It's Only Love(58)

Lost in the song, the moment, the magic of being in his arms, she was instantly aware when his body filled with tension.

Ella raised her head off his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s he doing here?” Gavin asked in a much harsher tone than she’d heard from him before.

“Who?”

“Ed Sheehan.”

“He works at the tree farm. Why?”

“Since when?”

“I’m not sure exactly when he started,” Ella said. “A couple of years maybe?”

“He’s the guy I fought with that night at the bar. He said—”

“I remember,” Ella said, sparing him from having to repeat the hateful words and filled with fury over what Ed had said to Gavin.

Gavin released her so suddenly she nearly stumbled.

“I . . . I can’t be in the same room with that guy. I’m sorry.”

He stunned her when he turned and walked away, leaving her standing in the middle of the dance floor surrounded by her employees, parents, siblings and their partners, all of whom looked on in surprise and dismay.

Ella started to go after him, but something stopped her. First of all, she couldn’t leave. This event was her responsibility, and it wasn’t over yet. Second of all . . . She’d gone after him for the last time. He’d chosen to leave, to walk away from her. It would have to be his choice to come back. She couldn’t continue to make that choice for him.

“Um, what just happened?” Charley asked after Ella walked off the dance floor.

“He saw Ed Sheehan here.”

“So?”

“Apparently, Ed told him we wasted our time in Iraq, which led to the bar fight last summer.”

“Oh damn. I didn’t know the fight was with him.”

“I didn’t either.”

“Tell Landon to fire him,” Charley said emphatically.

“Is it wrong that I want to do that?”

“Hell no, it’s not wrong. We lost our brother-in-law over there. How anyone in this town could say such a thing to Gavin, of all people, is beyond me.”

“What’s wrong?” Colton asked when he joined them.

Charley filled him in.

“Are you f*cking kidding me? Where’s Landon?”

Their younger brother was across the room, surrounded by some of the store’s youngest female employees.

Colton rolled his eyes. “Look at him.”

“Why are you rolling your eyes?” Charley asked. “A year ago you would’ve been right there with him.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Colton said as he went to retrieve Landon.

Ella watched Ed, talking and laughing with some other guys from the farm, blissfully unaware of what was going on around him. He was a big, burly guy with muscles on top of muscles, and though Gavin was no slouch in the muscle department, he was lucky to have walked away relatively uninjured from a fistfight with Ed.

Colton returned with Landon, who was pissed about being pulled away from his female admirers.

“Tell him,” Colton said, giving Landon a final push that landed him in front of Ella and Charley.

“Tell me what?” Landon asked, one eye over his shoulder at the women as if to make sure they didn’t get away.

“Ed Sheehan,” Charley said.

“What about him?”

“Remember the fight Gavin was in last summer?” Ella asked.

“In the bar on 114?” Landon asked.

Colton and Charley looked to her to fill in Landon.

“That’s the one,” Ella said. “He fought with Ed after Ed told him we’d wasted our time in Iraq.”

Landon’s amiable expression hardened. “He said what?”

“That we’d wasted our time in Iraq,” Ella said again, each word causing her the same pain it had to have caused Gavin at the time. No matter what your thoughts were on the war, saying that to someone who’d lost his only sibling there was so far outside the boundaries of propriety it wasn’t even funny.

Landon turned away from them and crossed the room to the table of employees from the Christmas tree farm. He pointed to Ed and indicated he should follow Landon.

With a shrug for the other guys, Ed got up to follow Landon through the main doors to the parking lot outside.

Colton crossed the room to the doors to keep an eye on what was happening outside through the window to the right of the entrance.

Filled with anxiety, Ella watched Colton, knowing he’d be through the doors in an instant if Landon needed backup. Hopefully, Ed would go quietly without causing more trouble.

She breathed a sigh of relief when Landon came back inside, his face flushed from the cold and the confrontation. He nodded to Colton and then crossed to where Ella and Charley still stood together.

“He’s history,” Landon said bluntly.

“Did you tell him why?” Charley asked.

“Yeah, and I reminded him that my brother-in-law was killed over there, and no one in this family or the Guthrie family wants to hear his opinions or employ someone who’d say what he did to Gavin.”

“What did he say?” Ella asked.

“That we’re all a bunch of warmongers, yada yada. I didn’t listen. I told him to get lost and stay away from us and our property.”