“I might have a few ideas of my own,” I admitted. “I’ll see what I can accomplish.”
• • •
Two nights later, I was in even less of a good mood.
Why was I in such a bad fucking mood?
Because, when I got to the impromptu party that was being thrown, I immediately sighted in on Crockett and found her talking to Laric.
Laric who was a good friend, and had become a great one, over the course of the last six months that I’d been out of jail.
He was a club brother, part of the Souls Chapel Revenants MC, and I wanted to kick his motherfucking ass the moment that I walked into Crockett’s store and found him so close to Crockett.
“Easy there,” Murphy said upon reading my expression. “You look a little murderous.”
I reluctantly pulled my eyes away from the scene in front of me and focused on Murphy.
Murphy who, might I add, looked a little rough around the edges today.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked him.
Murphy huffed out a laugh. “That fuckin’ son of mine.”
I closed the door on the happy scene inside and leaned my hip against the porch railing that rounded the front of the store, then waited for him to explain.
“Come on, old man,” I urged. “It’s not like you’ve hesitated in telling me your other life stories.”
Murphy pressed his hand against his belly and laughed.
It did wonders for his face.
“Have a seat,” he suggested. “It might take a while.”
My brows rose. “I’m perfectly comfortable right here. I don’t have bad hips like you yet.”
Murphy kicked his feet up on a pallet that was in front of his chair, then leaned back until his arms were above his head.
“My son came into the store today while we were in lunch rush,” he said. “He thought it would be a good idea to ‘come see his child’ while she was too busy to interact. That would ease his worry that he wasn’t giving her any attention that his wife could get mad about later, and he could say he ‘did his part’ on seeing his girl.”
I frowned.
“Crockett’s brother and sister give him shit all the time because of how my son never comes to see her or has anything to do with her,” Murphy said. “The way he did it today got them off his back for a while, didn’t piss off his wife, and allowed him to ‘show his face’ to Crockett. Letting her know he ‘cares.’”
I stretched my neck to one side and popped the bones in my neck, followed shortly by the other side.
“What, exactly, is his deal?” I asked. “Why is he the way he is?”
“The new wife.” He shrugged. “I don’t really know, to be honest. He wasn’t like this when he was married to Crockett’s mother. He was kind and attentive. Caring and compassionate. The only thing that changed was that he remarried.”
“Why is it just Crockett, though?” I asked. “I mean, there aren’t any reasons for this. And from what she’s told me, as well as you, they don’t get the same treatment. What is it about Crockett that spawns this kind of anger?”
“Melody is…” He paused. “Melody had a daughter that looked a whole lot like Crockett, from what I’ve gathered. She’s a real ‘peach’ according to my son. Melody doesn’t talk about her much, but yeah, that’s all I got. It has to be the daughter. But in the process of hating his daughter, she started hating on a young girl that’s the sweetest, most loving person you’ll ever meet.”
Before I could open my mouth and reply to anything more that he had to say, a car pulled up, and my heart rate started to race.
That was because I hadn’t seen that particular car in for fucking ever.
Nor the person that drove it.
“You okay?” Murphy asked.
I swallowed hard, watching, waiting, to see if she’d actually get out this time.
Juniper, the woman who I once thought was the love of my life, had been doing this to me since I’d gotten out of prison.
She’d drive by my place, idle in her car, and then leave before ever getting out.
Honestly, it was getting really fucking old.
Just when I’d go a day without thinking about her, she’d show up, and I was left wondering what in the hell she wanted.
This time, though, she surprised me by actually getting out.
Her eyes were wary as she took me and the old man in on the front porch.
She flicked her gaze to inside the store where the party was going strong, then looked back to me.
“Umm,” she hesitated. “I was wondering if I could talk to you.”
And Juniper was why I’d turned down Crockett to go to the wedding with the stepmother from hell.
Why?
Because Juniper had a stepmother of her own that she liked to appease.
One that gave her orders, and Juniper followed no matter what.
Why? Because the woman gave her money and controlled her bank account, and Juniper liked money more than she liked me, apparently.
So when her stepmother ordered her to kick me to the curb or lose her inheritance, she chose her inheritance.
But that didn’t explain why she was here right now.
Didn’t explain why she continuously came and watched me and never said anything.
“Go for it,” I suggested, shrugging as if I didn’t care.
And, in that moment in time, I realized that I didn’t.
At some point in the last six months, when Crockett came into the picture, I’d stopped caring about Juniper. I’d stopped thinking about her all day every day. I stopped wondering what she was doing. And stopped thinking ‘I wonder if she’s okay.’
Juniper was only ever on my mind if she showed up out of the blue like this.
And that had to do a lot with the fact that I was busy.
But it had more to do with the fact that Crockett was starting to occupy a lot of time in my mind, and there was just no room for Juniper and her inability to choose me anymore.
Before either I or Juniper could say anything more, though, the front door of the store was kicked open and Crockett came out onto the porch.
She looked at Juniper, then me and Murphy.
“Hello.” She smiled when she saw Juniper. “I’ve never seen you before. Are you with any of the boys?”
Juniper’s eyes went to me, and I physically saw Crockett’s shoulders drop.
Her eyes went blank, too.
I felt that look in my heart.
“Umm.” She smiled hesitantly. “Well, dinner is done. Murphy, do you need help inside?”
I watched as she wrapped a piece of paper towel around her thumb, holding it tightly with her other hand.
“In private, Zach?” Juniper’s soft voice filled the air behind me.
I hesitantly pulled my eyes off of Crockett for a short moment, then turned back to Juniper who was now tucking her hand behind her back and looking slightly flushed.
I frowned hard.
“Just say what you have to say, dear,” Murphy said. “I don’t think he’s going anywhere.”
Crockett bit her lip and walked past us, skirting past Juniper who was partially blocking the front path, and made a beeline toward her grandfather’s vehicle that never moved.
I watched her go and didn’t stop watching until she opened the trunk. She pulled something out of the back and placed it onto the now-closed trunk.