Page 18 of When It Reins (Three Rivers Trevors Ranch #5)

juniper

I woke with a crick in my neck this morning, but when I realized why, I couldn’t stop the grin from spreading over my face. I had fallen asleep on Mitch’s couch and so had he.

We finally slept together.

Well, of course, we didn’t. But it feels like a step in the right direction.

Because we accidentally fell asleep, he drove me to work today, letting me hold him on his bike again and get that feeling of absolute freedom from the way we zoom down road after road.

When we park, he grips my hand in his and smiles at me. We’ve turned a new leaf. Something is different.

Our feet scuff along the asphalt, and I’m not expecting it when someone moves from the shadows of the bar’s building and blocks our way.

“Well, I didn’t expect this from you, Juniper.” David’s voice reaches me before I fully see his face, but when I do, I find myself tensing up.

Mitch squeezes my hand in comfort, and I’m grateful he’s here beside me.

David’s eyes and nose are still bruised, and I almost feel bad for him until he shakes his head and says, “I never took you for some whore that jumped from bed to bed.”

I stare in shock, wondering where the sweet, nice, kind man I thought I was dating went, when Mitch takes a few menacing steps forward. David barely holds his ground, looking up at Mitch with tension around his eyes.

“You want another beating, son?” Mitch’s tone is low, nearly a growl, and I watch, muscles coiled tight.

David glances from Mitch to me and laughs. “Really, Juniper? You went from me to this?”

“David, that’s enough.” I finally find a voice, finally speak up, and say, “We’re over. I don’t know what business you have here, but whatever it is, be done with it and leave.”

I know exactly what business he has here, but he doesn’t need to know that. Plus, I have plans to thwart his business at every opportunity.

“We’re not over,” David says, softening his voice and looking at me with the same expression that caught my attention the first time. Love, adoration, kindness.

But he’s not those things, and if I really look back, if I paid attention to the signs, I would have seen that long ago. I feel stupid for letting it go on for so long, for throwing myself into something that I never wanted in the first place because I couldn’t have what I really wanted.

I glance to Mitch, whose jaw is clenched tight, his eyes not leaving David’s. For whatever reason, in that moment, I have something of an epiphany, and I hate where it leads.

The only reason Mitch is doing any of this is to keep me away from David. He already told me to stay away from the development, to stay out of it, so this has to be his way of keeping me away from whatever is going on.

I feel myself realizing what a puppet I was being. And maybe Mitch doesn’t have malicious intentions, maybe David didn’t either, but either way I look at it, I was altering my feelings, my actions, based on what each person was telling me to do.

“You have nothing to say? After everything we talked about? Our plans?” David’s voice draws me back in, and I blink, looking between them both.

Reluctantly, I pull my hand from Mitch’s and take a step away. He looks confused and maybe a little hurt, but I turn my attention to David. “No, David. I have nothing to say except what I already have. I don’t want to see you anymore.”

Then I take a step around them both and move toward the bar.

I hear Mitch’s footsteps behind me, and for the first time in months, I wish he didn’t work here so I could have some space.

“What’s with Mr. Brooding over there?” Shelly nudges my shoulder, wiping out another glass, and I don’t dare lift my head to look at who she’s indicating. I already know. I’ve been feeling his stare all night.

He didn’t say anything to me when we entered the place, and that was probably because we were immediately bombarded by my sisters and unable to have a private minute. But for once, I was grateful.

My mind is in a tailspin, and I can’t figure out which way was up. What is right, what is wrong. I’m completely confused, and don’t even have the right words to explain it.

So I buried myself in work. I chatted with every patron. I helped the band who was playing tonight set up. I even went into the kitchen and cleaned up the dishes. Anything to hide myself from the inevitable.

“No idea,” I finally answer Shelly, who’s been staring at me expectantly.

“Really? He came in right behind you. I assumed you two were together.”

I feel a weird heat gathering behind my eyes and chuckle at my ridiculousness. Really, Juniper? Crying at the memory of sleeping on a couch with the man?

I am pathetic.

“I don’t know why he’s in a mood. It’s not like he’s a chatterbox.” I was only half-lying. I have a pretty good feeling that I know what’s going on. I’m just not about to spill the beans to Shelly.

“Okay, I won’t pry.” I give her a wry look, and she chuckles, throwing her hair up in a clip. “I won’t! I swear. I’m just curious, is all. He hasn’t stopped watching you all night.”

I turn to her, place a hand on my hip, and finally confront something. “Doesn’t he always watch me all night?”

She tilts her head, spinning around to fill a draft before sliding it to the customer. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“So why hasn’t he ever asked me out?” I say outright, wishing immediately that I hadn’t when Annmarie and Thea join the chat.

“Who hasn’t asked you out?” Thea’s concerned oldest sister, mother hen voice says from behind me, making me tense. I love Thea, but I am not in the right frame of mind to be talking about this right now.

“Mitch,” Annmarie supplies, reaching under the bar for her water. I take a moment to glance out at the late-night crowd and wish we’d have an influx of customers.

No such luck.

“Aw, are you ready for that?” Thea asks, smiling softly. She is the sweet, protective sister who would do anything for us, and normally I appreciate that more than Annmarie’s blunt attitude, Tori’s blasé attitude, or even Ophelia’s naivete.

But I am feeling fiery. I am feeling a little frustrated and pissed and ready to confront the world.

“I was ready for it months ago,” I snap, feeling my breath pick up. Man, what was happening to me? I place a hand on Thea’s shoulder and give her an apologetic look. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, girl,” Annmarie says, and I realize they’re surrounding me in a circle. “It’s fine to be frustrated. He hasn’t made it easy.”

“I need some air,” I blurt out before I push through them, walking through the hallway, past the kitchen and the office, and out the door into the fresh summer night air. I inhale strongly through my nose and place my hands on my hips, taking deep breaths.

All of this is overwhelming me, and I’m not sure exactly why. Do I really want him that badly that I am having panic attacks over it? Is that healthy?

I hear the door snap open behind me and because I’m paranoid, I spin around.

Mitch.

He’s watching me closely, but concerned, like I’m a scared little bird he wants to pick up and hold but doesn’t want to spook.

“You okay?” His first words have me taking my first real breath in minutes, and I nod my head, fighting back the overwhelming feelings I am having.

I am physically holding myself back from marching to him and demanding to know what he is thinking, if he is thinking of me at all, if last night meant anything to him, or if he was just trying to do what his club told him to.

He is loyal to them. I can tell that even though he was basically forced to join them. He does care about them and work with them.

But does he care about me at all? Even a little bit as much as he cares about his club?

“I’m fine,” I say, taking another breath before he moves closer to me. His golden hazel eyes search my face, and I coil tight with need, with the feeling tingling through my fingertips to reach out and grab the man’s face and pull him to me.

But I don’t. Because as impulsive as I am feeling, as tempting as that is, I can’t do it.

“I should head in.” I move around him, half expecting him to grab my hand and spin me around, to tell me he is sorry he is such a slow mover, but that he wants me too, and we should go right now to his place and have wild, hot, amazing sex.

He doesn’t do that. I shake my head, wondering again what is happening to me and march into the bar, heading straight for a whiskey glass and pouring myself a finger before shooting it back.

Okay. I’m okay.

“You good?” Annmarie’s tone is soft to not draw attention, but she gives me a stern look.

I nod. “I’m fine. I just needed a minute.”

Annmarie’s eyes are shrewd, but she looks at me with concern. “You need to go home?”

I scrunch my brows, seeing Mitch over her shoulder as he resumes his post, stoic as usual. “No. I’m good.”

“Juniper!” I turn to find the voice and smile genuinely when I see Felicity there, waving me down. She sidles up to the bar, Jax right behind her, looking excited as well, and I scrunch my brows when they lean over the bar.

“We have news,” Felicity announces to me, her smile beaming brightly toward me, and my bad mood seems to leave me as I wait for her news. “So I may or may not have shared with my new label some of the things we’ve been working on.”

I lift a brow in surprise. “You never said you were going to show anyone anything.”

“I know.” She reaches across the bar and lays her hand on mine.

I feel Annmarie waiting beside me for whatever news Felicity has.

“Normally, I wouldn’t do that without talking to you first, but I told you that this new producer is super chill, remember?

She works with that Denver band I told you about? ”