Page 37 of The Heart of a Capricorn
I knew what his job entailed, but hearing him have to do something so dangerous in real time had me scared.
“Lyric, are you good?” Shelly asked from the side of me, but I couldn’t respond.
I guess her saying my name alerted Chauncey and Ciara to my presence.
Ciara had a big smile on her face when she spotted me, but it quickly fell. Chauncey’s look was unreadable. Maybe he didn’t expect to see me here.
The worst-case scenario filtered through my head, and I didn’t care who was around. I put my plate on the table and moved closer to them.
“How could you?” I asked as my nostrils flared.
“Lyric. What’s going on?” Ciara inquired as she stood from her seat.
Chauncey gawked at me like he was stuck on stupid. Shelly stood next to me and rubbed my arm.
“Ask your brother.” I looked at Ciara, then back at Chauncey.
Ciara turned and addressed Chauncey. “What’s going on?”
Chauncey’s eyes were on me, but he responded to Ciara.
By now, multiple people in the dining area had focused their attention on us. I hated that I let his actions get me out ofcharacter in public, but I was heated. He had plenty of time to tell me what was going on. Instead, he chose not to say anything and made me think I had done something wrong. At least that was how I felt when he returned to his hotel room.
“C, I can’t get into it right now. Lyric, can we talk?”
I reared my head back. “Oh, now you want to talk. You could have talked to me last night. Or hell, even this morning.”
Chauncey stood and approached me.
“Lyric.” He reached for my arm, but I snatched away. “Can we go somewhere and talk? Everyone is watching us, and I know you don’t want to make a scene.”
“Fuck this!” I spat and stormed off.
I could feel the stares and hear the whispers, but I paid them no mind.
“Lyric!”
I heard Chauncey call me multiple times, but I ignored him. My eyes burned as I damn near stomped the whole way to the elevator and to my room.
It wasn’t until I entered my room and kicked my shoes off that I released my tears.
I sat on the couch in the living room area and put my head in my hands.
The issue wasn’t him not telling me the night before. My brain knew that he would have told me when he felt it was right. I could tell that him having to leave bothered him, so maybe he didn’t know how to tell me.
The bigger problem was the danger in this assignment, and it scared me. The only thing I could think of was losing him the way I lost Brice. My reaction showed me my feelings were deeper for Chauncey than I cared to admit.
“What was that about?”Ciara asked, but I didn’t answer right away.
I sat back in my seat and rubbed my hand over my face. Lyric’s actions surprised me, but I couldn’t blame her. I knew how it looked, but it wasn’t like that. I planned on telling her but didn’t know how. I wouldn’t have left without saying something, but I was sure Lyric didn’t see it like that.
Everyone had gone back to whatever they were doing before Lyric created a small scene. Ciara reclaimed her seat in front of me. I could feel her watching me, but I was trying to wrap my head around Lyric’s outburst. I wasn’t trying to fuck up what we’d built over the last couple of weeks.
My head was down, but I didn’t miss when Ciara leaned over the table, with her head tilted, to look at me.
“What’s going on, brother? I have never seen Lyric act like that.”
“A lot, and I hope her actions don’t warrant reprimanding.”
