She shifted her eyes and flipped the straw around in her fingers, which was weird because Brenna was never a fidgeter. I tugged at the straw in her hands and she raised her eyes to my face. “Hey, it’s alright. Sometimes I forget you’re part of the Kelly crew. Lifetime membership.”
She pointed the straw my way. “Watch it, Cap’n. I might mutiny and take over your whole ship.”
“Can I still be first mate during your reign of terror?” I pulled her over and she threw her legs over my lap and popped a loud kiss on my neck. “I kinda like this whole Captain Blixen thing. Bossy women do it for me.”
“I know. You have serious issues when it comes to women in authority. Alright. First mate it is. But I run a tight ship, Kelly. Mess around and you’ll be on all-day deck-swabbing duty.” She blew a raspberry on my neck. “And you need to toughen this whole look.” She pulled back, raised her eyebrows dismissively, and shook her head. “I’m thinking an eye-patch and a couple back-alley tats to start.”
“I’m just relieved you didn’t add a peg-leg to the list.” I kissed her ear.
“I need you for hard labor. But if you fall overboard you’ll probably wind up with one anyway, so I think it’s a moot point.”
Cadence rolled back at that minute, and Brenna and I untangled quickly to take our bacon cheeseburgers.
Cadence smiled and was pleasant, but I didn’t know if that meant she felt friendly toward us in any real way. All waitresses were usually pleasant and smiley like that, at least in my experience.
We were almost done eating when a big, shiny pickup truck pulled up. A solidly built guy with a crew cut got out, and Cadence skated over. Brenna, my always-hungry girlfriend, dropped her burger and flat-out stared.
At first they seemed friendly enough. But all of a sudden, the big guy grabbed Cadence hard and jerked her closer to him. She pushed at him with both hands firmly up, no joking around, and tried to back up, but he grabbed again, harder, and shook her by the arm so her head snapped back and she almost lost balance. Brenna gasped, I had the door of my truck open when something whirred by. I figured it would happen that way. It definitely helped prove that for all Saxon’s smooching on Brenna, he really had his eye on Cadence.
“Stay out of this, roller boy,” the big guy said, and swung an arm at Saxon, who ducked fast.
“Fuck off, meat head,” Saxon growled. “If she doesn’t want you around, take a hint, and get the hell away from her.” I stood behind Saxon, just to show that I had his back.
This guy was easily twice as big as we were, but that didn’t mean that we couldn’t wreak a little havoc. Saxon and I were decent fighters, especially when our blood was hot over something.
“It’s fine, Saxon.” Cadence put her hands up and moved back to put some space between them. “Jeff was just leaving.”
“Fuck that,” Jeff sneered. “Don’t be a bitch just because you’re pissed, Cade. I should be able to come here. This is a fucking free country.”
Brenna snorted. “Is he seriously invoking the Constitution after he called Cadence a bitch?”
“Keep out of this, girly,” Jeff tossed to Brenna.
Now I was feeling that great, heady rush that I always felt when someone got fresh with Brenna. I could feel my adrenaline racing and my fists were ready.
“Hey, you don’t need to say anything to her.” I kept my voice under control, even though my blood hummed. “You come over and deal with me if you have anything to say.”
“Jake, don’t,” Brenna warned, but my adrenaline was racing too hard for me to really focus on her words.
“Look, back off.” Jeff put his arms out and puffed his chest up a little, letting us know he was spoiling for trouble. “This is between me and Cadence.”
“No.” Cadence shook her head. “There’s nothing between us right now. I just want you to leave, Jeff. Now.”
“I don’t want to have to kick your punk friends’ asses, but I will.” He pointed at Saxon and me. “Tell them to back off, and we’ll just talk.”
“No. Leave before I get my dad out here. I don’t want you here right now. I have a job to do.” Cadence stood tall and scowled. “I’m going to take care of my customers, and I want you gone by the time I check back.”
We were all on edge, waiting. Luckily, Jeff didn’t dawdle too long. He gave us a reason pretty quickly.
Cadence tried to skate away, avoid the whole thing (which would have killed me and Saxon; we were practically salivating for some ass-kicking), and Jeff yelled at her, then grabbed at the back of her shirt. She fell backwards a little because her momentum got thrown. Saxon caught her, and I laid one right on Jeff’s dirt-bag jaw.
“Fuck, Jake!” Saxon yelled. “Can you let me get one in? You gonna fight all my fights for me?”
But Jeff was pissed enough that he came at me fast and Saxon got to get one in. I backed off. Jeff’s nose was squirting blood. He was already getting into his big truck screaming about a lawsuit.
“Pussy! Fuck your lawsuit!” Saxon screamed.
We watched the truck pull away. I shook my hand out, pretty sure I’d bruised all my knuckles. Brenna’s hand was pressed over her mouth. Saxon skated towards Cadence. Cadence looked at us all for a minute, then burst into tears and skated away before Saxon could reach her. Brenna grimaced at my slightly swollen hand, then looked up at Saxon and nodded to Cadence’s retreating form.
“Go after her, Saxon, you halfwit!” She turned on me, her face full of rage. “What the hell is this all about, Jake? Have you lost your damn mind?” she demanded.
“What?” I wasn’t playing dumb. Because I was a little dumb. Fights always left me brain-addled.
She snatched my hand up and looked at the bruising knuckles with frantic eyes, bit her bottom lip hard, and shook her head. “Do you think it’s broken?”
I opened and closed it. It hurt like hell, but not enough to make me think it was actually broken. “I don’t think so. Bruised, but I’ll live. It was totally worth it.”
She put her hands over her face and took a few deep breaths before she looked at me, her eyes hot and sparking. “Why are you always punching people? Are you planning on punching every single person who says anything mean to me? Or bothers me? You’re going to wind up seriously hurt!”
I moved to her side quickly, pressed her against the truck door, and put my arms around her, my hands flat on the warm metal. “I’m not really good at using my words yet.”
“It’s not funny Jake.” Brenna blinked hard and opened her mouth to say something, but it got stuck. She had to try twice more before she got anything out. “That guy was huge! What if it kept going? He could have…he could have maimed you! You don’t need to go from zero to fifty just because he ran his mouth.”
“Fuck him if he thinks he can talk to you like that.” I leaned to kiss her, but she turned her head away.
“You’re a fucking idiot,” she whispered, and when she blinked, tears dripped out past her eyelashes. “What would I do if you got beat to a pulp, Jake? I swear, I hate you sometimes.”
“Fine.” I nuzzled her neck, and when she turned her face to me, I kissed her hard. “I always love you. And I will fight anyone who ever bothers you. Got it?”
She shook her head and sighed a long, tortured sigh. Then she looked up and me and frowned. “What about Andre the Giant?”
“He’s dead, Bren. But if he was alive and was mean to you, I would fight him.” I smiled and kissed her again.
“What about Shaq?”
“No problem.”
“Vin Diesel?”
“Brenna, please. I could take him with my hands tied behind my back.”