Letting Go (Thatch #1)(78)

There was no way I could’ve imagined all of this, or prepared for it. And I had no idea how to get through it now.

But I knew that for Jagger I would somehow find a way to get through it. I knew I would do everything to find out the truth and figure out a safe way to tell Jagger. And I knew that we would find a way to get past this, just as we had with all the other problems that had come at us. We’d been through too much in the last two and a half years not to.

Jagger

October 18, 2014



“YOU’RE INSANE. BURGERS are the only thing that should be ordered here.”

I let the menu fall onto the table between Graham and me, and pushed it toward him. “They have a ton of other food for a reason. You’re supposed to try it.”

“Their burgers are famous,” he argued, and I rolled my eyes.

“Have you ever even tried anything else?”

We were at Bonfire. A restaurant that had started off as a little hole-in-the-wall place, but had changed locations to a bigger space when everyone began to rave about their burgers and people started coming in from surrounding towns. And granted, their burgers were amazing, but they had a handful of different types of food, and the burgers were nowhere near the best thing on the menu. But Graham and I had been having this fight for as long as I could remember, and there was no way to avoid it whenever we were here.

“No need. I know what’s good. What are you getting, Grey?” Graham turned his attention to her when she didn’t respond and slapped at her menu. “Wake up, kid!”

Grey’s gaze slowly slid over to her brother, then moved to me, her eyes wide and unreadable. “What?”

“Food. Menu. Bonfire. What are you getting?” he repeated.

“Oh, uh . . . I’m not sure. I think we . . .” She trailed off and looked around the restaurant, and Graham gave me a strange look just before I turned to see if something was wrong with her.

“We should what?” Graham prompted, and Grey looked back at him.

“What?”

“Are you okay?”

“Of course I am,” she said defensively, her gold eyes hardening at her brother’s question. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you just stopped talking. You said ‘I think we,’ and then just stopped.”

Grey sat there for a moment before shaking her head like she’d finally remembered what we’d been talking about. “Sorry, I’m spacing out so much today. Um, I think we should wait until Knox and Deacon get here.”

Graham once again looked at me with confusion, but I couldn’t even begin to figure out what to say. I had no idea what was going on with Grey tonight. “We are waiting for Deacon and Knox, kid,” Graham said carefully. “I was just asking what you were going to order.”

“Oh, well, I don’t know, we just got here.”

“We’ve been here for ten minutes,” I informed her, and watched the shock take over her features.

“Well then, I guess I should figure it out,” she said on a laugh, but Graham and I were still staring at her like she’d just told us that cows lived on the moon.

After a couple minutes went by with Grey staring at the menu, and Graham and me watching her every move, Graham leaned over the table toward her.

“Is it LeAnn?” he asked, soft enough that his voice wouldn’t carry.

Grey’s head snapped up, her eyes wide and pinned on her brother. “What did you just say?”

“I asked if it’s LeAnn.”

“Why would you ask that?” she whispered harshly.

“Why wouldn’t he?” I asked before Graham started talking again.

“Because you’re being weird as shit and we’re out in public. Are you afraid she’s gonna walk in here? If she does she’ll have to turn right back around and leave because of the restraining order. You’re gonna be fine.”

“No, I’m not afraid she’s going to walk in here, and I’m fine, Graham,” she mumbled as she shook her head slowly back and forth, like we were the ones acting weird.

Leaning over, I brushed back her red hair and put my lips to her ear, and bit back a sigh when she moved away. “Do you want to leave?”

“Why would I? What is the deal with you and Graham right now?”

Before I could respond, Knox and Deacon came walking up to the table, Knox talking loudly. “Don’t go putting the moves on my future wife. I don’t care if you’re engaged, Grey’s mine.”

“My future wife,” Deacon added as he sat down next to Grey.

I looked up and smiled as Knox dodged Graham’s fist. I knew they were just trying to get a rise out of him. If I’d ever thought they actually wanted Grey, I’d try to keep her from them.

“I’m f*cking starving. Let’s order some burgers already.”

Graham pointed at Knox, but looked at me. “See? At least someone here is sane.”

“I never said the burgers weren’t good, I just said there’s other food on the menu!” I argued, and Deacon snorted.

“No. There’s only burgers on this menu,” he insisted as he drummed his hands on the table and looked around. “Where’s our waiter, we’ve been here for an hour.”

Grey laughed and tossed her menu at Deacon. “You’ve been here for about two minutes, if that, and it’s a waitress, not a waiter.”