Page 99 of Breaking All The Rules
“Could I get some cheesy garlic bread, too?”
Tucker laughed. “I love that you think you’re going to have an appetite after Arlo’s done with you.”
Ignoring Tucker, Austin reluctantly left his stool and headed to the booth where Arlo was making himself at home. He slid in opposite, and before he even got a chance to say anything, Clay and Winona both appeared. Winona slipped in beside him, and his brother sat next to Arlo. He looked at both newcomers. “What’s this?”
“It’s an intervention,” Tucker announced as he also joined them, handing over Austin’s beer, then sliding in beside Winona.
“An intervention?”
“Yeah,” Clay said, glaring at his brother. “An asshole intervention.”
“About Bea,” Winona said in a much gentler tone.
“Oh, hell no.” Austin shook his head. He’d rather change all four of Bob Downey’s tires. “No way.”
“Yes way,” Clay insisted. “You’re pissing everybody off and you’re freaking Mom out.”
“I’m fine.” Austin barely resisted slamming his bottle down on the table.
Four sets of eyes brimming with exasperation and pity pinned him into the corner of the booth. “You want to go first?” Arlo said, flicking his gaze at Winona.
“Why?” She shot Arlo an irritated frown. “Because I’m the girl?”
“No.” Arlo’s sigh spoke volumes about his level of frustration. Credence’s chief of police had never been known for touchy-feely stuff, so Austin figured this had to be just as excruciating for Arlo as it was for him. “Because you’re supposed to be the love expert, remember?”
“Oh, Jesus,” Austin muttered, guzzling his beer.
“Bartenders make pretty good love experts,” Tucker, who seemed to be enjoying this agonizing spectacle a little too much, threw into the mix.
“Thanks,” Arlo replied grimly, “but we need someone whose expertise didn’t evolve from reading smutty graffiti in the john.”
Ignoring them, Winona, who looked right at home despite her earlier protest, nudged him with her shoulder. “What happened? With Bea?”
“Nothing. It’s fine. I’m fine.”
Arlo muttered something before drawing in the kind of deep breath usually reserved for weary mothers about to chastise misbehaving children. “Well, nobody,” he proclaimed in his annoyingly superior cop voice, “including you, is leaving until this gets sorted, so you might as well cut to the chase.”
Austin looked at the faces of the people around him. Most of them he’d known a long time and he’d trust with his life. Even Winona had become a friend. He glanced at Clay, who was watching him closely. “C’mon, Junior—”
“Goddamn it, Clay,” Austin yelled, not resisting the urge to slam his bottle down this time as he glared at his brother. “My name is Austin.” He hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that his age had been a major factor in Beatrice cutting him loose, so he was done with the Junior.
There was a moment of silence around the table as everyone gaped at the usually affable Austin. Clay raised both his hands in a display of surrender, his face creased in brotherly concern. “Sorry, man.” He left it a beat or two before continuing. “Look, Austin…it’s obvious you’re head over heels for her.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Austin stared at the label on his bottle. “She doesn’t live here anymore.”
“Gee, if only there was a machine with, oh, I don’t know, wings that could get you to LA in a couple of hours,” Clay said, clearly over his brotherly concern.
Ignoring them again, Winona probed gently, “You love her?”
Glancing around the circle at the faces again, at the people who only wanted the best for him, Austin sighed and nodded. “Yes.” It was the only way he was getting out of here tonight anyway. Right now, he’d admit to every unsolved crime in the county just to make it stop. “But it doesn’t matter; she doesn’t love me.” That’s what it boiled down to, after all. Just a case of long-distance, unrequited love.
“Is that what she said when you confessed your feelings to her?” Winona probed.
Austin shook his head. “I didn’t tell her.”
Winona blinked. In fact, everyone at the table blinked. “Why the hell not?” Clay demanded.
“Jesus, dude,” Tucker tsked. “Rookie error.”
