NFH 03 Checkmate (39 page)

“
I’ll meet you outside in
ten minutes,” he said, moving once again towards the patio
door.

“
Five minutes! You have five
minutes!” Johnny yelled from the other side of Rory’s bedroom door,
earning a sexy eye roll from Rory.

“
Ten minutes,” Rory said
with a wink.

Fifteen minutes later he was leaning back
against his truck, waiting for Rory and ignoring her brothers.

“
You’re fucking dead,”
Johnny said.

“
Keep pushing us by touching
our sister and see what happens,” Craig, who’d just arrived, said,
between sips of his coffee and a yawn.

“
Better watch your back,
bitch,” Bryce said as he stole Sean’s coffee. Sean, who had just
opened his mouth to take his turn threatening Connor, quickly
forgot all about Connor and focused on bitch slapping the hell out
of his brother and stealing back his coffee while Connor let out a
bored sigh.

Oh, he was sure that they meant it and would
love to pound him into the ground. Any other man would probably be
pissing his pants and running the other way, but after listening to
this bullshit day in and day out for the past month it had lost its
effect. Not that it ever really had much of an effect on him. It
didn’t. He’d gladly take an ass whooping for Rory. She was more
than worth it.

“
Hey, asshole? Did you hear
me?” Brian called out, sounding pissed.

“
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re
going to tear my throat out and kick the shit out of me or some
other bullshit,” he said dryly, daring a glance down at his watch
and wondering what was taking Rory so damn long.

“
Um, actually no. I was
wondering if you had any cream and sugar that I could borrow. They
messed up on my order,” Brian said, sheepishly as he gestured to
the coffee in his hand.

“
Help yourself,” Connor
said, focusing his attention back on Rory’s front door.

“
Thanks, man,” Brian said,
walking towards his front door only to pause and add with a shrug,
“You know you’re a dead man, right?”

“
Yup.”

“
Good, good,” Brian said
with a nod as he headed for Connor’s house.

“
That’s right, your ass is
grass, you little prick,” Johnny said, sounding smug which was a
little sad.

Connor was just about to go see what was
taking Rory so long when her front door opened and she walked out,
smiling sweetly when she spotted him. He pushed away from his truck
and walked past her brothers, ignoring their muttered threats to
keep his “dirty hands off their sweet little sister” and met her
halfway down her walkway. He didn’t care that her brothers were
watching or half the neighborhood who still hadn’t moved on and
gotten over the initial shock of the relationship was also
watching, he had to touch her, had to kiss her and he did just
that.

“
Ow!” he winced, stepping
away from Rory as he rubbed the back of his head where it suddenly
throbbed. He looked over his shoulder and found all five of her
brothers watching them with innocent doe-like expressions on their
faces.

“
It was a squirrel,” Craig
said, somehow keeping a straight face.

“
Vicious little bastards,”
Bryce added solemnly.

“
You should really be
careful,” Johnny added before mouthing “bitch.”

Oh, this was going to be a long fucking
day.

Chapter 34

“
Can we stop at
Henderson’s?” Rory asked, noting that it was almost six in the
morning and the little dinner/convenient store should be open by
now. At least she thought it would. Granted, it had been more than
ten years since she’d been allowed within thirty yards of the
store, but she was pretty sure that it still opened early and
closed late.

Connor took a left on Long Pond Road,
pissing her brothers off if the sounds of their horns blaring was
any indication. They weren’t happy that Connor was going with her
and they were pissed that their pathetic little attempt to get rid
of him failed.

They yanked out the battery from Connor’s
truck along with the spark plugs, a few hoses and let the air out
of his tires, probably thinking that would stop Connor from coming
with them. Just in case that didn’t work, they did the same to her
Jeep and explained with smug smiles that they only had room for one
more passenger. It was an amateur move.

She knew that Connor really didn’t want to
spend the day with her brothers and she really couldn't blame him.
Even though she wanted him there, wanted to spend a whole day away
from work with him, she’d understood and was willing to go without
him. Just as she opened her mouth to let him off the hook, he
flipped off her brothers and set to work. It wasn’t exactly
surprising to discover that Connor kept spare parts in his garage.
She did the same thing. They’d screwed each other over enough in
the past that they were pretty much prepared for anything and
everything.

“
Do you want to go to
Henderson’s or do you want to hit McDonalds when we get to the
highway?” Connor asked, gently caressing the back of her hand with
his thumb as he took a right at the lights.

“
McDonald’s is a half hour
away,” she pointed out, starting to feel giddy at the prospect of
going to Henderson’s for the first time in years. It used to be her
favorite store as a child and she’d missed going there every Sunday
for a stack of pancakes, bacon and a cup of hot cocoa.

As much as she would have loved to blame
Connor for getting banned from her favorite store, she couldn’t.
Getting banned from Henderson’s had been one hundred percent her
fault. Then again, the ban probably would have been shorter if
Alex, her boyfriend at the time, hadn’t decided to get in her face
and call her a fucking bitch for getting him tossed out as well.
That’s not what pushed Henderson into banning her for life though.
It was Connor grabbing Alex by the throat and shoving him into the
shelves of penny candy that got them the lifetime ban, which had
been lifted on a probationary period a week ago.

In fact, every ban and restriction in town
had been lifted. People were still placing bets on them, but at
least they could now go to whatever restaurant or store they wanted
to without worrying about restrictions. They hadn’t had much time
to enjoy the bans being lifted, but they did manage to grab dinner
at Steph's Diner last Tuesday, a place neither had been allowed to
set foot in, in over five years and they even went grocery shopping
together. Granted, on both occasions the managers had assigned
someone to watch their every move and follow them, but still, it
was progress.

“
You just want to see if
Henderson still has those little chocolate balls that you used to
love, don’t you?” Connor asked, chuckling softly as he pulled into
Henderson’s cracked parking lot.

“
No, I’m just hungry,” she
only partially lied because she planned on getting three bags of
those delicious little chocolate balls and eating every last one of
them.

“
Uh huh, sure,” he said,
smiling that sexy smile of his as he handed her two
twenties.

Frowning, she asked, “You’re not coming in?”
and nearly cringed at how needy she sounded. She wanted to share
this with him, to enjoy visiting her favorite childhood store with
him.

“
Sorry, baby,” he said,
leaning over and kissing her, “but someone has to keep your
brothers from going in there and getting you banned
again.”

She looked past him to see Craig’s truck
parked next to them and when she saw the anticipatory gleams on her
brothers’ faces she realized that the man had a point. They’d hound
her in that store and do their best to talk some sense into her,
which of course would annoy her and cause her to do something
stupid like getting banned again.

“
I won’t be long,” she
promised with a pleased smile as she climbed out of the truck and
made a beeline for the old familiar white door that used to welcome
her as a child. Bryce almost managed to cut her off, but Connor was
there a split second before her brother could reach for
her.

Knowing that she probably only had a few
minutes before her brothers managed to plow past Connor and start
the next round of lectures, she quickly made her way through the
old country store. She ignored both the curious and frightened
looks of patrons and employees and focused on filling her hand
basket with chocolate balls, a freshly made bag of donuts that were
still warm, ordered two hot cocoas, grabbed some penny candy, a few
small white boxes of fruit filled pastries, a couple of waters and
a bag of homemade mini peanut butter cups, Connor’s favorite, and
quickly paid.

“
You better watch your
back,
bitch
,”
Johnny said, stressing bitch when she opened the door and stepped
out into the parking lot.

As soon as her brothers saw her, they backed
away from Connor who’d done an amazingly wonderful job of keeping
her brothers off her back. Then again, judging by the murderous
glares that her brothers were sending Connor, they’d probably
forgotten all about her and got carried away with another one of
their threat sessions that were more annoying than anything.

“
Are those donuts for us?”
Brian asked, shifting anxiously as his greedy eyes locked on the
bag in her hands.

“
Nope,” she said, smiling
when her brothers turned murderous glares on her. “I’d hurry up if
I were you. They only have two bags left,” she lied, knowing that
it was the only way to put some space between them, for a while at
least.

Her brothers stood there a moment longer,
obviously struggling with the need to keep a close eye on the two
of them, but the smell of warm sweet donuts perfumed the air and
took the decision out of their hands. In the end, the donuts won
and the shoving match began. They didn’t stick around to see who
won.

“
Are you okay?” she asked as
she handed Connor a warm donut a few minutes later, noting that he
looked sad, again. That expression was becoming more common these
days and it was breaking her heart.

“
Yeah, I’m fine,” he said,
forcing a smile as he accepted the donut.

“
We don’t have to go if you
don’t want to,” she said, hoping that she’d kept the disappointment
out of her tone while she said it. She wanted to go. She loved her
family, missed them, but she loved Connor more and didn’t want to
see him sad.

Connor shook his head. “No, it’s fine,
Rory.”

“
Are you sure?” she asked,
worrying her bottom lip.

“
Yes.”

She almost asked if this was about Andrew,
but decided that she didn’t want to spend their first real day off
together fighting. With the way that Andrew was acting she knew
that it was only a matter of time before they came to blows over
what to do. Until then, she just wanted to enjoy her time with
Connor.

* * * *

He really was a scrawny bastard, he decided
as he climbed out of his truck and found himself for the second
time in his life, surrounded by dozens of Bradfords. They were
everywhere. Most of them were eating, but a lot of them were
setting up the neighboring sites that they’d reserved for the
reunion with dozens of grills, coolers, tables, a volleyball net,
more food and……

Was that a butcher setting up near the
grills?

Judging by his collection of knives, his
apron and the fact that the short pudgy man was definitely not a
Bradford, he would have to say yes. It was definitely going to be a
long and interesting day, he thought as he walked around the truck
to help Rory out. He had the door opened and was reaching for a
smiling Rory when he suddenly found himself picked up and moved
aside like he weighed nothing instead of two-hundred and twenty
pounds. It was a bit unnerving, but not as unnerving as the wall of
muscle that suddenly came between him and Rory.

He heard an excited squeal the same time
that he saw Rory’s arms wrap around the bastard’s neck. The man
pulled her out, returned her hug as he turned around and placed her
on her feet right next to Connor.

“
Hey, Jason, how’s it
going?” he asked, pleased when Rory released her hold on her cousin
and wrapped her arm around his.

Jason grinned, looking a hell of a lot
happier than he had the last time that they'd seen him a few weeks
ago. The man had missed his wife and it had taken its toll on him.
By the time his week of working for them was over, Jason was
exhausted and his appetite had been pretty much nonexistent, making
everyone worry. It turned out that the lovesick bastard missed his
wife and couldn’t sleep without her. He was glad to see Jason back
to being Jason. Sure the man embarrassed the living hell out of him
and would annoy the shit out of anyone just for the hell of it, but
he genuinely liked the asshole.

“
It’s good to see you,
Connor,” Jason said, reaching out and shaking his hand. “Didn’t
think we’d be seeing you here today. Thought my cousins would make
sure that you…..that you…..,” Jason broke off, frowning as he
scented the air. “Is that cinnamon, sugar and fruit filling that
I’m smelling?” he asked, turning his back on them and focusing his
attention on searching through Connor’s truck.

Connor was already stepping back and taking
Rory with him when several large men around them suddenly stopped,
sniffed the air and growled out, “Cinnamon donuts.”