Page 33 of Somebody's Watching Me
Neither of them said a word as they watched. Ty didn’t look too distressed, and if things got wild, he had a powerful punch under all that height and lean muscle.
“You know what?” Laura Jean squared her shoulders. “I’ll go over to listen and signal if you need to come over.”
Ben spared her a glance. “The hell you are.”
“Nah, let her,” Albie said with a nod. “She looks harmless, and if they have any type of manners, they won’t start something with a beautiful woman watching.”
“That big one in the back just spit tobacco on the floor,” Ben grumbled as Laura Jean reached Ty. “I’m going to go ahead and assume he doesn’t even know how to spell the word manners, let alone understand when he’s supposed to use them.”
They went silent, watching as the rednecks gaped at Laura Jean. Ben couldn’t blame them for the reaction. She was probably the most stunning creature ever to grace their existence.
“No wonder Ty looks nervous.” Albie sat back down. “That woman in the middle of all those guys is basically fucking him with her eyes.”
Ben stretched to see, which was ridiculous because he was already the tallest person in the room. “His dick is going to get him into trouble one day.”
“Pot, meet kettle.” Albie shook his head before chugging the rest of his beer. “You’re not one to talk, Fairweather.”
Laura Jean finally managed to drag Ty away. “Just a misunderstanding,” she said, making it to the table. “But everything is fine.”
“It’s hard being this pretty.” Ty shrugged. “Maybe one day you two will understand.”
Ben returned to his seat, drawing another two chairs around. “Keep coming to bars like this, and you’ll end up with a few scars on that pretty face.”
Already moving on, Ty locked eyes with a blonde two tables over. “Leave me alone. I’m tired after dealing with a sick boy and my exhausted sister.”
Ben stilled, anger coiling tight in him. SiSi hadn’t mentioned anything when he called earlier, and knowing her, she would have withheld the information, thinking she could handle it on her own.
Which, if that were true, would really piss him off.
Selah had been sick only once in his life, and it hadn’t been pretty. Fever to the point of delirium with loads of vomiting. The illness had stuck around for days, and SiSi went through it alone while he remained in North Carolina, oblivious as to what was happening.
“Selah came down with a stomach bug yesterday,” Ty said, wincing when Ben stood abruptly. “He’s fine. A little throwing up, and not much else.”
“What about Rebecca and Livy?” Albie asked. “One good round of dehydration can harm a baby.”
Charlie claimed to have had no idea that Rebecca was only seventeen when their affair began, but Ben had called bullshit from day one. His brother was an idiot, not blind.
Pitted in constant competition growing up, they had never been close. But even tossing their years of family dysfunction aside, what Charlie was doing was nothing short of disgusting. Vivian loved him. Completely and totally.
And no matter what anyone else thought, Ben knew damn well his brother was devoted to his wife. It made no sense why he would continue this ridiculous affair or why it had even begun in the first place.
The arrival of Rebecca and Charlie’s child only made it worse. While Ben was going to move heaven and earth to make sure his niece lived a good life, Charlie needed to decide which woman he wanted. Preferably, it would be Vivian since her father was digging his fingers deeper and deeper into Fairweather Holdings as of late. It wasn’t a problem yet, but it could be, and real fast, if The McIntyre’s daughter came home crying to daddy.
“I guess I’ll see you later at the house.” Already knowing where the evening was headed now that he’d opened his mouth, Ty said his goodbyes. “That is if I make it home tonight.”
Ben quickly paid the tab while Albie argued that the bachelor shouldn’t be responsible, and the three of them made their way through the crowd. He’d left his car at his family’s beach house but asked them to drop him at Haven since his only thought was getting to Selah.
“We’ll drop you off and then bring the car over,” Albie said once they were on the road. “I’ll check on Rebecca and Livy and see if they’re exhibiting any symptoms we need to be concerned with.”
“I’m sure they’re fine.”
Albie cut him a sideways glance. “I think it’s time to work on being a little more empathetic toward Becca. She’s basically just a kid.”
Basically, just a kid.
The same words Albie used the day Charlie approached him about performing an abortion. The entire time Rebecca was up in Alabama waiting for her prince charming to whisk her away, Charlie had been pressuring Albie to help him handle the situation he’d found himself in.
“Yeah, I get it,” Ben said. “But I don’t see her the way you two do. She might appear innocent and naive, yet there’s more underneath. She’s not letting her real intentions be known.”
