Austin's Revenge (The Townsends Book 4)

by Angie Campbell

  “Two of your buddies got popped pretty good too,” he chuckled, shaking his head.

  He groaned rubbing a hand over his face. “Which two?”

  “Rogers and Daniels,” he answered with a thoughtful expression. “Actually, he managed to pop Daniels at least twice.”

  He sighed and let Amanda slide off his lap to sit beside him. “Well, at least it was those two. I’m glad Jackie didn’t end up getting punched. That would have been worse.”

  Carl shook his head and chuckled. “Jeff told her to stay back. When she started to move in like she planned on getting in the middle of things anyway, Daniels nearly come unglued on her. There for a second, I thought he was going to start popping blood vessels. That’s what actually got him punched one of the times. He got distracted for long enough for Austin to make contact with his face.”

  “What happened?” he asked, pulling Amanda into his side, not quite ready to lose the feel of her so close to him.

  “They got here before Jeff and tried to pull you two apart. Austin got a lucky shot in and nailed Rogers right in the nose. I think his nose might be broke. I think Daniels has a fat lip.”

  He grimaced. That explained Jeff’s earlier cryptic statement. It sounded like he owed a couple of his friends a big apology. “Even if I’m not the one that punched them, I feel like I owe them an apology. It’s my fault we’re all in this mess.”

  “Nobody feels that way,” his dad said, shaking his head. “This is all on Austin. Nobody else.”

  “I’m really surprised he managed to stay conscious long enough to cause so much trouble.” he said, feeling awed.

  His dad nodded his head, agreeing with him. “I think it was the adrenaline from him being so angry. By the time the others got here to pull you apart, you had both stopped rolling around. You probably would have knocked him out then, if you had gotten a chance to get a clear shot.

  This all happened after Amanda tried to pull you two apart herself. I think you may have, somewhere in that mind of yours, known it was her. Austin shoved her and knocked her down, but you managed to slow her down a bit. She managed to turn enough to land on her behind, but I think he was trying to slam her head into his car.”

  “I thought something like that happened. Everything happened so fast, I wasn’t sure though.”

  “We were all very relieved to see Jeff pull up. We were pretty sure he would manage to put a stop to everything. He decided to knock you out because we weren’t really sure how much control you were going to show when they managed to pull you two apart. He done it as a precautionary measure. When Austin managed to get free of Daniels hold for those few seconds, I think Jeff would have gladly ripped his head off, if it hadn’t been for the fact, he couldn’t let go of you at the time.”

  ******

  “So, isn’t this where you two should be announcing you’re engaged?” Hannah spoke without thinking as usual. She noticed that Amanda looked shocked and Zane looked nervous. That was the last coherent thought she had before she was effectively shut up.

  Jeff had leaned over to say something in her ear. She didn’t have a clue what he had said. All she knew was she could feel his breath in her ear. She knew her eyes had to be glazed over, because she could hear chuckles and snickers, but had no clue where they were coming from.

  She was in a daze when she turned her head to look at him. She had been trying to get him to talk to her more ever since he had kissed her, and she knew when it registered with him what he had done. He groaned, and his eyes closed. She heard more chuckling and snickering.

  All the sudden someone was snapping their fingers in front of her nose. She jerked her head back and snarled up at Teresa, “What?”

  “Pay attention,” Teresa said pointing back across the table at Zane and Amanda.

  Zane had turned to face Amanda. “I don’t know if you’re ready for this. With everything that has happened lately, you really may not be. If you’re not, that’s okay. I can be patient. I love you. I need you more than you could ever imagine. Will you marry me?”

  She had started crying before he had made it halfway through his proposal and was now doing her best to wipe the tears from her face. She barely noticed when he slipped the ring box out of his pocket. She didn’t wait for him to open it. It wasn’t the ring she wanted, it was the man. She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him with no thought of the audience they had sitting around the table.

  “Hey, do I get an answer,” he asked with a nervous laugh.

  “Of course, I’ll marry you. You are the most wonderful man in the whole world.” After that she heard a lot of groaning. Then she heard Hannah utter something that had everyone, except Hannah and Jeff, laughing so hard they were almost rolling out of their chairs.

  “Was that what you were trying to tell me, when you breathed in my ear, and caused my mind to go blank,” she asked once again speaking without thinking. They both went scarlet.

  “Well, it’s about time, you moron,” Phillip said, smacking Zane on the back.

  “Yes, thank God,” Jamie uttered as she got up to move around the table to hug her son and his fiancée. “It’s about time I got you as a daughter-in-law.”

  “Yeah, think of all the trouble they could have saved if he had asked her right out of high school,” Mindi laughed.

  Zane gave his sister a very serious look, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t have saved anything.”

  “What do you mean?” he heard more than one person ask.

  “It was better it happened the way it did,” he said, pulling Amanda back down on his lap to hold her tight. He looked at Jeff, not sure he could explain, but feeling his family needed to know the whole story.

  Jeff nodded, seeming to understand what the problem was. “Austin only dated Amanda to get at Zane. He knew he was in love with her in high school. Apparently, she’s not even his type. He would be more likely to be attracted to Ashley Mullins. Her physical appearance apparently is more to his liking. Probably her personality as well,” he added on a snort. “If they had gotten married out of high school, he probably would have resorted to something far more violent and fatal.” There was a collective gasp as what he had said truly sunk in. Despite how bad things had been, they had been blessed they had happened the way they did.

  Chapter 28

  Thursday, September 25

  Amanda had her head down, minding her own business. She was currently in the produce section of Harris Grocery, picking out fruit. Zane tended to eat a lot of fresh fruit in between regular meals. She already had bananas and oranges in the cart and had been picking out apples when she heard someone walk up behind her. She knew who it was the second someone snidely commented, “Boy, I never noticed how wide your backside really is.”

  She turned, giving the woman a smirk, a bag of apples still in her hand. “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you, Ashley. Zane happens to like my backside, just fine,” she added sweetly.

  “Jealous of you?” the other woman snorted. “Hardly. I can have him back in a snap, now that Austin is in jail, awaiting trial.”

  Amanda laughed, shaking her head. “Now you’re just living in a dream world. That might actually be worse than the jealousy. At least with the jealousy, you’re a little closer to dealing with reality. I think he made it pretty clear to you, and everyone else present at the bowling alley, what he really thinks of you.”

  Ashley scoffed, blushing from embarrassment at the same time. “He just said that because you were there.”

  She shook her head, giving the other woman a curious look. “You really don’t know Zane at all, do you? While he’s not always so brutal, he’s not a liar. He wouldn’t waste his time making something like that up.”

  “That’s just something you’ve told yourself,” the other woman replied, sticking her nose in the air.

  “Don’t walk outside like that. You might drown. It was raining out there earlier,” Amanda chuckled. “You really need to deal with your jealousy and move on with your li
fe.”

  “What do you have for me to be jealous over?” she asked, rolling her eyes.

  Amanda chuckled, shaking her head. “Well, if you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you.” When she sat the bag of apples she still had in her left hand down in the cart, the diamond on her finger caught the light, drawing Ashley’s attention to it.

  The other woman gasped, reaching out like she thought she was going to grab Amanda’s hand. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “Hey, don’t touch me,” she said, taking a step back.

  Ashley shook her head in disbelief. “This has to be some kind of bad joke. You bought that ring yourself, didn’t you?” she sneered, moving in like she meant to make a grab at her again.

  Amanda huffed and stepped back, giving the other woman a disgusted look. She moved, quickly shoving the cart between them. “No, Zane gave me this ring when he asked me to marry him.”

  “You’re delusional,” she screeched, trying to push the cart out of the way. “There’s no way he asked you to marry him. A man that fine doesn’t want the fat chick on his arm. I’ll get him back. It’ll be a piece of cake,” she nearly screamed, still trying to move the cart so she could get to Amanda.

  She shook her head, starting to feel a little concerned Ashley might really be losing her mind. “You’re the one that’s delusional.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head and seemingly talking to herself more than Amanda, at this point. “He would never marry the fat chick. It’s all lies. It has to be.”

  “Mandy, is everything okay?” Zane asked from behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “What’s with Ashley?”

  “I’m actually convinced she may be losing her mind,” she whispered, turning to face him. “She seems to be delusional. She thinks you’re going to take her back, now that Austin’s in jail, for one. She also, has started talking to herself.”

  He shook his head, glancing at the other woman, where she definitely appeared to still be talking to herself. “No, you’re the only one I want,” he said, deciding to ignore Ashley’s presence for the time being.

  He leaned down, giving her a quick kiss on the mouth. His head came back up in time to see Ashley reaching for Amanda’s head. Before she could sink her hands in Amanda’s hair, she spun around. Using her left arm to block the other woman’s claws, she doubled up her fist and punched her right in the nose.

  Ashley stumbled back on her spiked heels, whimpering, “Ow! Why did you do that?”

  “Wow!” Chris exclaimed from the other side of the produce section where he was propped against one of the bins, his hands in his pockets. He grinned, shaking his head. “Those self-defense lessons you’ve been making her take have definitely paid off. I think she did Jeff proud. That was some fast reaction time.”

  Ashley stood with both hands covering her nose, blood already running between her fingers and down the back of her hand with tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’ll sue you, you little idiot.”

  “I wouldn’t try that, if I were you,” Joe called from behind her. “You’ll find yourself in a lot of hot water.”

  Ashley spun around, giving the older man a killer look. “How would I be in trouble? She punched me in the face. I think she may have broken my nose.”

  “You attacked her first,” Zane answered for him.

  “It’s her word against mine,” she said, trying to laugh and ending up wincing from the pain from her broken nose. “They wouldn’t accept you as a witness. Apparently, you and she are engaged.”

  “You don’t know much about the law, do you?” he asked, not bothering to hold in his laugh.

  She rolled her eyes, tossing her hair back. “I know as much as anyone else.”

  “No, you don’t,” he frowned seriously. “I am a sworn officer of the law. They would take my word over anyone else’s here. But that’s beside the point. Joe has multiple security cameras in this place. Not to mention, there’s a sign on the front doors telling everyone that. That’s why we showed up when we did. However, the most important point in all of this is, you were caught on camera.”

  Ashley stood there for several seconds, working hard to bring on the waterworks. Seeing the sour look on Zane’s face, she stomped her foot, pouting. “Why do you want to marry her? She’s fat.”

  He took a deep breath, working not to lose his patience. “Because I love her. I always have. And I’m also getting really tired of people telling her she’s fat. She’s not fat. She has hips and a butt and boobs. The way women are supposed to have. Women are supposed to have curves. They’re not supposed to be stick figures. Where in the world did women get the notion, they’re supposed to be skin and bones?”

  “Amen, preach it, Brother,” Chris whispered only loud enough they could just hear him from where he still stood, propped against a produce bin.

  Ashley huffed, turning to glare at the big blonde man. “Shut your mouth. What do you know about it? When did you last have an actual date?”

  Chris chuckled, shaking his head at her. “A few nights ago, actually. But what does that have to do with my knowing what’s attractive? I’ll even go a little farther to explain healthy is what’s attractive. We’re not trying to promote obesity, but stick figure was never a shape God intended women to be.”

  “Amanda is…”

  “Amanda is not fat,” Zane growled. “She’s soft and curvy. And healthy.”

  “Whatever,” Ashley finally huffed, turning to flounce off. “I’ve had enough of this.”

  Zane raised an eyebrow, looking over at Chris. “Strange. Isn’t she the one that started it?”

  Chris laughed, shaking his head. “Yeah, I think so.”

  Epilogue – Part 1

  Wednesday, December 24

  Zane walked into his mom and dad’s newly remodeled kitchen and stood there looking for a few minutes. The building contractor that Amanda had worked for in Ruby Falls, Randel Reese, had done the work in about three weeks. Thankfully in time for Christmas. The kitchen now had a six-burner gas range top and two stainless steel wall ovens. There was a built-in stainless-steel refrigerator and freezer sitting side by side and a matching brand-new dishwasher. They’d swapped the old stainless-steel double sink out for a farmhouse sink with granite counter tops with a new back splash and tile on the floor in black. There was also an island long enough for eight stools on the one side, with a prep sink.

  It was now the biggest kitchen he had ever seen. At least, in a residential home. Of course, there weren’t many families with as many members as theirs, either. The kitchen hadn’t been small before, but now if you cleared out the u-shaped table that sat in the middle of the floor, you could almost play a game of basketball in here. All you’d have to do is put up a hoop. Of course, his mom would have more than ten kinds of fits if anyone dared. And their hide, to boot.

  “Well, what do you think?” his mom asked, walking up behind him.

  “It’s big,” he nodded before turning to hug her. “And long over-due. You’ve been needing a kitchen update for a while.”

  “Maybe so, but I’m glad we waited,” she replied, walking toward the pantry, obviously getting ready to start preparing supper. “If we had done it sooner, we wouldn’t have necessarily thought to enlarge it so much, to accommodate future grandchildren. Speaking of grandchildren, how many do you and Amanda plan to give me.”

  Zane chuckled, shaking his head at her. “As many as she wants, for now. But she said something about wanting six.”

  “What do you mean, for now?” she asked, stopping to turn back and give him a sour look.

  He shook his head in answer. “I really don’t know what it is,” he said, honestly. “It’s not that I have a problem with having that many children. You know I love kids. And it’s certainly not like I can’t afford them. There’s something in the back of my mind, and I can’t quite put a finger on it. It’s just, anytime the subject comes up, I start to get a queasy feeling in my stomach. I’m just trying not to think about
it too much.”

  “Are you worried about her being pregnant?” she asked, giving him an assessing look.

  “I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “Maybe. It could also just be I’m a little nervous about it all. Raising children is a big responsibility. About the biggest one a person can take on, really.”

  Jamie gave him a skeptical look. Responsibility had never been a problem for Zane. She had a feeling it wasn’t now. “Well, if you need to, we can talk about it some more later. I have a feeling we’re not really going to know what it is, until she’s pregnant that first time,” she said with a shake of her head as she headed back toward the pantry. “What was your conversation with Brock about? You said he needed something.”

  “He needs your help in planning a wedding ceremony for Mary Ellen and himself,” he answered with a raised eyebrow once she came back from the pantry, obviously wanting to see her reaction.

  She chuckled, shaking her head. “I thought that might have been what he was wanting. I heard about his bride search. Did he actually finally ask her?”

  He chuckled, shaking his head. “Oh, things are far more interesting than that.”

  She gave him a curious look, but asked instead, “Doesn’t he know she might want to plan this wedding herself?”

  “They’re already married,” he replied, raising an eyebrow at her.

  “Vegas,” she groaned, closing her eyes with a shake of her head.

  “Yes,” he smirked. “And she’s making his life very difficult.”

  “He deserves it,” she glared.

  He chuckled again, shaking his head at her expression. “In his defense, they were both drunk, and she dragged him to the chapel.”

  “Fine,” she grumbled. “We’ll talk more about it later. Right now, we need to get dinner ready.”

  It wasn’t but a few minutes later and several others were in the kitchen helping. There was a lot of noise and chaos. So much so, it was a wonder Alex heard whoever it was knocking on the front door at all. He started to say something to one of the ones closer to the swinging doors but changed his mind. He just shook his head and darted around the others and out through those doors himself.