Page 22 of Moonshine Kiss
I took another couple of minutes to breathe cleansing breaths and repair my armor. I didn’t know if what Erin was saying was true or if I wanted it to be true. To be honest, I didn’t have the energy to consider either option. I wanted to go home. Alone.
Bracing myself, I returned to the dining room and found my table empty except for the stuffed mushroom caps Baxter had ordered. Even his toothpick was gone. Bowie was staring pensively into his beer and looked up when I approached. Erin was nowhere to be seen, and a quick peek at the bar showed that neither was the hottie she’d mentioned.
Good for her.
“Where’d Baxter go?” I asked.
“He had an emergency,” Bowie said. I knew he was lying because he squinted just a little bit. The corners of his eyes crinkling up. The first time I caught that tell was when he was desperately trying to cover his slip-up about there being no Santa Claus.
I flopped down in my chair.
“He was my ride home.” I guessed I was about to find out how expensive Ubering back to Bootleg was.
“I’ll take you home,” Bowie said.
“Where’s Erin?” I asked, ignoring his offer.
“She had an emergency, too.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
I picked up my wine and stared down at the appetizer. Everything sucked.
“Come on now. Don’t look like that, Cass. You know it kills me to see you sad,” Bowie coaxed.
“Oh, now you care how I feel? Even though I’m a ‘shitty friend?’” I shot back.
“I was mad,” he said simply.
“Yeah, well, now I’m mad.”
He rose from his chair and took Baxter’s vacated one. “I’m sorry, Cassidy.”
I tried looking everywhere but his face.
He leaned in, helped himself to a mushroom cap. “Now, it’s your turn.”
“My turn for what?”
“To apologize.”
I could actually feel my nostrils flare. “I’m not going to apologize for doing my job.”
“No. But you could apologize for the fact that doing your job hurt us.”
“I already apologized to Scarlett,” I sniffed.
“You hurt me, Cass.”
Crap. Crap. Crap.
“You’re not gonna let this go, are you?” I asked quietly.
He rested his elbows on the table. “You live next door. You’re part of my family. I’m not going to let this fester between us. We’re too important to each other.”
I swallowed hard and poked at a mushroom with my fork. Erin’s words popped into my mind in big bold font. But I’d opened myself up once to those kinds of possibilities with Bowie and had to pick my devastated self up off the floor when the door slammed shut in my face.
He’d never know how much he hurt me that day all those years ago. I’d vowed it then and I reminded myself now. Part of that meant being cordial now. Not taking out old hurts on him.
