Free Rebecca's Rose by Jennifer Beckstrand Page A

said, grabbing his arm. She quickly ordered a beer and pushed Eddie onto the bar stool between Jason and Dax. “I want to talk to Levi alone for a minute. Okay, Eddie? Wait here.”
    The look of confusion returned to Eddie’s face. Tara picked up her beer and tried to take Levi’s hand. He avoided her touch. She pretended not to notice then headed for the nearest empty table.
    “I don’t have much time,” Levi said, preparing her for what he hoped was a gentle letdown.
    “You’re not drinking?” she said.
    “I left my beer at the bar.”
    “Sit,” she said. “Just sit for a minute.”
    He eased slowly into the chair, hoping to make his lack of enthusiasm blatantly evident.
    She took a sip of her beer and leaned closer to Levi. “Eddie wants me to get serious with him.”
    “From what I’ve seen, you’re pretty serious already.” He sounded like a bitter ex-boyfriend. He didn’t want to sound bitter. He wanted to be done with Tara.
    With cornflake girls.
    “That was just playing around, Levi. I don’t like him like that.”
    “I don’t want to be with you anymore, Tara.”
    “That’s not what you said when we broke up.” She clicked her fingernails against the table as if eager to get this chore over so she could move on to something more important. “I’ve learned my lesson. I’m sorry, and I want you back.”
    “I’ve had time to think things out. I’m not mad anymore, and I think you’re better off without me. That’s all.”
    Tara folded her arms. “Do you want me to admit that I’m jealous? Okay, I’m jealous. Megan said you were out with some girl the other night.”
    “I didn’t do that to make you jealous.” Not entirely true then , but entirely true now.
    Tara’s voice rose with her frustration. “Oh, sure you didn’t,” she said sarcastically. “That’s why you took her to our hangout. You knew at least one of my friends would see you.”
    Levi stood up. “It’s over, Tara. Sorry.”
    The venom shooting out of her eyes could have killed him. “Maybe I should warn this new girl about you. It’s not every day you date a guy with a police record.”
    Tara knew him too well. Pain scrubbed itself over every surface of his body.
    She saw his expression and must have realized she’d gone too far. Jumping to her feet, she grabbed his arm with both her hands. “I didn’t mean it, Levi. You know I love you. Sometimes I want to hurt you as bad as you’ve hurt me.”
    She snaked her arms around his neck. He was too stunned from her first blow to resist. Pulling him close with amazing strength, she kissed him hard on the mouth.
    To avoid touching her, he held up his hands like a bank robber in the sights of a policeman’s gun.
    When he didn’t kiss her back, she took her lips off his but still clung tightly to his neck with her tentacle-like grip. “Come on, Levi.”
    Levi felt, rather than saw, Eddie behind him. He might have heard Tara scream. Eddie yanked Levi’s shoulder and spun him around violently then swung his fist and caught Levi hard in the nose. That was Eddie’s first mistake. He should have known that Levi didn’t take crap from anybody.
    Levi snatched the collar of Eddie’s mighty fine Western-style shirt and half-dragged, half-pushed him to the far wall. All it took was one punch to the jaw to lay Eddie flat. Levi had a good right hook.
    He shook his hand to drive away the pain and looked down at Eddie on the floor. “You can have her,” he said. “But leave me alone.”
    He grabbed some napkins from the nearest table to soak up the blood pouring from his nose. It stung something awful.
    As Levi would have expected, the bartender wasted no time in throwing both of them out of his bar. He dragged Eddie from the floor with one hand and grasped Levi’s arm with the other. “No fighting,” was all he said as he escorted both men to the door and pushed them out into the night.
    As the door slammed behind them, Eddie gave Levi a halfhearted shove before