“Fuck,” Hank bit out.
“Yeah,” Lee agreed.
“What now?” Hank asked.
“That’s why I asked you here,” Lee answered. “I don’t know. No tellin’ what Indy’s gonna do. She thinks of Jane like family. I don’t know if she’ll lose her mind or defend her. Bein’ Indy, though, my guess is she’d defend her. But right now, her sick all the time, she doesn’t need this shit. She’s also told me about Jane. That woman loves books, always wanted to become a writer. She’s written fuckin’ dozens of them that went nowhere. Now she’s livin’ her dream.”
“Off our lives,” Hank pointed out.
“That’s the rub,” Lee stated. “’Cause what does it hurt when what it does is give one of our own the key to her dreams?”
Hank stared at his brother. “Are you shitting me?”
“Tod and Stevie have been over here cackling about that book least a dozen times since Indy and Ally found it. Fuck, Tod’s highlighted parts that he reads out loud to us. And I gotta admit, that shit is funny. Wasn’t then. My woman in my bed, wearin’ my ring, pregnant with my baby, it is now.”
“I’m not sure I’ll get there,” Hank replied.
“You asked me just last night, I would have said the same thing. Then when Brody told me it was Jane, Indy pukin’ in the bathroom, us having viewings to get a bigger place to prepare for our family, I didn’t have it in me to get pissed. Jane’s got nothin’ in her life except that store and us.” He paused. “And now her books.”
Hank thought about Jane. Quiet. Always working. Most of the time there, but always on the cusp. He’d known her since he was a kid and she’d always been the same. It wasn’t that she kept herself removed. Hank reckoned it had more to do with the fact she didn’t quite know how to get involved.
And Roxie had read the book. Hank had heard her laughing through the whole fucking thing. She knew Hank was pissed about it and didn’t say anything to him, but he also knew, if she found out it was Jane, she wouldn’t give a single shit.
“My thought is,” Lee carried on and Hank focused on him. “I tell the men. They tell their women. I’m not gonna say shit about how they react, seein’ as they can react however the fuck they want. I’ll wait ‘til Indy’s in a good spot and tell her, and same goes for her. Jane did what she did, the chips will fall as they fall.”
“Not thinkin’ any of the women will have an issue with it,” Hank noted.
“Seems the case,” Lee agreed.
“But even one of those guys loses it and gets in Jane’s face, how’s that gonna go down?” Hank asked.
The look on Lee’s face said precisely how it was going to go down. Jane barely had the courage to live her life. One of the men got in her shit about those books, she could break. Which could mean she’d leave the store. Which would mean Indy would lose her.
Which would not be good.
Just like her grandmother, Indy regarded everyone who walked in that store on a regular basis like blood family. Grandma Ellen had looked after Jane. Indy did in her way, too.
She’d lose her mind if one of the men lost it with Jane.
“My guess,” Lee started, “is that those men will also think about how that’d go down. And if they do confront her, they’ll have a mind to that.”
That, fortunately, was true.
“They also have a right to know,” Lee continued.
Hank nodded and sipped more coffee.
“You gonna tell Roxie?” Lee asked.
Hank’s brows went up. “The Rock Chicks knowin’ something she doesn’t know? And then her knowin’ I knew and didn’t tell her?” Hank shook his head. “She’d have a fuckin’ conniption. She rode my ass half our honeymoon about Ally and Zano.”
Lee grinned, but Hank didn’t find it funny. Ally making a scene with Zano at their wedding reception, clueing the Rock Chicks in to something the men already knew, was not taken kindly by his then-brand new wife.
Luckily, he was able to be creative in getting her to shut up about it.
“Darius says Zano is lookin’ into those books, too. You have a sit down with Ally, will you give her that heads up?” Lee asked.
“Yeah,” Hank answered. “And since I’m out, that’s up next.”
He took his last sip of coffee, rinsed the mug and put in the dishwasher.
Lee walked with him to the door.
At the door, Hank brought up their earlier conversation. “You’ll think about Ally?”
“Said I would,” Lee replied.
“She’s got what it takes, Lee,” Hank pointed out.
“She’s also got no fear,” Lee returned. “Never has. And sometimes that’s not a good thing.”
“You get scared before you do a job or do you just know you can get it done?” Hank asked.
Lee again said nothing.
“You’re measuring her by another yardstick, brother,” Hank noted quietly. “Careful of doing that. It’s not only not fair, she’ll cotton on and the results of that will not be pretty. But, I’ll point out, you’re holdin’ the key to her dreams. Our sister is the kind of girl who’ll bust the door down anyway. And she’s doin’ that. But it’d make it easier, you just hand her that key.”
For long moments, Hank withstood his brother’s intense stare before Lee lifted his chin.
