Whiskey Neat (The Uncertain Saints MC Book 1) (8 page)

I shrugged. “Diane doesn’t like me very much.”

He laughed. “No, I don’t bet she does. What’s her problem?”

“She’s best friends with Remy’s wife, Jenna. Jenna and Diane were as thick as thieves in high school and still are. They’ve made it their life’s mission to make sure that I’m miserable as hell,” I explained.

“Sounds like a bunch of bitches to me,” he countered.

The diner came into view, and I was suddenly nervous.

The diner was the social hub of Uncertain.

If you were seen in the diner with someone, especially someone of the opposite sex when you were
very
single, everyone in the town would know it within thirty minutes.

It was one of the “perks” of living in a small town.

Didn’t he know what this would say to folks? Even if that’s not what it means, that’s what they’d think.

“You do realize that by going in there and sitting down at a table together, you’ll be sending a message, whether you mean to or not. You’ll be involving me in your life, something you said you didn’t want to happen just a few weeks ago,” I told him.

He stopped at the front door and turned to face me.

I studied his face. His eyes. The way his beard had appeared to have grown out.

He was so handsome.

Not clean-cut, movie-star handsome, but rugged, rough-around-the-edges handsome.

“I know exactly what it’ll say the moment we walk in there together. But the truth is that I’m tired of being away from you. Tired of fighting feelings that I’ve never had before,” he answered honestly. “Tired of staying away from you.”

My mouth went dry.

“You…what?”

He smiled. “You heard me.”

I blinked, but before I could get my wits about me, he opened the door of the diner and said, “Get in.”

I ‘got in.’

Fran, the only waitress to work the diner at this time of day, gaped at us.

“Two,” Griffin’s deep voice blasted through the quiet diner.

The rest of the patrons turned to look at us, and I blushed.

Jesus, you would think these people didn’t have anything else better to do!

Fran jumped to attention and smiled at the two of us.

“Take the one in the back,” she replied.

Griffin took my hand and led me to the back booth, sitting me with my back to the door so he could see it and whoever came in through it.

I sat and stared at him.

Waiting.

He didn’t disappoint.

“Why’d she write that article?” He asked. “I saw you both yesterday. What did you two fight about that pissed her off so much?”

“She said some cruel things to me about my Pap, and I couldn’t help myself from informing her that her boyfriend was cheating on her,” I answered tiredly.

He blinked.

I turned to look out the window.

He was sitting across from me at the busiest eatery in town, which happened to be directly on the banks of the lake.

Most people accessed it from the bayou side.

I never went on the lake.

Ever.

And although it was a quietly beautiful view, I didn’t find it calming like most everyone else did.

“Tell me about your Pap,” he rumbled softly, surprising me.

“He was my best friend. Confidant,” I said. “He used to live at home with my family. When I moved out, he decided to move closer to where I was going to college. He was in a retirement community about twenty minutes from my campus.”

“I was supposed to go out to lunch with my Pap. But when I got out of class, my stomach had started hurting, and I ended up throwing up for two hours straight once I got back to the dorm and completely forgot about everything but myself,” I said. “When I realized I missed the lunch date, I called him right away. But he’d already left because he was worried about me since I never missed any of our lunches. He pulled out onto the highway that led to the campus and was struck by a hit and run driver. He was killed instantly.”

Griffin’s eyes closed, and my head tilted as I studied him.

He looked torn.

Like he wanted to say something, but didn’t quite know how to say it.

“I’m sorry to hear about your Pap,” he said, finally opening his eyes.

I smiled sadly.

“It took me a long time to realize that it wasn’t actually my fault. I stayed in school. Finished my degree a year later…then moved home,” I explained.

Uncertain had always been home for me.

We’d lived about ten miles outside of town for the majority of my life.

“But I came home and I just couldn’t stay there. Reminders of my grandfather were everywhere. About a month after I moved back home, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I moved out. Got my duplex and have been there ever since,” I said softly.

“You two know what you want?” Fran asked.

I opened my mouth, but a rude voice interrupted what I was about to say.

“So, Lenore, I see that you’re the star of the newspaper,” Jenna said loudly from the corner of the room.

I’d seen her there when I walked in, I just didn’t think she’d be ballsy enough to bring it up with Griffin here.

Apparently she was.

Griffin stiffened at the mention of the newspaper article, then, slowly…
oh so fucking slowly
, got up.

He turned his massive body until he was standing directly in front of me, then addressed Jenna.

“I think,” he said softly, “that you should carefully consider what you say to her from now on. You wouldn’t want to upset your children’s godmother, now would you?”

I was fairly positive I hadn’t mentioned I was Remy’s children’s godmother.

But it didn’t surprise me that he knew.

He could’ve picked it up from almost anyone.

Everyone in Uncertain knew my business. Just like I knew Fran had liver cirrhosis because she drank from the time she got up to the time she went to bed.

And how Judge Kubrick, the local grocery store owner, cheated on his wife every Tuesday and Thursday while his wife was playing Bunco.

And also how Remy and Jenna were having marital problems.

He was working his ass off to keep her in the lifestyle that she wanted, which meant he wasn’t home like she wanted him to be.

She had gotten drunk at The Cloud, the only bar in town, and she had a habit of gabbing about all of her woes to anyone that would listen whenever she was drunk.

“You can’t threaten me,” Jenna smiled at him.

If she were my friend, I would’ve smacked some sense into her. Since I didn’t like her all that much, I didn’t.

I believe that Remy would be so much better off with a woman who would appreciate all of him, and not just his wallet.

Jenna sucked as a mother, too.

Which was why Remy’s kids ended up spending quite a bit of time at my place when I was off.

If I wasn’t around, they went to Remy’s parents’ house.

Frankly, I wasn’t sure Jenna watched them at all. Well, unless Remy was in town.

“Where are your kids right now, Mrs. Wickes?” Griffin asked.

Jenna smiled darkly at him. “With my husband.”

“And why are you here instead of with them?” He asked, challenging her.

Jenna’s smile froze on her face.

I’d actually heard from Remy.

He invited me to go fishing with him and the kids, but I’d declined because I’d been too concerned about my business.

“They’re having some daddy and daughter time,” she snapped.

I smiled.

“You do know that he invited Lenore to go, and apparently not you?” Griffin asked.

Ouch, right through the heart.

I didn’t bother to ask how he knew that, either.

I just waited to see where Griffin was going with this.

“He always does that. Which is why I’ve found my own things to do while he does his,” she hissed.

She immediately saw she made a mistake running her mouth like that as she looked around hoping nobody was listening.

She wasn’t that lucky.

Everyone had heard that declaration.

And not one of us was naïve enough to think she meant anything other than she was cheating on her husband.

A husband that was a son of the community. Uncertain’s golden boy.

Everyone
loved
Remy.

He was always available to lend a helping hand when it was needed.

He was literally that guy who’d give you the shirt off his back.

And Jenna most definitely wasn’t.

“Shit,” she hissed, turning her glare onto me. “You’re such a bitch.”

I leaned back, smiling. “I didn’t start this today, you did.”

She flipped me off. “Do you know how hard it is to live up to you? Remy loves you. He hates that I won’t go hunting with him and loves that you will. Hates that I won’t go fishing but you will. Hates that I can’t cook and you can. It’s like I’m constantly fighting your shadow, and you never even had him!”

I blinked.

“Do you think that if you actually tried to do these things with him and for him that he’d be happy? But you haven’t ever tried, though. How do you know you won’t like it if you don’t even try it? I don’t really like fishing, either. But I go, and I sit there with him. It’s about the companionship, and it’s not my fault that I’m willing to do those things with him that you won’t,” I told her softly.

Her eyes flared.

“What would be the point? He doesn’t ask me,” she said.

I raised a brow at her.

“I’ve been there when he’s asked you before,” I called her on her lie.

She narrowed her eyes on me.

“Let me clarify…he doesn’t ask me
first
.”

With that she got up and left, tossing down a hundred-dollar bill for a meal that was probably about ten bucks at most.

I just shook my head.

She really had no clue about the money situation.

If she only understood how hard it was on Remy to do the week on, week off thing he was doing, I wondered if she’d be throwing down a ninety-dollar tip.

Griffin sat down and his eyes were wary.

“We’re not in love with each other,” I blurted again.

He nodded. “I know.”

I raised my brow at him.

Seemed I’d been doing a lot of that lately.

“How do you know everything about me?” I asked once he sat back down.

He smiled. “Trade secret.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re not spying on me, are you?”

He raised a shoulder, but didn’t answer.

I thought maybe I should look around my house later to see if I could find any hidden cameras.

That’d be like him to do.

“I can’t believe she’s cheating on Remy. He’s going to be devastated,” I said morosely.

“You’re not going to tell him,” Griffin said.

Both of my brows rose. “Oh really? You’re not the boss of me.”

He gave me a look. “That’s not something he needs to hear from you. You’re his best friend…but he’s going to deny it if it comes from you. You need to let him hear about it by himself. I’ll tell him.”

“He’s not going to like hearing it from you. He doesn’t even know you,” I said with affront.

“Trust me on this,” he said. “He would be better off hearing it from a man. If what you say about being his confidant is true, he’ll come to you anyway. But you need to give him time to investigate it before he tells you. It’s embarrassing as hell to find out.”

I blinked.

“Someone cheated on you?” I asked softly.

He nodded once.

“My wife.”

“You’re married?” I semi shrieked.

He snorted. “No, I’m most definitely not married. I’m so far from being married that I can get. At least to that whore.”

“Shit,” I sighed. “What happened?”

He shrugged. “The usual.”

I placed my chin in my hand and looked at him until he sighed.

“I worked long hours, much like your Remy,” he answered, but I didn’t correct him when he called Remy ‘mine.’ “But my wife thought she was smarter than me and she wasn’t. I found out about two hours after her first time with her now husband, Justin. Waited for her to tell me for about twenty-four hours before I kicked her out.”

I blinked.

“That was nice of you to wait twenty-four hours…but were you sure?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Came home early from a job to find her and the man in our fucking bed, going at it so loudly that I swore my neighbors could hear,” he said, nodding to Fran as she placed two glasses of water down in front of us. He waited for her to move out of earshot before he continued. “Was able to watch the whole damn thing without them even knowing. Got his name and info while they took a nap. Called his wife to let her know what was going on. Made myself a sandwich.”

My eyes widened the more detailed he got.

“And they didn’t hear all of that?” I asked, dumfounded.

He shook his head. “Nope. Not a single thing. She came out of our bedroom about two hours after I’d arrived home and froze.”

My eyes were getting wider and wider.

“What’d you do?” I asked.

“Nothing. Acted like I didn’t know a thing. I said, ‘
Hey baby. How was your nap?
’” He said.

My mouth fell open.

“And she still didn’t tell you?” I gasped.

He shook his head.

“So how did they get him out?”

We both paused as we gave our orders to Fran, and I turned back to him and snapped my fingers.

He grinned.

“That was the funny part. Our room was on the second story. So I watched on the surveillance as he tried to shimmy down the lattice outside our room.” He laughed then, and I smiled.

“He hurt himself, didn’t he?” I whispered conspiratorially.

He nodded.

“Broke his leg. But damned if that fucker didn’t crawl the fuck away. I show the video from time to time to my friends who don’t believe me,” he answered. “I also threaten to give it to the press from time to time, too.”

I blinked.

“The press?” I asked.

He inclined his head.

“He’s a Texas state senator.”

I leaned forward until my chest hit the edge of the table.

I was nearly stretched out over the top of it.

“Senator Justin Hayes is the man that your wife cheated on YOU with? He’s uglier than my Uncle Murral,” I whisper yelled at him as I slapped my hand down on the table in shock.