Hya’s brow rose. “Taking pictures?”
Arissa dropped her elbows on the table, feeling the effects of the Jack. “Their house is like a shrine to him. Have you noticed that? I mean there are pictures and then there’s a stalker wall. Why so many pictures?” Arissa said, her words slurring a little. “And to take more. Why?”
Hya raised her brow again. “That woman hates anyone who gets too close to her son.”
“Why?” Arissa asked and slapped the table, before lifting her hand and shaking it. “That hurt,” she muttered.
“She’s protective,” Hya said. “At least that’s the party line.”
“I don’t think it’s protective,” Arissa said, standing again and pacing. “It’s like she wants him isolated, but how the hell is that in his best interest? He doesn’t see it. He thinks it’s just small town thinking but I’m telling you, that woman is hiding something.”
“Like what?”
Arissa dropped down in her seat again. “Fuck if I know. That’s why I’m here. You’ve got to know something.”
Hya thought about it for a bit. “I don’t know what she’s hiding, but I agree there’s more to her behavior. She passed overprotective a long time ago.” She sat up in her chair, pointed her finger at Arissa. “She never let him get his picture taken, you know that shit for school that could be put in the local paper and whatever, never gave her consent.” Hya stood now, started to pace. “She never let him go on class trips either. I remember seeing him in town when the rest of his class was away, the lone kid in the diner. I never really thought much about it, and it didn’t seem to bother him, but, yeah, she’s always kept him very close.” Hya exhaled. “Too close.”
Arissa spoke the next words like they were being dragged across broken glass. “Do you think it’s possible she scared Phoebe away, because that is exactly what she’s trying to do with me.”
The expression that swept Hya’s face was as close to soft as she was capable of. “Phoebe loved Hank, was written all over her how crazy she was about him,” she said softly. “Yeah, I suppose it is possible.”
Arissa didn’t hide her tears. “That’s what this is all about,” she confessed. “His parents are overprotective, pathologically so, but what’s really bothering me is the reality that Catherine might have scared off Phoebe and…” She played with a crack in the table before she lifted burning eyes to Hya. “I might not be his first choice and the thought of that, feeling like I do, is eating me alive.”
“The man is crazy about you.”
“But he was crazy about her too, wasn’t he?”
She saw the answer before Hya whispered, “Yeah, he was.”
A tear slipped from her eye to roll down her cheek. “She needs to know. He needs to know.” Arissa reached for her glass. “I never saw him coming, and I’m out of my head for him, but I’m still getting to know him. If we get even deeper and she comes back, if Catherine’s shit blows up and Hank realizes that Phoebe hadn’t left on her own…how the hell do I get over that?”
“What are you saying?” Hya demanded, yanking out her chair and sinking into it.
“I need to learn more about Phoebe, her relationship with Hank…” Arissa leaned back in her chair and couldn’t believe the next words came from her mouth when she shared, “If it was like what I have with him, we need to bring them back together, let him make the decision and not have it made for him by Catherine.”
Hya’s jaw dropped. “You want to push Hank back to his ex.”
“I want him to choose me, but after being on the receiving end of Catherine’s deceit, I can’t honestly say he would choose me if he had the choice. I can’t fall farther down the rabbit hole for him knowing there’s a chance he’s still tethered in some way to another.”
Hya drained her glass again. “Well fuck.”
Arissa held her stare. “I know you’re not a big fan of Phoebe’s, but when you think of them what’s your first impression?”
Hya’s voice was a rough whisper. “Happy.”
That’s what Arissa feared. She didn’t hide how much that hurt but she signaled for another splash of Jack, liked the numb that followed because it all hurt too fucking much.
Hya smacked the table. “Let’s see what the Belles say. My recollection could be off because I’m old. I’ll call them, we’ll talk,” she suggested. “Maybe all this worry is for nothing.”
She didn’t doubt for a minute what Hank felt for her because she felt it for him, and she’d fight for it, but what she couldn’t get past was knowing how he felt, and knowing he had likely felt that way about Phoebe and her for him…did you ever really get over that kind of love? Had she been Phoebe, the one who came first, she’d want a second chance. “Okay, but not today because I’m really fucking drunk and it feels really good.” Her gaze collided with Hya’s. “Is it wrong that I’m doing this behind Hank’s back?”
“You love him?” Hya asked bluntly.
Arissa didn’t hesitate in answering. “I do.”
“Are you thinking of him?”
“I am.”
“Then no. He may be a man, definitely an alpha, but even the best of the best, Honey, need a good woman looking out for them.”
Arissa lifted her glass to Hya again, feeling better hearing that because the last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. “Does this mean I’m a Bell?”
“Don’t go getting carried away, especially since you refused to share the dirt on our sexy sheriff and his abilities between the sheets, or kitchen table. Jury is still out.”
Arissa wasn’t sure if it was the Jack, Hya or both but she laughed out loud. “A few more of these and I’ll be sharing all
