“Look who’s here,” Tide teased. “It’s your best friend.”
I looked over at him, letting him know with just my eyes that I wouldn’t appreciate anything that he said or did to make her uncomfortable.
He raised his hand. “Cannel told me.”
I grumbled under my breath and went back to my sandwich
“Oh, boy.”
That had me looking up to find a man had gotten really upset when Sabrina had moved to the front of the line.
And instead of asking her nicely to get behind him he was whispering into her ear, crowding her back, and ultimately sealing his fate.
I stood up, causing nearly everyone in the entire place to look my way due to the chair screeching across the floor and banging into the table behind me.
But I didn’t notice, nor care, who was watching.
My eyes were all for one person in particular.
That one person that was staring at the man with fear-filled eyes.
I walked around the backside of the metal bar, reached over, and physically shoved the man backward until he bumped into the man behind him.
The instigator turned to look at me with pissed-off eyes.
“What the absolute fuck?” he growled.
I pointed at the sign above the register that said To-Go Orders and said, “Can you fuckin’ read?”
The man swallowed hard when he followed my finger.
“Y-yes,” he said.
“Then obviously you know that she has a to-go order. Every-fuckin’-body knows how to order at Subway. You get in line. Easy peasy. Unless you’ve already ordered. Now back the fuck off, and if I ever see you crowding a woman again, I might very well kill you,” I snarled.
I didn’t care that I probably shouldn’t have added that last part.
But honestly, in the grand scheme of things, I was a biker.
We were known in Intercourse, Texas as a bit of an outlaw group.
Though, the town’s occupants didn’t quite know how outlaw we were.
Which was good for them and us.
“I… I’m sorry.” He looked over where I was reaching to block his access to Sabrina and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. I was having a bad day and took it out on you. I’m really sorry.”
His fourth apology.
Asshole.
“It’s…” She didn’t finish the okay because I whipped my head around and said, “If you say it’s okay, I will not be happy. It’s never okay to harass a lady. Never.”
Sabrina swallowed, her eyes wide as saucers.
“Um, Sabrina Proctor?” the chick behind the counter said. “This is your food.”
Sabrina took it with unsteady hands but didn’t otherwise move.
I did the moving for her, going back to my sandwich, which fuckin’ sucked.
At least the Doritos were good.
“Guess you were joking about not interacting with her anymore?” Tide asked.
He, of course, asked that just as Sabrina walked past.
She came to a complete stop, looked at me with stricken eyes, and then walked farther away than I think she might’ve originally planned on moving.
Before I could say another word, Dr. Proctor, who worked with Tide, walked in… in uniform?
“What the fuck?” I asked. “Since when is he in the military?”
Tide leaned back in his chair, obviously enjoying the show.
“Since he was eighteen. He switched to Army Reserve about two years ago.” He paused. “He’s about to head out for his mandatory two-weeks-a-year service time.”
“Huh,” I mused. “I didn’t realize that.”
“Not sure how you would’ve realized it, to be honest,” Tide pointed out.
I grimaced. “I mean, I spent an entire week with her. We talked a lot. Would’ve thought something like that would’ve come up.”
“You dropped her like a hot potato the moment she left,” he countered just as a hand came to slap hard against Tide’s shoulder.
Luckily, the man that’d come up didn’t look at me like he’d heard what Tide had said before he’d walked up.
His eyes came to me as he held out his hand. “I finally made the connection when Tide came back from vacation,” Dr. Daniel Proctor said. “It’s nice to finally say thank you in person.”
I took his hand and stood.
“It was nothing, Dr. Proctor,” I told her father. “I promise.”
Her father’s hand tightened on mine before he said, “Daniel. And it was everything, and you know it.”
I glanced at Sabrina, then back at her father.
Sabrina was staring down at her food, and I felt my stomach clench.
“How’s your sister doing?” Daniel asked.
I frowned. “What?”
“Your sister,” Daniel repeated. “She came to see this one yesterday.” He pointed at Tide. “And was feeling nauseous due to her pregnancy. She feeling better?”
I looked over at Tide with raised eyebrows. And, since we were twins and he practically knew what I was thinking, he said, “She didn’t want anyone to know yet.”
I rolled my eyes and said, “Apparently that news is out of the bag now.”
“Whoops.” Daniel chuckled. “Hope she’s feeling better. But I better go get to my daughter. I’m headed out tonight for two weeks. I want to get one last lunch in with her before I go.”