Page 15 of Fearless to Love

Jax disappeared for a moment coming back with two cases of beer. It was more alcohol than they could drink in one night. The bottles clinked as he set them on the counter. “I’ll see you all outside.”

“Do you need any help?” Alex asked, unstacking the dishes she brought.

“I need someone to start up the grill so I can grill the chicken and steak.”

“Let us men man the grill, why don’t you,” one of the new guys said as he strode to grab the meat. “By the way, I’m Jack. It’s good to meet you. We need all the help we can get with these ladies.” He winked.

“Jack,” a blonde swatted at him, “you’re going to give him the wrong impression of us.”

“Really,” he laughed. “Wait until they’ve got a few beers in them and you’ll see.”

“Since it’s our night not to drink, he won’t,” She slapped him on the ass. Moving in my direction, she tilted her head up to meet my eyes. She was small but I could tell she was feisty. “I’m Taylor and that jackass is my husband.”

Lily looked around in confusion. “Where’s the baby?”

“He fell asleep on the way over here, so I left him in his car seat and put him in the living room, so hopefully he’d sleep for a while and not be cranky.”

“We’ll keep the door open so we can hear him if he wakes up. If you guys want to grab everything so we can take it outside that would be great.”

I eyed the other couple who had remained relatively quiet as I grabbed as much as I could carry. I was a gentleman at my very core even if only my sister saw it. He leaned down to murmur something in her ear, his eyes connected with mine.

“I’m going to get the food we brought and bring it around back.” With one final look my way, he walked out the way he came.

Did I do something?

“Hi. I’m Prue,” she held her hand out to shake, and I took it. “That’s my husband, Holden. He’s…shy, I guess you could say.” Prue looked to Lily with a strange look on her face.

He didn’t seem like the shy type with tattoos covering his arms, but whatever. Not everyone had to like me.

“Did you tell him?” Prue whispered to Lily, none too quietly.

“I can hear you.” I laughed.

“Sorry. I’m not trying to be cryptic.” Prue shrugged, looking worried. “I don’t know what to do. I thought he was better, and I don’t want him to start to feel self-conscience if…”

Lily hugged Prue, rubbing up and down her back. Looking over Prue’s shoulder, she eyed the door and whispered. “Holden was in the Marines and when he was overseas…” Tears sprang to her eyes and I wanted nothing more than to rip her away from her friend and hold her in my arms, telling her everything would be okay. Instead, I stayed where I was, hating the few feet that separated us.

Prue slipped from Lily’s grasp with a look of determination on her face. “There was an IED, and he lost part of his leg. He’s only been home from rehab a few months and is still getting used to having everyone stare at him when they see his leg. If you see it…”

Now I understood why he looked at me the way he did. I didn’t blame him. It couldn’t be easy.

“I’ll be cool,” I promised. “Thanks for telling me. If I thought I saw something I might have looked a little too hard.”

“Thank you,” she teared up. “He’s better about it, but it’s been hard. Today is one of those days.”

“I won’t push. I’ll give him his space and let him see that I don’t care.”

We started to head outside when Lily put her hand on my arm. I stopped, looking down at her. “Thank you. I should have told you, but like Lily said normally he’s fine. I don’t even think about it and he always has jeans on so you can’t tell.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I leaned down and kissed her chastely. We didn’t need to get carried away and someone walk in.

Stepping outside, all the men were huddled around the grill and the women were sitting around a large table watching two little boys run around with a dog chasing them. I headed over to the guys. “Where’d the dog come from?”

“He’s mine.” Holden placed the steak on the grill.

“Maybe Lily should get a dog being all the way out here by herself. I live and work in Riverside. I can’t get here as fast as I want.”

“If she needs us, we’ll be here, but it’s not a bad idea. You should get her to install a security system too.” Luke eyed me. “If some book crazy finds out her real name and where she lives…” He let that hang in the air between us.

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