couch that Tiny hasn’t moved yet. He’s a big man, he needs a big couch. Same with his oversized bed. He might leave the couch, but he’s going to get the bed. Before, black covered that bed. Now a sage green comforter covers it, changing the feel of the room entirely. But I’m not thinking about her bedroom right now. I refuse to sit in a bar with my friends and pop a boner thinking about Elle in her bedroom.

She doesn’t notice when Lottie and Tiny disappear down the hall heading to the bathrooms, but she does perk up when Officer Samuel Carmichael comes in to give us all an update on the shit that went down tonight. She immediately stands up and goes down the hall, so maybe she did notice. When she returns with her brother and Lottie, she’s wearing her public smile. Projecting that her life is perfect, and she’s so happy. I fucking hate it. I know that’s not the real her, that it’s just a mask. And I don’t like it when she has to wear a mask.

Sam is talking, but I keep my seat at the bar, lost in my own thoughts, watching Elle. She slips behind the bar and makes herself a drink, slamming it back before making a second. Her eyes never leave Keith. It might be wrong, but I want to know why. Whatever is going on between the two of them makes my stomach clench. When Sam finishes, everyone makes their way to the bar except Trish, since she can’t drink.

Keith makes more comments about Ginny, and I think Joker’s head might explode with the willpower he’s showing by not ramming his fist into his face. I’ve heard him growl more tonight than I have in four years. All of these unknowns, and I don’t know the whys. And that really fucking drives me crazy. I feel like people are keeping secrets, and I don’t like it. Secrets kill. They end relationships.

I move stools to be closer to Elle, who is still hanging out behind the bar. I don’t say anything to her, but I physically need to be near. I also don’t think this is her first rodeo with drink making, and Davis must feel the same.

“You looking for a job?” he jokes with her.

“Nah, just reliving my glory days. I’ve still got it.”

Her brother Sebastian sits at the bar. “I’m not sure you’ve had your glory days, little sis.”

“You know there’s lots of shit I’ve done you don’t know about,” she sasses back, sliding a glass of scotch across the bar to him.

He raises a brow, smirking. “I bet there’s not.”

“If only you knew. You did go away to college for a while, remember?”

His face falls like he knows she’s got him. He narrows his eyes at her. “Want to fill me in, then?”

“Nope, I sure don’t.” She smiles and winks at him. At least this smile is more genuine.

You can tell that the family is close, but Elle doesn’t quite fit in with them. Neither does Tiny. There’s no way he would ever becomfortable living his life in a suit. Is it a twin thing that both of them rejected the life they were basically handed? I’ll have to ask him later.

Elle and her brother continue going back and forth, giving each other good natured family shit. I get a pain in my chest watching them, almost missing my brother. Almost, but not quite.

Joker sits on the stool next to me, and I can’t help giving him shit. “Good job not killing the asshole.”

“Took more willpower than I thought I had. But I guess the fucker lives to breathe for another day.”

“You good? You’ve been sitting over here all night being Mr. Broody.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Lie. Total lie.

He narrows his eyes at me, and follows my line-of-sight straight to Elle, and he chuckles. “How long did it take you to fuck her?”

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