Page 95 of Tight Spot

Damn. Maybe I was being too mean to her.

“Love you, Charlie-Bear.”

He stood off the stool and shoved me so hard I almost fell off mine.

All three of us laughed, and when he was gone, I apologized to Sloane. “Truly. I’ll lay off. It’s no one’s fault, it just didn’t work.”

She squeezed my hand. “Love you. You’ll bounce back in time.”

“Yeah. I seem to be becoming a pro at that.”

She chuckled, a sad commiserating laugh right along with me. “If you can bounce back after Darrick, if I can bounce back after Jakob, I think we’ll both eventually be all right, sweetie.”

I tipped her empty wineglass against hers. “Cheers. But do you think I should call him?”

Her brows arched in surprise. “You want to?”

I wanted to hear his voice more than I wanted to have another glass of wine. “I just…I sort of threw down an ultimatum out of the blue. What if he just needed more time?”

“Is that what you think he needs?”

Ugh. Sometimes Sloane made me feel like I was sitting on a therapist’s couch. “I think that entire night was really weird and strange and maybe I overreacted to seeing Darrick and hearing all the awful things he had to say, and then Dawson was there, protecting me. He has to care, right?”

“Maybe. He probably does. I’ll even give him that credit, but does he care enough? Are you important enough to him to know what he wants? I think you were right to walk away. Maybe you reacted to your shit with Darrick, but that doesn’t mean you were wrong. You deserve a man who will chase you, honey. A man who will know he’s letting a good thing slip away and go after it.” She shrugged and gave me a sad look that told me everything she hadn’t said but was about to. “And he hasn’t. I think right now you need to give it more time. Let him figure it out, and if you hear from him again, then listen. Maybe. But only if you think it’s healthy for you.”

“Right.” It wasn’t what I wanted to hear. It was what I needed to hear though.

Charlie returned, grinning, uncorking the wine and glared at Sloane. “What’d you do to her? She was fine when I left.”

I elbowed my brother in his ribs. “She didn’t do anything. Men suck.”

“Most of them, I agree with that.”

He poured our glasses. Told us story after story about his dating life in Portland.

More food was delivered.

Margo stopped by when she could, and I spent the next couple of hours laughing, belly gut ripping open, hand slapping kind of laughing.

Until Charlie tossed me into the passenger seat of my car, drove me home, and I went to bed still smelling Dawson’s cologne and masculine scent on my pillows.

I’d change those.

Soon.

Moving forward was the only thing to do.

CHAPTER27

DAWSON

One week.

One week without her smiles and her laughter. One week without Hailey’s touches, without her soft lips exploring my body, gaining confidence in not only how to give pleasure, but how to ask for what she wanted and to receive it.

One week since I watched the best thing to ever happen to me walk away.

Seven days since I’d wanted to reach out and contact her, drive past her shop to see her smiling at customers, or wondering if she was safe at her home, living alone.

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