Page 31 of When You Least Expect It
“Where the hell have you been?”
Chapter 14
Myer~
I almost started laughing, but I knew that Calista would probably gut me if I did.She looked annoyed as hell, and if her sour disposition had anything to do with Jury Patton standing in her driveway, then I didn’t blame her.
Now, while I’d seen Calista in passing all week, I hadn’t been able to do anything more than just a wave here and there.With Zachary and Whitney finally announcing their engagement to the world, it’d been a busy week with the family, and I’d never seen my brother trying so hard at something, and when you considered that he’d been a career military man, that was saying something.
At any rate, while Zachary’s decision to quit signing up for deployments had been an easy one, it was still a huge change to his lifestyle, and so he called me every day to talk it through, which I didn’t mind.These were huge changes for him, and they were coming at him quickly, something that could overwhelm anyone.Nevertheless, he was happy, and I was happy for him.
So, the plan had been to catch up on some more yardwork this morning, but when I’d seen Jury Patton standing in Calista’s driveway, finding out what the hell he was doing over there had quickly taken precedence over the damn yard.Now, while I had no idea why he was at her house, his reasons for being there would never be good enough for me to allow it.
Looking at Calista, I said, “Sorry, I got caught up with something.”
Her hazel eyes narrowed a bit, but instead of directing her wrath my way, she got pretty honest rather quickly.“Mr.Patton came over here to offer me his help with removing the hornets’ nest forming on my garage.When I declined his help, he decided to stick around and let me know all the reasons why you’re a shit boyfriend to not do this for me.”I opened my mouth to defend myself, but Calista just kept right on talking.“Then, when I went on to explain how I can do it myself, he decided to lecture me on my place in this world as a woman.”
“Now, Calista, that isn’t entirely true,” Jury said, but she wasn’t having any of it.
“That’s when I told him how I think that his prayer group is a sex cult in disguise, and that led into a lecture about you being a shit boyfriend again for keeping me from my true spiritual destiny, and how you’re stifling my spiritual journey.”
“Is that so?”I asked, doing my best to keep my tone civil.
“Yep,” she said, popping the ‘p’.“Then we moved on to gluttony, and I’m pretty sure we were just about to hit the other six deadly sins when you walked up.”
“Okay, well...first thing’s first,” I told her.“I will handle the hornets’ nest, no matter how very capable you are of taking care of it yourself, and no matter how much I appreciate the safety wear that you’re rocking right now.”
“Are you seriously making fun of my outfit?”she asked, and I wasn’t entirely too sure that I wasn’t, so I ignored her question.
Looking over at Jury, I got straight to the point.“Look, I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, but I’m only going to say this once, so I need you to hear me clearly.Stay the fuck away from me, and that goes double for my girl.If she needs help with anything, that’s what she has me for.”
“Insecurity doesn’t look good on a man, Myer,” Jury replied, and I almost punched him in the face.While violence wasn’t always the answer, some people just deserved it, and Jury Patton was one of those people.
“I’m not insecure,” I assured him.“Insecurity implies that you have the ability to take what’s mine, and you don’t.This is also not a case of jealousy, as I have nothing to be jealous about since Calista is as honest and as faithful as they come.”I stepped to the man, enjoying how I was a few inches taller than him, though petty as it might seem.“This is about you being unwelcomed.This is about you being a predator and us being smart enough to recognize it.This is about how I will kick your fucking ass if you ever cross the street in this direction again.”
Jury’s head leaned back a bit.“Resorting to violence?Surely, you have the ability to recognize that violence is not God’s way.”
