“Which one?”
“West!”
“Really, guys, it’s not what you—”
“Damn it all to hell!” Ralph bellowed. “Had my money on Hunter being the next to bite the dust. Just lost myself a hundred big ones.”
“Damn it, Ralph! Will you stop betting our money! You’re terrible at it!”
“Well if those boys would get their heads outta their asses, I wouldn’t lose so much damn money!”
Ralph’s gaze came to me then, his eyes narrowing as he studied me the best he could from a distance. “What happened to her face?”
“Bad guy worked her over,” Sage announced on my behalf. “Don’t worry. West’s on it.”
Ralph gave a decisive nod. “’Course he is. Those boys don’t mess around when it comes to protecting what’s theirs.” Then to me he said, “You’ll have the chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes. Best in three counties. Make the gravy from scratch too. You want corn or green beans as a side?”
What in the world was happening right now? All I could come up with just then was, “Uh . . .”
“You’ll have the green beans,” Ralph said definitively.
“How about you let the girl order for herself?” Sally snapped.
“’Cause it’s a waste of time!” He looked back to me and asked, “You like chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“’Course you do. ’Cause everyone does. You like green beans?” I grinned and nodded, not bothering with words, because I was pretty sure they didn’t matter. “Well, all right then.”
“Same for me,” Sage ordered. I wasn’t sure if that was because it was what she really wanted or was just trying to prevent another argument.
Sally left a minute later to grab our drinks, and I looked to Sage in bewilderment. “You weren’t kidding about the show.”
She shot me a wink from across the table. “Oh, honey, just you wait. Hope Valley might be a small town, but it’s never lacking for entertainment.”
I didn’t doubt that. Question was, would I be here long enough to experience it?
Nineteen
Stella
“Um,” I started as I cut into my chicken fried steak that was smothered in sawmill gravy. “I think I should probably clear something up. West and I, we aren’t together. I mean like, together, together. You know?” I rambled. “We aren’t dating. We’re just friends.”
She regarded me with confusion over the rim of her glass of iced tea. “Really? I just thought—because you were holding hands and everything—you just seemed like you were together. You looked like you were really into each other.”
I lowered my face to try and hide the fact I was blushing beet red, and cut into my food, popping the bite into my mouth. Ralph had been right, this was the best damn chicken fried steak I’d ever eaten.
I swallowed and cleared my throat awkwardly. “Um. It’s kind of . . . complicated.” That as the only word I could think to best describe my current situation.
“I get that,” she said, leaning back into the bench seat. “Believe me. When I first met Xander, we absolutely hated each other.”
I remembered that affectionate kiss he’d given her earlier at their office. It was hard to believe there was ever anything but love between the two of them. “Really? But you guys looked so happy together.”
“Oh, we are,” she confirmed brightly. “I mean, we still fight like crazy, but mainly just because that leads to something much more fun. If you know what I mean,” she added with a waggle of her eyebrows, making me laugh. “When I first got to Hope Valley, I was looking to start fresh. I had all these grand plans of a whole new life. I’d just gotten out of a really bad marriage to a cruel man, and the last thing I wanted was another relationship. But how’s that saying go? When you make plans, God laughs. And that’s basically what happened.”
Her eyelids narrowed ever so slightly, like she was trying to see inside my head to understand all the thoughts swirling around. “Something tells me you know where I’m coming from.”
There wasn’t much point in denying it, and I realized in that moment I didn’t want to. “I think I do.” Pulling the straw of my lemonade between my lips, I sipped the tart liquid before continuing. “West is a great guy.” Boy, was that an understatement. “I just . . .” I let out a sardonic laugh. “My life is a disaster right now,” I admitted.
“No one’s life is perfect. We’re all messed up in our own ways. What might look like a fairy tale on the surface is a shitshow underneath most of the time. I mean, I left my husband after I caught him screwing my mother.”
My mouth dropped open in shock. “You’re kidding!”
She shook her head. “Wish I was. Then, to make matters worse, when Xander and I were first starting out, my ex actually tracked me down and beat the hell out of me.”
“Oh God,” I breathed. “Sage, I’m so sorry.”
She waved my concern away. “It’s fine. I got past it, mainly with Xander’s help. And he had some darkness of his own he was dealing with when we first met that I had to help him through. Point is, there’s no good time to meet someone special. If it’s supposed to happen, there’s no way to stop it.”
“We only just met,” I argued.
“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve known each other. All that really matters is how he makes you feel.”
“He makes me feel crazy,” I admitted on a groan. “I forget everything going on whenever I’m around him. It’s like he’s all I can think about.”
She let out a laugh, slapping her hand down on the tabletop. “Oh my God! I know exactly what you mean.”
Leaning in, I whispered conspiratorially, “I feel like I’m losing my mind. That can’t be normal, right?”
Sage’s expression was a mixture of sympathy and understanding. “Oh, honey, I don’t think there’s anything normal about the men in this town. Swear to God, there’s something in the water.”
I snorted and took another sip of my lemonade. She wasn’t wrong about that. Hope Valley had some sort of hot guy magic fountain, where, instead of giving you eternal youth, it made the men gorgeous. It was almost unnatural. Serenity would be in heaven.
“My suggestion? Just stop fighting it,” she said. “In my experience, it only prolongs the inevitable.” She leaned in, mimicking my position, and lowered her voice like she was sharing state secrets. “And it delays all the fun you could be having right now.” She threw me a wink across the table. “Trust me, the fun’s so worth it.”
I sat back and let out a laugh, feeling lighter than I had since West told me we were leaving the safety of our personal little bubble. I still hadn’t gotten a solid feel for the rest of the guys, but Sage was cool as hell, and something told me that if I stuck around long enough, I might just end up with a friend.
Having eaten every single bite of my lunch and having to stop myself from licking the plate clean, I was bordering on uncomfortably full by the time we left the diner and started back toward Alpha Omega. I wasn’t sure how much longer West was going to be, but I hoped we could head back to his place soon, because I was in serious need of a food nap.