“Just now,” the sheriff mumbled. “Ninth grade. Really?”
“Oh,” Jasper said slowly and then winced at Wyatt. “Sorry, but we do need them out there.”
“Go.” The sheriff waved them off. “We’ll talk later. It was a great fight, Wy.”
“Thanks,” Wyatt said uncertainly as he pulled Tabitha with him. “See you in a little bit. We’ll have a late dinner.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dinner wasn’t that much fun.
Nothing had been said about Tabitha and Wyatt’s lying. His father made a genuine effort to be polite to Tabitha, but Wyatt noticed he asked her a lot of probing questions that were disguised as dinner chatter. Wyatt could hear the suspicion in all of them, but he didn’t stop them in fear of Tabitha catching on to his father’s cop-like tendency to be on the lookout for something wrong.
The line of questioning went something along the lines of:
“How’s your family?”
“Your mama still out of work?”
Tabitha answered most questions with simple two-word responses. Then fell silent besides Wyatt until his father started in again.
“Do you ever see your brother? Or did you have a falling out with him after that nasty fight he got in back when y’all were still in high school? No? Good, I hate to see things like that come between family.”
That last bit of questioning was what tipped Wyatt off that he was in a whole world of shit where his father was concerned. They were a fairly modern family, and Wyatt was twenty-one, not like his father could bitch about him sneaking off to do it with his girl in Chicago.
The rest, however, was a huge issue.
“You staying the night, Dad?” Wyatt asked uncertainly once dinner was over, and they walked out of the hotel steakhouse.
His father shook his head. “Uh, no, I wish I could. Got to get back to work. Just came in to watch the fights. Yours was amazing too, Clay. I can see why your coaches were excited. You’re looking at a big UFC contract for sure. You both are.”
“Thanks.” Clay looked over to Wyatt. His eyes were wide, and there was an obvious communication that said he had gotten the same vibes Wyatt had off his father. When he spoke again, his voice was distant. “Too bad you can’t stay.”
“Yeah, too bad.” His father stepped forward and shook Tabitha’s hand. “It was nice getting to know ya, darlin’. Maybe you can come over for dinner sometime soon.”
“Yes, that sounds nice,” Tabitha agreed softly. “Soon.”
“Wyatt, can I borrow you for a minute before I catch my cab to the airport?”
“Sure.” Wyatt lifted his arm off Tabitha’s shoulders, because he had felt the need to hold her through something he knew was making her nervous as hell. “Clay, you’ll walk Tab up to our room, won’t ya?”
“Yeah, no problem.” Clay gave Wyatt another wide-eyed look that said very clearly, open your dang mouth and I will beat you until you pop. “Call me later.”
Wyatt nodded. “Got it.”
Wyatt stood next to his father as they watched Tabitha and Clay walk up to the elevators. Clay pushed the button, and it opened automatically. Once they stepped in and the doors closed, his father said, “You did it, didn’t ya?”
“Did what?” Wyatt decided playing stupid would hold off the evitable for about two seconds.
“I had this moment while I was investigating it where I considered Clay. I remember Tabitha had this cut on her head, and I thought, now there’s a real sweet-tempered, very pretty young lady, and someone could lose their mind if her brother had done something to her. I knew she and Clay were close, but then I thought, nah, Clay ain’t a hothead. It just wasn’t his personality.” His father turned around and arched an eyebrow at Wyatt. “You, on the other hand.”
“Do you want me to answer this line of questioning?” Wyatt was taller than his father now, and he made a point to stand to his full height. “Or maybe I need a lawyer first.”
“Jesus Christ, Wyatt!” his father shouted loud enough to make people walking by turn around and look at them. “What the hell were you thinking? You could’ve killed those boys!”
“I ain’t admitting to anything. You’re just assuming,” Wyatt countered as he made a point to look around and lower his voice. “Thanks for that.”
“Did you do it? I just wanna know.” His father leaned in closer, studying Wyatt intensely. “You know what? No, I don’t want to know. I don’t like that girl. She’s very pretty, but you’ve got to know she’s bad for you.”
“You and Jules make a perfect pair,” Wyatt growled back before he could think better of it. “Why don’t you just go on and join the club?”
“Jules knows ’bout this?” His father threw up his hands. “Y’all must think I’m a real fool. To think of all those years I left you home, thinking I had great kids who wouldn’t do a damn thing behind my back. Now I find out you’ve been living some kind of criminal, secret life—”
“Okay,” Wyatt interrupted him with a glare. “You are talking ’bout something that happened one time when I was just a kid. Now if you think I’m gonna stand here listening to you berate me, or more so, berate Tabitha, when I have lived my whole life to make you happy. It ain’t happening.”
“Do you know what sorta family she comes from? Addictions like that are genetic. She’ll end up just like her mother. I’d bet my badge on it.”
“Excuse me, sir,” Wyatt said mockingly, “but fuck you. You don’t know her, and you’re judging her for something she ain’t even done. That ain’t fair by anyone’s standards.”
His father sputtered. “You do this, and—”
“And what? You’ll disown me? Take my badge?” Wyatt laughed bitterly. “You can have it. In case you didn’t notice tonight, I don’t need that job. I was doing it to help you, old man.”
His father pulled back in horror, his eyes wide and stunned. For a long moment he stood there speechless. “Who are you?”
“I have one rule in life.” Wyatt held up his finger and raised his eyebrows. “No one’s allowed to fuck with my girl. You do that, and things are gonna get real tense between us. Now you think ’bout that on your flight home. I’m going to bed.”
Wyatt turned to leave, his heartbeat throbbing in his ears as he walked toward the elevators. Then he stopped and turned around. “You bet your ass I did it,” he shouted across the lobby. “And I’d do it again.”
* * * *
Stunned speechless and shaking with nervousness, Tabitha sat shoulder to shoulder with Clay on the bed. Clay was the only person in the world she could be completely silent with, and neither of them would sit there trying to make conversation out of obligation.
Wyatt opened the door faster than they anticipated. Tabitha jumped up. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” Wyatt said quickly, making it obvious he was hiding something.
“Liar!” she shouted in accusation. “He hates me.”
“No one could hate you,” Wyatt said softly.
“Wyatt—” Tabitha folded her arms, for the moment unimpressed with his blind love for her. “Come on, tell me what he said. If he has an issue—”
“It wouldn’t matter if he did.” Wyatt walked over to Tabitha and pulled her into his arms. He kissed the top of her head despite the fact that she was unyielding and still hadn’t uncrossed her arms. “I love you. I would never let someone come between us. Even him.”
Clay’s voice cut through the silence. “Did you tell him?”
Wyatt pulled back, looking at Tabitha and deliberately ignoring Clay’s question. “You wanna get married? Like tomorrow morning while we’re still here?”
Tabitha let out a laugh of disbelief. “What?”
“I got a fat locker-room bonus that says I can buy you whatever ring ya want.” Wyatt looked at her earnestly. “I love you. Marry me, Tabby.”
“You really
are
crazy.” Tabitha could tell he was serious, and she was equal parts horrified and elated. “My mama—”
“Marry me,” Wyatt pressed rather than let her spout off excuses. “Then we’ll deal with the fallout together. Clay can stand as our witness.”
Tabitha turned to glance at Clay, who looked as flabbergasted as she felt. “Is he serious?”
“I—” Clay paused and then shrugged. “Yeah, probably.”
Tabitha looked back to Wyatt, seeing the firm set in his shoulders and knowing he wasn’t going to drop it. Then she considered her life and tried to imagine somehow living the rest of it without Wyatt.
No way
. It wasn’t something she was able to wrap her mind around, even in her worst nightmares. Marriage was going to happen eventually, so she just shrugged. “I suppose now’s as good a time as any.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Two days later Wyatt came home and started packing up his shit. He didn’t say a word to his sister or father. He just went into the garage, grabbed as many boxes as he could carry, and then headed to his room. He started throwing anything he couldn’t bear to part with into them.
He was twenty-one. He was married. He had over eighty thousand dollars saved from fighting and working as a deputy. There was absolutely no reason why he should be living in this house anymore.
It made sense to Wyatt, but his family was a little too hardheaded to give in.
“Wyatt Fredrick Conner!” Jules pounded on his door hard enough to shake the frame. “You open this damn door right now!”
“Fuck you, Ju Ju!” Wyatt shouted back.
“Don’t think I won’t take a sledgehammer to it!”
“Go for it!”
“Wyatt,” his father broke in, obviously much more calm and rational than Jules. “We both said some things we regret. Come out here, and we’ll talk it over.”
“I don’t regret any of it,” Wyatt growled as he glared at the door. “You don’t like my girl, fine! I don’t need y’all.”
“You take that back!” Jules sounded completely indignant. “You hurt Daddy’s feelings. He told me what you said!”
His father huffed loud enough to be heard through the door. “Look, Wyatt, you think I don’t get it, but I do. You’re young. You think you’re in love and—”
“I
think
I’m in love.” Wyatt gaped at the aged wood for one long moment before he jumped forward and unlocked it. He jerked the door open and held up his hand, showing off the gold ring Tabitha put on his finger the day before. “Check that out. She ain’t my girl anymore. She’s my wife. Now I’m gonna go off with her and start my own dang family. Got it?”
Jules’s face noticeably drained of color, and then she turned around and launched herself at Clay, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest. She punched him hard enough to make Wyatt flinch in sympathy.
“You let him
marry her
?” Her voice had stopped being shrill and was low and dangerous instead. “You know she makes him stupid.”
Clay let out a laugh of disbelief and held his hand up to Wyatt. “You’re acting like I could’ve stopped him.”
Jules turned around and went after Wyatt as if understanding Clay’s reasoning.
Wyatt had the common sense to shove the door forward and block her. It gave him a two-second head start. He was halfway into his room when Jules tackled him from behind. She wrapped an arm around his neck, choking him.
“Get her off me!” Wyatt threatened in raspy voice because she was doing a very effective job of cutting off most of his air supply. “Or I swear to God, this is gonna be the day I hit her back. I’m officially sick of her!”
“Okay, come on, you two.” Their father came forward and struggled to pull Jules off him. “Let him go, Juliet. This ain’t the way to talk this out.”
“She’s crazy!” Wyatt pulled at her arm and coughed when he was finally able to breathe a tiny bit easier. “And you give me hell ’bout being hotheaded?”
“You’re both hotheaded!” Their father struggled with Jules, who was wrapped around Wyatt like a crazed monkey. “This is Grandpa’s gift to y’all! I’m being punished for something. Goddamn it! Let him go!”
“I missed my brother’s wedding.” Jules let out a sob in his ear. “Even if he had to marry
her
, I was still supposed to be there.”
“Is she having girl problems again?” Wyatt barked and then grunted in pain when Jules still managed to hit him in the side while clinging to him. “Ouch! Why is she allowed to hit me, and I ain’t allowed to retaliate? If she’s training for the Olympics, I think that’s the time when I can fight back and—”
Wyatt stopped bitching and started coughing when his father finally pried Jules off him, holding her off her feet while she struggled. That was no small feat. Jules was nearly six feet tall and solid muscle.
When she dropped to her feet, all three of them stood there breathing hard. Clay was standing in the doorway, just watching them have a family meltdown.
Jules flipped her long hair back from where she was bent over, clutching her waist, and narrowed her eyes at Wyatt. “Did you really marry her?”
“No, I stuck the ring on my own finger,” Wyatt said sarcastically.
His father held up his hands in a form of surrender. “Wyatt—”
“If you’re gonna say something negative ’bout my wife—”
His father gave him a long look. “Nah, I ain’t gonna say anything bad ’bout her. I don’t really know her, do I?”
Wyatt caught the underhanded jab and arched an eyebrow. “Can’t really blame me for keeping it a secret. Look what happened when you did find out.”
“I think I’m being very understanding under the circumstances.” His father’s voice was calm, but Wyatt could hear the underlying anger. “Can we go downstairs, have a cup of coffee, and discuss this?”
“What’s there to discuss?” Wyatt snorted. “Not like I’m going back on it. I’m a man of my word. I promised Tabitha till death do us part, and I meant it.”
“How ’bout your living arrangements?” His father gave him a hard look. “Have you thought ’bout where you’re going to take her and set up shop?”
“Well, no, but—”
“This is a big house. Maybe y’all could live here until you find something more permanent.”
“What?” Jules turned their father. “You’re just gonna accept it?”
“He made a commitment to this girl.” Their father shrugged before he cast another quick glare at Wyatt. “A
really
big one.”
Jules choked. “But—”
“Why doesn’t she like her?” his father asked Wyatt accusingly. “That makes me very apprehensive.”
“’Cause she’s crazy.” Wyatt let out a manic laugh as he lifted a hand to his sister. “You saw what just happened.”