“Fine. Let’s agree to disagree and move on. Yeah?”
I nodded, thinking that might just work. “Yeah.”
And though he left me with a kiss that did more for my morning than a bucket of full-fuel coffee, a little voice in the back of my head wondered if a relationship could really work if we just kept agreeing to disagree. Wasn’t that just sweeping it under the rug?
And could I trust a man who didn’t seem to trust me?
21
Titus
For being fall, the sun was beating down hard on the back of my neck. I scratched at the hair that was growing past my collar back there and almost thought about cutting it. I’d been keeping my hair in this mullet for almost two years now, at first as a joke because what was funnier than a six-foot-five guy from a small town wearing a mullet? But then Amelia had started dating Daire and I’d left it growing out of spite. I knew Amelia hated it and I hated her dating that asshole.
Then I remembered the way she’d run her fingers through my hair and grab fistfuls right before she tossed her head back and screamed my name. Nope, I was keeping this mullet, even if it did irritate me sometimes. I was just irritated in general recently. No need to take it out on my retro head of hair. Just you watch: I’d bring mullets back in style yet.
“You want some help this morning?” Rip’s voice behind me cut off my internal musings.
I spun around and saw him climbing out of his truck and crunching over the dirt and rocks on my new property.
“Hey, man. What are you doing here?” I dropped my pickax and walked over to shake his hand.
Rip shrugged and looked around at the wreckage. “Couldn’t sleep what with someone banging around this morning.” He gave me a pointed look. “Thought I’d come help out and find out what’s troubling you. Or should I say what happened with Amelia to make you so pissed off?”
I cringed. “Yeah, sorry about that. Didn’t realize I made so much noise. Just can’t sleep, I guess.”
Rip made a noise and pulled a pair of work gloves from the back pocket of his jeans. “Got another ax or a shovel?”
I’d give him the shirt off my back if it meant he helped me dig up all these plants and weeds that had taken over the tract of land I now owned on the very end of Main Street. I’d cleared enough of the land to build the frame for the foundation pad, but I had to clear the rest for everything else I had planned for this property. I’d hired out for the concrete pour, which would happen in two days. Until then, I had manual labor to do. Which was perfect for the shitty mood I’d been in for several days.
We were both sweating by the time Rip opened his mouth again. “Well? What happened with Amelia?”
I dragged my forearm across my forehead to wipe the sweat away. “She confronted Daire in public after I told her not to, for safety reasons. But she did anyway. The damn girl doesn’t seem to have a lick of common sense in her.” I hefted the ax and whacked a bush root in two. Fuck, that felt good. Ax therapy for the win.
“Amelia doesn’t seem to be the type to take to anyone telling her what to do.”
I snorted. “You’re not wrong. Telling her not to do something is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.”
“So, why’d you do it?”
I sent him a warning look as I chopped at the root again. “Sounds like you’re on Amelia’s side.”
“Whoa. I’m on no one’s side. Just wondering why you’d wave that red flag.”
I sighed, putting the ax tip on the ground and leaning on the handle. “I didn’t know what else to do. Daire is dangerous and yet she continues to confront him just to put on a show for the town. Like she needs them all to see her being a badass and they’ll forget that she put up with his shit for almost a whole year. Drives me crazy.”
“Hmm.” Rip heaved a huge root into the wheelbarrow with the shovel. “Is that really so bad? I mean, maybe he is dangerous, but she didn’t confront him in a dark alley. And maybe getting the last word is helping her heal from whatever damage he caused while they were dating.”
Rip swiped an arm over his face and added quietly, “Maybe what you really fear is that all this anger over Daire in town means she’s not over him.”
Fuck. His calm words cut my chest wide open and I didn’t particularly care for the immediate pain that washed over me. I spun and hacked at another bush, putting a stop to a conversation I didn’t want to have. Rip, God bless his annoying soul, went back to work and dropped the subject.
For the next two hours, we didn’t speak, just worked and grunted our way through bush after bush until most of the plot of land was cleared. That was the good thing about guy friends. You didn’t have to fill the silence with a bunch of damn conversation. You could just grunt and fart and sweat your ass off in peace with no judgement. Rip finally put down the shovel and took his gloves off.
“Just talk it out with her, man. You two seem so good together. Don’t blow things up because of ego and hurt feelings.” With that, Rip turned and left, leaving me with more thoughts spinning through my head than when he’d first shown up.
Maybe he was right. Maybe my own fragile ego was why I couldn’t just let Amelia handle Daire on her own. Maybe I needed to swoop in and save the day so it would be about me and not about Amelia and
