Page 120 of Chasing Forever
Tammy brought Brooks a towel with ice, and I’m holding it to his eye as he holds another one to his hand.
“Are you mad?” he mumbles around his swollen lip.
“Absolutely not.” I shake my head.
“You know I had to do it, right? I’m not suggesting you couldn’t have handled it, but?—”
I kiss his forehead. “I understand. Did it feel good?”
“Fucking fantastic. You?”
“The best.”
We both laugh as Holden groans.
Deputy Moore comes up to Brooks first. “What happened?”
It’s clear there was a fight. They’re both beat up. And I won’t be able to bear it if something happens to Brooks’s job over this.
Deputy Moore takes out his notebook and pen. “Did you hit him?”
Brooks’s arm is draped around my middle and his hand tightens on my hip as he tries to get up. “Moore, can we talk outside?”
“It was purely self-defense,” Scarlett interrupts. “They had to protect themselves. Holden came in here like a madman.”
“Yeah, practically foaming at the mouth.” Poppy stands alongside her sister.
I smile at my family.
Holden puts his arm in the air. “They’re a bunch of liars! Ask anyone here.”
“It was the older one,” Mrs. Parker says from a table nearby.
“From where I sit, that boy caused the ruckus. He swung first,” Mrs. Schmidt next to her says.
“They’re lying. First Lottie Owens hit me and then Sheriff Watson.” Holden stands and comes closer to us.
“There is no Lottie Owens here, just a Lottie Watson.” Romy rolls her eyes. “He can’t even get his facts right.”
“Melvin?” Moore turns to him where he stands at The Canary Wall II as if the notecards are going to crawl away.
“I asked Holden not to come in,” Melvin says. “I knew he’d cause trouble just like when he was younger.”
I’d forgotten until now how Holden would cause fights every time he came to The Hidden Cave after he returned from college. I wasn’t old enough to get in, but he’d come here with his friends and was usually nursing a black eye or busted lip the next day.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” Holden looks around at everyone.
Moore does too. “Did anyone see anything different?”
“Nope,” a table of guys who work down at the auto body place say in unison.
“Exactly as Mrs. Parker said,” a table of teachers from the elementary school add.
All around the room, people confirm that Holden is the one who started it, and it was purely self-defense on Brooks’s part. Not even Holden’s so-called friends speak up on his behalf.
Brooks looks up at me, and I smile down at him, touching his cheek, tears filling my eyes. All of these people know what a good man he is and are supporting the two of us. His head falls to my chest, and I run my fingertips through his hair.
“Melvin, are you pressing charges or seeking any damages?” Moore asks.
