Too Hot to Handle (Romancing the Clarksons #1)(42)

“If you think I’d let you step in between two men with tunnel vision and flying fists, beautiful, you’re crazy.”

Before she could respond, Jasper weaved through the crowd, everyone collectively sagging in disappointment that the boss had arrived to end the fun. Did Jasper notice their reaction? Did he not see the proof that they’d already learned to respect his authority? “All right, gentlemen. This place is enough of a dive without you wrecking it any further. Break it up.”

Belmont and Aaron continued their staring contest of death as if they’d never heard Jasper. It was obvious the brothers hadn’t gotten the aggression out of their systems, and just before Jasper could muscle his way between them Belmont swung on Aaron, connecting with his jaw to a symphony of bone crunching. A white object flew through the air, the crowd parting to give it a place to land. Which it did, skittering to a stop at Rita’s feet. A tooth. Not just any tooth, though. Aaron’s tooth.

“You motherfucker.” Aaron lunged for Belmont, but Jasper and the bartender managed to wrestle him off. Rita picked up the tooth—formerly a component of Aaron’s golden-boy, rising-star politician’s smile. She finally got her feet to move, joining Peggy and Sage across the bar and still cradling the tooth.

“What happened?” She half shouted because they’d just entered the goddamn fiddle solo of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

“It’s my fault,” Sage said. “I shouldn’t have come.”

Peggy shook her head, curls bouncing. “No, it is not your fault. And you should be here. Just as much as any of us.” She sighed when Rita made an impatient motion for her to continue. “Aaron put his arm around Sage’s shoulders and Bel didn’t like it.”

Rita waited for her sister to continue but was greeted only by silence. “That’s it? That’s why they’re fighting?”

“Little things to other people are just…bigger to Belmont,” Sage said, hitting Rita with serious hazel-green eyes before they landed back on Belmont. “I’ll go talk to him.”

“I don’t think that’s a good…” Rita’s warning was left hanging in the air when Sage crossed the dance floor, planting herself right in front of Belmont. From Rita’s vantage point, Sage looked like a lamb facing off with a giant. Belmont’s big shoulders were still heaving up and down and his jaw was clenched, blood painting his right cheekbone. But he no longer paid any attention to Aaron, who was slowly being talked down by Jasper.

Over Aaron’s shoulder, Rita and Jasper’s gazes clashed, and she swore they were communicating without words. At the very least, Jasper’s message came through loud and clear.

Don’t you dare leave this bar.

Beside Rita, Peggy whistled through her teeth. “Lots of testosterone floating around this place. Let’s go order a cosmopolitan before we start growing hair on our chests.”

Rita shook her head. “I can’t. I’m holding Aaron’s bloody tooth.”

“I can’t argue with that excuse.” Peggy examined the object in question. “Gross. I’ll drink your cosmo for you.”

“You’re a saint,” Rita mumbled, heading toward Jasper and Aaron. On the way she couldn’t help but observe Belmont and Sage. They weren’t speaking to each other, but Belmont seemed to be inching closer, little by little, forcing Sage to crane her head back. And then he did something Rita didn’t see coming. He dropped his chin onto Sage’s head—and just kind of deflated. Their arms remained straight at their sides, but both sets of their lips parted, dragging in oxygen. It was such an intimate moment that Rita had to look away.

She sidled up beside Aaron. “I am the keeper of the lost tooth.”

Aaron plucked the tooth from Rita’s palm, his laughter lacking any form of humor. “No way I can show up in Iowa missing a tooth. This is fucked.”

“Yeah. It is.” Since she’d barely spoken to her youngest brother since their roadside shouting match—mostly due to irritation at herself for letting him get under her skin—displaying any kind of sympathy felt unnatural. Oh, who was she kidding? It would have felt unnatural under any circumstances. They might as well be distant cousins.

“I bet you love this, don’t you?” Aaron asked, poking the vacant space in his mouth. “Your asshole brother finally gets what’s coming to him, right?”

Knowing Jasper could hear every word, Rita spoke in a hushed tone. “You incited Bel—”

“Right.” Aaron swiped away the blood beginning to seep from his nose. “Yeah, I incited him. So what, Rita? At least I got a reaction out of him. That’s the most he’s talked to me in twenty years.”

A knot tightened in Rita’s stomach. She remembered the radical shift in her brothers’ relationship when Belmont came home after the incident. Remembered Aaron attempting to resume their usual antics and being closed out, just like they all had. Maybe—similar to the funeral—they’d all coped separately, not taking the time to understand each other’s methods. “I didn’t realize it was bothering you.”

“My brother not talking to me?” He used the hem of his shirt to wipe sweat from his forehead. “Yeah. I can’t imagine why I would be bothered by that.”

Seeing Aaron through different eyes—despite his always-handy sarcasm—Rita frowned. “Aaron, I—”