“I appreciate you looking out for me, baby girl, but I got this. May I?”
This isn’t a good idea, but I really don’t want to talk to the Sheriff after he tried to make this seem like it’s my job to not do anything stupid when it was Joseph who contacted me.
I give Hutch the phone.
“Hey, this is Jonathan, Daisy’s boyfriend. I’m also a professional hockey player.” He pauses while he listens to whatever the sheriff is saying. It doesn’t look like it’s going well because the anger only increases on his face. “No, it’s time for you to shut up and listen to me. She’s not in some small country town where they value assholes over women who’ve had the shit beat out them. Where she is now, my family is in law enforcement. And I guarantee you if your asshat of a nephew tries to get near her, he’ll end up in jail. I’m personally going to go give his photo to my uncle so the whole PD will have it in their cars while they’re on patrol. Any man who would dare tell a woman not to file charges against her abuser is nothing but a cowardly piece of shit who’s going to Hell no matter how many times he might ask for forgiveness. You remember that, Sheriff. And tell you nephew if he calls her again, I’ll personally makesure the people at the combine and the draft see his handiwork. Got it?”
He hangs up the phone, hands it back to me and turns around. Probably so I won’t see how mad he is. I appreciate that. I don’t quite trust my instincts yet, but I really want to believe Hutch would never turn on me in anger. Then again, I believed that about Joseph until he beat me. I know comparing him and Hutch is like comparing apples to oranges, but there’s still a small ounce of fear there. Can I really trust my own judgment when it comes to men?
Nana would love Hutch. Especially when he’s standing up for me. I can’t remember a time when Joseph ever did that.
“Are you okay?” I ask after he stands there for a full five minutes.
He nods. “I just don’t want you to look at me and see anger. I don’t want you to associate that with me.”
“I don’t.”
“You sure? I wouldn’t blame you if you did the way I’ve been flying off the handle tonight.”
“You’re mad, but that anger isn’t directed at me. Your anger isforme, not against me. I know the difference.”
His shoulders sag and then he straightens to slowly turn and face me. Most of the rage has left his eyes, but some of it still lingers, smoldering like a volcano about to erupt and destroy everything in its path.
“I never want you to be afraid of me. The thought of you flinching away is actually painful.”
“I know you won’t hurt me.”
“The thought of those assholes and how they forced you to not file charges…I want to go and cause so much trouble.”
“They’re not worth it. And I’m the one who called the sheriff. I thought maybe he could talk to Joe and keep him away. I don’t know why he’s calling and it scares me. He told me that day Ibelonged to him and he meant it. I don’t know if his uncle can rein him in, but I hope so.”
“He will. I made sure he understood what kind of hell would come for his nephew if he didn’t.”
I shake my head. He’d made essentially empty threats to the sheriff. Hutch might know people in the hockey circle, but he doesn’t know anyone at the combine or the major NFL teams. He never gave his name, though. Maybe the sheriff will take it as a real threat.
“Where’s Collin?”
“The guys couldn’t find the air mattresses and he went over to the house to dig them out of the garage. You want him to come back? I’ll call him and tell him to turn around.”
I bet he would too. He and Hutch would sleep on the hard floor if I asked them to. That’s who they are. I know it deep down. If only I could get over this irrational fear I have.
“You want a hot bath or something? My mom always says a woman can wash away her stress with a hot bath and a glass of wine. I don’t know if they keep any kind of wine here except for the cheap nasty kind.”
“You know what cheap nasty wine tastes like? I had you for a beer and whiskey kind of guy.”
“Don’t get me wrong, cold beer after a long day…perfection. I only do hard liquor if we’ve had a losing streak of more than four games.”
“You lose?”
He grins, and it softens the anger in his eyes. “It’s rare, but we do lose the occasional game.”
“Four in a row?”
“My freshman year, we lost more than half our games. It was bad, but we had seniors and juniors who thought they were the shit and the rest of us didn’t see much time on the ice. It wasn’t until our old coach was forced to retire and we got Coach thatwe actually started winning. He evaluated the team and sent the assholes to the third and fourth lines while bringing the rest of us who were actually trying to win and not just show off up to the first and second lines. We started winning games.”
“Why did your old coach retire?” I went over to my chest of drawers and dug out an old t-shirt and some pajama pants. A bath would be heavenly, but not tonight. It wouldn’t relax me with Hutch in the next room and especially not with Collin coming back. I can rein in my fear when he’s here, though, and I might get a little sleep. He might even be able to keep the nightmares away.
“He had a stroke. Doc says the stress got to be too much for him.”
