"Sure."
I find the sour cream section easily, but she neglected to mention how many different brands and sizes there are and which she wants, so I pick the biggest tub and head back to where she is.
Only, she's not there anymore.
I roam the aisles one by one, finding her eventually in the far back corner near a rack of sale items and the door to the back. Duane has her cornered.
"You won't even give me the time of day, buthim? Oh, ofcourse. I ain't so bad once you get to know me.” His voice is filmy, wheedling, and evil.
"Duane, please just leave me alone." Her voice is firm, but I hear fear in it.
Rage fills me, and I struggle to contain it. My hands shake, and I know I have to be very careful with what I do next. I prowl up behind Duane, grab him by the back of the neck, and toss him backward. I only use a fraction of my strength, but he’s a skinny little guy, and he goes sprawling half a dozen feet away. I stomp toward him, fighting the urge to rip his head off his shoulders.
He must see the murder in my eyes because he scrabbles backward on his butt. "We—we was just t-t-talking," he stammers. "Didn’t mean nothin' by it."
I grab him by the shirt front and haul him off the ground and onto his feet—he’s airborne for a second. "You don't come within ten feet of her. Ever." I shake him. Once—hard. His teeth rattle. "You don't fucking speak to her. You don't talk about her. You don't eventhinkabout her. You do, I'll tear you into little pieces and feed you to the fucking seagulls."
I toss him again, but this time gently enough that he can keep his feet. He staggers backward, pale and shaking. With one last glance at me and Noelle, fearful and small and vicious and ugly, he runs off, tripping over his feet.
I close my eyes once he's gone, and try to find my center, my calm.
I can't breathe. I’m shaking with rage, a red haze obscuring my vision.
She was scared—of him.
That rage fills me all over again, terrifying in its potency. My muscles spasm, wanting to destroy something.
“Bear?" Her voice is small, tiny. She tentatively touches my arm. “Hey. It's okay. I'm fine."
I shake my head. "Don’t—don’t touch me. Not…I’m not safe right now."
She ignores that, circling in front of me and standing on her tiptoes to get close to me, pressing against me with her warmth and softness. "Hey. Hey. Breathe, baby. Breathe with me." Shesucks in a long breath, holds it, and lets it out—I follow along, and my heart slows, the rage subsiding. "Look at me, honey. Touch me. Feel me. I'mfine. I'm not hurt. I wasn't even really scared—I knew you'd find me and take care of him. It's okay, now. It’s okay.”
"I wanted to…" I shake my head. I can't put it into words. "I'm sorry you saw that side of me."
She wraps her arms around my neck, nuzzling my throat. "I'm not. You protected me." She strokes my beard, my jaw. "You didn't do anything bad, Bear. You scared him a little. Or a lot. Which he deserved. You controlled yourself. I’m proud of you."
Her words burn through the haze, clearing my mind. "You…you are?"
"Yes!" She pats my chest. "I saw how mad you were. You could’ve really hurt him, but you didn’t.”
I shake my head, staring at the way Duane went. "Don’t like him. Gotta talk to Riley."
"Okay. Maybe he can talk to him about keeping his distance and behaving himself." She grabs the cart and smacks me on the butt. "C'mon, you. Let's go home. Steak and potatoes won't cook themselves."
The following morning, when Noelle drops me off at work, I'm the first one there. Felix arrives next in his big, gold pickup with the bullbar and light rack. He hops down, blond hair shaggy around his collar, a scruffy beard shadowing his jawline, mirrored, wraparound Oakleys on his face. He and Riley look a lot alike, opposite hair color aside—sharp, rugged jawlines, eyes so pale blue they’re almost white, high cheekbones, and lean, athletic builds. Felix is heavier and more densely muscled in contrast to Riley’s hard, shredded build.
Riley, despite being the clean-cut one, is the bad boy, the brother with a reputation as a ladies’ man—to put it nicely—whereas Felix, the shaggy and unkempt one, is the goldenboy, the football star in high school, pillar of the Three Rivers community, with his construction company providing luxury housing across the area. Felix’s company, Crowe Construction, in addition to homebuilding, also installs play structures at schools and parks in the area as a charitable donation, as well as maintaining a tiny home community for the local homeless population.
Felix is widely adored by the Three Rivers population, and since he's perpetually single, he's considered the most eligible bachelor in town—all this is according to Noelle and her friends, during Trivia Night gossip sessions.
Riley is the black sheep. The one who went to prison for an offense I've never learned, squandering a full-ride scholarship to a Big Ten university for hockey. He's always got a girlfriend, but they never last long and often end in messy, public blowouts that see him going on a bender and having to be collected by his brother.
Despite all that, his work-release program is a darling in the city, beloved by most residents as an ideal second-chance opportunity, a means of rehabilitation rather than punishment. People see the good it does; the inmates who go through it often stay in Three Rivers and become liked and respected members of the community. Not everyone feels that way, obviously—there’s a small but vocal faction who think prisoners should stay in prison where they belong, fearing us.
Felix waves at me and goes to the trailer hitched to his truck, opens the tailgate, and starts to organize equipment. A few minutes later, his guys start showing up, and then Riley arrives with Eddie in tow, along with the rest of the crew. Duane hops out of Eddie’s truck, sees me, lip curling into a vicious, vengeful sneer, and scurries away to open the house they're starting on today.
Now that we've finished the demo, our job is to assist the construction crew, filling in gaps and cleaning up after them. No one likes this part of the process—it makes us demo guys feel like second-stringers. But the brothers like to have the crews working in tandem, so it's the way we do it.
