The Bride (The Bride #1)(22)

He opened his mouth as if to say something but stopped.

“I got this. I was…sounding off. You know.”

“Yeah, I know.”

I let out a breath. “Okay. I’ll go get dinner started. Pasta and meatballs tonight. I already made the meatballs.”

“Sounds good.”

I left the barn feeling lighter than I had when I first stepped inside. It was a strange thing with Jake. He was family, but not my parent. He was a friend, but not a girl. He was without a doubt the first person I wanted to tell about my crappy day.

And I had to admit it, if I truly did need someone to put Bobby MacPherson in line, Jake would absolutely be my first choice.

The thought of him wailing on Bobby’s smug face kept a smile on my face all through dinner.



*

Jake



I knew the MacPherson kid. His father had at one time worked for mine. Now he was working one of the corporate cattle ranch operations outside of Jefferson. Which meant he was away for the week and only home on weekends. The money was probably pretty good, but that meant the kid had free rein in the house. I hadn’t met Mrs. MacPherson. Didn’t know if she was the type to keep a handle on a seventeen-year-old.

I knew Bobby and his boys liked to hang out near an open lot by the gas station. I saw them there frequently when I was in town. My guess was they tried to get people who were over twenty-one to buy them beer. I didn’t know how successful they were, but I knew other than that there was no reason to hang out at the gas station.

I parked my truck across the street and thought about what I was doing. Ellie was going to be pissed. That much was obvious. Except I wasn’t doing this as some knee-jerk macho thing to say stay away from her.

Ellie was my wife. She wasn’t my girl. But she had to know there was legitimate risk out there for her.

Did I think Bobby MacPherson was going to try something? Yeah. Seventeen-year-old guys weren’t mean to girls. Seventeen-year-old guys wanted to get in their pants. It was how they went about accomplishing it that said something about their character.

I’d thought Bobby had a thing for her for a while. It was the way his name kept coming up through the years. Always pestering Ellie, always in her business. Except she never gave him the time of day.

Did I think Ellie could handle herself? Yes. At least that was what I told myself. She was a strong girl, tall for her age. Worked beside me and her dad long enough to know she wasn’t weak. She wasn’t someone who was going to be bullied into sex either. That much was obvious with her behavior with Riley. She wanted to experiment, she set the scene, and she went for it.

She’d been in control. Which meant if she was in a situation where she didn’t want sex, she’d be in control of that too.

All of that sounded rational and reasonable in my head.

So why was I parked across the open lot next to the gas station, watching MacPherson and his friends shoot the shit?

Because it needed to be said. It needed to be understood that Ellie was not without protection in this world. It needed to known far and wide that she was the opposite of fair game.

If I did this, it would get back to her. If I did this, I would feel the brunt of her anger. If I did this, she was probably right. They would probably give her more grief for it.

But if I did this, despite whatever they might say, they would think twice before acting. That’s what counted.

I got out of my truck and walked across the street. Never much traffic in Riverbend. I watched as Bobby hit his friend’s hands hard, sending a hot dog flying in the air. I could hear the friend bitching, but not much.

I stopped at the edge of the lot and waited for them to notice me.

“Hey, isn’t that Jake Talley?” one of them said.

“Oh shit, Mac. He’s coming for you.”

“Dude doesn’t scare me.”

I could scare him. I could scare the shit out of him. But that’s not what this was about.

“Bobby,” I called out to him. “A word.”

He sauntered, because seriously it was the only word for it, over to me. I wanted to tell him men in Montana did not saunter, but I was certain the nuance would’ve been lost on him. I got it. He was saving face in front of his friends. I was going to handle this totally cool.

“Jake,” he said once he was standing a few feet away.

“You know why I’m here?”

“Yeah, did the little woman send you?” He started laughing at his own joke, which wasn’t actually funny.

“Look, I’m going to keep it simple. She’s had a rough time these last couple of months. Maybe you could lay off her.”

“I’m sorry did you say lay her?” He laughed again, and I didn’t want to hit him. He wasn’t man enough to hit. I wanted to slap him in the face like the bitch he was. “Isn’t that your job, dude? Tell us, what’s it like banging jail bait? Is she nice and fresh?”

I clenched my jaw and counted ten before I said anything. I was not going to rise to a kid’s taunt.

“Don’t talk to her. Don’t look at her. I hear anything else, we’ll have more than words, and I have a feeling your father would back me up on that.”

“Yeah, good luck finding my dad. If he’s not working he’s fucking some trash from Jefferson every weekend.”

That was a shame. For Mrs. MacPherson, and Bobby who was obviously impacted by it. It was not, however, my problem.