Touching on that point didn’t seem to rattle him, which bothered me for reasons you wouldn’t expect. First of all, if I hadn’t told him my story, he wouldn’t have had any business commenting on fighting. That he’d not only owned up to the ass kicking he’d taken but seemed not to care blew my mind. He didn’t even seem embarrassed. That wasn’t the Riptide way. You dish out the ass kickings; you never take them.
“You’ve got to get off this, bro,” Jax said.
“Off what?”
“Come on, Zane, you know I shouldn’t have to draw a picture for you.”
“What if you do?”
He flashed a bona fide smile this time and seemed to shake his head, too. You know, like I’d said something stupid? Or maybe I was my own worst enemy? I wanted to tell him to spit it out because I was dying to know. Of course, anything I said would drip with sarcasm.
I rested my stick against the boards and sighed, figuring we would be there for a while.
“Look, Zane,” he said. “I’m not trying to bust your balls. Seriously. I just think getting into something like this only creates a shit ton of distraction for you—and the team by extension.”
“Excuse me, but weren’t you the one puffing your chest out at the bar?”
“I did do that, sure, but only after shit escalated, and because I had the whole team with me.”
“You’re saying you’re only tough when you’ve got backup, huh? Yeah, that’s real brave.”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m telling you that the situation was at least a little different.”
“And you also opened your mouth, knowing the shit it could cause.”
I didn’t want to go there, especially when I really preferred to blame the Larkin Lions for everything. In truth, the brawl wouldn’t have happened if he’d ignored the Lions’ presence, or at least behaved in a peaceful manner, but I felt like I couldn’t say it. He was the team captain, after all.
“I know I did,” he said. “Maybe I should’ve known it would escalate. Whatever. I stand by what I said about the team being there. I didn’t go after anyone from their team individually that night and definitely not after the fact.”
When he paused, I knew he meant to let his point sink in, and he succeeded, but not quite like he might’ve hoped.
“Something about Jakob Martin drives you nuts,” he said.
“Yeah, it’s the fat nose that still hasn’t completely healed.”
“It’s more than that and you know it, Zane.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You won’t let this go, bro. Yeah, the rivalry means something to me, too. I hate the Larkin Lions with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns, but I despise theteam, not an individual player.”
“What about Levi Dunn, the guy that popped you?”
“That’s different.”
I raised my index finger like I had a point to make but stopped myself short of speaking. He wasalmostright about something (praise Jesus!) no matter how badly I wanted to deny it.
Something about Jakob Martin rubbed me the wrong way even before the Colter Bay Grill brawl. After his fist made its acquaintance with my face that feeling grew, but I understood there was more to it than that. Maybe the fact that he was so goddamn smug about the whole thing had done it. That he seemed to feel in total control of the situation had contributed to my animosity.
“What’s going on?” Jax asked.
“Nothing. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
And I really didn’t. I had noticed some things about Jakob that I hadn’t shared—and absolutely wouldn’t now that Jax had exposed himself as a wet blanket.
Jakob had not only appeared to remain in control of the situation but seemed unflappable. But it was almost like he wouldn’t have been with anyone else. He could handle a confrontation from me, like I was the exception to the rule. Or maybe I wasn’t the exception at all. Maybe I was a big dope who didn’t know his ass from his elbow. Okay, I’ll take being the exception to the rule. Sounds great, huh?
I pictured how Jakob must’ve looked when the cop had stopped me. In this fantasy, Jakob smiled hugely, showing the craziest pair of dimples the world had ever seen. I certainly found them exceptional.
