Page 19 of Whispers of You
WREN
I sat in my truck,staring at the restaurant. My gaze tracked the script on the sign:The Warf. I needed to go in. I was already five minutes late. If I let it drag to ten, I’d be firmly in the rude category. That wasn’t who I was.
But when I’d said yes to dinner with some real estate guy on vacation from Seattle, I hadn’t known what today would hold. The thought had anger flooding my system. He didn’t get to do this.
It was bad enough that I measured every guy I ever went on a date with against Holt. A mental tally that always left the new guy coming up short. But now he was invading my physical space, too?
I’d thought we had a silent agreement. He didn’t show up around town, and I didn’t drunkenly call him, begging to know why he’d left. At least that was the agreement in my mind. And now that was all shot to hell.
“Looks like you’re staring pretty hard there.”
I jolted, sending up a million curses in my head as Chris stepped up to my open window. I didn’t let people sneak up on me. I was always aware of my surroundings. “Hey.”
“You okay?”
I blew out a long breath. “Want to go on my date for me?”
He let out a low, familiar chuckle, one I’d heard a million times. At first, that laugh had killed me. It didn’t sound right because I was used to hearing it mixed with Holt’s. But Chris and Jude had stuck it out, not letting me push them away.
They were the ones I called when I couldn’t fix the leak under my sink. Or when I needed furniture moved around that I couldn’t wrestle myself. They checked in on the regular and made sure I always knew I had help if I needed it.
Chris shook his head. “I think whoever’s in there waiting for you would probably be damn disappointed if I showed up.”
I leaned back in my seat, still staring at the restaurant as if I could make it disappear. “He’s back.”
Chris stiffened. I felt the shift in the air as his muscles tensed, but it took him a moment to speak. “I know.”
I looked at him then, studying the way that tension had etched itself into Chris’s face. “You see him?”
He nodded. “Ran into him outside the B&B. I think he’s staying there.”
My stomach twisted like someone wringing water out of a towel. Way too close. I’d thought for sure he’d stay with Lawson or Nash. Maybe in the cabin. But less than a block from where I worked every day? That felt like a slap in the face.
“You okay?”
“No,” I answered honestly. “Are you?”
I wasn’t the only one Holt had left in the wreckage. Chris, Jude, the Hartleys. Who knew who else? We had all been hurt when he took off. It was almost worse that he’d stuck around all through my rehab after the shooting. That he’d held my hand as I regained enough strength to move my body again. It was as if he’d built me back up only to level the death blow.
A muscle in Chris’s jaw ticked. “He’s an ass.”
My lips twitched. “That’s the truth.”
“I can’t just forget that he blew us all off like we were nothing.”
Nothing.It ricocheted around my body just like that damn bullet had.
“But I also know that what happened twisted him up good. I know that’s why he made stupid-ass decisions that hurt a lot of people—people who didn’t deserve it.”
I swallowed against the burn creeping up my throat. It was as if the fire the bullet had started in my chest had never been fully extinguished. It flared up again without warning to take me out at the knees.
It wasn’t that I thought Holt was malicious. I knew him too well for that. It was that our love hadn’t been enough. I had always thought it was a force that could move mountains. But at the end of the day, he had been able to leave with nothing more than a letter slipped under my door.
“I’d better get in there.”
Concern flashed in Chris’s green eyes. “I could go in and tell this dude you’re sick.”
I shook my head.
