Run To You

arguing over who was tougher, Batman or Superman.
    “How long will you be in town?” Vince asked as he leaned his hip into the black Escalade. He noticed Beau check his watch for about the twentieth time in the past half hour.
    “I’ll stick around for a few days.” The Marine glanced at the front doors of the JH. “Depends on Blake.”
    Blake? Vince wondered if his brother was the only person Beau was sticking around for, or perhaps a little brunette with red lips? “Did Stella tell you her plans?” Blake had mentioned the fiasco at Stella’s work, and Beau had filled in the rest.
    “I don’t know that she’s a planner.” He pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head and it was scary how much he looked like his brother. Vince had spent enough time with Blake, in the teams and after, to detect the slight differences in the shape of their jaws and eyes. And of course, Blake had a scar on his chin. “As far as I can tell, she’s more like a dandelion seed. She goes where the wind blows her and takes root.”
    “That’s what concerns me.” When Sadie had first learned of Stella, she’d been hurt and confused. He hated to see that kind of pain in her eyes. “A flighty dandelion seed.”
    “I wouldn’t call her flighty. She’s too responsible to be flighty.” He shook his head as he reached inside his side pants pocket and pulled out his cell phone. “More impulsive.”
    Impulsive? “How well did you get to know her?”
    “I’ve spent the last six days with her, most of the time in an Escalade.” He pushed a few buttons on his phone and frowned. “An Escalade is big, but isn’t that big. What exactly do you want to know, Vince?”
    A few things. He’d noticed Beau’s hand in the small of Stella’s back as they’d walked toward the house. There were certain places a man rested his hand when he was real comfortable with a woman. When she belonged to him. He wondered if Beau was still riding the no-sex wagon or if he’d jumped off onto Sadie’s little sister. “Sadie was real hurt and upset that her father never told her she had a sister.” He decided not to ask about the past six days and nights. At least not right now. “I guess I just don’t want Stella to hurt her, too.”
    “Copy that, but it’s more likely Stella is the one who gets hurt,” he said, an edge to his voice as he punched out a quick text. “I’d really hate to see that.” He shoved the phone back in his pants pocket. “She’s been through enough rejection from the Hollowells.”
    Vince looked into Beau’s steel-gray eyes. The guy gave nothing away. Real cool. “Sadie isn’t going to reject Stella. More likely she’s going to buy one of those ‘I’m a Big Sister’ T-shirts and matching heart necklaces.” And it was his job to protect her from an unknown sister who might see an opportunity to take advantage of Sadie’s optimism and hope. It was his job to grill the girl to make sure she wanted a relationship with her sister and not something else. “The town is going to go crazy, though.”
    “How’s that?”
    Beau was the kind of cool that came with years of surviving in the pressure cooker of war. “Nothing much happens in Lovett. So when the town hears that Clive Hollowell has a twenty-eight-year-old illegitimate daughter, they’re going to kill to get eyes on her.” His aunt Luraleen would likely lead the scouting party.
    Beau checked his watch again. “I’m meeting Blake at someplace called the Road Kill Bar.”
    Vince laughed. “Don’t wreck the place.”
    Beau finally smiled and walked to the back of the SUV. “I don’t drink like that anymore.” He opened the doors and pulled out a backpack and duffel. “It takes me too long to recover these days.”
    “Roger that.” Vince didn’t drink much these days. Not like Blake. Blake drank like he was on leave and Vince wondered if he should alert Beau before he walked into the Road Kill. “Are those Stella’s?” He’d find out soon enough.
    “Yeah.”
    “Go meet your brother. I’ll take those.”
    Beau hesitated before he gave them over. “Tell Stella to give me a shout if she needs anything.”
    “Will do.” He shook Beau’s free hand, then took the duffel and backpack. “Stay at my place with Blake and have him bring you by the Gas and Go tomorrow,” he said, referring to the convenience store he’d spent the past few months renovating. He turned toward the house and waved a parting hand. For the last eight weeks or