“What? Oh. Yeah. Sorry.” Mel felt embarrassed, recalling that Lucy already had dibs on the owner of the fine butt.
“Sorry for what?” Lucy glanced her way while gathering their dirty dishes onto a large tray and wiping down the table.
“Well, for...you know.” Mel shrugged. “I mean you and Ryne...”
Lucy chuckled and sat down in Ryne’s seat, propping her feet up on an empty chair from the next table. “Listen, Mel, Ryne is a good looking man. If you didn’t notice, I’d have to wonder about you.”
Mel relaxed, happy that Lucy didn’t think she was trespassing. “Thanks for understanding. Have you known him long?”
“Ever since he moved here back in November.” She reached out and stole some popcorn from the complimentary basket on the table. “I still remember the day he and his two friends—Bryan and Daniel—walked in. Everybody in the whole place just sort of froze and stared, women and men alike. Ryne stood looking around the room—I swear he made eye-contact with every person there—and then he just ordered three beers, walked over here and sat down like he’d always lived here. After a few minutes, everything returned to normal. It was sort of weird, you know?” She shrugged and crunched more popcorn.
“I agree. That was sort of strange, wasn’t it? I mean, I walked in here and no one noticed.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what it is about those guys, but they sort of command attention, especially Ryne. Bryan too, but in a different sort of a way. Daniel’s still young, but he gets his fair share of respect as well.”
“Daniel? I haven’t met him yet.”
“Oh he’s a real sweetie. Kind of quiet, but really nice. He looks to be around eighteen, I’d say. Works part time at the lumber yard, so does Bryan, for that matter.”
“And Ryne? How old is he?”
“That I do know!” She winked knowingly. “We...er...celebrated together a few weeks ago. He just turned twenty-seven. I’m not sure how old Bryan is.”
“I met him the other day outside Ryne’s place. He seemed friendly.”
“Oh, he is and he has a good left hook on him, too.”
“Left hook?”
“Yep.” Lucy picked up Ryne’s glass and took a sip. She glanced at Mel and winked. “Ryne won’t mind sharing.”
Mel was anxious to hear more about Bryan fighting—after all if she was going to be interviewing Ryne, she’d be around his friends and if they were violent, she’d like to know. “So, Bryan fights a lot?”
“No, not really. It was just that one time, but it was mighty spectacular. They’d been here about two weeks and it was a really busy night. A group of bikers had stopped in and were hanging around the pool table, giving all of us girls a hard time. One of them wouldn’t leave this one girl, Annie, alone, so I went over there to try to help her, but the guy just shoved me away and his friends grabbed me. I called out for Armand, but suddenly Ryne and Bryan were there. Bryan slugged him and sent him through the window—that’s why it’s boarded up now.”
Mel was sure her eyes were the size of saucers. The pool table was at least six feet from the window. She could just imagine how hard Bryan must have swung to move a man that distance. No, on second thought, Lucy was probably exaggerating. Most likely the fellow was standing in front of the window to begin with. Still, she was curious to hear about the rest of the encounter and prodded for more details. “And what about Ryne?”
“Well, somehow he managed to take out the two who were holding me. It all happened so fast, that no one could figure out what happened, exactly. One minute the guys were grabbing at me and the next they were flat out on the ground. And Ryne didn’t even have a scratch on him.” Lucy shook her head, obviously still in wonder at the occurrence. “Anyway, the other bikers were just sort of frozen, like they were really scared. They just backed out of the room and drove off, leaving their friends behind. Then Ryne and Bryan helped clean up the mess, dragged the two that were on the floor outside and made sure Annie and I were okay. Armand let us leave early. Bryan drove Annie home, and Ryne walked me home...” Lucy grinned. “I gave him a big thank you once we got to my place, if you know what I mean.”
Mel did know what she meant and again wondered why the idea bothered her. She wasn’t a prude. People had sex; she knew that. It was just... She struggled to explain it, but came up empty.
Chapter 13
Ryne stood in the darkened hallway that led to the bar’s washrooms. He had a perfect view of Melody or ‘Mel’ as she called herself. He snorted. It was a ridiculous name for a female and she was definitely a female. The way her jeans clung to her ass and her t-shirt stretched over her breasts, left him in no doubt of the fact.