Page 93 of Chasing Sunsets

What the actual fuck?

I plant a smile on my face. “That’s me. Just a helpful friend,” I say. Then, I look back across the table at her parents. “It was nice to meet you folks. I hope you have a safe trip home.”

I turn to leave.

Tabby reaches out and catches my forearm. “Wait,” she whispers.

I jerk out of her grip and continue through the dining room and past the hostess stand to the door.

Fishing my phone from my pocket, I start to call Sebastian to let them know I’m leaving when I hear footsteps running up behind me. I turn to see Tabby racing toward me. I turn back and continue down the wooden path to the parking lot.

“Anson, wait!” she cries and hurries around me, blocking my path.

“Move, Tabby,” I say.

“No. Not until you let me explain,” she says.

“Explain what? We’re just friends, right?”

She shakes her head. “That came out wrong.”

“Came out wrong?” I repeat. “Are you going to tell him?”

“Tell who what?”

I step closer to her and hiss, “Your fiancé. Are you going to tell him about us? Because you sure as fuck didn’t tell me about him.”

“Quenton is—”

I don’t let her finish the sentence.

“Are there more? Do you have a guy in every city between here and wherever the fuck home is?”

She steps back like I hit her. “What? Of course not! How could you think that?”

I throw my hands up. “I don’t know what to think. Last I knew, you were with some jackass meditation guru who left you stranded. Now, you have an uptight prick of a fiancé. But you were sharing a bed with me last night, so seems like you get around.”

Her hand flies up and slaps me hard across the face, and I catch her wrist.

“He’s my ex-fiancé. I broke up with him before I left Boston with Indy. He’s one of the reasons I left.”

I flip her hand so she’s staring at the ring. “Looks like you guys worked things out,” I quip.

Her eyes fall to her ring finger, and she shakes her head as her eyes fill with tears. “He put it back on me in the car. I was distracted.”

“You were distracted?”

She loses the fight, and tears start to stream down her cheeks in earnest. “Yes. They caught me off guard at the campground, and I wanted to get them out of there before they caused a scene. I was going to tell them about you. About everything.”

“Tabitha? What’s going on here?”

We turn to see her father and her fiancé striding toward us. Her dad’s expression is stern until he catches sight of her tear-streaked face.

“Is this guy bothering you?” he asks.

I shake my head. “No, sir. Not anymore,” I say before stomping past her and to my truck.

Tabby

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