ticket. Russell was leaning against the fender, his arms folded, watching as Luke approached.
Luke stopped in front of him. “What do you want?”
“I saw you with Shannon.”
“So?”
“I want you to stay away from her.”
His words were slurred just enough that Luke could tell he’d had one too many drinks, which meant he needed to avoid getting angry and keep on moving. He shook his head and brushed past Russell, heading for the driver’s door of his truck.
“Hey!” Russell said. “Don’t you walk away from me!”
Luke hated that tone. Hated it. “You’re drunk, Russell. Beat it.”
“When are you leaving town?”
“None of your business.”
“Just make sure you don’t come back.”
That really fried Luke. This guy thought he could tell him where he was allowed to go and when?
“You know what?” Luke said, turning back around. “Now that I think about it, I might come back. In fact, you’ll never know when you might turn around and I’ll be there. I’ll be your worst nightmare, Russell, because you have no way of knowing when I might show up again.”
“You’re such a bastard,” Russell said. “And I’m not the only one who thinks so.”
“I don’t give a shit what you or anyone else thinks.”
“How about Shannon? Do you care what she thinks? A man like you would never fit in with her family.”
“It’s not about what Shannon’s family wants,” Luke said hotly. “It’s about what she wants.”
“And you think she wants you because she kissed you out there in front of the whole town?” He made a scoffing noise. “She had a fight with her mother earlier. Loucinda told her you were scum and she should stay away from you. Shannon was just making a point because she doesn’t like to be told what to do. Are you really stupid enough to think it was anything else?”
No. That wasn’t the way it was. He knew how Shannon felt. But her mother—God. Was that woman going to make life hell for her until the day she died?
“I was sitting with Jerome and Loucinda while you and Shannon were dancing,” Russell said. “Do you know what Loucinda said? She said you came from trash and you’re still trash.”
Luke wanted desperately to get past that. To feel like his own man. But in this place he would always be associated with his father. Always. That hard, horrible, repulsive man was his legacy, now and forever.
Luke remembered the look Loucinda had given him when he and Shannon were dancing, that look that said that because of where he came from, her daughter would be defiled if he so much as touched her. He knew Shannon didn’t feel that way. But that look from her mother…it brought up something inside him that made him feel every bit as filthy and disgusting as his father. It wasn’t rational. He knew that. But he couldn’t shake the feeling of living eighteen years in this town with that hanging over his head.
No! Don’t pay any attention to any of this. Get out of here. Go!
Luke waved his hand dismissively and turned to get in his truck. Russell grabbed his shoulder and spun him back around. Luke shook off Russell’s hand and glared at him, his fist tightening at his side.
“If you touch me again,” Luke said, his voice slipping into the warning range, “we really are going to have words.”
Russell smiled. “Ah, now there’s the Luke who’s legend around here. The one who has a real hard time controlling his temper.”
Something old and painful welled up inside of Luke, ripping open that barely healed wound until it bled. “You don’t know a damned thing about me.”
“I know you want her,” Russell said, his voice low and intense. “I mean, what man wouldn’t? But you don’t stand a chance.”
“And you do?”
“Shannon might go slumming for a while, but in the end she knows where she came from.”
“Listen up, Russell,” Luke said, his mind growing blurry with anger, his fist itching. “The only reason you have any shot at all with Shannon is because I’m leaving.”
“Bullshit,” Russell said. “A woman like her deserves a better man than the son of the town drunk!”
White-hot fury obliterated the last of Luke’s restraint. With a roundhouse punch, he smacked Russell in the face with his doubled-up fist. Russell stumbled backward. Instead of going down, though, his face came alive with rage. He rushed at Luke, shoving him backward. Luke fell to his back, his head smacking against the ground. Russell fell on top of him. The pain