I gathered my things and took a glance around, wondering where the man that made my blood sing had disappeared to.
I found him in a corner booth, glaring at me.
I gritted my teeth and turned the opposite way to the bathroom, remembering from last time I was there that there was an employee exit close to it.
Once I was there, I rushed outside, my lungs screaming for oxygen because I was too afraid to draw breath, knowing he would make me cry if I allowed it.
When I was outside, I rounded the side of the building just as my phone vibrated in my pocket.
I pulled it out and glared at the unknown name.
Unknown: Notice he didn’t come see you. That’s because he doesn’t like you anymore.
I shoved the phone away just as I all but ran into Brianna’s ex-husband.
“Oh,” I harrumphed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.”
Brianna’s ex smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
He bent down and retrieved a phone that’d been in his hand, shrugging. “No worries. Accidents happen.”
I tried to smile myself, but like him, it didn’t reach my eyes.
“Why are you taking the back exit?” he asked, shoving the phone into his pocket.
I shrugged. “I’m avoiding someone.”
He laughed and gestured with his head. As he jerked his head, he put something in his pocket that I didn’t see, but my eyes were all for what was over the man’s shoulder. “That someone?”
I looked over to see Will standing at the corner with his arms crossed around his chest, looking pissed as hell.
“Yes,” I sighed with exaggeration. “That someone.”
He chuckled and walked toward the door I’d just exited from. “Good luck, darlin’.”
I would need it.
The moment he was inside, I turned to face Will.
Will who hadn’t moved, and more than likely expected me to come to him.
I gritted my teeth and hitched my purse up higher onto my shoulder before walking toward him.
The stupid long dress that I wore constricted my chest, making it harder to breathe.
Or maybe that was the way he was looking at me with those broody eyes—intense, and all-knowing.
I came to a stop in front of him, six feet away that felt like six miles.
I waited for him to say something, knowing he would.
“Why are you here with him?” he asked, voice so beautifully sexy that I wanted to throw myself in his arms and press my lips against his Adam’s apple just so I could feel him talk at the same time as hearing it.
I was so fucking weird.
“Because he told me if I allowed him to tell me whatever was on his mind, that he’d leave,” I told him bluntly.
“Why didn’t you call me? I would’ve met him with you,” he growled.
He sounded pissed.
And I honestly didn’t know why.
“Call you?” I laughed, the sound hurt my own ears. “When you can’t give me the fucking same?”
Will’s eyes closed into small slits.
“I…” He trailed off when the sound of his phone pierced the quiet.
I rolled my eyes and made my move to go around him, but he caught me by the upper arm.
My temper sparked and my ire rose, at the same time, my heart took off like a bottle rocket.
But not because he was keeping me hostage or scaring me. Because I wanted his hands on me, and it’d been a long two weeks without them.
“Hello?” Will rumbled. “Yeah. Yeah, I can be there in five minutes.”
I rolled my eyes hard again, then yanked my arm.
He didn’t let it go.
In fact, he tightened his grip.
“If I call you tonight, you better fucking answer.”
I was so focused on the way he was holding me that I hadn’t realized he’d hung up the phone.
And without giving me a chance to say anything to the contrary, he left without another word, leaving me there to watch him go.
“That looks like it went well?”
I looked behind me at Brianna’s ex.
“As well as could be expected, I guess,” I huffed.
Then I left, too.
Not looking at the man that I followed behind halfway home.
CHAPTER 21
This can’t be the same 90 degrees I used to run outside in barefoot when I was a child.
-Will to Cannel
WILL
“But Uncle Will!” Petra whined. “We don’t like this!”
I looked at my niece.
I loved the girls with my whole heart, but today they were getting on my fucking nerves.
I was tired, irritable, and they’d been dropped off with me because my parents needed a ‘date night.’
Normally, I would have no problem with that.
Except today. Today, I wanted to catch a few hours of shut-eye, then go see Cannel and work shit out.
“Petra Corsair,” I said with barely any heat. “I am sorry that you feel that way. But it’s what we have. Now shut up, sit down, and eat. Now.”
There was a woof from Sally, and I turned to see movement coming from my front lawn.