Back off

Jason grits his teeth and gives Misty a slight nod, forcing his outward appearance back into a calm state, while his insides still raced.

Taking a swig of beer, he suddenly gives a slight lurch, feeling as though someone was sucking the air out of him. His mind pinpoints what it was, and he shoves his emotions back down to a controllable state. Alright, Katie, alright, I got it! Don’t knock me over!

As Nate comes staggering over to them, he quirks an annoyed eyebrow. For a few moments he lets Misty fend for herself, but finally slams his beer bottle down in disgust. “Aw for crying out loud.”

Standing from the barstool, he glares at Nate, anger forced to the surface. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size? Or have you forgotten how to do anything but harass someone else’s woman?”

Taking a step forward, he yanks Nate’s hand off of Misty and reaches out to grab him by his shirt collar. “You leave your hands off of her,” he hisses.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees several people start to watch, just feeding the acting game. “Now back off before I lose my tempter.”

He gives Nate a shove, a little harder than necessary, sending him stumbling backward into a table.


Reese leans back in his chair, a smile spreading across his face. “Good.” He keeps himself professional, but the pleasure can’t be removed from his voice. “I’ll be talking to Doug Brown more tomorrow, and I’ll have the office here prepped for whenever you come.”

He pauses a moment. “…It’ll be nice having you around here, Angelica. I’m glad you want to stay. If you need help looking for a place, let me know. I’ve even got people you could stay with for a while if you need to.”


Ty slowly sits in Katie’s other chair, his nervousness showing in his eyes, the redness remaining in his face. But he nods and takes Katie’s lead.

With every word he gets right, a little bit of nervousness subsides, and a smile starts to form.

As Katie pauses at one point, whispering to Jason, surprisingly, Ty says nothing, but waits, and picks up reading as soon as she’s ready again as if nothing happened.

“Happy birthday Ty. Mom, Dad, Clint, Rosalynn.”

Ty beams as he’s finally able to put the last part together after several tries. Not only was there excitement that he’d just read it, but there was overwhelming pleasure at the words themselves… His family…his real family…had cared enough to write to him and send him a card.

Suddenly overwhelmed, he looks down, willing the tears in his eyes not to fall. “Thanks, Katie,” he comments meekly.