“All right, fine,” he said, starting to turn away toward Evan’s truck. “I’ll call you after I’m done.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t bother.”
He froze, looking back at her. “What?”
“I’ll wait for you,” Evan muttered to him before walking away so they could talk.
Candace waited until he was out of earshot before she dared open her mouth. “It’s obvious what’s going on here. You’ll hardly look at me, you’re barking at me like I wronged you somehow, and I get it. It’s fine. If you’d never gotten mixed up with me, you’d still have your parlor, and you wouldn’t be going to the police station right now. I’m just—”
“Goddamn it, Candace, don’t do this right now. Not now. I can’t hear this from you on top of everything else.” The expression on his face would be in her nightmares tonight. “Excuse me for having my livelihood trashed all to hell and a shiny new criminal record out of the deal. I’ve got enough shit to deal with, don’t you think?”
“No one said you had to hit Jameson. I never asked you to do that. But at the same time, I didn’t have to run off on Deanne’s wedding and piss everyone off. It’s no more your fault than mine, Brian, but maybe this isn’t the best thing for us right now.”
He was still stuck on her statement about Jameson. “I wasn’t about to stand there and listen to him talk about you that way.”
“Fair enough, but that was your decision. I told you to let me handle things. And now, I’m asking you to let me handle this.” She wanted to weaken at the look on his face, but she had to stand her ground this time. “You take your time getting everything back on track. It looks like you have a lot of work ahead of you. Let me try to smooth things over with my family. Maybe once everything is settled, we can try again, if we’re inclined.”
“No,” he said, and she felt her heart shatter at the sudden pleading in his voice. His hand came up as if he meant to touch her face, but he caught himself. She really wished he hadn’t. One touch and maybe she would forget all this, forget what she had to do. “I’m sorry my head is f**ked up right now, all right? I’m sorry if I made you feel like I blame you. I don’t, I swear. Can we talk about this when we’re more rational?”
She gave him a sad smile. “I’m perfectly rational right now. If you were, too, you’d realize that I’m right. It isn’t just about what they’re going to put me through. It’s what they’re going to put you through too.”
“I’m a big boy. It might not look like it right this minute, but I can take it. I think you forget where I came from. I think they do, too.”
“I don’t know if I can take it.”
“So you’re giving up. You’re going to live under their rule for the rest of your life. Marry whatever buttoned-down yuppie they throw your way and pop out a half-dozen kids.”
“And what do you have envisioned for the future?” she snapped. “I want to finish school and have a career. I would like to have a family someday. You probably think that sounds like a life of hell—”
“You’re pigeonholing me, and I don’t f**king like it. I’m doing what I love right now. Every day, I get to create works of art and help people express themselves. I watch their faces light up when they see how their new ink came out, and I see their eyes well up when it’s something that means the world to them. I never need to do anything else. I don’t want to.” He stabbed a finger toward the building. “That’s my f**king future, Candace, right there. Anyone who’s going to be a part of my life has to realize that.”
“And they’re trying to destroy it because of me. Don’t you see?”
“Listen, I have to go. But I will call you later, and you’ll answer, and we’ll talk about this.”
“It’s just going to make things harder—”
“I told you I wouldn’t let you get away from me the next time you run. I meant it.” His gaze continued to bore into hers, even as he walked away to Evan’s truck and popped open the door. “I meant it, Candace.”
She watched them pull away, feeling lost and alone and…a million other things, none of them good. Starla—who along with every cop milling around the place must’ve heard every word they’d flung at each other—came up and put an arm around her shoulders. “Come on, I’ll take you home.”
The ride was tense, Starla’s makeup-less face showing all the devastation she was feeling. Candace told her where to go and then didn’t know what else to say. After hearing everything that was said just now, maybe Starla blamed her too.
It wasn’t until they pulled in to the parking lot that she spoke. “Don’t leave him like this. He needs you, even if he can’t admit it. Brian is moody. Things get to him. If you leave him right now, it’ll kill him.”
“It might kill me if I stay. This weekend has been…” She drew a breath. “It’s been beautiful and amazing and the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me in my entire life.”
Starla’s brown eyes searched her face intently. “You’re in love for the first time. Of course it’s scary. But you don’t run away from it. Now is when you stand together and push through.”
“My family is going to try to make his life hell. It looks like they’re already starting to do it. He doesn’t need me.”
“Then if I were you, I’d give them hell right back.”
Chapter Twenty
Brian stared out Evan’s truck window, glaring at the world. They’d just left the police department, where he’d sat and written out everything that transpired at Candace’s apartment yesterday. He wasn’t too concerned with what was going to happen with all that. It was aggravating, but nothing compared to what was left of his parlor.
Or what was left of his relationship with her.
The police had been interested in the fact that his place had been vandalized the very night of the fight. Jameson obviously wasn’t smart at all. It was just a matter of finding someone who could place the bastard at the scene, or proof that he’d been there.
“You all right over there?” Evan asked.
“No. Pull over at the next convenience store. I need cigarettes. As soon as I get some, I’m gonna light up five of ’em simultaneously, and inhale those f**kers.”
“Had you quit or something?”
He paused, considering telling him he only hadn’t smoked one yet today, because he honestly didn’t think he was going to get through this day without nicotine. But the truth tumbled out on its own. That was happening a lot lately. “Yeah.”
“Then I’m not pulling over. Hang in there, man.” Evan chuckled. “No wonder you clocked Jameson. You must be climbing the walls.”
“That didn’t have anything to do with why I put that a**hole’s lights out.”
“All right. Tell me the story.”
Brian glared over at Evan. “Are you my brother or my prosecutor right now?”
“I’m always your brother, you hotheaded little shit. But you need to exercise better judgment.”
“Really. Let me ask you something, brother. What would you have done if, the day you and Kelsey got back from Hawaii that first time, she had a brother who got in her face and called her a whore right in front of you?”
Evan blew out a whistle. “Damn. I watched her ex-husband call her a bitch the day she caught him and Courtney together. No—he told her to quit acting like a bitch. I lunged, but he jumped back and the girls got between us. Kelsey was in my face yelling at me not to throw everything away over him, because he wasn’t worth it. I thought it totally would be just to feel the bastard’s jaw connect with my fist one time.”
“It did feel pretty damn good. Not so much now, though.” He flexed his fingers, wincing as pain flared through knuckles that were still sore. “You had a hell of a lot more to lose than I did, though.”
“Sounds like you’ve got plenty to lose,” Evan said pointedly. “Don’t mess things up with her by acting like a lunatic. If you want to win her family over, decking her brother isn’t the way to go about it.”
“To hell with her brother. And her family.”
“Okay, how about this, then. I don’t think it’s a good idea to nearly break your drawing hand on a piece of trash like Jameson Andrews.”
“My hand is fine,” he snapped.
“They’re going to come at you any way they can. I don’t think I can get you out of this one.”
“I haven’t asked you to, and don’t do me any favors. I’ll suffer the consequences and like it, as long as it’s for her.” His brother digested that in silence for a while, staring straight ahead at the road. Brian watched him, thinking of a thousand things he wished he’d never done, never said. “Does it freak you out being a dad?”
Evan laughed. “You’re all over the map today, boy.”
“Does it?”
“It makes me feel about a million different things. Mostly insanely happy, but freaked out is definitely in there somewhere… Wait. Shit, Brian. Tell me Candace isn’t pregnant.”
He shrugged. “Anything’s possible.”
“Do you love this girl?” It wasn’t a gentle question. It held all the promise that if Brian gave the wrong answer, Evan was going to pull over and throw him out of the truck.
“I’m f**king crazy about her.”
“Fucking crazy I’ve gathered. But I asked if you love her. I asked if you’ll say the words. I’m talking true, enduring, unconditional, hold-her-hair-while-she’s-puking-from-morning-sickness love.”
“Hell, yes, I’ll say the words! I love her. I told her I love her. I’ll hold any frigging thing she wants me to.”
“Well, you damn sure didn’t talk to her like you loved her earlier. I thought about emasculating you right there in front of everyone.”
“You didn’t hang around long enough to see me grovel. And I appreciate your restraint. I feel emasculated enough as it is.” He reached up and rubbed his face hard. “But I do love her.”
“She’s a sweet girl. Don’t screw up anymore, Brian. And don’t get her pregnant, please? For God’s sake? You are not ready for that level of commitment and respons—”
“Don’t give me your shit, man, it’s not as if I’m trying to. You weren’t either, if I recall.”
Evan grinned. “Kelsey says we’re so in love we can’t help but bond even at the molecular level.”
“You’re not going to be one of those couples who has nineteen kids, are you?”
“Nah. We definitely want at least one more, maybe two, but not right away. Alex is a handful.”
“You know, as I was sitting in the police department earlier, I had a thought.”