Page 22 of I Choose You
Rusty had turned his attention to his new attacker. Ponytail guy took a hit to the face, probably knocking out the last of his teeth, before the bartender took Rusty to the ground. They wrestled for a minute, but a drunk Rusty was no match for the larger and sober bartender.
The gun went off with a loud pop, sending anyone standing to the floor. Someone jabbed me in the back, and I returned the favor to the poor woman next to me, like the worst game of tag. The bartender drove his elbow into Rusty’s temple and got to his feet with the gun in his hand.
“Is everyone good?” he shouted. He glanced around the room to make sure no one was hit by the bullet. Rusty was laid out, unconscious, on the floor in front of him.
“Cops are on the way,” someone shouted behind me.
I felt like I was going to hurl. Was that normal, after it was over and the threat was contained, for my body to revolt?
People were moving around all of a sudden, talking animatedly to each other. It felt like everyone was whizzing by me, but I couldn’t move.
“Hey… Hey.” I pulled my focus away from the unconscious man on the floor. The bartender was standing in front of me. He had said something.
“Hm?”
“Is this yours?” he asked gently, my phone in his hand. “Do you want to call someone?”
“Oh, thanks.” I took the offered cell from him. Yes, I did want to call someone. But who?
7
Reid
The tree lighting had turned out to be a good time. Claire had charmed the shit out of my brothers and friends. She was so damn likable, now I had to listen to them bitch about how I could ever have not liked her.
“You’re such a dick sometimes. Claire was so sweet. How does she even put up with you?” Wyatt asked. We went back to Wes’s house after the event ended. It was just me, Wyatt, and Wes here now. Luke went home to check on Juliet, and Maeve wanted to put Jane to bed. Seb had disappeared after chatting up some girl. That boy didn’t lack for female attention, that was damn sure.
“Yeah, she’s pretty hot too. You know if she’s single, Reid?” Wes chimed in.
“Oh, she is.” Wyatt grinned. “I checked on it for you.”
I rolled my eyes and flipped him the bird. He was obviously just trying to get a rise out of me. I didn’t know why they thought that talking about Claire would affect me. She was her own person. If Wes wanted to chase after her, he was more than welcome to try. Didn’t make any difference to me.
My shoulders and back were suddenly tense, and I rolled them out, cracking my neck from side to side. Wes chuckled like my strained muscles had anything to do with him or this conversation.
“When are you going to get your head out of your ass, kid. Get back out there.” Wes was sitting back in one of the camping chairs, his can of Coke cracked open in the cup holder, wearing a scowl on his face like I personally offended him by not dating anyone. His mean mug used to scare me as a kid, but I’d gotten used to it by now, mostly.
“Don’t you start too,” I groaned. I’d already gotten this speech from Lydia at Thanksgiving. “Claire and I tolerate each other, and even that is relatively new. And I’m not not getting out there. No one I’m interested in right now, that’s all.”
Wyatt coughed into his hand, and it sounded a lot like “Bullshit.”
Lydia and Wyatt had tag-teamed me yesterday about getting back into the dating world. I had never been one for quick hookups, having had the same girlfriend for the last seven years, and I wasn’t looking to get back into anything serious. So what did that leave?
Lydia kept trying to hook me up with her friend from New York, but Wyatt told her not to bother. I was pretty sure he was holding out hope that Claire and I would get together, but honestly, I was just happy that he helped get Lydia off my back.
The police scanner that Wes kept in his garage sounded, static noise changing over to the dispatcher’s voice. It had been a pretty quiet night for the police. A couple of traffic stops, some kids caught vandalizing property, that kind ofthing. I wasn’t really paying attention to it, but apparently, something was going down at the Cove’s End Motel. That shithole was a magnet for trouble.
“All units respond to Cove’s End Motel…chshch… be advised the suspect is considered armed and dangerous…chshch…”
Police had been called out to the Cove’s End more times than I could count, just in the last few months alone. Bar fights, drug busts, domestic disputes because someone found their partner sharing a room with someone else. It wasn’t often weapons were involved. That certainly ratcheted up the drama, but it wasn’t exactly surprising either, considering their clientele.
“What about you, anyway?” I asked Wes. “I can’t even remember the last time you dated someone.”
I shot him a challenging look and a smirk. He could dish it, but he couldn’t take it. Not when it came to his love life. Wes was a private guy. Hell, I didn’t even think I had ever been inside his actual house before. We always hung out in the garage like we were now. But if he was dating someone seriously, it would have come up. And it never did.
“Don’t need to date anyone,” he grumbled just as my phone vibrated on the workstation next to me. “Just answer your phone.”
Wyatt laughed, knowing that Wes was trying to change the subject. He was saved by the bell, or the vibrating phone, for now.
