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Chapter Fifteen

“What are you doing here? You want to hop up your rental?” Roan asked as he sauntered out of the first garage bay, wiping his hand on a blue cloth.

I chuckled and went over to him and shook his hand. “I don’t think souping up the Camry is worth the money. Do you believe this piece of shit the rental place gave me?”

“You’re right about that. What happened?”

I was still disgusted that the rental place couldn’t give me a better replacement for the truck than a Camry. They better get the truck fixed damned quick!

“The alternator conked out. They towed it away, after I specifically ordered an F-250 for this trip. Then they said this was all they had, unless I wanted to wait for something from Nashville.”

“Why didn’t you just have me tow it and fix it?”

“Because I’m an idiot,” I admitted.

Roan laughed. “You look good riding around in a white Camry.”

“Fuck you. So, why’d you tell me to meet you here? Why are you working as a mechanic in your father’s garage? I thought you worked for Onyx.”

“It’s not my father’s garage anymore. He retired. Lisa runs it.”

“Who’s Lisa?”

“She’s my fiancée. I’ll come pitch in when things get overloaded.”

“And she’s your boss?” I asked.

“It’s a long story. You want to go get a beer? I can tell you about it.”

“Does your boss let you leave early?”

“Fuck you,” Roan said without heat. “Let me just tell her I’m heading out. As a matter of fact, why don’t you come and meet her?”

I followed Roan into the office and found a beautiful blonde in jeans and a tank top on the phone ripping someone a new one.

Roan got a shit-eating grin on his face. “One of our vendors. He’s been late with the last two orders, and he keeps upping his price. Lisa is done. And I mean done. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.”

“I’ll make sure every auto body and repair shop in Sevier, Cocke, Jefferson, Knox and Blount County know about your double-dealing incompetence by the end of the day if you don’t get me my parts at the rate you originally quoted.”

She looked up and blew Roan a kiss.

“Hell no, I’m not going to call them. I said by the end of the day. I have every single one of them on an e-mail list. We trade information on vendors so we know who to and who not to work with. Now, do you want to be on the naughty or nice list, Al?”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t give a shit where you have to get the parts. I want them in my hands tonight. We’ll be closed, but you can drop them off at Roan’s place. I’ll give you the address. That means before midnight. Got it?”

She listened, then rolled her eyes again. “Midnight, Al. Otherwise, you’re going to move up to the shit list. You don’t want that, because you’ll be blackballed. You got that?”

I could see he was still talking.

“Again, I don’t care. You could have returned my two calls last week. You’re damn lucky I’m giving you this chance. Gotta go.”

I could still hear the man talking as she hung up.

“My woman, the ball-buster.”

“I can’t believe that asshole. Can you?”

“Sure, I can. I bet you a coke that he never pulled that shit with Dad, but he thought because you were a woman, he could get away with it.”

“I should have made him sell it to us at below the rate he quoted,” she muttered. Then she got up and smiled. “Who’s this?” she asked, nodding at me.

“This is Beau, the man I told you about.”

She walked around the counter and gave me a big hug. “Roan’s had nothing but good things to say about you.”

“Thanks. I think. You know, sometimes he lies.”

She threw back her head and let out a husky laugh. “Trust me, I know. But only for the greater good.”

“I have the Vette taken care of, so I’m going to take off. If anything else comes up, it can wait until tomorrow,” Roan said.

“Sounds good.”

“What time do you think you’ll be home? I’m making stir-fry.”

“Well, if you’re cooking, I’ll be home by six.” She reached up and gave Roan a kiss.

It was four o’clock now. It would be nice to be spending time with Maddie, but she’d already texted and told me that tonight was going to be a late one and so I’d need to pick her up then.

“Come on, Beau, you’re driving me home,” Roan said.

I nodded. “It was nice to meet you, Lisa.” I smiled at her.

“You too, Beau. You’ll be there for dinner, won’t you?”

“I’ve got something planned for Maddie.”

“Understood.” Roan nodded.

“It was nice meeting you, Lisa.” I waved as I followed Roan out the door.

By the time we made it to his house, he’d made at least eight disparaging remarks about the Camry. He was definitely a car snob. It was a really hot day, so we settled down with our beers in the living room with the air conditioning.

“You good with the information I got you on that sleazebag, Bruce Forrester?” Roan asked me.

“I wouldn’t say, good. But I thank you for asking around. It sounds like he’s scared of messing up a good thing.”

“If I felt he needed a little more persuasion to stay away from Maddie, I would have given it to him, but his lawyer has assured him he’s going to get away with this, so he’s going to behave like a choir boy until his court date.”

“As long as he doesn’t come after Maddie or Eli, I’m good.”

Roan nodded, then smiled. “So, I never saw you when you first came to town. How was it, finding your long-lost twin?”

I smiled. Now this topic of conversation was a welcome one. “Surreal. Good. Fantastic. Took me a bit of time to get my head around it, though. But now, we’re really aligned. Both special forces. I mean, our growing-up years were different, since he had to grow up with our sadistic bastard of a father, but still, down at the core, we’re really similar.”

I liked Roan. Not only were we both Marine Raiders, but he and I had grown up together in Jasper Creek. He was a grade ahead of me, but we played on the same football team. He knew my story. He got me. He listened.

“I can’t say the same about me and my brothers. The twin thing must be a whole different animal.”

“I imagine it is,” I told him.

We were quiet for a bit as we drank our beers.

“How does it feel being out of the teams?” I asked Roan.

“I told you at Simon’s party. But what really makes it okay is Lisa. She’s my touchstone. I don’t know what I would do without her. We’re so solid we’re trying for a kid.”

I chuckled. “Before the wedding?”

Roan laughed. “Dad broke his leg when he was deep sea fishing off the coast of Florida. He doesn’t want to be wearing the cast for the wedding pictures, so we agreed to put off the wedding for another six weeks. It’s going to be here in Jasper Creek.”

“What about Lisa’s family?”

“She’s an only child. She has her dad and grandpa who raised her, and she has aunts and uncles and cousins. So, there will be plenty of people on her side of the aisle. I’m pretty sure that all the guys in the shop are going to sit on her side of the aisle and not mine.”

I grinned. I could totally see that.

“So, kids, huh?”

“Yep. At least three.”

“Sounds nice.”

“What about you and Maddie?”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I don’t want to leave the teams. I want to get my twenty in.” I blurted out.

“So? What’s the problem?”

“Maddie lives and works here. Here’s where her family is.”

“Have you talked to her about moving to SoCal?”

“I don’t think we’re at that point yet,” I admitted.

“The way I hear it, you definitely are.”

I frowned. “How would you hear anything?”

“I work with the man who’s married to Maddie’s big sister. Sisters talk.”

I took another sip of my beer. I’d forgotten how close the Avery sisters were. I was kind of an idiot. Of course, Roan would be in the know.

I leaned over and put my elbows on my knees, twirling my bottle of beer between my hands. “I’m in love with her.”

“I’m not surprised. Simon’s told me about her. A social worker. That takes grit.”

I chuckled. “I gotta tell you, seeing her holding that softball bat while a guy almost twice her size was coming at her with a cast-iron skillet, was something to behold. She didn’t flinch.”

Roan laughed softly. “Lisa would have been pissed if I had taken away her chance to use the bat. I’d hear about it for a year.”

“Maddie’s not that bloodthirsty. She was defending someone. She’s not normally the violent type. I think it goes along with her social worker nature.”

“She sure doesn’t take after her sister Evie.”

We both started laughing at that thought.

“So, you say you’re in love with Maddie and you want to get five more years in. What’s your problem? Talk to the woman.”

“I told her last weekend that we needed to take each day as it came. I was working up to telling her I loved her.”

Roan looked at me from across the room like I was the world’s biggest idiot. Hell, maybe I was. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

I rubbed the back of my neck and set down my beer. It’d gotten warm. “I’m worried that I might be moving too fast.”

“You’re acting like a pussy. That’s what’s wrong. But the boy I knew and the man I know isn’t a pussy. So, what else is it?”

I pushed up off the couch and started pacing. Roan was right. Something was stopping me from talking to Maddie, but what the hell was it? I’d loved her when I left Jasper Creek. I’d done my best to put her out of my mind when I was in the Marines, but that didn’t always work. Then all that had to happen was seeing her at Maverick’s and I was done.

Bam. My heart broke open.

I could think of nothing better than loving Maddie Avery. Even so, there was something stopping me from making a commitment.

I stopped pacing.

I just stood there in the middle of Roan’s living room.

“Do you have it?” Roan asked.

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “I think I’m scared to really commit… not because I don’t want Maddie, but because I know what it’s like to lose people you love. My mom was ripped away, Brady—I mean Kai—too. I think deep down I figured if I didn’t hold on too tight, it wouldn’t hurt as bad if it all went to hell.”

Roan nodded once, his eyes serious. “That’s not being a pussy, Beau. That’s being human.”