Or maybe I’m the one who’s met my match, Ellie thought.
She’d opened up and shared her past with him.
Let him see how she was struggling.
Let him help her when she needed it.
Accepted his money.
His support.
A room in his house.
“Now,” said Lilah, interrupting Ellie’s train of thought. “If she could only get him to stop the fighting.” Lilah turned to James. “Seriously. With all the bruises and the cuts? Those jerks you’ve been hanging out with? Pounding people to a pulp or whatever it is you do? How do you think that makes me look? To have my brother strutting around with bruised knuckles and black eyes?”
Harry shook his head and threw his sister a look rife with judgement. “Because it’s always about you, isn’t it, Lilah?”
She pursed her lips and sat back, tossing her wheat-colored hair over her shoulders.
“Seriously, Lilah.” James crossed his arms on the table. “I’m not gonna quit fighting. And now that I know how much it affects you, what a hardship it is on you to have a brother like me, I might get even more into it.”
Lilah rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to return what was sure to be a vicious comment, but Diane interrupted before she had the chance.
“That’s enough, you two.” She winked at Ellie. “You can play nice or go to your rooms.”
Ian cleared his throat. “On that note. What are we going to do about Ellie and this Ben guy? She can’t go home.”
James nodded. “That’s for sure. She’ll stay with me.”
Ian made a face as if that made perfect sense and Ellie’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Excuse me,” she said, laughing. “I know Moore men are said to have a bossy gene, but I’m right here. What if I want to go home?”
“That’s out of the question,” both Ian and James answered in unison, with Frank and Harrison nodding their approval. Ellie looked to Juliet and Diane, who only smiled and shrugged as if to say what are you going to do?
“Ben doesn’t know where I live—” she began.
James held up a hand. “And how can you know that for certain?”
“He’s right.” Ian threaded his fingers into his hair. “You have to assume that if this guy is unhinged enough to do what he did to your café, that he knows where you live and has it out for you. You can’t be alone.”
“But—” Ellie stuttered as she turned to Harry, who shrugged.
“They’re right,” he said, an apology softening his gray eyes. “I know you don’t like it, but they’re right.”
Ellie took a sip of scotch, followed by a long drink of coffee, and sighed. “I can take care of myself,” she muttered.
“I know you can.” James stood and put his hands on her shoulders. “You always have and you’ve done a good job of it. Thing is, you don’t have to anymore. You’ve got an army of Moores at your disposal.”
The day had been too emotional for Ellie to make any sense of what rose in her chest, the flip-flopping in her stomach. She just smiled and relaxed into his touch and promised she would make sense of it all after she had time to process. Reminding herself not to get caught up in the fairy tale. The feeling of safety and acceptance she felt with the Moores wasn’t her life.
She was only borrowing it for a few months.
The men lost themselves to discussing how to get Good Beginnings put back to rights. Ian would cover lumber and building materials. Harrison offered kitchen supplies and would sacrifice some glassware, plates, and silverware. Frank thought he might get a good line on some tables and chairs. Even Lilah thought she might be able to help with painting the walls. Maybe pick out a better color scheme.
Juliet caught Ellie’s gaze from across the table. “They’re good people,” she said. “Take it from me, meeting a Moore was the best thing that ever happened to you.”
“I couldn’t be happier,” Ellie said and meant it with her whole heart.
“I had a thought,” James said as they climbed into the truck after a long day with his family. “I’m supposed to go to The Pit tonight with Ethan and Oliver. You should come.”
“I have very little interest in watching you get beat up, thank you very much.”
“Hey! I’ll be doing the beating but thank you for your vote of confidence.”
“Either way. Not interested in worrying about how badly you’re going to get hurt, even if you do hurt the other guys more,” she added after she saw his face.
“For the record, I didn’t invite you so you could watch. I thought it might do you some good to get physical. Maybe throw a few punches yourself.”
“You want me to what? Take my anger out on someone else? Double no thank you.”
“Not on someone else. Because then I would be the one worrying about you getting hurt. But on a heavy bag? Hell yeah I want you to do that. I think it’d do you a lot of good.”
Ellie shook her head. “I’m a lover, not a fighter.”
“You’re a damn good lover, but the way you fuck makes me think you’d be a damn good fighter, too.”
Ellie blushed from her head to her toes. “Thanks. I think?”
“That’s a mighty fine compliment, sweet Ellie.” James turned, navigating the truck away from his house toward Bliss, and nerves danced in her belly. “Think about it, you’ve spent your whole life fighting, but it’s all been internal. You versus all the shit life had to throw at you. How good would it feel to ball up those tiny little fists of yours, take that mental anguish, and make it physical?”
“Sounds like a different kind of awful to me.”
“Nah. Here’s the thing. You take all that mental anguish
