Page 11 of When It Reins
“Or what? You and your gang gonna take me out?” David’s taunting words have me blinking in shock, and I step closer.
“David, knock it off,” I say, pressing on both of their chests.
David moves back. Mitch does not, and in a low voice, he says, “Are you okay?”
I look back at him, once again caught by his mesmerizing gaze. “I’m fine.”
“Hey, maybe you should move on, man,” David says, reaching out to take my arm. I glance down at it and frown, unsure why he’s feeling the sudden need to manhandle me.
“David, stop.” I realize then that it’s the second time I’ve told him to stop in a span of a couple minutes.
“I will when he does.” He nods at Mitch and, much more gently, he pulls me to him.
I have no reason to stay near Mitch over David, as Mitch has made abundantly clear to me, so I go with him, unsure why it makes me feel uneasy.
Then he tucks his arm around my shoulders and kisses my head, showing me the sweet side of him that drew me to him in the first place.
We step around Mitch, not bothering with goodbyes, and David lets out a breath. “Sorry, babe. I just hate how those guys act, like they own the world.”
I feel my brows scrunch as I think. I’ve never seen anyone from the club act that way, but maybe they act a little differently when they aren’t at the bar.
“Well, there’s no use fighting one. I’m sure they care less about bruises on their knuckles than you do.” I let out a little joke, and David takes it in stride. Now that Mitch is gone, he seems to have come back to himself.
“Hey, how about we do a fun night out this weekend? I can take you to the city. We can do some dinner and dancing.” He turns me until I’m looking up at him, my gaze softening when I see the caring man I fell for in front of me again. “Then we’ll get a fancy hotel and not leave the bed for twenty-four hours.”
I grin, planting a peck on his lips. “That sounds perfect.”
We continue walking, his arm around me and me nestled into his side, and for a few moments, Mitch is far, far from my mind.
7
mitch
I realizeafter my two encounters with Juniper that I wasn’t being very subtle. Not that I was trying to or even any good at that, but I was hoping I could figure out what was going on without the girl getting hurt.
She is innocent, maybe far too innocent to even be with the guy she is, but she doesn’t deserve to be stuck in the middle, and me going after her asshole boyfriend without giving her a reason was just going to blow up in my face.
When I head back to work over the next few days, it seems that Juniper is giving me the silent treatment. As someone who rarely talks at all, I am able to easily notice when someone isn’t talking to me, and her interactions with me became nonexistent.
She normally would greet me before our shifts started, giving me a smile that would last my restless mind for hours. Then during shift, she would supply me with water, but this since has been passed on to another waitress, sometimes even my niece, Lue, who waitresses here with her aunts sometimes.
During her sets, I would easily be able to get her eyes trained on me while she sang her heart out, and I would replay thosemoments over and over again in my head when I went home at night.
Now she purposefully keeps her head faced away from me.
Then she will sneak out the back door to her car and not let me walk her to it. That one pisses me off the most, because that isn’t a selfish request, that is a matter of safety and her putting herself at risk makes me want to scream.
I’m leaning against a wall, watching her belt out lyrics to a popular country song, getting everyone on the dance floor moving, when a memory hits me.
It was one of the first months I’d been bouncing at Bottle Grounds. I was fresh off the road and dealing with bullshit, and I wasn’t talking to anyone.
Juniper never let that dissuade her and never let my surly ass be alone. She would bring me drinks and chat with me. She would bring me food too, even when I told her I didn’t want it. I became fond of her presence because she never forced me to talk with her.
But one night, I’d been walking her out to the car when she had suddenly turned on me and smiled broadly before saying, “Let’s go out sometime.”
I’d blinked, unprepared for the kind of offer she was giving me.
“Come on.” She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked a hip out, giving me a flirty look. “I see the way you watch me, Mitch. The feeling is mutual. Let’s get dinner or something.”
