Page 25 of Eight Steps to Alpha

He nodded once. “Yes.”

This was the most he’d ever told her about his upbringing, and she didn’t want him to stop. She sat up straighter. “Tell me about him.”

It wasn’t a request, or a suggestion. It was edging close to an order. He sat back, as though not missing that fact. “He was a lawyer.” Elliot began. “Six foot-four, scary as the devil, but with the bluest eyes you’d ever seen in your life.”

Fe smiled. “Like yours?”

“Different.” He cleared his throat. “Better.” He scooted in toward the table, seeming uncomfortable, and picked up a piece of chicken.

She thought he was finished talking, that she’d gotten as much as she was going to get out of him tonight, but then he let out a sigh, and met her eyes again. “There was this little old man who lived around town where I grew up. All us kids were spooked by him, because he was always talking to himself. Crazy things. Yelling, laughing, arguing. He often went through everyone’s trash looking for his next meal, making a complete mess of it. Tearing open trash bags, going through every square inch. No one liked him because of that, said he was a pest…

“But I remember catching him myself one day, hollering and yelling for my granddaddy to scare him off. But when he finally got there to see what I was screaming over, he just called me back into the house, telling me to leave him be. Later I asked why he’d done that. Why he didn’t seem to care that this man was making a mess in the ally like everyone else? My grandfather only shrugged and said he was a braver man than most. That everyone had a story, and it wasn’t our job to judge where it led them.

“Well, the man carried on, always getting in trouble with the neighbors, and one day, old Dr. Murphy accused him of poisoning his dog. Everyone in town believed it, even me, but my grandfather came to his defense, said that old man wouldn’t hurt a fly. Because my granddaddy had such a good reputation, everyone believed him.

“I later asked my grandfather why he said that, because as far as I knew he’d never met the man. He said he’d fought with him in the war years ago. That they’d both seen things that they’d liked to forget, but never would. That he knew first hand that man was good, but that people liked to cast blame on the ugly, just because it was easy, and he made me promise never to do that again.”

“Did you?”

“I try not to.” He looked up. “But like I said, I’ve never met another man like him.”

Fe glanced up to Elliot’s profile, taking in his flexed jaw, and stoic eyes, and realized she knew someone like his grandfather. Someone kind, and protective to a fault. He was sitting right in front of her. But he didn’t even know it.

---