Page 28 of The Moment They Can Never Forgive
They were sitting at a table to her left when she entered. Dan Duke sat with JD, Zoe’s man, and Jay Haddon, a friend of the Dukes.
“Hi.” She waved in the general direction of the men. Why hadn’t she realized Dan could be here?
Leah refused to look at him, asshole that he was. How dared he think she would have his child and not tell him.Bastard.
He’d always been the Duke she’d felt a little different around. Big like his brothers, with piercing blue eyes that from the very beginning had seen right through her to the scared girl she’d been.
Leah made herself walk to the counter.
When she’d seen him in the street earlier, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and looking good enough to throw herself at, Leah had decided then and there to avoid him where she could.
There was history between them, and none of it good. She’d come to realize, with distance and hindsight, that what happened hadn’t been entirely his fault, but the past was the past, and too much water was under the bridge for them to ever change what lay between them, so she would keep her distance.
“Hey there, Leah. How’s things with you?” Ryder Duke asked as she approached the counter. He stood behind it, wearing a black apron around his waist and a smile.
“Hi, Ryder. Good, thanks.”
“Want me to make you a coffee?” He raised a brow.
“No, thanks. I just came in for something to give Hudson after school. He’s had a good week, so I thought to get him a treat.”
“Sweet,” Ryder said. “I’ll be back in a minute.” He disappeared through the door leading to the kitchens.
Leah studied the food in the case, checking the prices.
“The raspberry chocolate muffins are good.”
She didn’t turn. She didn’t need to—she knew that voice.
“I’m sorry,” Dan said quietly. “I shouldn’t have come at you like that.”
“No,” she agreed flatly. “You shouldn’t have.”
“I’m so sorry about Cassie, Leah. You must have been devastated.”
Still am,she thought, but kept the words locked inside.
“She was a lovely person,” he added.
Leah gave a small nod but still refused to face him.
“Okay, so… we’re good?”
That made her spin around. “You’re kidding, right? We’ll never be good. What we can be is polite.”
Dan’s gaze held hers, solemn now. “Because some of my family are friends of yours?”
Another nod. Then she turned back to the glass case, closing her eyes for a beat, willing him to walk away.
“Why did you make so many?” Ryder grumbled the words coming out of the kitchen along with him. In his hand was a container. “You’re lucky Leah is here. She’ll take them off our hands, seeing as your family are over being taste testers, Lib.”
“Problem?” Dan asked, having not moved like Leah wanted him to.
Her back itched, knowing he was standing so close.
Get it together, Leah. He’s nothing to you anymore.
She pulled her eyes from Ryder and back to the display cases.
