“You done?” Rix demanded.
Judge just stared at him.
“You’re done,” Rix whispered.
“I love you, man,” Jude said firmly. “And I’m here to help any way you need.”
“Yeah?” Rix asked. “You are?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Really?” Rix pushed.
Judge’s head ticked and some of his cocky, know-it-all attitude slid away.
“You don’t know dick, bud,” Rix told him. “And there’s one reason why. But you do know what that is.”
“Rix—”
“You know who knows?’
“Rix—”
“Alex, because she fuckin’ asks.”
Judge winced.
Then he clipped, “Goddamn it, Rix—”
“You’re done, get out.”
“Rix—”
“Get the fuck out, Judge. We need space.”
They faced off again.
Judge ended it again, this time with a parting shot.
“I fucked up, but you’re fucking up. Stop doing it before she gets hurt.”
He delivered that, and he was out the door.
But Rix felt that the deepest in his throat.
So deep, it seemed like he was choking on it.
“She’s lost her mind with this whole Rogue One bullshit,” Gal declared. “I mean, who wants sad, hopeless Star Wars?”
“Word, sister,” Rix agreed.
“Ugh,” Alex grunted.
Rix grinned at her.
“I don’t understand, why am I the only one who likes Tango?” Katie asked.
“It’s the suit,” Gal told her. “I don’t get it, but you’re a sucker for a suit.”
Alex leaned into him and whispered in his ear, “It’s the Italian Stallion.”
“I heard that,” Katie snapped. “So I like dark and built. Uhhhhhhh…”
She then swooped her hand up in front of Rix to indicate him.
Rix burst out laughing.
Alex was smiling to her friend.
Rix liked her doing that, looking happy, so he hooked her around the neck and pulled her into his side.
She relaxed into him and stayed there.
The night seemed like it was going to be a success.
Rix was glad this wasn’t some trial by fire.
He was more glad Alex’s friends were so fucking great.
Best of all, it was clear she loved being with them.
He should have known.
But bottom line, that was what they were. Great. Watchful at first, but nice. Then they warmed to him and they were funny all together, Katie was sweet, Gal had an edge to her that was cool.
It was all good.
And he needed that after his scene with Judge that morning.
“I’m feeling a Big Trouble in Little China night coming on,” Gal decreed.
“We’re in,” Alex blurted, speaking for him.
He liked that too.
And not because that was possibly the best Kurt Russell film in history.
Gal started to say something else, then she sat bolt upright in her chair, her eyes aimed over Rix’s shoulder.
He turned his head.
And shit.
Peri was standing there, eyes locked to him and Alex, face pale.
“What—?” He felt Alex shift to look too.
But he caught her eyes on the way.
“Peri,” he murmured.
Her attention raced to the door, and she tensed in his hold.
“Five minutes, baby,” he said.
She looked back to him, pulling from his arm and advising, “Hurry, Rix. She just rushed out.”
Damn it.
He moved his gaze through the women at the table, got up and moved quickly toward the door.
He caught Peri getting in her car.
He waylaid her closing the door by putting a hand to it.
“You don’t have to do this,” she said to her steering wheel.
“Give me five minutes.”
She looked up to him.
“I’m not feeling five minutes,” she snapped.
“My intention is not to hurt you, Peri. But you had to know I’d move on.”
“No, I didn’t,” she sniped. “Because you were in love with me. Like married love. Like rest of your life love.”
She had the balls to hand him that shit?
He shook his head. “Okay, this is not why I came out here. I came out here to see if you were okay. I came out here because I didn’t want you to do what you’re doing, getting in your car when you’re emotional. And I came out here to repeat what I told you Sunday. I have someone in my life now. We mean something to each other, and we all live in the same town. We gotta get past this.”
“You mean I gotta get past this.”
Well…
Yeah.
He didn’t say that.
Her attention darted to the bar and then back to him. “She good with you rushing after me?”
“She told me to hurry because you were leaving.”
Her chin slid into her neck.
Yeah, Alex being all she was was a surprise.
Though he never thought Peri would benefit from it.
He gentled his tone. “She’s good for me, Peri.”
“I was good for you once,” she said.
“Not when I most needed it.”
She looked like he’d slapped her.
But seriously?
Did she not remember when she’d walked away?
She recovered quickly. “Fuck you, Rix.”
Now, that shit wasn’t right.
“Peri—”
“Let go of my door.”
He wasn’t going to do this either.
He let go of her door and stepped back.
She slammed it and started up the car.
But he was already walking back to the bar.
He heard her pull out and then he saw her drive at a crawl by his side with her window open.
Fantastic.
He stopped.
So did she.
“Tell your buddies at the station they can go fuck themselves,” she hissed.
Say what?
“What does that mean?” he asked.
“Ask them, they know. Hint for you, I didn’t show up tonight out of the blue.”
Ah, shit.
He pulled in a breath that expanded his chest, and let it out.
She raced away, and he hoped she didn’t hurt herself or anyone else, driving like that.
He returned to the bar and did a sweep of it.
And…goddamn.
Sure as shit, there was Erin, who used to date Dylan, one of his buds in the crew at the fire department.
They’d broken up, but when it had to do with someone wronging one of their own, the tentacles of that family spread wide and didn’t break.
No surprise, since she orchestrated it, Erin hadn’t missed what had gone down. And when he caught her eyes, she smiled huge at him.
Considering what she did was loyal, but uncool, he tipped his head to the side to acknowledge her smile and that was it.
Rix resumed his seat, and again no surprise, the fun-night-out vibe had vanished.
“You okay?” Alex asked.
“Yup,” he answered, reaching two ways. One for his beer, the other for her.
He took a sip and installed her where she was before Peri showed.
“She okay?” she asked.
“Nope,” he answered.