One of the Good Ones (Strawberry Inn Book #1)

Chapter 38

HARRISON

Spring nights like this one are the definition of perfection. The temperature is still warm enough without that chill that still comes during early Spring. A slight breeze flows in here and there to keep the air from becoming too stale. The stars are out on display and the moon lights up the night sky, there isn’t a cloud in sight to get in the way. My grandpa, God rest his soul, used to call this thinking weather. It was the type of weather when a man could sit outside with a beer in his hand and just think. That is precisely what I’m doing right now.

The screen door opens and closes, I expect to see Angela, but instead, Chaz saunters out with a beer of his own, taking a seat in the second chair outside the cottage. He nods in my direction but doesn’t say anything at first. We’re just two men taking in the thinking weather. Chaz arrived this afternoon with his girlfriend, Kayla. Angela got them settled into their hotel room before I got off shift. He was on edge the entire afternoon, according to the multiple texts that I received, up in arms about this entire Leon and Heather situation.

I’ll never know what it is like to be a big brother, but I imagine I’d react the same way about Leon showing up out of the blue if it were my sister involved. I don’t have a friendly enough relationship with Chaz that we talk or text, I don’t even have his phone number. I’ve been on enough one-sided conversations Angela has with him to know that he’s very protective of her and part of him hates that his mom and sister are not in the same state anymore. Not to step on any man’s toes, but I hope he knows I’ve got them.

“So what is the plan?” Chaz finally breaks the silence. I glance in his direction and raise up my eyebrow to signal that I need more information. “You have to be brainstorming some plan to teach that Leon fucker a lesson. I’m game, I don’t care what it is at this point, I’m tired of seeing him hurt her.”

“Yeah…” I draw out, “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about it. Hell, I’ve been trying to get rid of him since he showed up in town earlier this week.”

“I heard about that. Ma said Angie had to chill the cops out so you didn’t get in trouble.”

“Yeah, I might have gone a bit too far with no provocation, but that little twerp rubbed me the wrong way before I even met him. Now I wish I would have punched him.”

“There is a line for that,” Chaz chuckles. 

“How have you not beaten the shit out of him by now? I love Angela, so I’m trying to respect the fact that they had a long relationship and were married, but holy shit…”

“I kind of wish I could have gone back to the scrawny twelve-year-old and taken care of him right then and there.”

“Scrawny twelve-year-old? He’s still fucking scrawny.”

“You two are very different, that is for sure. There have been multiple times over the last two and a half years that I wanted to rip his head off, but Ang has always nixed that idea.”

I swallow the lump in my throat, “You don’t think she still has feelings for him, do you? She’s trying to protect him?”

“Oh no,” Chaz shakes his head, “She is not holding onto feelings for him. Even if there was anything left after the two years of hell he put her through, those are long gone now. I don’t want to get too far into a feelings talk with you, but Ang is whole-heartedly in love with you and only you.”

“That’s comforting to hear, but still makes me wonder why she seems to defend him.”

“I think that is just Angela. She’s a peacekeeper at heart. I also suspect that she’s protecting her own pride a bit. Leon ruined her. If the cheating wasn’t enough to bring her down, stealing her business out from under her just gutted her. She doesn’t want to admit it to herself, though.”