I’d gotten in, though only after I’d situated Holt in the back seat next to Lottie.
He’d driven me to a bar in the middle of nowhere, and when I’d gotten out, he’d driven off with Holt and Lottie, leaving me standing in front of a bar with nobody I knew in sight.
At least, what I thought was nobody.
When I got inside, though, I knew that I was wrong.
I wasn’t alone.
Everyone but Audric was there. All of the brothers and their wives. They were all watching as I walked inside looking like the sad, lonely loser that I was.
Keely had gestured me to her table where she was sitting with Dima, Searcy and Posy. Her face had softened when she glanced at me.
“How’d you get here?” she asked.
“Audric brought me.” I took a seat, slumping forward.
“Ahhh,” Chevy said. “That makes sense.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because he’s been the one turning Copper into a blabbering idiot when it comes to you.” He leaned back in his chair, bringing his beer to his lips. “And my brother clocked you the moment you walked in, and he’s wondering how you got here, and how you knew where he was.”
I didn’t look up.
The warning from last night to stay away from him fresh on my mind.
“How’d last night go?” Keely asked. “Copper won’t talk about it at all. Which only has us more curious.”
I told her everything that happened, though I left out the part about how Copper told me to leave him alone, ending with the pizza that he’d bought on the way home.
That’s when all the blank stares started to get to me.
“What?” I asked.
The Claybornes all shared a look between themselves.
“What?” Keely asked at the same time Chevy snorted.
“What, what?” I asked.
“You and Copper ate pizza last night?” she asked.
I frowned. “Yeah…why do you all look like you’re surprised?”
“Copper hates pizza,” Webber interjected as he plopped down beside me. “It’s like, his least favorite meal ever. If we order it, he gets a sandwich. He can’t stand pizza.”
I thought back to all the times that I’d suggested pizza over the four months that I’d known him, then felt my eyes well in tears.
I remember him saying once, in the very beginning, how he’d eat anything as long as it made me happy.
I’d thought that meant ‘he was an everything kind of person.’ Not that he’d literally eat anything just to see me eat.
“Um.” I scrubbed hard at my eyes. “I don’t know what to say.”
“He loves you. What kind of man would move into the house next door, and not use any lights whatsoever, just to make sure the girl he wants above all others is safe and happy, and has the help that she so obviously needs?”
I jerked my head up to see Searcy get up from the table and lean her hip against the pillar next to Webber’s crossed arms. She was staring at me with a soft expression on her face.
