Page 61 of Here With Me

God, yes.And bring the check before I’m tempted to run into traffic to avoid another minute of this.

“Howdy, I’m Melinda, and I’ll be takin’ care of y’all tonight. I see y’all have drinks, but if you need refills, let me know. Are y’all here celebratin’ for a special occasion?”

Yeah, my funeral.

The brunette smiles wide, and if she feels the awkwardness radiating between us, she’s not making it known by how giddy she is.

“Just a family dinner,” Jase explains.

“Aw, that’s precious.” She directs her attention to Fisher. “Your children are so sweet to take you out. My parents are always yellin’ at me to go out with them, but life gets busy, ya know?”

I grab my drink to avoid blurting out that she should shut up and just take our order. Before Jase says something hurtful about his dad or, worse, I tell her she’s wrong because what we did that weekend was far fromprecious.

“I’m gonna have the grilled shrimp with a side salad,” I say so we can get this over with as fast as humanly possible. I’ll inhale my food without chewing if it means we can leave sooner.

When she moves to Jase and steals his attention, I glance at Fisher. He smirks, then shifts in his chair and squeezes my leg underneath the table. My heart gallops at the goose bumps his touch leaves on my skin.

Just as swiftly as he leaned over, he settles back when the server directs her attention to him next. I take small sips of my Screwdriver as we wait for her to leave.

“How was your first week workin’ on the ranch?” Jase asks once she does.

“It was good. Every day is eventful.” Fisher grins at me.

“What’s that mean?” Jase asks in a harsh tone.

“There’s a lot to do,” I hurriedly answer before Fisher can. “Lots of people comin’ and goin’.”

“And the issue with Ranger,” Fisher adds.

“What happened?” Jase asks me instead of his dad.

“Found a couple nails in his hoof,” Fisher replies anyway.

“We actually found tons of nails scattered in the trainin’ center arena. Tripp and Landen had to use the sweeper and level it out with more dirt. We caught the person who most likely did it on camera.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Fisher says at the same time Jase asks, “Who?”

Jase narrows his eyes at his dad, but Fisher ignores his scowl and stares at me.

“We dunno. They were wearin’ a black hoodie and kept their head down the whole time they walked in and out.”

I only saw the footage last night, or I would’ve told Fisher sooner.

“Whoever it was knew where the cameras were,” Fisher says.

“Probably that Craig Sanders douche.”

Shit, he could be right.

“Maybe. But why, after all this time, would he harass me now?”

“Who’s Craig Sanders?” Fisher asks.

“A prick who needs his face rearranged. He’s a jealous asshole.”

“Language, Jase. We’re in a restaurant,” Fisher warns.

If I had a knife, I’d use it to cut the tension between them because they’re only onewhose dick is biggerargument away from getting into a fistfight.