He had.
She also had to admit he was good at it. It was in his blood to lead. Even with his temper, he had the skills.
Did he sometimes second-guess his decisions? Yes. Didn’t they all, though?
His true leadership skills shone the brightest when he finally admitted the club couldn’t deal with the Shirleys on their own. When he decided they had to bring in others to do the job.
It was the best decision, no one could deny it, but Tessa knew it bothered Trip to no end. To him it was admitting defeat.
But the birth of Trip’s son, and Tessa’s nephew, made him finally do something drastic.
Rumor had it that Stella had lost her first son and, as expected, it had destroyed her. Tessa worried if something happened to Rush, it would break her brother and his ol’ lady beyond repair.
Stella was not Tammy and Trip was certainly not Buck.
Thank fuck for that.
Trip was big on not repeating history, whether it was with the Fury or with family.
He’d been so anxious to get away from Tammy and Tessa’s father, his stepfather, that like Tucker, the second he could, he left for the Marines. But not until after marrying his cheating whore of a first wife.
Stella never brought up her first-born son with any of them and Trip never mentioned his first wife.
Tessa opened her eyes, blew out a breath and headed over to the large commercial-sized fridge.
As soon as she opened it, she murmured, “Of course.” The appliance held more beer than it did food. No surprise, especially since a lot of the stuff that the Amish normally stocked it with had been served for the patch-in party tonight. She dug through the variety of brands and found a six pack of Corona bottles hidden behind some Budweiser.
Score!
The only problem was, she almost had to completely climb in to reach it at the very back of the unit. She stretched her arm as far as she could, her head tucked between two of the shelves.
Finally, her fingertips could touch the cardboard carrier. “Damn it!” She nudged it with her fingers until she could hook one inside the carrier and pull. Then she carefully slid the six-pack toward her while extracting herself from the cold interior.
She sighed with relief once she had the beer, then took a step back and slammed the fridge door closed.
“Holy fuck!” she screamed in surprise since someone had been standing on the other side of the damn door.
Easy. With an annoyed look on his face.
Why the hell was he annoyed? If anyone should be annoyed, it should be her.
No. Wrong.
She had no right to be annoyed, she reminded herself. None at all.
Maybe it was his Corona.
Good.
She’d enjoy every damn sip of it, then, while he was enjoying Angel.
“Problem?” She lifted the beer up. “This yours?”
“No.”
“No, you don’t have a problem? Or no, this beer isn’t yours?”
“Don’t give a fuck about the beer, Tess.”
Her eyes cut to the door. “Where’s Angel?” Oh my fucking Christ, why the hell did that come out sounding catty?
“You got a problem with Angel?”
“No, I like Angel just fine.”
“Then, you got a problem with me bein’ with Angel?”
She kept her expression as neutral as possible as she stared at him, just two feet away from her, in the quiet kitchen. She forced out a, “Not at all.”
His dark brown eyes narrowed. “Liar.”
Damn it. “Why are you in here?”
“Maybe to grab a fuckin’ beer.” He shrugged and took a step closer to pull one of the bottles from the cardboard carrier.
She slid another one out and held it out to him. “Better take one for Angel, too. That would be rude to let her get dehydrated.”
“You’re right,” he snagged the second beer from her fingers. “It would be. Thanks for bein’ so fuckin’ considerate. Sure she’ll appreciate it.”
No reason to be jealous.
No reason to be possessive.
No reason to launch herself at him and pull his hair out.
Nope. No reason at all.
She brought this on herself.
She had made the rules, now she had to live with them.
Either that or she had to change them.
Ditch the rules or ditch the man.
Chapter Six
Easy set the beers down on the counter nearby, but continued to block Tessa’s escape. Not that she was trying to avoid him.
Fuck no. This woman didn’t run from anything. She normally faced it head-on and with an attitude.
But it wasn’t attitude right now she was giving him. What it was hit him right in the fucking face.
She was jealous.
Of a sweet butt.
No, wrong. The jealousy really wasn’t about the sweet butt herself, but more about Tessa thinking Angel was waiting for him in his room. That he might fuck someone other than her.
It should make him happy that she was finally showing some sort of… Fuck, he didn’t quite know. Feeling? Reaction? Maybe even a damn pulse toward the two of them.