Page 20 of Valentine's Day Daddy

I step closer to him. “I said, it’s time for you to go.”

He leans around me, trying to make eye contact with Ashton. I have a feeling I know what he’s going to say so before he can say anything, I grab him by the back of the neck and start pushing him toward the door. I can feel the eyes of all the other patrons on me and hear their whispers ringing in my ears. I shut it all out though and push the guy out the front door then give him a hard, two-handed shove in the back. He stumbles forward and trips on his feet then goes down hard. He grunts when he hits the concrete sidewalk and quickly rolls over, his eyes shining with terror. The guy swallows hard though as he scrambles to his feet.

“I’m going to tell her—”

I close the distance between us, my nose hovering inches from his and raise my hand, putting my finger in his face. The guy flinches like I’d just smacked him and somehow manages to stand his ground—though I suspect it’s abject fear keeping him in place. The idea that he’s going to tell Ashton I rigged the game isn’t sitting well with me and I know it will sit even less well with her. I know I need to shut him up.

“Listen to me. You are not going to talk to her again. You’re not going to see her again,” I growl, my voice low and menacing. “You are never going to think about her again. If you do, trust that I will find out—and that I will end you. Do you understand?”

He swallows hard and looks like he’s going to respond but quickly turns and runs off instead. I watch him go for a moment but then feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up as goosebumps wash across my skin. I turn around to see Ashton standing behind me. Her face is pale, her lips quivering, and she looks absolutely stricken.

“I—I should go home,” she says.

“I’ll take you.”

She shakes her head. “No. I’ve already called an Uber. I just… I need a little distance from you right now, Ezra.”

She turns and heads off in the opposite direction and all I can do is watch her go. I’m frustrated. Angry. And I want nothing more than to beat that guy to a pulp. Instead, I take a deep breath and try to clear my head and calm down. Being angry isn’t going to fix this situation. Only talking to Ashton and clearing the air will. I don’t know what the guy said to her already but I’m good at damage control.

I know she said she needed some space from me right now but I can’t give that to her. Not until she’s heard me out and I’ve tried to repair what I’m able to. Nobody has ever made me feel this way before and I’m not going to let it go by the boards. Not without a fight.

9

“It scared me," I tell her. "I mean, he just looked so… angry. I thought he was going to beat that guy up."

Emma frowns. “Who was this other guy anyway?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. He said his name was Tyler and he told me he was at the speed dating thing. He said he’d written my number down.”

“Well, what did he want?”

“He said he wanted to know why we hadn’t matched.”

“That’s kind of creepy.”

"I guess. Yeah. I mean, he was kind of insistent about it," I say. "He seemed upset about the whole thing."

“That’s even creepier.”

I pull the pillow into my lap and hug it tightly to me. Emma is sitting at the other end of the couch sipping a glass of wine, listening to my tale of woe. It’s been a really weird evening and I’m glad I caught her before she left for her boyfriend’s. She’s always able to calm me down.

“It was creepy, sure. But watching Ezra come flying in from out of nowhere and manhandle this guy… that scared me. Like I said, I thought he was going to beat this Tyler guy to a pulp,” I say.

“I don’t know, I think the fact that he was being protective of you is kind of sweet.”

“Protective of me?”

She nods. “Of course. You wear your heart on a sleeve and it’s never difficult to see how you’re feeling. I’m sure he saw how creeped out this Tyler guy was making you and just reacted. Sure, maybe he could have been less caveman-ish about it, but I kind of think that maybe he was just trying to protect you.”

I lean back into the couch and let Emma’s words rattle around in my head. She’s given me a different perspective. I guess I hadn’t thought about it in quite that way and now that she’s given me her point of view, it’s making me see it differently. And yeah, I guess in that context, the idea that he saw how uncomfortable Tyler was making me and swooped in to protect me is… sweet. The thought makes warmth blossom in my belly and spread outward, traveling through my heart and the rest of my body.

“Look at the flush in your cheeks,” Emma says. “I think you like having a big, bad protector watching over you.”

I laugh and shake my head. I've always been an independent girl. The kind of girl who's able to stand on her own two feet and has never needed a protector. I’m tough. But as I think about the time I’ve spent with Ezra, it’s made me realize just how safe I’ve felt. And I’m not just talking about the situation with Tyler. Now that I’m giving it some thought, I realize that Ezra has made me feel comfortable and safe.

The fact that he hadn’t pushed me to sleep with him, that we’ve simply enjoyed each other’s company has made me feel safe with him. It’s made me trust him more than I’ve ever trusted a man in my entire life. It hadn’t occurred to me until now that I haven’t been on guard around him. That I’ve let my defenses down and have told him things I’ve never shared with anybody but Emma. It’s just been so natural that I guess I’ve taken it for granted.

“You like him,” Emma notes. “You like him a lot.”

---