22.

R OOSTER

I took a quick shower and then sped through feeding the animals before I gathered up what I'd need to work on Madison's slow-draining sink so I could go over to the lodge to get my girl. Since Rosie was in the cafe with her dad, I didn't go inside and bother them. Instead, I sent Madison a text and asked her to send someone over with morning tea. Of course, she brought it herself and told me again how excited she was to visit Rosie's hometown on the off-chance that she might meet her musical crushes.

"Don't get your hopes up, Chicken Little. There's a possibility you won't run into them, and then you'll be sad. Just let it roll, and we'll see what happens. If nothing else, maybe they'll be playing nearby some day and we can get you tickets to their concert."

Madison stuck her hand out and asked, "Promise?"

"Absolutely," I said as I shook her hand. I pulled her in for a hug and then smiled down at her and asked, "Does your boyfriend know you're head over heels for some rock stars?"

"He thinks Raven Forrester is almost as beautiful as I am."

"And who is that?" I asked.

"She's in the band," Madison explained with an eye roll, letting me know just how ignorant my question was. "You should really pay attention, Roo."

"I pay attention to things that matter," I argued as I let her go. "As a matter of fact, I noticed that you've got a nice streak of color in your hair that wasn't there yesterday. It looks good. Are you trying something new?"

"I have a hair appointment on Friday afternoon, and I'm thinking about adding some color."

"Well, whatever you do will only add to how gorgeous you already are."

"You're only saying that because I look like you," Madison argued.

Just then Kerrigan bounded out into the lobby, hopping like a bunny for some reason, and squealed when she saw me.

"Speaking of people who look like me, there's my girl now." When she got close enough, I swept her into my arms and laid a smacking kiss on her cheek. "You ready for school, Chickadee?"

"Can we pretend I have a cough so I can stay home with you?"

"If you don't go to school and learn all the things, how do you expect to take over the business when all of us get old?" I asked.

"I'm not gonna work here. I'm moving to Australia so I can have a pet kangaroo. We're learning about them at school because K is our letter this week."

"Good to know. When I come tuck you in tonight, we'll google kangaroos and see what information we can find," I promised. "Are you ready?" When Kerrigan nodded, I said, "Go kiss your mama and grab your backpack."

"Yessir," Kerrigan said as I set her on her feet.

"I've gotta get back to work. The second rush is about to start," Madison said as she looked out the window and saw a couple of cars parking. "Love you. Bye!"

I glanced at Dianna in time to see her put the phone down and laughed when she threatened, "If you buy her a bunny, I will end you, Rooster."

"What if I make her help me build an enclosure for it before I buy it so she feels like it's her responsibility and has the chore of taking care of it at my house and it never even sets foot in yours?"

"You've already got things in motion, don't you?" When I just smiled at her, she sighed and said, "At the rate you're going, we're going to need to make sure her grades are good enough for veterinary school."

"We should anyway, especially if she figures out how to convince me to buy her a kangaroo."

"I just can't with you, Rooster. You make me even more insane than my husband." Dianna looked around to make sure there wasn't anyone close enough to hear us and asked, "How is your houseguest?"

"I just checked on him, and he's doing well. I'm going to hang out with him after I fix Madison's sink."

"I met Rosie's dad."

"So did I."

"How did that go?"

"If looks could kill, you'd be planning my funeral right now."

"So, as well as could be expected considering your history and how quickly you two are barreling toward forever?"

"Exactly."

Once I had Kerrigan dropped off at school, I made quick work of running the snake down the drain and then took a tray of coffees down to my cabin for my guests. Since Rosie and her father weren't in the coffee shop, I rightly assumed they were hanging out with Ajax and brought drinks for them too.

I was glad I did because when Rosie greeted me with a kiss, she was almost as excited to see the trays I was carrying and kissed me again. Her father grudgingly took the cup I offered but didn't say a word of thanks, so I walked down the hall to my bedroom where the other women were gathered with Eric.

"You have to come visit soon, Eric. I know Dad and the rest of the family would love to see you again," Flora said from her seat at the end of the bed.

"I'll see what I can do after I get up and around again."

"And that's a no," Fauna teased from the chair by the closet door. "We've gotta get on the road. Your arrival yesterday put a kink in our plans."

"I apologize for my intrusion on your life," Ajax said sarcastically. He looked over at me and said, "What are you doing here, Rooster? You're interrupting time with my harem of beautiful women."

"Shit. I thought this was a wake," I retorted.

"I'm not dead yet."

"If you keep pissing people off so much that they can't help but shoot you, you will be sooner rather than later," I warned.

"Some people just can't handle my sparkling personality."

There were so many snorts and scoffs around the room that it made Ajax laugh until he winced and slowly put his hand on his side.

"I thought you said you only got shot twice."

"I thought I did. Math was never really my strong suit." Ajax looked at Rosie and said, "Whatever is in this fucking IV is potent because I could swear I saw you kiss Rooster."

Rosie grinned and then leaned her head against my shoulder before she said, "That was not a hallucination."

"Shit. You know what this means, right?"

"What?" I asked.

"It means my brother is gonna hate you more than he already hates me, and I'm not okay with that."

"Maybe he won't hate him," Jewel argued before she burst out laughing. "Shit. I almost got that out with a straight face."

"Thanks for looking out for me," I said, ignoring Jewel, who I wasn't quite sure about even after spending so much time with her. She was, for lack of a better word, prickly. That was the best description I could come up with. "I didn't know you cared."

"I don't give a shit about you, I just don't like to lose."

I rolled my eyes and then burst out laughing when Sandi, the nurse who had been helping Jewel take care of my friend, reached out and thumped my friend on the ear. "Be nice."

"What the fuck was that?" Ajax yelled. "Did you just flick me?"

"The drugs must be making you hallucinate," Sandi said with a bored expression.

"Did you see that? She just flicked me. What kind of hospital is this where medical staff can abuse patients so horribly?" She reached out and thumped his ear again and he howled, "What that fuck was that for?"

"The first one was because you were being a prick. That second one was just because the first one was fun."

Ajax looked so stunned that I couldn't help but laugh, and when he kept staring at her, I asked, "Will you do it again if he blinks?"

Ajax looked at me and blinked his eyes, so Sandi reached over and thumped his ear again.

Everyone in the room burst out laughing when he yelled, "Stop that!"

"It's fun, Jewel! You should try it," Sandi said through her laughter.

"After all the complaining you did last night, she deserves some retaliation," Jewel told Ajax. "I do, too, but I'm going to donate my thumps to Sandi."

"Because it will bring her joy?" Rosie asked.

"Yes because . . ." Jewel swallowed hard a few times and then whispered, "They bring her joy."

When Rosie started laughing again, Sandi grinned, and I asked, "Why is that funny?"

"Because that sentence gives Jewel hives," Rosie stammered.

"Oh God," Flora howled. "That was freaking awesome!"

"I caught it on video!" Fauna cheered. "That's gonna go viral!"

"It gives you hives?" I asked.

"It's the ‘Live Laugh Love' sign of the English language," Jewel explained.

"She hates those too," Rosie howled.

"I'm trying to grow as a person." Suddenly, Sandi raised her hand and flicked Jewel's ear. Jewel looked at her in horror and asked, "What the fuck was that for?"

"When you say shit like that, it scares me."

"Did you bring them here to heal me or make me wish I was dead?" Ajax asked. "Good grief. You know what happened last night? I'll tell you what . . ." Sandi reached up and flipped a little plastic button on Ajax's IV, and his voice trailed off. He looked woozy and sounded a little drunk when he asked, "What was I saying?"

Sandi's giggle was downright scary, and I decided then and there that I adored the woman. She was freaking awesome. I could tell Rosie did, too, when she asked Jewel, "Can we adopt her?"

"I already turned in the paperwork," Jewel retorted. "We're just waiting on a few signatures to make it official."

"Let us know when that happens, and we'll come to the adoption party," Fauna said as she got up from her chair and reached out to lay her hand on Ajax's arm. "Please come see us when you get better, Eric. My dad would love to see you again."

"We'll see," Ajax mumbled, almost incoherently.

"We've got to go," Flora said before she gave Rosie a hug. I was shocked when she gave me one, too, but somehow not surprised when she looked up at me and said, "If you hurt my friend's heart, I'll make your life a living hell."

"I would expect nothing less," I assured her.

"I need to get some air and then take a quick nap," Jewel said before she yawned.

Sandi yawned loudly before she said, "Me too, but probably not in that order."

"I'll stay in here with him until it's time to pick up Kerrigan from school. Do I need to do anything?"

"Don't let him get out of bed. He's got a catheter, so there's no need for him to get up at all," Sandi ordered. "If he tries, either knock him out or come get one of us and we will."

"He's not the easiest of patients," Jewel said with a sigh. "I'm going to shower first, then take a nap."

"I've reserved a cabin two doors down for the rest of the week," I explained. "If you'd like to go over there to get some uninterrupted sleep, you're welcome to it."

"Hell yes," Sandi whispered before she looked down at Ajax and then the IV bags hanging from the hook I'd made for her to use. "Don't hesitate to call us if anything comes up."

"Like what?"

"Right now, we've just got to watch him for infection, so let us know if he starts to get feverish or complains of too much pain." Sandi adjusted the blanket over his chest, pulling it up almost to his chin and said, "He should be fine for a few hours after that dose of pain meds I just gave him."

"I'll call you," I assured her. "Y'all go get some rest."

"I'll walk them over and then say my goodbyes to the girls. Do you want me to bring anything back?"

"I'm good," I said as I took a seat in one of the chairs someone had dragged into the room. "Take your time."

"Thanks, Strange," Rosie said before she gave me a quick kiss. "I'll be right back."

I settled in for the long haul by finding my Kindle app on my phone and searching for a book that would entertain me. I had just finished the first chapter when I heard the front door open and then close again. Expecting Rosie, I looked up with a smile.

It wasn't Rosie in the doorway, though. It was her father.

"Mr. Jacobs," I said with a nod before I looked down at my phone.

He nodded at me and then walked over and rested his hand on Eric's head. He frowned and then asked, "Did they say how he's doing?"

"He was acting like himself, so they drugged him to make him sleep."

Mr. Jacobs cracked a smile, but I could tell that he had tried to resist, so I looked back down at my phone to find where I'd left off. It was difficult to concentrate because I could feel his eyes on me.

He finally muttered, "I know what you went to prison for."

"It's public information, sir. I've never denied it or tried to hide it."

"Then why did you lie about it to my daughter?"

"I didn't lie so much as simplify it."

"To put yourself in a better light."

"Yeah. Either way, I told her that I attacked three men who tried to rape one of our servers and served time in prison for it."

"What you didn't tell her was that after they got off scot-free, you ambushed them in the parking lot of the courthouse and beat them until they had to be hospitalized. That's what sent you to prison." I shrugged because there wasn't much for me to say. He had the details correct and even the timeline. "You purposely followed them outside and beat the shit out of them after a judge acquitted them."

"Because I saw them commit the crime and I saw what it did to her when she found out that they were released on bail. I saw how terrified she was when just a few days later, they came back into the same fucking restaurant she worked at and asked to sit in her section. I watched her turn into a shell of herself, jumping at her own shadow and barely eating or sleeping until she started wasting away. I watched her cry when their lawyer stood in court and did everything but pin a scarlet fucking letter to her chest labeling her a whore who deserved it before he congratulated his clients and slapped them on the back like they'd accomplished something. All of that aside, you know what tipped the scales that day?" Mr. Jacobs didn't answer me, which was fine because I was going to tell him anyway. "As they walked past her to leave the fucking courtroom, one of them winked at her and the other two blew her fucking kisses."

Mr. Jacobs blew out a long breath but didn't say anything, so I continued. "Their money and status in this town made them think they could attack a woman and get away with it. Their financial standing and their families' status let them get away with it, and that was unacceptable to me, so I made sure they never forgot what they'd done by scarring each of them in a way that no amount of money could erase. Every time one of them looks in the mirror, they'll see how fucked up their face is and remember how it got that way." When Mr. Jacobs just sat down in the chair across the bed from me and didn't say a word, I said, "I got justice that the court system was too fucking crooked to dole out, and I'm not ashamed of it at all. Fuck. I'd do it again tomorrow."

"Why didn't you tell Rosie that part?"

"Because the woman they traumatized has worked for years to get back to the girl she was before that night and putting a spotlight on her every goddamn time someone asks me why I went to prison isn't something I'm willing to do."

"She seemed fine when I met her this morning," Mr. Jacobs retorted. My eyes must have given away my shock when I realized that he knew it was Dianna who had been raped that night, and he said, "I know that something like that never goes away, and as much as it pains me to admit it, I have no problem with what you did now. The only problem I have is that they were only punished physically and not legally."

"They didn't learn their lesson from the beating I gave them. They went to Vegas and did the same fucking thing there. One of them got shot running from the cops, and the other two are guests of the federal prison system. They left the town where their status and money mattered, and now they're finally paying for what they did, even if it wasn't specifically for what they did to Dianna."

"Prison, huh?"

"Yep," I said, leaning back in my chair and trying to relax.

"I wonder if their time inside has taught them anything."

"I made sure it has." I couldn't help but smile when I said, "If nothing else, it's taught them not to drop the soap in the shower."

"I've never seen my daughter fall so hard so quickly. It frankly terrifies me, Brewster." I tried to suppress my reaction when he called me by my given name but realized that I hadn't when he apologized. "I'm sorry. It's Rooster, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"I can tell that my daughter is in love with you. I firmly believe it's too quick and she's jumping the gun, but Rosie is a smart woman who is strong in her beliefs. You might not have seen it at first because she ran home with her tail between her legs, but don't let that fool you. My girl is a thinker. Once she's thought things through and set her mind to something, there's nothing that can deter her."

"I can't believe I'm saying this to you before I've even said it to her, but I love Rosie and want a future with her. Yes, it's quick, but it's right."

"Then that means you'll be part of our family and . . ."

"Are we gonna hold hands and sing Kumbaya now or what?"

Mr. Jacobs looked over at his brother, who had mumbled that without even opening his eyes, and I could tell that he was confused about how to feel. I didn't know Ajax's family history. As a matter of fact, all of us had thought he didn't have any family at all - or there were others like Okie who were sure he was hatched or some shit like that. However, I could see the worry on Mr. Jacob's face, and I wanted to try and get Ajax to recognize it too.

"Are you gonna quit being a dick?" I asked.

"Doubtful."

"How did they get him to shut up earlier?" Mr. Jacobs asked.

"She fiddled with this thing," I said as I got up and touched the plastic clip I'd watched Sandi open. I inspected it for a few seconds and then opened it up and watched the liquid start flowing again. I gave it a count of five and then snapped it closed again and said, "Let's see if that works."

Ajax let out a loud snore, and Mr. Jacobs laughed. "I could have used something like that when we were kids because that boy never shut his mouth long enough to form a complete thought."

I got back to the subject at hand because I knew that Rosie would be back any minute now and said, "I plan on marrying your daughter and making a family with her - whether that's by raising my daughter together or giving her siblings to grow up with."

"I expect you to treat my daughter with the same respect that you would want someone to treat your daughter with when she falls in love."

"I will."

"It's going to break my wife's heart when she finds out that Rosie isn't going to come back home."

What he didn't say was that the thought upset him just as much as it would his wife, but I didn't call him out on it. Instead, I assured him, "Rojo isn't that far away. The only reason I can think of for her not being able to go home on a whim is the weather. Sometimes, the pass is either almost impassable or too dangerous to try when we get deep snow."

"We'll be visiting often, I'm sure."

"I will make sure there's always a place for you and the rest of your family here."

"I don't know if I'd put that offer out into the universe, Rooster. You have no idea what you're getting into."

"I'm more than ready for the adventure, although I have to say that if the rest of this extended family Rosie talks about are anything like the characters I have met so far, our life won't ever be boring."

"Rosie likes her peace and quiet, and I think she'll get that here even with visitors from home."

"I plan to make sure of it."

"I guess you can call me Chandler," Mr. Jacobs said as he extended his hand across Ajax's sleeping body. I shook it, and he then leaned back again as he said, "And just so you know, if you're Rosie's family, then you're our family too. All of us that love her will welcome you into the fold - and not just you, but the rest of your family too . . . especially your sister and daughter."

"That's good because I can't live without either of them."

"And I hope you never have to."