Page 18 of The Homecoming

“He’ll kill him,” Autumn hissed.

“Well, better him than me,” Justin said.

Autumn threw her hands in the air and ran to the door, causing a mass exodus from the bar. When they reached the parking lot, she found Weasel standing between Dan and Mark; the latter was motionless on the ground. Weasel had his phone to his ear as he called an ambulance.

“Stay right here,” Weasel said to Dan. “None of you leave.” He pointed to the rest of the group before bending down to check Mark’s vitals. Two other officers arrived on the scene, and Weasel assigned them to Mark so he could handle the others.

“What happened?” he asked, walking up to Autumn.

“Why are you asking me?”

“Cause if Madera’s beating the shit outta some dude, it’s because of you.”

She huffed.

“Tell me I’m wrong,” he said, and when she could only shake her head in response, he continued. “Go on.”

Autumn sighed and filled Weasel in on Mark. It was the brief version of their history and culminated in him just showing up and telling Dan that they were engaged before he tried to hit Dan; Dan had hit back. Autumn started to cry, and Weasel tapped her on the shoulder.

“Hey,” he whispered. “Don’t worry; I got ya’ll’s back.” He walked back to Dan. “Get in the car. We gotta talk.”

The paramedics arrived and loaded an unconscious Mark into an ambulance while Autumn went back inside to wait on Dan and Weasel. They all sat in the corner booth with the pitcher of beer untouched, afraid they shouldn’t drink before they knew what was going to happen to Dan. Silence filled the table. Barry yelled that he’d ban all of them if they caused anymore bullshit. Weasel entered the bar and motioned for Autumn. She crossed the room to meet him.

“I sent Dan home,” Weasel said.

“He’s not being arrested?”

“My report says he acted in self-defense against a disturbed individual who had a history of stalking and harassing you.”

Autumn steadied herself. “Thanks,” she replied.

“It is the truth,” he said.

“Of course, it is.”

He nodded; then turned to go, but she called him back, “Weasel.”

“Yeah?”

“Is there a way you can let me know if Mark doesn’t leave town when released?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

10.

Autumn and Dan sat on the swing in her mom’s back porch; the humidity had receded, along with the sun, making the outdoors somewhat less oppressive. She wanted to put the ugly bar incident behind her and move on. At least for now, the worry about Mark popping up in random places could dissipate. Dan held her hand, and she’d bet her mom was craning her neck out the window to see what was going on. Autumn had never admitted to her family that she and Dan were a romantic item. It would probably end when he left, so why bother?

Her job—now the bright spot in her life—contained equal parts fun and chaos. The past few weeks at Huntington Farms were crazy, from the minute she walked in until she hit her bed at night, but the guys trusted her enough to have her involved in their planning meetings. She knew their goals and their strategy. She could offer her opinions, and they had even implemented some of them.

She laid her head on Dan’s shoulder, closed her eyes, and lifted her feet so he was the only one pushing the swing. She let herself rock back and forth in the evening breeze in silence, apart from the bug zappers going off every once and a while.

“You’re making me do all the work,” Dan said.

“What?” she asked her train of thought broken.

“The swing. You’re just putting all the work on me.” He motioned to her legs and smiled.

She rolled her eyes. “What, you’re too weak to handle my weight?”

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