Chapter Fourteen

"Where"s your wife?" Nolan asks as I pull a chair out at Monroe"s after a grueling day of work.

I"m chilled to the bone and fuckin" ready for the warm front that"s supposed to be coming in over the next few days. His question pisses me off. "Where"s yours?"

His blue eyes harden as they bore into me. If I"m not mistaken, he"s pissed too, but he"s not rising to the bait. A mask covers his face, and he scoffs. "Never had one. Unlike you."

I don"t know why I"m pushing him, but I"ve seen the way he looks at Daisy when he doesn"t think anyone else is watching. "You sure about that? I mean you had a baby and just appeared with her one day."

"Fuck off, Hamilton. Just because you had to be out in the elements all day doesn"t mean the rest of us did. You might be in a bad mood, but don"t take it out on me." He gets up, swiping his bottle of beer off the table, and walks over to the bar.

"Why"d you do that to him?" Abel asks as he has a seat across from me. "That was a dick move."

He"s speaking the truth, but I refuse to give Abel the benefit of admitting it. "He was a dick. He asked about Daisy, but in a shitty way."

"She"s your wife. Why wouldn"t he ask about her? We question each other about the important people in our lives. I don"t understand what the fuck is going on with you."

I don"t understand what the fuck is going on with me, either. Instead of having a meaningful conversation, I do what I do best - I lash out. "I don"t know if you"ve noticed or not, but I have a lot of shit going on, Abel. The least of which is the ring around my finger now."

Barrett must hear my raised voice and comes over to where we sit. "Hey, things are good, no reason to get upset."

"I"m not upset," I argue, voice raising a little higher. "Do you have any idea how much my life has changed? Do you have a clue as to how hard it is to hold it together when you feel like everything is falling apart? Of course, neither of you do, you have the perfect families. You didn"t lose both your parents when you were less than ten-years-old, you weren"t sent to live with a man whose home should have been classified as a mausoleum, and now you aren"t expected to continue to bend to his will."

"Yeah, well I was raised by a single, teenage dad, but what do I know?" Abel growls, eyes flashing.

Before I can say anything else, a soft hand lands on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

It"s Daisy"s voice. The last one I expected to hear right now. She puts her arms around my neck from behind, hugging tightly. I want to turn around and bury my face in her neck, inhale the coconut scent of her body wash and forget about everything that"s been going on. But I can"t. "I"m fine." I pull away from her. I can"t let others see that I have big feelings about all of this. The only way I can protect myself is to hold everything close and keep it against my chest.

Daisy immediately steps away, almost as if I"ve burned her. If i were a different kind of man, I"d reach back, grab her around the waist, and pull her close. But I"m not that man now, and I might never be. I lean forward, putting my elbows on the table, and take another drink of my beer.

"Well..." Daisy says. "I"m gonna go get a drink."

I don"t react, but Abel does. He watches her as she walks away. "Why"d you do that?" he questions, turning the chair around, straddling it, and resting his arms on the top of it. "She would help you if you "d let her. It"s not going to kill you to allow someone to care about you, fucker."

While I know he"s telling the truth, I"m just not built that way. At least not yet. "Letting people care about me gives them power, and I refuse to let anyone have power over me, Abel. You of all people should know that." I run a hand along my jaw. "I get that you"re engaged and you"re totally in love, and you think everyone else should be too. But maybe that"s just not for me."

"Maybe it"s not, but maybe you should"ve thought twice about it before you pulled someone into this stupid game you"re playing with your grandfather."

"It"s not a stupid game." I glare at him. "Fuck you if you think it is. You know how much it means to me to continue to have the family foundation. You know how much good it does in the community, and it"s my legacy. One I"m fucking proud of."

"You can be proud of it, want to protect it, and still admit you"re a human being with feelings who wants to have the same normal shit that everyone else does. You can admit you want someone to care about you, someone to love you, to come home to you at night, and give you a hug. You can accept that Daisy"s asking if you"re okay. No one is going to think less of you for that. Not here. The only person thinking less of themselves is you, and you need to fuckin" get over it. Because Barrett? He"s dirty dancing with your wife, and Nolan doesn"t look to be too far behind. They"re out there living while you"re sitting here feelin" fucking sorry for yourself." He finishes off his beer and slams it down. "Now, I"m gonna go dirty dance with my soon-to-be-wife, and you can decide what you"re gonna do."

I fight the instinct to turn and look at the dance floor for all of three minutes before I give in. Jealously courses through my body as I watch Daisy grinning and laughing with Barrett. He"s not touching her in any way, but they"re close enough that I know they can feel each other"s body heat, which is exactly how close to her I"ve been every night. She shakes her hips, dipping down so far that her jeans stretch along the curve of her ass. I"m not sure when she changed, but this isn"t what she left the house in this morning. Her shirt doesn"t cover the space between where it ends and top of her belted jeans. The boots on her feet aren"t those sparkly ones that all the fake country girls wear, either. These are dusty and dirty, proof of when she goes to help her grandparents on their farm when she has time.

The happiness in her eyes and the smile on her face hit me deep in the chest. I don"t think I"ve ever seen that type of elation when she"s with me, and being the competitive person I am? I vow I"m going to make that happen.

Barrett wraps her up in his arms twirling her around. That doesn"t bother me. What does is when he passes her off, and the person taking her outstretched hand is fucking Nolan King. Downing the rest of my beer, I slam it on the table and get up to go claim my wife. In whatever way she"s going to let me.