Page 46 of Recklessly Rogue

“We can do it here. She should have all the smoothies made.”

Henry runs a hand over his face. “I guess you should introduce me to everyone,” he says, not sounding all that enthusiastic about it. “Then you and April and I need to talk. She can’t leave, I assume?”

“Not unless her new boss is going to take over the shift,” I say giving him a little grin.

“He doesn’t know how to run the espresso machine either,” Henry says dryly.

“Well, they shouldn’t have any more coffee, anyway. We need to switch them over to water. Will doesn’t drink enough water asit is. And Ben will start on soda if you let him but just because it’s diet, it still has caffeine. He doesn’t need all of that.”

Henry gives me a look. “I’m not going to memorize what they all need and don’t need to be eating and drinking. No matter how intimidating their wives are.”

I laugh. I love those ladies. “I suppose you could go out and announce to everyone that the bar is closing down. If you really want to keep April from working.”

He grimaces. “I was informed I’m not allowed to shut the bar down.”

I am not surprised to hear that. “It’s not just a bar, Henry.”

He glances toward the swinging doors. “I know. It’s a damned community center that just happens to serve alcohol at night.”

“Pretty much,” I agree. “How did you not notice the huge table with the five-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle on it before today?”

His gaze roams over my face. “Because when I’ve been in here before, I’ve been very focused on something else.”

Me.

He’s been so focused on me before that he didn’t take in details of the room we were in.

Yeah, the idea of ignoring him really was a stupid one.

“Why don’t they just hang out at an actual community center? Or go have breakfast at the diner or the coffee shop in town?” he asks.

That’s an interesting question. But it’s got a pretty simple answer. I tuck my hands into the back pocket of my jeans. “My father.”

Henry seems surprised for only about two seconds. Henry knows all about my father. I told him about my family and our history when we were first getting to know each other. Then he learned even more when Scarlett refused to let Henry tellCian where she was. Then he really saw up close how Mariah was affected by our family issues when Henry brought Cian to Emerald.

“These men don’t get along with your father?” Henry asks.

“These men and their families don’t go to my father’s church. They didn’t want to become a part of his congregation and give him money. They don’t agree with the amount of power my father has in town and they don’t like the way members of the church try to manipulate and intimidate everyone in Emerald. So they’ve found the one place in town they can come and spend time and not be confronted.”

“Confronted?” Henry asks. “What do you mean?”

My father is the pastor at the church where just a little over half of the town worships. If you aren’t a part of that church, you are considered less than by the members of that church and are reminded of that any chance they get.

My father and I have never been close. He turned his back on my mom—a fling he’d had with a girl passing through town just as he was building his church—when he found out she was pregnant. He and I have only spoken a handful of times, and I don’t regret that. My mom and my stepfather made up for any gaps my father left. But I resent the way he came between Scarlett and me in high school, and I will never forgive him for the way he made Scarlett feel and the way he publicly shamed her when she got pregnant with Mariah. Many of those issues stayed with her until very recently. Some might stay with her forever.

“Members of the church work all over town,” I tell Henry. “And they hold Bible studies and mini-services they call “Live Rights”—reminders of how to live right every day no matter where you are—in places like the diner and the coffee shop. It’s supposedly for the people participating, but they make a point ofsitting right in the middle of wherever they are and being loud enough that everyone can hear.”

“Every single day?”

“Yep. There’s a group each day in each place, sometimes just two or three people, sometimes more, but it’s every day, all over town,” I say. “And they do it during their breaks at work too. So even if you don’t go to the church and you don’t have time to stop at the diner or the coffee shop, there’s a good chance you’ll walk into your breakroom at work, and there will be three or four of them talking about a Bible verse or praying, or whatever.”

“They’re essentially going out and preaching to everyone all the time.”

I nod. “Sounds innocuous, I know. It probably even sounds good and godly to some. But it’s just so in your face and the louder they get when you’re there, the more you know they judge you.”

One corner of his mouth curls up. “Are they loud when you’re around?”

I smile. “Very.” Henry knows I don’t give a rat’s ass what my father, or his followers, think of me. Everyone knows that, actually.

---