“Don’t do this,” I said. “Please.”
But too late. As soon as Chad cleared the steps and stood on the asphalt, he turned and swung at Garrett. His fist slammed into the side of his face, and Garrett’s head snapped back at the impact. Ouch.
“Now that everyone’s seen you attack me,” said Garrett, cracking his neck, “guess I better defend myself.”
And it was on.
My heart galloped inside my chest. “Someone stop them!”
“Stop them?” Josh laughed. “This is the most fun we’ve had in ages. I’ve got five dollars on Gary. Who’s taking the bets?”
Fists were flying and blood was dripping, and I kind of wanted to vomit.
“Ooh,” said Claude with a wince. “That had to hurt.”
“Garrett will be fine, Ani. Take a look,” said Yong, cradling a baseball bat. “Chad’s slowing down already. He’s gotten city soft.”
Then Garrett smacked Chad in his stupid mouth and it was over. The whole thing had lasted a minute at most. In slow motion, Chad stumbled back a step before landing on his butt in the parking lot. And there he stayed.
“You don’t come near her ever again. You don’t talk to her, and you sure as hell don’t touch her,” said Garrett. And the fury on his face. Whoa. His nostrils were flaring and everything. “Do you understand?”
Chad said nothing. Just sat in the dust with blood dripping out of his nose in a steady stream. His good friend Christian, however, wandered in from out of the shadows and his eyes were wide with surprise. He helped Chad to his feet and dragged him to a waiting truck. Good riddance.
People started cheering and slapping Garret on the back. Because they were ridiculous. Obviously.
Josh looked at me and frowned. “But he won. Why are you upset?”
“Men are such idiots,” said Emma with a wisdom born of the ages. Then she turned to Yong and said, “You better do something.”
Yong looked between me and Garrett and nodded. “All right, everybody!” he yelled. “Time to get your asses back inside. Next round is on Garrett. Right, G?”
Garrett waved a hand as if to say “whatever.”
It worked. Everyone rushed back inside. Then it was just me and him. Blood dripped from the knuckles on his right hand. Color surrounded one of his eyes and his cheek had already started to swell. Beneath a sky full of stars in the parking lot at the Wildwood Bar and Grill, the rock star gave me a wary glance. He was the epitome of beauty all disheveled. But I still wanted to throw something at him, just the same.
“I don’t even know what to say,” I admitted, walking down the steps to the asphalt. “How bad is your hand?”
“It’ll be fine.” Nice and slow, he flexed his fingers. “Before you say anything else, I couldn’t just let him grab you. He was hurting you. I could see it in your face.”
The music coming from inside was muffled by the wooden walls. Violence wasn’t exactly unusual in Wildwood. But being the reason for it was shocking.
“There’s no excuse for Chad’s behavior,” I said. “He was always a bit of a jerk, but he never used to be like that.”
Garrett just grunted and watched me in silence.
The anger and anxiety in me finally bubbled to the surface. In all honesty, I didn’t know what to do with it all. There was just too much emotion. “What if your hand had been broken? What if someone recorded the fight? Holy shit, Garrett, this could be an absolute disaster! You can’t just—”
“I don’t just go around picking fights like some fucking Neanderthal, and you know it.” He towered over me with a cranky expression of his own. “But don’t ask me to stand by and do nothing while some asshole hurts you. Because honest to fucking God, I can’t do it, babe.”
I froze.
“And it would kind of be unreasonable for you to ask me to. I mean think about it, if we got surrounded by fans and someone was trying to take a piece out of me for a souvenir, you would not be okay with that. You would try to stop them.” He paused and pondered for a moment. “Guess you wouldn’t invite them out to a parking lot for a fistfight. But you get my point.”
Yeah. I still had nothing.
He raised his hand to his ribs and winced. “What I’m saying is, my behavior tonight might have been a little extreme, but it wasn’t totally implausible. And if the media gets wind of it or he presses charges, I’ll handle it. I’ll protect you. Okay?”
I kept right on giving him my best impression of a deer caught in headlights.
“Why do I keep feeling the need to explain myself to you? Are you going to say something?” he asked eventually. “Ani?”
“You, um, you called me ‘babe.’”