Meyer shook his head. “Now you see that Avery is...well, she’s confused about some things. But she needs to return home. Her mother needs her here.”
“Got nothing to do with me.”
Fisher shared a look with Meyer. “You could fire her.”
The hell he would. Rowdy showed his teeth in mock humor. “I’ll let her know you suggested it, Fish.”
Fisher sighed. “If you want to make this more difficult, I can’t stop you. But for her sake, I hope you reconsider.”
For her sake. Yeah, for Avery, Rowdy would do just about anything.
Sucked that he was only just now realizing it.
She stuck her head out the door, saw him and again her blue eyes went soft with relief. She and her mother came out.
Sonya looked distressed, but Avery said, “I’ll be back soon, Mom. I promise. If you need me, I’m only a phone call away.”
“I don’t want to be a burden.”
Avery smiled. “You could never be that.”
Sonya shivered in the cold breeze, so Meyer went to her, his arm around her shoulders.
“Go on in,” Avery told them, holding her own jacket close around her. “It’s too cold out here.”
Rowdy wanted to snuggle her closer, too, to share his warmth, but he didn’t. He ignored Fisher and said to Avery’s parents, “Thank you for the lunch.”
Meyer replied, “Drive carefully.”
Indecision held Sonya for a second before she stepped forward. “Thank you, Rowdy. I hope we see you again.”
Not likely. He got one side of his mouth to smile, nodded and turned to go. Avery hustled to keep up with him.
Full of confidence, Fisher called out, “We’ll see you again soon, Ave.”
Mouth pinched tight, she ignored him and stared straight ahead. For Rowdy it was a little harder. He wanted to level the smug bastard.
At the end of the driveway, Avery stepped closer, her shoulder bumping his arm. Rowdy moved away from her on the pretense of circling the car.
She stopped and stared at him a moment before going on to open her own door.
If she thought he was a gentleman, then it was past time for Avery Mullins to accept the truth. She’d laid it out for her folks, and he’d be happy to drive it home for her.
He was a street rat, through and through. Immoral when it suited him, driven by his own rules and to hell with what society thought. He and his little bartender had nothing but sexual chemistry in common.
Much as he might wish it otherwise, Rowdy knew that could never be enough.
* * *
AVERY TOOK THE silence for as long as she could, but she grew more stressed with each minute that passed. Finally she felt as if she’d jump out of her own skin if she didn’t say something.
“My mom says she’s in overall good spirits. They got all the cancer and her prognosis is good. She’s recovering quickly.”
Nothing.
“Cancer is always serious, of course. But Mom assured me that she’ll be fine, that much of the treatment is just precautionary. She said Meyer exaggerated things.”
“He wanted you home, where you belong.”
But she didn’t belong there. Not anymore. She needed Rowdy to understand that. “Mom apologized for Fisher being there. I guess Meyer invited him, and he showed up last minute.”
It crushed her that even now her mother didn’t see what a creep Fisher was. She claimed he had been so helpful to them, that Fisher was every bit as heartbroken by her long absence.
If her mother hadn’t been ailing, Avery would have walked out again.
“She wanted me to take some of my old clothes with me. She disapproves of my jeans, but I’ve really enjoyed being so comfortable.”
Rowdy’s face tightened, but he didn’t reply.
“I think she’s accepting that I made my own way. Especially now that we’ve sort of reconciled. I told her I’d come back more to visit.” When Fisher wasn’t around—that was one stipulation she’d given, and her mother had agreed. “She’ll call to talk, to keep me updated on what’s happening.”
No reaction at all.
“She said she’d really like to get to know you better, too.”
Other than Rowdy’s eyes narrowing more, he didn’t acknowledge her in any way.
Avery knew he’d disapproved of her bragging. He couldn’t possibly understand why she’d done it, and Avery couldn’t tell him.
Better than most, she knew how deceptive Fisher could be. Despite appearances, he wasn’t a principled man, and he didn’t fight fair. As long as Fisher believed that Rowdy was a complete and total badass—which wasn’t a stretch—then he just might leave Rowdy alone.
But if Rowdy knew the truth, no way would he let Fisher off that easy. He thought himself invincible, and in some circumstances, it might be true. In a fair fight, one-on-one, face-to-face, Rowdy would destroy Fisher.
Unfortunately, Fisher wasn’t a dummy, but he was the worst kind of coward. If he ever attacked Rowdy, it wouldn’t be in any honorable way where Rowdy would have a chance to defend himself.
If only she’d known Fisher was going to be there... Damn Meyer for his meddling.
As Rowdy continued to ignore her, her heart grew heavy in her chest. “Rowdy?”
“What is it, Ave?”
She winced at the bite in his tone. “Please don’t call me that. It’s some ridiculous thing that Fisher picked up. I don’t like it.”