A Vine Mess (Love on the Vine #4)

28. Ella

The Swallow was exactly the kind of bar you’d expect to find in a small western town like Dusk Valley. The floors were sticky, tables were a mixture of short squares and circular high tops, crammed together in the free space surrounding a large dance floor, the bar itself dominating the back wall. They didn’t serve food, and smoking indoors had been outlawed ages ago, but the scent of cigarette smoke still clung to the place. They also didn’t serve any specialty drinks that required a blender or any other frilly accouterments. They had beer, boxed wine, and the standard, staple liquors you’d find anywhere in America.

We followed West and Finn inside and toward a far corner where the rest of the Lawless men and Aria were set up. The table was already full of empty bottles and watery glasses. Liam kept me close to his side as we pushed through the crowd and gathered around the edge.

“See you got started without us,” West said, socking Trey on the shoulder .

“Punch me again and my fist is going through your face,” Trey promised his younger brother, providing a smile that was all teeth to match.

West raised his hands in surrender. “Whatever you say, Fed.”

“Don’t call me that,” Trey growled.

Liam and I shared a look, and I shrugged before he disappeared with West to get us drinks.

Aria tugged me onto the chair next to her and said, “God, it’s so nice to have another girl around.”

I snorted. “I’ve got four sisters,” I reminded her. “This is…uncharted territory.”

Aria sighed heavily, leaning closer so I could hear her over the music but no one else could. “They mean well, and I love them so much, but…sometimes, it’s a lot.”

“I can imagine.”

If there was one thing I’d picked up about the Lawless men since we’d arrived in Dusk Valley the day before, it was that they were unfailingly loyal to and extremely protective of each other. In Aria’s case, it was surely more over protective than the kind they asserted over each other, and I could see how exhausting that would be.

“They’re…overbearing,” Aria continued, “but they’re the best and my favorite people on the planet.”

“Even Owen?”

“ Especially Owen,” she confirmed. “Even though he’s not here, he’s been taking care of all of us since Daddy died.”

My heart squeezed painfully at the reminder of this family’s loss, how their Dad had died when Owen was a junior in college. I did the mental calculations and realized Aria couldn’t have been more than six at the time.

“What do you mean, taking care of you?”

Aria smiled, almost sadly, and I saw so much of my sister’s boyfriend in that expression. The genes in the Lawless family were strong.

“You know he gave up his final year of college eligibility to go pro, right?” I nodded. “Most people think that was because it’s what Daddy would’ve wanted, but one thing I’ve learned about my dad—and my brothers, for that matter—is that not a single one of them can be told what to do. Owen left college a year early because Mama was barely holding it together without Dad, and he didn’t want us struggling. Trey was in college, Lane about to graduate high school. The twins and Crew were always getting into trouble, and I was this little girl, so young I didn’t know up from down in the world, especially not one with my father suddenly missing from it. I’m sure Mama would’ve figured it all out eventually, but Owen gave us money that kept us afloat those first few years. He paid for college for those of us that went, covered ranch expenses when times were tight, made sure we had clothes on our backs and food on the table.” Aria’s eyes went misty, and she sniffled loudly and blinked rapidly before any could fall. “My oldest brother is the best man I’ve ever known. Your sister got a really, really good one.”

Before I could respond—honestly, I was struck stupid and into silence anyway—the band ended their song, the bar going quiet until someone called into the mic, “Ariiiiiiiiiiii.”

The girl next to me jumped to her feet and grinned. “That’s my cue.”

West and Liam returned then, but I looked at Trey and said, “ Where is she going?”

He only smiled, crossed his arms over his chest, and leaned back in his chair. “Watch.”

After accepting my bourbon from Liam, I swiveled on my chair to face the stage, where Aria now stood behind the mic.

“Good evening, beautiful people,” she grinned, and a raucous greeting rang out from the crowd. “What do y’all wanna hear tonight?”

Someone shouted, “Carrie Underwood!” into the silence that followed her question, and Aria turned to look at the band.

“What do you think, boys?”

In answer, the opening notes of “Before He Cheats” rang out, and the cheers grew in volume.

And when Aria started singing, I was transfixed, entirely mesmerized by how such a powerful voice came out of such a petite package. How the girl who’d been sitting beside me not long ago, getting emotional over her family, morphed into this badass singer in the span of a few minutes.

“Holy shit,” Liam breathed next to me.

I only nodded. “She’s amazing.”

Swiveling my head, I glanced around at Aria’s brothers, who were each singing along proudly as the youngest of them entertained the crowd.

When the song ended, West hopped up on a chair and shouted, “That’s my baby sister!”

The entire crowd cheered along with him, but the bright lights on Aria did nothing to hide the blush that crept up her neck and over her cheeks. Still, she remained nothing but professional as she launched into another country song, this one a Megan Moroney tune that had everyone in the bar screaming the words right back at her.

Aria strutted up and down the stage, twirling and dancing and singing her heart out.

To witness such a thing was nothing short of incredible. Each of her brothers may have been talented in their own rights, but the baby of the family had definitely taken her fair share of the pot.

After a few more numbers, she told everyone she was taking a break—to numerous groans—and made her way back to us. The entire band appeared to be breaking as well, grabbing a drink, a smoke, or disappearing down a long hall toward the back with a woman on their arms. In their place, top forty began piping into the room from the sound system.

When Aria reached us, I threw my arms around her and squeezed her tightly, then held her out in front of you.

“You are incredible!” I squealed.

Aria blushed again. “It’s just for fun.”

“No, Aria. You are insanely talented. Don’t sell yourself short.”

She reached out and clasped my hands. “You really mean it?”

I nodded emphatically. “Of course I do.”

She grinned, letting go of me as Lane wrapped one of his heavily muscled and tattooed arms around her neck and kissed the top of her head.

“Killed it as usual, my girl.”

Aria glanced up at her brother, eyes shining with joy. “Thanks.”

“There’s our girl!” West shouted, having just come back from the bar. While I was entranced by Aria and her performance, it seemed West was getting turned up.

I’d been so focused on the Lawless family that I was caught entirely off guard when a hand slipped around my waist from behind, sprawling possessively over my abdomen and pulling me back against his body.

“Hey baby,” Liam said low in my ear.

“Hey, handsome. Having fun?”

“Not really my scene,” he admitted. “I’d much rather make good on my threat to strip you out of that dress.”

I turned in his arms and looped mine around his neck. “You think that was a threat? Baby, I’d strip myself out of this dress if you asked nicely.”

“That’s all it takes, huh?” He took his hat off so he could nuzzle my neck. In one smooth move, I grabbed it from him and stepped back, running my finger along the brim.

“Remember the cowboy hat rule?” I asked him, peeking up at him through my lashes.

Liam’s eyes flared. “You gonna ride me later, Wildflower?”

I lifted the hat over his head and set it back atop his dark hair. “Only one way to find out.”

Liam grinned, remembering the scene I’d painted for us as we left Wyoming.

The song changed, and it seemed the entire female population of the bar let out a simultaneous squeal of excitement. Before I could react, to search out the source of the fuss, Aria rushed up to my side, threw an apology at Liam, and towed me out to the dance floor.

“Do you know how to line dance?” she shouted at me as someone cranked the tune louder, filling my very soul with the sounds of “Shiver” by Ed Sheeran.

I winked at her. “I think I can keep up.”

Aria’s brows raised in surprise, but she didn’t get a chance to say anything else because the crowd began to move, us right along with it.

Losing myself in the beat, in the steps, in the sense of camaraderie I’d found with this family that wasn’t mine but felt like it on the other side of the country—it was the most free I’d been in a long time.

Liam had a lot to do with it too, and I couldn’t help the girlish giggle that escaped me every time our eyes connected across the room. He wasn’t even pretending to converse with the guys, wasn’t pretending to let me have my fun until he got to have his later. He simply stood there at the edge of the dance floor, arms crossed, beer bottle dangling carelessly from one of the beautiful tattooed hands, watching me. Anyone who looked at him, looked at me, looked at us …they just knew . Knew we were together. That I belonged to him, and he to me.

When the song ended, I bent over, hands on my knees, to catch my breath. A hand landed between my shoulder blades, and Aria’s face appeared in my periphery.

“You weren’t lying!” she said excitedly. “You can more than keep up.”

I straightened with a laugh. “Delia is crazy popular on TikTok, right? And she got this bug up her ass a few summers ago about us learning the dance to that song. That’s literally the only one I could’ve pulled that off for.”

Aria’s glee morphed to melancholy in a heartbeat. “I wish we lived closer. I could use some sisters.”

“You’ve always got us, Aria,” I told her. “We’re only a phone call away.”

“All of you?”

I nodded, confident in speaking for my sisters in this moment. “All of us.”

She grinned, squeezing my hands, then pulling me to the center of the floor as another song kicked up—a Morgan Wallen banger that had us swaying our hips and screaming the lyrics at the top of our lungs.

Halfway through, a set of hands found their way to my hips, and I stiffened, knowing instantly they didn’t belong to my boyfriend.

“You new in town?” a gruff voice asked as I attempted to pull away.

I looked to Aria for help and found her in the arms of a different guy, forgetting about me for the moment. “Just passing through,” I told him, trying to back away, searching over his shoulder for Liam. But his spot at the edge of the dance floor was empty.

“Even better,” the guy said with a grin, exposing his too-white teeth. “I’m—”

“She doesn’t give a fuck what your name is,” a new voice said, and Liam appeared from behind him, shoving him back and putting his big body between us.

“Why don’t you let her decide that?” the guy said, giving me a smarmy grin. “You wanna come home with me, don’t you?”

My upper lip curled, a disgusted sound leaving me. “Fuck no.”

“C’mon now,” he said. “You don’t mean that.”

“I definitely do.”

Liam turned his head to look at me. With that wicked gleam in his eyes I loved so much, he took his hat off his head and set it on mine. “What about me, baby? You wanna come home with me?”

I grinned, making a show of looking him up and down, fingering the brim of the hat coyly. “I don’t know…” I trailed off.

“Hey man!” the new guy protested. “You can’t do that.”

Liam barely spared him a glance. “My hat, my woman. Now fuck off.”

“How about we take this outside and settle it like real men?”

“I don’t think that’ll be—”

The expression on Liam’s face cut me off as he fully put his back to the new guy. Then he hauled me up over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, one hand planted firmly across the backs of my thighs to keep my dress down. The guy who made a pass at me shouted for someone to help me, but I was laughing so hard, it was obvious I wasn’t in danger. The Lawless family, finally recognizing the commotion, hooted and hollered at Liam as he walked me down that long hallway toward the back.

We pushed outside, finding the small parking lot entirely abandoned, the streetlight that normally would’ve illuminated the area burned out. Liam set me on my feet slowly, my body gliding down his as he did, his hands settling low on my hips and pushing me backward until my spine met the side of the building.

“Impressive display,” I told him. All I could see was the way his eyes captured the light of the moon—dark, endless pools I wanted to sink into and stay there forever .

“He was touching what’s mine.”

“Yours, huh?” I said playfully.

I knew the answer—hadn’t needed to ask. I was his in every way, shape, and form. Mind, body, soul. In all the ways he’d already had me and all the ways he wanted me in the future.

But as surely as I belonged to him, Liam Danvers belonged to me, and I couldn’t say for certain I wouldn’t have reacted similarly had another woman put her hands on him.

Liam merely tapped my head. “You’re wearing my hat, Wildflower. Tell me, what was that rule again?”

“Technically, it’s West’s hat.”

“Ella,” Liam growled.

Tipping my head back, I let loose a laugh, and the hat fell from my head.

Liam’s mouth was on mine in a heartbeat, hands in my hair, clutching me tightly, fusing our lips together until there wasn’t a millimeter of space between us. We came together fervently, sloppily, like we couldn’t survive going a second longer without being together like this. I moaned when his tongue swept inside, caressing mine, and the sound seemed to slow things down. Liam moved more intentionally, sucking on my tongue, pulling at my lips with his teeth, peppering my cheeks and jaw with kisses.

When he pulled away, I chased after him with a sound of protest, and he obliged me with another kiss—chaste, closed-mouthed, and entirely too short.

“Why’d you stop?” I asked.

Liam reached down and tangled our fingers together, bending first to pick up the hat before pulling me around the building to where the van waited in the full parking lot. The band had kicked up again, and Aria’s full, gorgeous voice floated out into the night, the neon sign flashing, attempting to lure us in.

Instead, we got in the van, and Liam finally answered my question, sending shivers skittering across my skin.

“I’m taking you home, Wildflower, where no one but the trees will hear you scream for me.”