“How do you presume to know what’s going on in my daughter’s private life? You’ve always just been a crush, we all know you two aren’t right for each other and it’s time to stop playing childish games.”

“Look lady what’s going on between me and Shaw has nothing to do with you and I assure you it isn’t a game. I don’t mind making a scene if it gets me what I want but something tells me that you wouldn’t all your guests to wonder what the commotion was about.” I lifted my pierced brow. “Am I right?” I think she was about to tell me she was going to call the police or holler for her husband but she didn’t get the chance because the heavy door was yanked out of her death grip and suddenly Shaw’s pale face appeared around the doorjamb. “Rule? What are you doing here?”

Her hair was braided up in some fancy design that looked like it hurt. She had on a pearl necklace that looked like it was from the 1800’s and a pink sweater that looked fuzzy and soft. She was also in a pair of loose cream colored pants and had on a pair of pink heels that looked like they cost as much as my truck. She was so far removed from the Shaw that I was used to rolling around naked with I almost turned around and left without saying another word, but her green eyes were wide and sad and that slippery feeling in the center of my chest started to throb. I didn’t care that her mother was watching me with an eagle eye I grabbed her arm and pulled her onto the stoop with me. I held her face in my hands and peered straight into her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” She put her hands over mine and blinked up at me.

“What?”

“I sent you a text last night, I tried to call you back all night and you didn’t answer me. I’m sorry. Sorry I pushed you away, sorry I acted like an idiot, sorry I don’t know how to do this thing between us right, I’m just sorry.”

“My phone is broken.”

“What?” I asked it on a laugh. I wanted to kiss her, wanted to scoop her up in my arms and take her somewhere so far away from here.

“I threw it against the wall because Ayden told me you went home with some girl Friday night; I shattered the screen on it.”

“Shit, I’ll buy you a new one.” She closed her eyes and squeezed my hands.

“Did you do it, go home with her?”

“No, I kissed her which sucks on my part and makes me an asshole, but I knew it was wrong so I stopped it and I swear if we get this straight between us I will never let it happen again. I’m trying to figure out how all this works Shaw, I hate that you’re the one that has to get hurt because of my learning curve.”

“You shut me out, you left me alone in the dark Rule. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything hurt that bad.”

“I know Casper; I know, but don’t give up on me now, okay?”

“You drove all the way here just to apologize?”

I nodded. “We have to fix this.”

She gave me a lopsided grin. “We need to learn how not to break it in the first place.” I gulped down the sudden surge of emotion in my throat and pulled her into a tight hug. It felt like coming home, a feeling I don’t think I had ever actually experienced before. I kissed her softly behind her ear and whispered, “By the way your mom hates me, like HATES me.”

She put her hands in the back pockets of my pants and stood on her tip toes to kiss the underside of my jaw. “That’s okay she hates me too. Why did you cut your hair all off? It looks good, you look good but I liked the mohawk.”

I self-consciously ran a hand over my naked skull. “I don’t know. I just needed to change it.”

She looked at me with serious eyes and folded her hand in mine. “It makes you look more like Remy than all your other hairstyles.”

“Shaw tell your friend goodbye and come back inside, we have guests and you’re being very rude.”

She peeked over my shoulder at her mother and I felt her grip on my hand tighten.

“I’m not coming in without Rule.” Oh shit she was doing it again, putting herself between me and another disapproving parent.

“Hey it’s cool as long as we’re good I’ll just catch up with you when you get back to D-town. I can wait to see you later.”

“No.”

“Shaw,” her mother’s voice was all whiplash warning. “this ends now. Send him on his way and come inside, you’ve made enough of a scene.”

“No. I’m with him, if you want me to sit through another meal where you’re going to blatantly ignore Gabe trying to grope me and purposely make me uncomfortable then I’m doing it with Rule there to keep him in check.”

“Shaw he does not belong in there with this group of people.”

There it was, the judgment, the censure the idea that because I lived on my own terms and in my own way I wasn’t good enough for this girl. I pulled her to my side and met her mother’s glare with one of my own. Remy might have protected her by giving her a safe haven but I was a fighter by nature and this lady had pushed enough of my buttons to last for years.

“Right but I’m the one she spent her birthday with, I’m the one that makes her happy and I’m the one that is ready to protect her from the creep you keep shoving at her. I’m more than willing to take her with me and get out of your hair but I doubt you want to try and explain her hasty exit to the Davenports so why don’t you just suck it up for once in your life and let your kid have something, just one thing that makes her happy?”

“Shaw?” There was confusion in the woman’s tone now.

“I go where he goes, so if you don’t want him to come in then I’m outta here, I never should have come in the first place.. I’m tired of being manipulated and used as a pawn and accessory. I told you about Gabe and you refused to listen.”

“But you’re perfect together.”

“Right, only I want to be with him.” She hooked her thumb in my direction.

“He openly admitted to cheating on you only a day ago, what kind of relationship do you honestly think you can have with him? Do you think your father will continue to pay for school when he hears about this?”

She shrugged against me and I put a hand on her hip to pull her back against me. “I’m sick to death of worrying about it, it gives me migraines and my relationship is mine to work out. He’s not perfect and neither am I, if I choose to forgive him you don’t get a say in it or not.”

I felt like a heel. I shouldn’t have assumed the redhead was just going to be forgotten, but she was still letting me hold her so I wasn’t too worried about it.

“Fine. Come in, eat brunch and try not to embarrass yourselves while you’re at it. Shaw I want you gone as soon as brunch is done and don’t think for one single second that this is over. Just wait until I speak with your father about this circus.”

She spun around and disappeared inside the massive house. I looked down at Shaw and ran a finger across her furrowed brow. “We okay?”

“Mostly. Let’s just get through this then worry about the rest later. “She started to pull away from me but I caught her around the waist and pulled her back to me.

“Shaw.”

“Yeah?”

I kissed her. I kissed her so that she could feel my regret, my desire to do right, the way that she had a piece of me now and I wasn’t letting go. I kissed her because I had to and kissing her made me feel better. When I lifted my head her mouth looked puffy and damp and her eyes were glassy with banked passion.

“I missed you too.”

She giggled a little and hooked her elbow around my arm. “These are a bunch of country club people and mom’s political associates. You clean up nice but don’t expect them to welcome you with open arms. I don’t think any of them have ever even seen a tattoo up close and personal so be prepared to be treated like half pariah and half zoo exhibit.”

“It’ll be fine. I can’t promise to play nice if that douchebag tries to put his hands on you in front of me though.”

She shivered against my side. “He was awful last night. I kept trying to move farther and farther away and he just followed. My mother is insane if she thinks I’m spending one more minute with him.”

“Don’t you have to drive him back to school today?”

“I was planning on faking a headache and just letting him drive while I lay down in the back seat.”

I didn’t like that idea at all; she didn’t need to be vulnerable and subjected to that nonsense.

“Just give him the keys to the BMW and you can ride back with me. Have him text you when he’s home and Nash and I can go get your car later tonight.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, look I know I messed up but I’m here for real now. We’re going to do this and I promise I’ll take care of you as best as I can. You’re going to have to be patient with me because I’m flying blind but this is the kind of thing I should be doing for you, plus I don’t want you anywhere near that guy. He has something going on under all that polo and khaki and I don’t trust him one bit.”

“Alright I’ll set it up and if he refuses I’ll just tell him he has to find his own way home then.”

She led me into a dining room that was packed with every real house wife of Brookside and every single person in the top earning percentile of the state. There was a lot of money and power in this dining room and Shaw was right, they were all looking at me like I was a wild animal let out of a cage. She tightened her grip on my arm and led me over to a table with all kinds of food spread out on it. Everyone gave us a wide berth for about three minutes but as soon as Shaw tried to lead us to the table we were waylaid by polo shirt and the rest of the junior league. He looked me up and down then skimmed over Shaw in a way that made want to hang him from a tree by his own intestines.

“This is a private function, I doubt you were invited.”

I lifted an eyebrow and settled a hand on Shaw’s lower back.

“He’s with me.” Her tone was cold and left no room for argument.

“For now.”

“Leave it alone, polo-shirt. This isn’t the time or the place.”

“You don’t belong here. You’re a thug and a loser, Shaw is going to get tired of living on the wild side and see reason.”

“Here,” she shoved her keys at him and dragged me behind her into the room where everyone was seated at a massive table. All eyes were on us as she stormed to the table calling over her shoulder. “I’m not spending one second more with you; you can take the Beamer home by yourself or find your own ride. I heard him sputter but I was too busy pulling out Shaw’s seat and settling in next to her to enjoy it. I could feel most of the eyes in the room on us and her mother’s smug look from the head of the table, I was about to tell Shaw this was silly and just making everyone uncomfortable when I heard a surprised voice say my name.

“Rule? Rule Archer is that you? What are you doing all the way out here for brunch?” The seat next to mine was pulled out and Alexander Carsten a long time client of mine settled into the seat next to me. I gave him a grin and shook the hand he offered.