Page 47 of Love You
“You’re kidding me, right?” Win had had worse falling off his bike. “I’ll ice it and it’ll be fine.”
Colt poked at the skin around Win’s eye.
“Knock it off, that hurts.” And his ear was still ringing. Dale had a mean right hook.
“You want to come over to our place? I’ve got a pack of peas somewhere in the freezer.”
“Nah, I’m just gonna head home,” Win said. “Did Dale agree to pay for the damage?” Win sure as hell wasn’t. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Come to think of it, Dale should pay for Win’s goddamn dinner.
“Yeah. Boden’s got it worked out with Dale and the other yahoos who got involved. You’re off the hook.”
“Fuck you, Colt. My only crime was taking a fist to the face for Candace.”
Colt locked eyes with him. “That’s what Boden said. Still, stay away from Candace.”
“You need Boden to back up your own brother’s story?” He turned away from Colt and started for the door. “I’m out of here.”
Halfway home, he felt a twinge of guilt. Colt was the police chief and was honorable enough to treat his family members like everyone else. But that warning about staying away from Candace pissed him off. Why was it that Colt just assumed that he was making a play for her? Dale was—or at least had been—his friend and he wasn’t remotely interested in Candace. But everyone always expected him to be on the wrong side of whatever the trouble was.
He started to unlock his front door, decided screw it, and made a straight line for his Jeep instead. It was stupid to drive when he could only see out of one eye but he followed the road to Hilde Wallace’s house. He parked behind Darcy’s Volkswagen, took the cobblestone walkway, and rang the bell.
Hilde answered in her nightgown. Ah crap, it was a little late for a house call.
“Oh my.” She put her hand over her mouth. “What happened to you?”
His lips tipped up. “Damsel in distress. Is Darcy here?” He didn’t know why but he wanted her to hear the story from him before it turned into a tall tale about how he’d been fooling around with his friend’s ex-wife.
“Come in. Let me put something on that and you can tell us all about it.”
Darcy came down the stairs, cringed at the sight of him, and suddenly his eye stopped pulsing and his ear stopped ringing and he felt . . . better. Like salve to a wound.
“White water rafting?”
“Nope. Bar brawl.”
“You’re kidding, right?” She tilted his chin down to get a better look.
“’Fraid not.”
“Wow, that’s some shiner.”
Hilde disappeared and returned with an ice pack wrapped in a kitchen towel covered in yellow daisies. “Let’s go in the kitchen.”
They followed and Win took a seat at the breakfast bar and applied the pack to his eye. The cold stung and he waited for blessed numbness.
“You think you should have someone look at it?” Darcy sat next to him.
“Nope. The ice is good. Thanks, Mrs. Wallace.”
“You’re welcome, my dear boy.” She got a pie from the refrigerator, cut three generous slices, topped each one with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and passed them out. God, he loved her. “We want details.” Hilde leaned against the counter and dipped her spoon into the pie.
He told them what happened, glossing over Candace’s role in the melee. She could’ve told Dale that there was nothing going on between her and Win but she’d been intentionally nebulous. Win didn’t like being used that way.
“I always adored Dale Kelly,” Hilde said. “He put new hinges on my cabinets when I couldn’t find a handyman to do it and didn’t charge me a dime.” Dale’s parents owned the local hardware store.
“He sounds psycho to me.” Darcy took the ice from Win so he could finish his pie. “If I were that Candace woman I’d get a restraining order.”
“Nah, he’s just going through a hard time . . . they both are.” Win didn’t know what had happened to their marriage but there was a time when Candace thought Dale hung the moon.
