Secrets Behind Those Eyes (16 page)

Scarlet

Watching Ryder interact with his
family and talk about Judd makes me miss Gable. I feel bad because
I know that there is no comparison to what Judd is doing, but I
still miss him. Spending yesterday and today with nana has been the
greatest time, even without Gable being here. I hope I get to spend
more time like this. As much as I wanted to admit it I was never
this close to Dustin’s family. They saw me as more of an employee
which was technically true, but in the same respect I was there
son’s girlfriend too. I was never invited to family functions like
this.

After the guys finish the turkey we
come back into the house. Naomi and I start setting the table. I
really like Judd’s momma she is so sweet and caring. She treats
Ryder like he’s her son. Nana’s friends have arrived and are
currently arguing about some show on T.V. they are funny. After we
get everything on the table Mr. Abbott calls everyone in there.
Ryder grabs my hand motioning for me to sit beside him.

Mr. Abbott sits down at the head of
the table. “Before we eat let’s bless the food.” We bow our heads,
Ryder and I hold hands as his father speaks. “Dear Lord thank you
for the many blessing you have given this family, thank you for
wonderful friends. Help us remember the loved ones who have gone
home to be with you Lord. Be with Judd as he protects this great
nation we call home. Please bless the food we are about to eat and
the people who helped to prepare it. In Jesus name
Amen.”

I look up to see Nana and Naomi wiping
their eyes. Mr. Abbott looks at everyone and says, “Alright y’all
let dig in.”

As everyone is wrapping up with their
food Ryder suddenly stands up. He looks down at me. “I have a
surprise for you.”

I can feel the heat creeping up on my
face. “Okay.” Everyone is staring at me now.

Nana speaks up. “Ryder son, you are
making her nervous.”

“Oh sorry. I didn’t mean to. It’s just
I can’t wait any longer to tell you this.”

I’m really freaking out
now.

He puts his hand on my shoulder. “Scar
it’s okay. I know that you’ve been missing Gable a lot lately. So
he and I have been texting each other. The band is playing up in
Hilton Head this this weekend and we are going to see
them.”

I jump up out of my seat and wrap my
arms around him. I’m crying big tears. “Oh My God! Ryder I love
you. I have missed him so much, I can’t believe you two have been
working on this together.” Suddenly I remember the rest of the
people at the table. “Oh I’m sorry.”

Naomi smiles. “Don’t be. Its sweet how
much you love your brother and Ryder that was so sweet of you.” She
stands up and walks over to him and hugs him. “I’m so proud of you
and the man you’re becoming.”

~*~*~

Ryder and I have spent so much time
together over Thanksgiving break. He’s convinces me to spend every
night with him, or he keeps me there so late that I fall asleep.
I’m so excited that we are leaving this morning for Gable’s show.
I’m curious to see how Gable is doing, he’s been so quiet on the
phone lately. There is something going on and I intend on getting
to the bottom of it when I see him.

My alerts that I have a text from an
unknown number. “You should have learned by now to keep your mouth
shut.” I don’t know who it’s from, but my phone dings again with a
pic of Gable’s car after the wreck.

I’m scared. I’ve been having a bunch
of hang-up phone calls lately from unknown numbers and I’ve tried
to play it off. The other day on my way out to Ryder’s I swore I
thought someone was following me and now this text that I know for
a fact was sent to me. But what would I need to keep my mouth shut
about?

A knock at my front door startles me.
I look through the window and see Ryder. I open the front door and
hug him. He chuckles. “Hey I could use greetings like that all the
time. You ready to go?”

“Yes!” Maybe while I’m out of town I
can figure out who sent me that message.

I read my kindle most of the way to
Hilton Head because Ryder is on the phone with Nelson trying to
figure out why some of the smaller cows are sick.

We arrive at the hotel the band is
staying in. I knock on Gable’s door expecting him, Stoney or Keeg
to answer the door, but it’s Ivie the bass player and Gable’s
singing partner. She’s in one of his t-shirts, I know it’s his
shirt because I bought it. What the hell? She smiles. “Hey Scar
Gable’s in the shower.” As if she can sense I’m trying to figure
this out, she looks back at me. “The hotel was short on rooms last
night so Gable bunked with me. Normally he and I both get rooms to
ourselves.”

“Oh okay.” She’s trying to steer clear
of something. So I’m just going to leave it for now. About that
time Gable comes out of the bathroom in a towel and Ivie slips by
him with her overnight bag into the bathroom.

He tightens his towel acting a little
uncertain I can tell, but he steps over to hug me. “Hey baby
sister, I’ve missed you so much.”

I smile hugging him tightly. “I’ve
missed you too.”

I point to the bathroom door where I
can hear the shower running, “You wanna explain more about
that?”

He shakes his head. “No we are in the
same band we crash in the same room sometimes.” He shrugs his
shoulders. “Hotel was out of rooms normally we get three because
I’m not sleeping in the room with Keeg and Stoney. Neither is Ivie.
They are always dragging some skanks back to the room and they both
are messy as hell.”

I laugh thinking about the kind of
women those two would bring back. I also notice that although both
beds look like they’ve been messed up only one looks slept in. I
shake my head I’m not going to pry anymore. I know Gable is
private, but damn he knows Ivie has issues. I mean don’t get me
wrong she’s been in their band forever, she’s an awesome singer and
bass player, but she has this way of finding crazy. I’ve only heard
stories about her exes and her parents, but it’s enough.

Gable slides on some boxer briefs
under his towel, pulling the towel off he steps over and shakes
Ryder’s hand. “Hey man how was the drive up?”

“It was good man. Didn’t get much time
to talk to Scar because I had to deal with some business calls, but
she got some reading done.”

Gable flops down on the bed. “So, what
do you guys wanna do today?”

I flop down next to him. “I don’t
care, I’m just excited to get to spend some time with
you.”

“Well I have to be at the venue by
three so we can go grab some lunch and just hang out.” He stands up
to slide on some jeans. “I wish I had more time, but I’ll see you
in a few weeks at Christmas. I’ll be home for a few days then.”
Walking over he taps on the bathroom door and Ivie cracks it open.
He steps inside and shuts the door. I hear them speak in a hushed
tones. He steps out and she closes the door back.

I look over at him with a cocked brow.
“What was that all about?”

“Nothing I was just telling her where
I’d be, in case the guys ask.”

“Oh alright well let’s go.” I have a
feeling that is utter and complete bullshit but my thoughts are
interrupted by my phone ringing I look down at it. Unknown again. I
ignore it for now. I’ll talk to Ryder about this later. Right now I
want to spend time with Gable.

Ryder looks at me. “You
good?”

I smile. “Yeah guys lets go, I’m
starving you didn’t feed me this morning.”

“You said you weren’t
hungry.”

I push his shoulder. “Whatever. Let’s
go dill weeds.”

Gable pulls me into a somewhat
headlock. “Why are you calling me a dill weed? This is the first
time you’ve seen me in months and I’m taking you to get some
food.”

I hug him around his waist. “You’re
not. Let’s go.”

He kisses me on top of the head. “I’m
glad you’re here kid.”

“Me too.”

Chapter 26

Ryder

Scarlet seems to keep staring at her
phone. She’s keeping something from me. I can see it in her eyes.
They always say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, hers
definitely the windows to whatever is going on with her.

“Sir what can I get you?” The waitress
breaks me from my thoughts.

“Oh you two go first.”

Gable laughs. “We already
did.”

“Oh shit. Sorry. I’ll have a sweet tea
and the French dip with steak fries.”

Gable laughs. “Dude are you here with
us?”

I chuckle. “Yeah just think about
work.”

Scarlet grabs my hand. “Is Button
okay? Is he one of the cows sick?”

I shake my head. “No baby. I’m sure
Nelson would have told me.”

Gable looks at us. “Who is
Button?”

Scarlet gives her big beautiful smile.
“Button is my baby cow. Well kinda anyway.”

Gable looks at me with confusion on
his face. I explain. “When some of my cows had calves a few months
ago, Scarlet fell in love with one that had to be bottle fed. So I
gave him to her.”

Gable rolls his eyes. “So you gave my
sister a cow? I guess steak is a pretty awesome gift.”

Scarlet looks at him like he just told
her that Van Gogh was a two bit hack. “Excuse me. My Button isn’t
steak. He will never be steak. He is going to die from old
age.”

Gable shakes his head. “Man she’s got
you over a barrel on that one.”

“Hey I don’t care as long as she’s
happy. I give her twenty cows to keep as pets.”

Gable shakes his head. “Never thought
I’d see the day.”

Scarlet looks up at him. “What
day?”

“The day my little sister actually
fell in love and had some poor guy all in knots about
her.”

“Hey man I never thought I’d see the
day that a girl even had me near in knots, but there is something
about Scarlet. She has this power over me.”

Gable laughs. “Obviously. You followed
her ass all the way to Cade’s place. How did that meeting
go?”

I laugh. “Well I have to admit when
his big ass answered the door, I was a little intimidated. But he’s
a cool guy and his friends were awesome.”

Scarlet smiles. “They hit it off.
Don’t let him fool you though, he drooled over Cade and his friends
once he figured out they were some kind of football Gods or
something.”

Gable laughs. “Yeah Cades pretty cool
and his friends are awesome. We didn’t know him during all the
football stuff so I guess it’s weird for us how people think he’s
some sort of star.”

“Dude a star? No people thought he and
his friends were all going to be first round draft picks. I can
understand why they decided not to be though. So yeah they were
awesome.”

Gable and Scarlet laugh at me getting
so worked up.

We wrap up lunch later and head to the
hotel so Gable can get to the venue on time and we can get checked
into our room.

~*~*~

As Scarlet and I get ready for the
concert he phone goes off again. She looks at it and tosses it on
the bed.

“Scarlet what’s going on? You have
been staring at that phone all day.”

“I was going to wait until we were
back home but I keep getting these unknown number hang-up calls and
I thought nothing of it. But this morning I got this text.” She
pulls it up on her phone and hands it to me.

When I read the text I’m beyond
pissed. “Who in the hell do you think is sending you this
stuff?”

She looks scared. “I don’t know. I
don’t know who would think I’m saying stuff about them. I mean I
really hadn’t thought much about the phones calls. The wreck
freaked me out, but I was really starting to think that maybe it
was just someone who was too drunk. But now I’m really starting to
freak out. The hang up calls were creepy, but now with that text
it’s just-.”

She’s starting to cry. “Baby I know
and we are going to figure out who is doing this. What about the
bar? You know the wreck did happen after work. Maybe some of those
guys thought you saw something.”

“Well I saw the owner and one of those
nasty guys doing lines, but I never said anything.”

I pull her into my arms. “It’s okay
baby we’ll figure it out. Let’s just go to your brother’s concert
and worry about all of this crazy shit after we get home. It’s
obvious whoever is doing this is from Savannah so we don’t have to
worry about them here.”

She nods. “Okay just let me get my
purse.”

~*~*~

On the way to the concert I look over
at her. “Hey so what’s up with your brother and that chick in his
room?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know you
heard him today. He says they are just bandmates, but I think there
is more to it. But the way Gable is if he doesn’t want to talk
about it he’s not going to.”

“What’s so bad about her?”

“Nothing. Well I mean she’s a good
person it’s just drama follows Ivie where ever she goes. Her
parents were crazy, like my life seems tame compared to hers. Her
mom ran off when she was in elementary school with a pit boss from
Biloxi or something. Then when she was around 15 her dad got locked
up for smuggling drugs, money, people. Whatever he could in and out
of the ports at home. She had to go live with her Aunt that had
like five kids already and Ivie was always considered a pain in her
ass. But she brought some of it on herself. Any guy who was covered
in tattoos, had been picked up for something by the cops. Basically
anything she could do to drive her aunt insane she did. When she
was 18 the guys met her at a party her aunt had just kicked her out
for the final time, they started talking music, invited her over to
listen to them and within a few weeks she was part of the band. She
moved in with Stoney for a little while until she met some guy and
it’s been that way ever since. She moves in with a guy, when she
moves out she stays at Stoney’s.”