Roni sat on the couch in Doc Jones office, wringing her hands together. She wasn't sure how people were supposed to feel once they got here, but she was nervous as hell. Everyone that she'd spoken with told her how easy it was to talk to the older woman once they got going, but Roni was beginning to doubt that. They'd been here for almost fifteen minutes and neither one of them were any closer to spilling their guts than they had been when they first walked inside. Neither one of them had barely said a sentence, much less anything else."Roni, you're the one who called me," Doc Jones started when it was apparent the two of them weren't going to offer her any information. "Why did you feel the need to have me around when you speak to Rooster?"She shifted in her seat; this part was the hard part. It felt like the spotlight was on her and she was on display. Being on display was never something her personality had craved and it made her very uncomfortable. If it helped her move on wi
Rooster didn't know if this was a great idea, he was still reeling from what she had told him about their unborn child. That had been the last thing he'd thought she'd tell him when he'd agreed to come here. Of course, he'd had a feeling that whatever it was, it was going to be big. This was much bigger than anything he could have ever imagined."Go ahead," Doc Jones encouraged him. "You get yours out and then we'll work through it all together. It's better to just say it, and then we can take the ramifications one by one.""I quit the sheriff's department after some things happened that I didn't agree with. When I had to go to the camp, things changed and I became the do-gooder extraordinaire of the world because that's what I had to do. For years, I was a dick to Heaven Hill and I acted like I didn't even know who Roni was. There's no doubt in my mind why she didn't tell me about all this before now. I was trying to be someone I wasn't." He ran a hand through his hair. "That's ne
They sat in his truck, silence blanketing them for long minutes. They both fidgeted in their seats, neither one sure of what to say or how to put into words the feelings that coursed through their hearts. If either one of them were honest, they were probably in shock about the bombshells they'd both dropped. Roni finally spoke."I know the two of us have a lot to talk about. I know I handed you a blow in there, there's not been time for either of us to process the emotions we're both feeling, but right now, we have a bigger issue that needs our attention."He glanced at her, nodding his head. "Drew.""That's right." She blew out a deep breath and glanced out the window. "We've got to see what we can do to help get him out of this situation. Right now, he's not over the edge. He's on the brink, and we've got to make sure we pull him back before he does some incredibly stupid shit. I don't want him to ruin his life before he even gets it started."Rooster agreed with her. "So we
Rooster felt awkward walking up to a teenage boy's bedroom with Tyler following close behind. If this had been a year ago, he'd think that Drew was luring him in for a beat down. Bad analogy, he knew, but he had to do something to keep from thinking too heavily about the situation at hand. The three of them made their way inside. Rooster stood with his back to the door while Tyler had a seat next to Drew on the bed. The silence was deafening as they waited for him to tell them why he had called them in on this and not his parents."You're gonna need to give us something here," Tyler told him quietly. "What the fuck is going on?"Rooster tried to look at this subjectively. Back when all this had happened with him and Liam, they were almost a full two years older than the boy who sat before them. But he couldn't deny the fact that Drew had grown up on them. His face had thinned out the last couple of months, losing the baby fat that had made him look boyish. He'd had a growth spurt a
Roni glanced out the window on the way back to her apartment, watching as the rain from a late summer thunderstorm made tracks down the glass. It had been a long day and afternoon. She hadn't wanted to drive herself home, and since she'd taken a company vehicle to Liam's, she'd left it there and let Rooster drive her home."Are you okay?" he asked softly, looking over at her in the dim light from the console on his dashboard. He was worried about her, she'd been quiet since they left Liam's and it had been an extremely emotional day for the both of them."No, I feel awful," she told him. "Mandy tried to tell me that something was wrong, and I blew her off. I even saw him get mean with her, but I couldn't worry myself enough to truly find out what was going on. What if this kid's parents decide to press charges against Drew? All this over a girl and roid rage?"He grinned, but she couldn't see it. "I've done worse over a girl before."That was true, he had, but they had been so
Roni was afraid to move. Sunlight was shining in her eyes between the curtain and the blind, but she didn't want to ruin the romantic haze she'd been in since she'd convinced Rooster to take her on the bed of his truck. She lay in the arms of the one man who'd had her heart her whole life. She didn't want to wake him up and then have him regret everything they'd done the night before. That was her biggest fear, that they had both been blinded by the need to forget the crazy stuff that was going on in their lives. That she had been a warm body, any warm body. She was almost afraid to breathe."You don't have to worry about waking me up."The male voice was rough and full of sleep. It was what she had imagined for years it would be like. Was this how their lives would have gone? Would they have woken up like this each and every morning? Their arms and legs entwined with one another, both naked, her sore from what they had done the night before? It was almost enough to make her cry, t
On his way back to his own apartment, a text message had come through Rooster's phone from Liam, telling him to meet him at the clubhouse ASAP. Rooster figured he wouldn't be going into the school today, doing the job that he'd been doing for a couple weeks. It was a good thing, since he was doing the walk of shame and he was already incredibly late for the day.The walk of shame. He was going to have to be honest and straight up with Liam about his relationship with Roni. This time, he wanted to do everything right, he didn't want there to ever be any misunderstood feelings, any doubt of where his head was. This time it meant too much, and he was too old to let someone tell him how to live his life. He'd done enough of that over the years.In record time, he'd gotten home, gotten changed, and was walking into the clubhouse."Where's Liam?" Rooster asked Jessica, who sat at the huge table in the commons area, laptop and notes strewn everywhere."He's in there." She hooked her t
Two hours later, the little room was hosting its own throw-down. Liam glanced around and saw that not only Roni had joined them, but so had Jagger, B, Steele, and Christine. It was melancholy for the most part, but at the same time, it seemed to be something they all needed. Layne and Jessica were watching Steele's cave as the others relaxed for the night. Rooster had explained as best he could to everybody what he thought was going down at the school. Bianca had been shocked."I can't believe Coach Thistle has a hand in this," Bianca mumbled as she poured another shot. "Out of anybody at that school, I wouldn't have ever thought him. Even though he's the football coach, he's quiet, almost a loner. He doesn't have many friends, and when I do see or hear him talk to people besides the kids, he stumbles over his words and seems to have a hard time making sense. For him to be some sort of bad-ass steroid dealer? I just don't see where he would have the guts to pull it off.""It's beca