No Perfect Hero(58)

“Don’t cry, Auntie Hay!” she pleads. “Me and Warren came to fix it!”

Haley goes pale, her head jerking up, and she locks on me past the self-righteous douche’s shoulder. “Oh,” she whispers. “Oh, crap.”

“Don’t worry,” I say. “I’m not here to make it worse.”

I saunter closer to the table, glaring. The way Eddy looks me up and down with a sneer, clearly annoyed by the unwanted interruption, I need to piss him off a little. It's either that or yank out his poor excuse for a spine.

So I completely ignore him as if he’s not even important enough for me to acknowledge while I focus on Haley. “You okay, darlin'?”

She nods, a stiff and jerky thing. “I was just finishing here,” she answers, slipping her arm around her niece’s shoulders.

Eddy frowns. “We weren’t done talking.”

“You weren’t done talking,” she retorts, nudging Tara out of the booth so they can both stand. “I have nothing else to say, and I’m done listening.”

Eddy stands quickly, his body between me and Hay. Then he starts to reach for her.

She jerks back, positioning herself between Eddy and Tara, and glares up at him. He freezes, holding his hands up.

“I still have more to say.” Self-important, as if that’s all that matters. “You love me, Haley. You wanted to spend the rest of your life with me.”

“And now I don’t want to spend another minute with you.” She starts to shove around him, but he moves to block her with his body.

Enough of this shit.

Frowning, I step up close behind him. Close enough that he’ll be able to feel me, feel it coming, know I’ve got at least sixty pounds of muscle on him, not to mention height.

“You deaf?” I growl. “She doesn’t want to talk to you. The lady asked you to leave.”

Eddy whirls on me, looking me over with disdain. Probably checking me for the ignorant country brute, or maybe checking me for how the hell I know a woman he considers his. “This is none of your business,” he says icily. “Why are you bothering Haley?”

I lean in close. Closer. Closerrr, until we’re almost eye to eye, and when I smile it feels like baring my teeth. “Way I see it, I’m not the one bothering her. But you’ve got three options. You can walk out of here on your own. You can be carried out of here when I throw your ass over my shoulder and drag you out. Or you can leave in handcuffs when the cops come charge you with stalking.”

Eddy makes an indignant sound. “Stalking? This is absolutely ridiculous!”

“No. That's you. Since I’m sure Hay didn’t give you a forwarding address, you had to get the information somehow.” I fold my arms over my chest, forming a wall. “So you can make your choice: walk away from my girl or get dragged away.”

My girl. It comes out before I can stop it, and in clear earshot of the dozens of nosy patrons listening in avidly.

Fuck. It’s just to get Eddy to back the fuck off and realize he’s playing a losing game here, but goddamm, it feels right.

Eddy stares between me and Hay with something like scorn. Disgust. Disdain.

Then he lets out a scoffing laugh, eyeing her while gesturing at me. “Really? This is your rebound? What a downgrade.”

Tara sticks her tongue out at him, scowling, and bites off, “Don’t you say that about Warren, you buttface.”

A second later, she promptly steps forward and kicks Eddy in the shin.

He yelps, stumbling back, and careens right into me.

I don’t move, just grab his stupid ass. I'm not gonna let him fall, and I'm not gonna catch him, either.

He wavers before staggering away from me and regaining his balance. A wave of quiet laughter rolls through the diner.

Eddy straightens, smoothing his suit coat and looking around huffily, his cheeks bright red. I know his type.

Threaten him with violence and he’ll treat you like an uncultured brute.

Publicly humiliate him and make a dent in that narcissistic ego, though, and he’ll turn tail and run.

He proves me right, sniffing and adjusting his cufflinks. “Play with your Neanderthal if you want, Haley,” he says coldly. “If that’s how you feel you need to punish me, fine. Come home when you’re ready to be an adult again.”

There’s a calculated viciousness to his words. I wonder if this is the first time Haley’s seen this side of him, when she’s pale and looks so exhausted, so hollow.

“Home was never where you are,” Haley answers, soft but firm. “And it never will be.”

Eddy’s silent for a moment – all the time he gets. Then I grab him by the shoulders and carry the fuck out, hurling him on the sidewalk as soon as we're through the door.

“You brute, that's ass–”

“Assault? Yeah. And it'll be a thrashing in self-defense if you don't take your chickenshit ass out of my town.” I'm snarling, watching his lips twitch angrily, so I point back at the window “Don't even think about lawyers. I've got witnesses. Everybody in that diner will back me up.”

Slowly, he stands with an awkward sniff. I wait until he moves away from the diner before I head back inside.

Through the window, I watch as he stands there clumsily like he just remembered he’s left his car at the inn. Then with his back straight and his nose in the air, he turns to march down the side of the road in those Italian leather shoes that are going to raise up some blisters real quick. Good.