Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (Cactus Creek #3)(8)

“No,” he said quietly, shooting another assessing glance at Hudson. “I don’t.”

Her eyes widened in surprise.

He released her from the hug. “Don’t even think about going somewhere else to hang out tonight. I’ll be by the darts with Gabe and Max. One of us will take you home. Not Rambo, over there. Clear?”

Sighing heavily, Lia shook her head. “Of all the families the universe could’ve matched me with, it had to be a family of three boys, huh?”

“You should be thankful.” He grinned. “We could’ve been a family of three girls.”

Eyes wide in horror, a shudder ran through her then at the prospect of three girly sisters bugging the crap out of her constantly. Yes, this was definitely the lesser of two evils. She yanked him into another tight hug that finally drew a real smile out of him.

Of course, that smile shifted into a deathly glare at Hudson. “Fine, you have fun, sis,” he told her before shooting Hudson another look. “But not too much fun. Or your friend here might find himself with an APB out on his ass, headlining a high speed police chase.”

“Trust me.” She laughed lightly. “I know.”



*



HUDSON KNEW THAT all this big brother smothering should’ve been a big red flag that perhaps this one was more drama than he needed or ever usually had in his life. But for some reason, he liked that Lia’s brothers protected her so fiercely, the same way the dozen or so silent, watchful folks around the bar tonight had so obviously been prepared to do as well. Strange. It’s not like the woman was a delicate little flower who needed sheltering.

And he liked that, too.

Both the fact that she could clearly take care of herself, and that she cared enough for all these folks around her to let them fuss over her to within an inch of her sanity.

So when Lia turned to him all serious-like and told him in no uncertain terms that she was ‘giving him an out’ for their plans for the night with no hard feelings over her crazy brothers, Hudson had tipped her face up to his and told her straight-up that he didn’t need or want out of anything when it came to her. The brief, astonished flash of pleasure in her eyes was of course followed up with her mulishly persisting that her round of goodbyes around the pub over the next five minutes would land her at the pub’s side entrance—where he was absolutely in no obligation to meet her.

The second she turned away, he’d gone over to plant himself at that entrance to wait for her.

It was an interesting five minute wait.

Seeing Luke’s number on his caller ID just as he was cozying up to the doorway was a surprise. Hudson had left Luke a message earlier in the day, sure, but it was before he’d realized that the newlywed couple was still on their honeymoon. He hadn’t actually expected Luke to call back.

“Hey, man. Sorry about calling you earlier. I forgot you guys weren’t going to be home until next week. No need to interrupt your trip—”

“Is this Hudson?” broke in a hushed female voice.

He checked the caller ID again.

Yep, definitely Luke’s number.

“This is Dani, Luke’s wife,” she clarified in the silence that followed.

Okay. Still strange though. “Hi Dani. Can I…help you with something?”

“No, no. I’m calling to help you. You called earlier about my bouncer friend, Lia—the woman you saw at the wedding, right?”

“Yeah. But that’s alright, I already—”

“I just wanted to tell you more about her,” she cut in again, sounding hushed and hurried. “And also where you could—?

“Woman, where are you hiding with my phone?! We’re on our honeymoon for godssakes; leave the poor man alone,” came Luke’s voice bellowing over the phone line in the background.

Dani’s laughter was immediate, as was the sound of her running, and clearly getting caught and swept up in the air a few seconds later.

Valiantly, Dani proceeded to still call out some fun facts about Lia while the phone was jostled around and then held at a distance where Hudson could only just barely make out what she was saying.

Apparently, Lia liked watching old kung-fu movies for fun.

And by the by, she was temporarily living in Dani’s old apartment over the brewery if he wanted to stop by one day for a visit.

She preferred really good coffee over flowers.

Two creams and three sugars.

Geez, and he thought his friend Fiona was a meddler.

Not that he wasn’t appreciatively taking mental notes of all this info.

A laughing, audibly doting Luke came on the phone line following what was most definitely a pillow to the face. “I’ll call you when we get back next week, man,” called out Luke amidst what sounded like a pretty serious tickle fight. “But if you can’t wait, just head over to Cactus Creek and ask the town folks about her. I have to warn you though, she’s got some insanely protective brothers. Good luck.”

And with that, the phone cut off.

When he looked up to see the very brothers in question staring him down, he pocketed his phone and settled in for the next scene in this bizarre off-Broadway play.

The guys left a short, highly intrusive while later, and at exactly the six-minute mark, Hudson heard a soft, slightly awed voice say quietly, “You stayed.”