She shook her head in wonder. “But how can one man...it’s so much meat!”
It was a lot of meat. The waitress had to use both hands to set the platter in front of him. It’s not often you see a double rack of ribs. But, as I said, Ox is a big guy: big big, not fat-big. And this was his traditional dinner when we came here.
We were at the diner in Haywood Falls, about fifteen members plus a few old ladies and hangers-on. The meals had become a weekly tradition for a year or so, now. An actual meal made a change from the drunken parties at the clubhouse and Mac thought it was good to show our faces around the town and demonstrate we were the good guys, or at least not the bad guys. It was a respectable, family place and the owners had been tight-lipped the first time we’d showed up, but Mac had promised to kick the ass of anyone who caused trouble. We’d been nothing but good customers and heavy tippers and now they welcomed us.
Annabelle and I sat side by side near the middle of the big table, with Mac, Hunter and Ox facing us. It was two days since the sawmill...and since I’d finally gotten together with Annabelle. I was in heaven: the sex was the best part but waking up each morning to find her wrapped in my arms came a close second. I’d never slept so good. We talked, which was all new to me. I’d even gone down to the lake with her and spent a lazy few hours just walking around, soaking up the summer heat, though with her pale skin we’d had to stick to the shadier paths. It was idyllic.
True, there was stuff I hadn’t told her, the stuff from my past that was too toxic to tell anyone. But I’d convinced myself that was okay.
She’d insisted on ordering a huge chocolate milkshake. When it arrived, it came with two straws. I stared at it, confused.
“Like in the movies,” she explained. “We share it.”
I looked at her. Looked at Mac. He was trying not to laugh.
“Um…” I said.
Annabelle thrust a straw at me.
I felt my ears heating up. Fuckin’ hell, was I blushing? I fingered the straw as if it was an unexploded bomb and glanced across the table again. Now Hunter was close to losing it, too, and he never laughs.
“Go on,” said Annabelle. She lowered her head and drank, then stopped. “It’s romantic,” she told me.
I looked across the table again. Ox was silently quaking, too, all three of them loving it. A whole stream of curses flew through my head….
But I couldn’t refuse her anything. I lowered my head and drank the damn milkshake, with my brothers almost busting a gut, they were laughing so hard. I heard at least one of them snap a picture of the notorious, stone-cold Irish sharing a milkshake.
But it was worth it. When she looked up at me with those moss-green eyes and smiled, it was worth it. When we’d finished, she grabbed her straw. “Souvenir,” she said. “Our first date.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. She was really into the romantic stuff—maybe because, from what she’d told me, she’d missed out on it all in high school. It was stupid, of course. It was only a damn milkshake.
When no one was looking, though, I grabbed my straw, and stuffed it into the pocket of my cut. Just in case she lost hers. Then I hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her onto my knee. “When we get back to my place,” I whispered in her ear, “How about—”
There was a crash of breaking glass and Annabelle screamed.
For a few seconds, there was total panic. What started as one scream from Annabelle grew and grew, spreading through the restaurant. Some people were jumping to their feet, others were ducking down in the seats. I looked from left to right, trying to figure out what the fuck had just happened.#p#分页标题#e#
The window near the end of our table had a fist-sized hole in it. Annabelle was holding her face. Drinks had been knocked over and were soaking across the tablecloth and trickling onto the floor. Three of the members down near the window were on their feet, guns drawn, trying to see out of the window. The guns were what had started most of the screaming: families were quickly deserting their tables and moving towards the exit. Others were seeking shelter, thinking it was a sniper. But the hole in the window was too big for a bullet.
“Let me see,” I told Annabelle, but she had both hands up to her face. “It’s okay,” I said, forcing my voice to be gentle. “Let me see.”
She cautiously took her hand away and my heart twisted as I saw the long slash across her cheek. It didn’t look deep but I wasn’t surprised she’d screamed. Another inch and whatever it was would have taken her eye out.
I stared at the table, still trying to figure it out. That’s when I saw the rock. The white paper wrapped around it blended in with the tablecloth: that’s why I hadn’t seen it, at first. Someone had hurled it through the window and either window glass or one of the smashed glasses on the table had hit Annabelle.