Caleb's Blessing(51)

“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.”