Page 59 of Needing Her

Dakota was out of his chair and lunging across the table so quickly I didn’t have time to register his fist was coming at me until I was already falling out of my chair.

“Stay the fuck away from Maci!” he shouted as I stood and worked my jaw a few times before spitting blood on the ground.

A few workers had surrounded us by then, but I held up a hand and said, “We’re fine. Just a misunderstanding, but it’s over.”

We knew them all well, considering we’d been coming to this bar since we could legally drink. So, after a few warnings, they walked away, and we all sat back down.

“Connor, you will—”

“No, Dakota. I won’t,” I said before he could give me another ultimatum. “You got your hit in—hopefully, that’s enough for the three of you. But I’m not leaving Maci. I told you I didn’t come to ask your permission; I just wanted you to know.” I gestured to his enraged stare, a sound of frustration leaving me. “You’ve already spent years scaring away any guy that so much as looked her way, and you’ve made sure she’s terrified to have a relationship because of your reactions. But she’s twenty-three. She’s an adult. The four of you need to let her have her life.”

“Fuck you,” Dakota snapped, but before he could go on or I could respond, Sam spoke.

“I agree with Connor,” he said, surprising the hell out of us. “At least it’s someone we know and can trust her with.”

Dakota leaned toward Sam but pointed at me as he said, “He isn’t good enough for her.”

“No one will ever be good enough for your sister—that’s how I felt with Amy. But I didn’t try to stop her from having relationships and getting married.” I pressed a hand to my chest. “I’m your best friend, Kota. If I’m not good enough for Maci, then who is?”

“Kota’s right,” Dylan said from where he sat, arms folded over his chest, expression filled with regret. “I’m sorry, Connor, but I can’t let you date my sister...let alone marry her.”

My head bounced in an accepting sort of nod before I pushed away from the table. “Then I hope this shows you how much she means to me. I’m willing to risk eighteen years of friendship because I don’t give a fuck what either of you are saying. I’m not leaving her.” I stood but hadn’t even taken a step when Dylan spoke again, rooting me to the floor.

“Connor, we know...we know what happened when you were a kid.”

No.

No, because—there was no way. I’d done everything to keep that part of my life from them.

“Excuse me?” I asked softly, sure I’d heard him incorrectly.

“After Cassidy left—”

“How the fuck do you know about Cassidy?” I demanded as all the blood drained from my face.

“You got trashed and told us about her when you came back from Texas,” Dakota explained, briefly gesturing to me before crossing his arms to match Dylan. “You told us everything that night, even though it was obvious you wouldn’t have if you were sober. What happened to you sucks, man—it really fucking does. But I’m not about to let my sister be with someone who is constantly fighting that kind of demon.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Sam asked as he looked from his brothers to me.

But I couldn’t answer. It felt like I couldn’t breathe.

“Short story of it all,” Dylan began, “he had a druggie, absentee mom. His old man beat him and Amy—almost killed them.”

My hands clenched into fists as something inside me thrashed, begging to stop Dylan. But it was like a car wreck—you can’t look away. So I just stood there, drowning in my past and my fears, choking over the horror of what was happening around me.

“The Greens adopted them after that,” he went on. “That would never sway my decision on this situation, or Kota’s. It’s that Connor lives in fear of turning into the guy who raised him. It’s that his anger scares him, and is afraid if he ever had kids, he’d do the same thing to them.”

“Holy shit,” Sam said under his breath and scrubbed his hands down his face. “Connor, man, I’m—”

“So, you can see our reasoning,” Dakota said, cutting him off. “I love you, Connor. Really, I do. But we can’t let you be with our sister. We have to protect her, and letting her be with a man like you would be the exact opposite of that. You would ruin her.”

“Dakota,” Sam snapped in shock and reprimand, but Dakota just raised his hands.

“Connor said it himself,” he said defensively. “He said he would ruin his future family—destroy it. I don’t care if he was wasted; don’t we always say drunks are the only honest people?”

“You’re such a fucking asshole,” Sam seethed as Dakota stood to look down at me.

“Break up with Maci...tonight,” he demanded. “If you still want to go to the cabin with us tomorrow, come. We want you there. Like I said, we’ll act like none of this shit happened.”

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