Caleb's Blessing (16 page)

It was a somber group that boarded my family’s private plane to head to her old hometown.

No one was saying anything because she was in our midst, and if I wasn’t so tied up in knots, I would’ve appreciated the way my guys were going out of their way to make her smile.

No one made mention of our mission, instead all the talk was about the baby, which seemed to work to relax her a little.

“I think I should be the godfather since I’m Ms. Amanda’s favorite. Isn’t that right?” Mikey never knows when to quit and I didn’t want any part of the shit storm he’d just brought down on his head.

Of course that sparked off a debate. I should’ve known the young’un would start some shit that would get his ass thrown off the plane mid-flight.

“You’d better have twins baby, otherwise there will be no peace on the ranch until the kid is ninety.” I whispered the words in her ear as she sat next to me.

Watching nine grown men, well eight and a half, fight over my unborn kid did have its purpose. It kept us preoccupied, and took our minds off of what was coming.

I wasn’t dumb enough to believe that by just telling her not to fear that that would make it so, but I was more interested in her level of fear.

I must’ve done something right because by the time we landed and alighted, she was a hell of a lot more relaxed than even I had expected.

That could have something to do with the fact that the guys and I surrounded her like royalty, or more like the most precious thing in our little world.

I didn’t even have to tell them, they just automatically fell into formation around the two of us as we walked.

I had a death grip on her hand because now that we were here, I had a million doubts and a thousand different ideas of what I should’ve done instead of bringing her here.

I brushed it aside though because I knew in my heart that it was the right move. If I could I’d let her shoot the fucker, but that might be a bit much to ask of my pregnant fiancée.

There was no reason I couldn’t shoot him myself though and I was hoping he’d give me a reason.

I knew from the bits and pieces she’d shared with me over the last couple of weeks what most of the town was like.

As we drove through I saw the little town square that looked like a throwback to Mayberry.

The place was beautiful, more green than home, with its lush density as opposed to our wide-open spaces.

I wasn’t here for the scenery though, that will have to wait. We were packed into two trucks headed for the center of town.

It was still early evening and I wasn’t planning on staying any longer than was necessary, unless she wanted to.

She showed a little bit of fear when we pulled up to the only diner on the cobble stone street.

I’d had Diego do a Google search for all the places of interest to make this shit short and sweet.

“Hey, look at me, you good?” she nodded her head but I could see the struggle.

“You think the coward can take me?” I made a muscle with my arm, the old Popeye move and she was soon in stitches from my antics.

By the time we were walking through the doors to the place she was laughing at whatever the guys and I threw at her.

Just what I expected to happen did, as soon as the occupants got a look at us.

There were murmurs and hushed tones as we headed for a booth along the side away from the window. I wanted to have my back to the wall so I could see who was coming, so that’s where I put her before sliding in beside her. The guys took up the rest of space and we were packed in tight, which worked to make her feel a little safer I think.

The waitress could barely put two words together once she made it over, her attention solely on Amanda.

“Amanda, is that you? We thought...never mind what we thought, it’s good to see you, but...”

‘Ma’am may we have our menus please?” Jonah interrupted the long winded young lady with a smile, and his polite question seemed to snap her out of it and remind her why she was here.

I had nothing to say until my target was in my sights. I was saving up my energy.

The last time I’d been in a brawl I swore it would be my last. When you almost kill a man bare-fisted you tend to want to avoid that shit at all cause in the future.

Today I was planning to let it all hang out. The last asshole had ended up in the hospital where they’d patched his ass back together, this one I was planning to pound into dust.

The harried young girl passed around the menus and I noticed that my woman smiled but didn’t answer or even greet her.

Good, she doesn’t have to say fuck all to a town of people who stood by and did nothing while she suffered. I didn’t miss the way the girl, Cora, according to her nametag, swallowed loud and hard when she got a gander at the rock on my woman’s hand.

Good, it won’t be long now. We carried on a normal conversation as we perused the menu that I had no intentions on ordering from, except for bottled water or juice. We’d head on to the next town over when we were done here to get something to eat.

“Babe, you want that nasty cranberry juice that you like so much?”

“It’s not nasty.”

“Nastiest shit I’ve ever tasted.”

“Oh yeah Ms. Amanda, I’m gonna have to agree with the boy on this one, that shit has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.”

“Now Simon that’s simply not true, it has lots of good properties you just haven’t given it a chance.”

“I’ll try some with you Ms. Amanda, I’m not scared.” Mikey the suck up barely got the words out before they earned him a kick under the table from one of the others. “Hey.”

The incongruity of the situation wasn’t lost on me. “So what will it be?” Cora was back with pad and pencil at the ready.

“Bring us guys orange juice and the lady will have cranberry, in the bottle please, and don’t open them, with straws.”

She looked a little disgruntled that we weren’t ordering anything more, but the tip at the end should take care of that. Speaking of which.

I removed some bills from my wallet and placed them on the table because chances are I’d forget after.

I knew the second the asshole came into my orbit. The whole place felt oppressively stifled all of a sudden.

Chairs were scraped back against the wooden floor as people with children got up to leave. It was so much like the old Oaters dad use to watch when we were kids, that I almost laughed out loud.

“Steady.” I put my hand on her knee that had begun to shake and she covered it with hers, digging her nails into me.

I didn’t lift my head to search him out and no one at our table even looked anywhere but at each other as we carried on with our conversation.

Cora looked a little apologetic as she placed our juices down in front of us.

“Here baby.” I opened her juice and slipped a straw inside just as two men came up to the table.

“What’s all this? You think you can just slip back into town like nothing happened with this motely crew of old broken down cowboys?”

“Adrian.” I had to snap him out of it before he kicked the ass that had my name on it.

A slow perusal showed that the boy had brought along his dad. “Two for one sale, I like it.” My boys knew what I was getting at and grinned.

“What the hell is this idiot talking about two for one? Did you really think you could come into my town, and do what?”

I ignored him and turned to her. “Do you see him? Take a long hard look at your monster baby.” She forced herself to look and I saw the fear that was there.

Leaning over I whispered in her ear. “Doesn’t he look small and pathetic next to your man?”

Her eyes flew to mine and I saw the beginnings of a smile touch the corners of her lips.

“Look at that soft face and those girly hands, what the fuck did you say he does again?”

“He looks like a pansy ass daddy’s boy to me.” Well shit Alex. Of course he said it loud enough for the jackass and his old man to hear.

Her eyes went to Alex and the others who were all staring at the snake with disgust.

“I’m sorry Ms. Amanda but, that one was a mistake, chalk it up to experience. At least you’ve gone and done better for yourself this time around.”

Okay, so we didn’t rehearse what we were gonna say, but these fools were really gearing up for it.

“Amanda get up from there right now.”

“Oh you’re one of those.” I finally addressed him and he puffed up his chest like a rooster. The boy really was soft, I felt almost sorry for him because I knew what I was gonna do to his ass in about five minutes.

“One of what?”

“A clueless asshole who don’t know when he’s beat, and I didn’t give you leave to address my woman so don’t.”

I turned away from him to her again. “What are you feeling right now baby?” my words were soft and for her ears only. I left it to my boys to stare fear into the boy and his potbellied daddy. Two less likely villains I’ve yet to meet.

I guess she was getting the idea too herself since she seemed to be making the comparisons and coming to the same conclusion.

“I want to knock his lights out.” I grinned wide at her and lifted her hand to my mouth so I could kiss her knuckles.

“Okay champ.” I nudged Mikey to scoot out of the booth so we could get out.

The clueless wonder that was her ex only took a step back when we got up, like he thought we were gonna ask him to dance.

I made a point of showing her how to fold her fist. Meanwhile the place was as silent as a tomb.

“Wait, was there anything you wanted to say to this jackass first?” Well now, she got a sure fire mean as a rattlesnake look on her face.

“Yes.” She looked him dead in the eye as I stood beside her trembling body with my hand in the small of her back for support.

“I don’t hate you anymore, in fact I haven’t given you a second thought since I met my Caleb and saw what a real man was supposed to be. It was easy to forget the boy that tried to destroy me after that.”

Damn, that’s cold, he was obviously older than I am but I think she nailed it all the same.

Then my little warrior put that fist to good use and punched the fuck in his face.

My arm came up and blocked his swing, because just like the piece of shit that he was he actually tried to hit her.

“You might not want to do that son.”

The old man started to bluster but the brothers soon had him otherwise occupied and he was too much of a coward himself anyway to come to his son’s defense.

She started to shake and I knew she’d had enough. She’d done what I brought her here for, now the rest was up to me. I had my woman and child to protect.

I took her face in my hands to make her look at me. “You’re fine, I’ve got you. Simon, take my woman outta here.”

“No, Caleb...” She tried clinging onto me but she couldn’t be here for this shit.

I kissed her again hard as I passed her off to the boys who didn’t look like they wanted to leave either. In the end half went with Simon and her, and Mikey, Diego and Alex stayed back with me.

I did the unexpected and sat back down in my seat while my boys did the same. The buzz had already started and I’m sure everyone was waiting with baited breath to see what would happen next.

I knew he wouldn’t come at me. No man that would take his fists to a woman and put a bullet in her head would have the balls to face his own death, so it was up to me to push him to the point where he made first strike.

I ignored him and his old man who was now hovering behind him, while the other patrons pretended that they weren’t listening and watching this shit unfold.

I started up a conversation with the boys, which was of course loud enough not only for the asshole to hear, but those tables closest to us as well.

“I thought for sure this barking squirrel would’ve been worth my time, but looks like it was a wasted trip boys.” I saw him hitch himself up out the corner of my eye. I’m not sure he knew what the words meant but I’m sure he knew it was an insult.

“Looks that way boss, at least our girl got her pound of flesh. Hard to believe that our little beauty was ever hooked up with this batch of crumbs though.” Alex looked him up and down not even trying to hide his disdain.

“I wonder what makes a man do such a thing, what do you think boss?”

“Well Mikey, I’m inclined to believe from what my woman told me that he was trying to compensate for his lack of manliness in other areas.” I made a point of looking at the asshole’s fly so that there was no mistaking my meaning this time.

There was no way to miss the reaction of the other patrons. Every man in the place had heard me call this fool out for being a coward. And since I knew that they were all aware of his treatment of her, there was no way they didn’t know what I was talking about.

He was hemming and hawing at this point, and his breathing got choppy, but still he didn’t make a move. I really didn’t want to throw the first punch. The only reason I’d gotten off with a warning the last time was because the asshole had started it, and the judge was a friend.