Chapter Fourteen
Helene
“We’ll take the check,” Mark said.
I leaned over to Brody who was sitting next to me at the table. “Hey,” I whispered. “Grab that last shrimp off your mama’s plate.”
Brody laughed, but he reached over, snatching the piece for me.
“Way to go, Brode-man. We make a good team.” I chomped through the shrimp, holding the tail between my fingers.
“So, Kane Thorson just so happens to be in Helene’s philosophy class. You remember him?” Hilde asked Mark even as she focused on me.
“Oh…” Mark said. “Yeah. I remember him. Saw him a number of months ago.” He looked between Hilde and me nervously for a second. “He asked about you,” Mark said to me. “I mentioned you were teaching at the college.”
Hilde’s eyes bulged. “You didn’t tell me that.”
He shrugged, turning his attention back to me. “You two worked at the gas station together until he…” Mark looked back and forth between the kids. “…unexpectedly departed Hazleton without anyone’s knowledge.”
“Yes,” said Hilde. “Right about the same time you quit the gas station job too if I recall correctly.”
“Yep.” I said, not offering to say more.
“How’s he doing?” asked Mark. “I haven’t seen him since I ran into him a couple of months ago. All I really remember of him from high school is that he was pretty good at getting into trouble. But I still always liked him.”
I shrugged. Acknowledging I’d bailed him out of jail three nights prior was not going to happen—not with my sister sitting there waiting for me to say the wrong thing.
“Why’s he even in town?” Hilde asked.
“His dad had a stroke,” Mark responded. “That’s how I ran into him. I was helping him line up the transfer from the hospital to the care facility.”
That was Mark’s job. He was a care coordinator at Community Memorial hospital. It was a hospital administrator social work type position that Mark was, frankly, perfect for. He was a good man, a caring man.
I nodded. “He’s getting his father’s home in order, so he can put it on the market.”
“And after that?” Hilde eyed me suspiciously.
I shrugged again. I hated Hilde’s inquisitions.
Hilde turned to Mark. “He was at Helene’s house at eight in the morning Wednesday when Sienna and I stopped by.”
“Is that so?” Mark asked as his focus shifted to me.
“He just stopped by,” I lied.
“And yet, he didn’t have a car there, and he left on foot.” Hilde stared at me for a moment. “Odd.”
“Not as odd as your interest in my personal life,” I muttered. “I need to go to the restroom.” I stood from the table, dropping my napkin on my plate, and it wasn’t until I was walking away that the quiet groan of irritation passed my lips.
The restaurant was in one of the old buildings that lined Broad Street, and it was a narrow deep layout. I walked around tables as I headed toward the back of the cavernous room where the restroom sign hung down from the tall ceiling above. When I made it nearly two-thirds of the way there, I had to sidestep a small table for two.
“Sorry,” I said as I skirted past the table.
I made the mistake of glancing down at the couple who I’d just apologized to, and the smile on my lips faded as I stared. Kane’s arm was laid across the table, and a woman’s hand was in his as his thumb slowly stroked over her knuckles. There was a rather garish looking diamond on her left ring finger.
I shook my head in shock at what I was seeing—shocked that he was there, shocked that he was apparently on a date with a woman little more than three days after he’d come onto me in my kitchen, shocked that it was yet another woman from the one he’d clearly been carrying on with earlier in the week, and shocked that the woman he chose to carry on with now appeared to be married. Just shocked.
I stepped back, bumping into the table behind me. “I’m sorry,” I said to the couple sitting there as they looked at me concernedly. “I’m…” My voice trailed off.
When I looked back at Kane, his eyes were wide and startled. He pulled his hand from the woman, and she looked back and forth between us, confusion etched on her pretty face. I walked away then, making a beeline toward the restrooms. The three-stall restroom was vacant, which was a damn good thing, because when I looked in the mirror, my face was red, and I looked furious enough to either yell or simply fall apart into tears.
I turned toward the nearest wall, and I pressed my fingers against it, letting my forehead drop to the ugly wallpaper. When the door was suddenly pushed open, I pulled back. Kane stood in the doorway, watching me, his face still a frozen mask of terror. I didn’t care. I was too angry to care.
“Get out,” I hissed at him.
“I have to talk to you.” He crossed his arms. “Please, talk to me.” He let the door shut behind him, closing us in the restroom together.
“Did you happen to notice she appears to be married?” I spat the question out angrily.
His brow furrowed, and he looked down at the ground between us. “I’m well aware she’s married,” he said, but he refused to look at me. I couldn’t tell if it was anger or shame. I wasn’t sure it should matter.
“So you’re adding home wrecker to your limited list of skills. That it? Along with cradle robber of course. At least this one’s closer to your own fucking age.”
His eyes suddenly flashed up to mine, and he looked furious. He closed the space between us in two strides, and when he pushed me back against the wall, I gasped. “Don’t forget I like to do the occasional cougar,” he retorted as he placed his hands on either side of my face, glaring at me. “I enjoy a good threesome too. And don’t get me started on how much fun it is to stick my cock up a woman’s ass. Can I add that to the list?” He glared at me. “What about virginity taker? Do I get to claim that one too?”
“Get away from me,” I snapped as I planted my hands on his chest and pushed. But he was strong, and he held his place, keeping me within the frame of his arms.
“Pretty much any woman who’s not too frigid,” he said cruelly. “Guess that means you’re safe now.” He focused on my face as he said it, his expression as cruel as his words.
“What did you say?” My lips trembled as I studied him, trying to figure out if it was an intentional jab or completely unintentional.
When he smirked, I knew. It was very much intentional.
“Saw the email from Brian,” he said. “Looks like someone has intimacy issues.”
He finally leaned away from me, dropping his hands as he stepped back. The look on his face was smug and mean, and before I knew what I was doing, I reached out and smacked him hard across the face as a whimper of pain erupted from my throat.
“At least I’m not a whore,” I spat out, and then I shoved past him toward the door.
As I was reaching for the handle, the door was pushed open, and married girlfriend was suddenly standing awkwardly in front of me.
“Your husband must be so proud,” I muttered as I skirted past her.
Kane followed me, calling my name as I hurried down the hallway that would take me back to the restaurant. “Hell, wait.” He called, but there was nothing, nothing at all, that would stop my brisk march straight the fuck out of there.
Eyes followed me through the restaurant, and I knew it was because I looked like a crazed maniac. I’d never felt so murderously angry in my life. He didn’t have the right to hurt me. I was giving him rights to my emotions he didn’t deserve to have, and my fury was as much for myself as anything.
Hilde glanced up at me casually as she stood from the table, but then her eyes bulged as she took in the sight of me. When a hand clamped down on the back of my arm, I froze.
“I need to talk to you,” Kane said quietly with his lips near my ear, but however quiet it was, I could tell he was speaking through gritted teeth even without looking at him.
I turned to him. “Stay away from me,” I hissed, trying to veil our interaction from everyone around us.
“Come on kids,” Mark said easily as he eyed us. “Let’s pull the car around. We’ll let Auntie Helene finish talking to her … friend.”
I looked at the children, and I forced myself to smile at them. Hilde glared at Kane over my shoulder, but she followed Mark and the kids from the table. When they were safely out of earshot, I turned back to Kane once more. “I’m done giving you even an ounce of my time. You are nothing more than a ghost of the boy I once knew. You are venomous. You are cruel. You are pathetic. And my sister was right. You are not … worth … my … time.” My vision was skewed from the tears that were ready to fall. I could seem to do nothing in front of this man that didn’t involve tears. There was just too much emotion buried in the chasm of ground between us.
He watched me for a moment, but then his eyes bounced around the room, and his lips trembled. “Yeah,” he finally said quietly as his focus shifted to the floor between us. He stepped back as he glanced at me, but then his eyes glossed over too, and he shook his head. He turned and walked away toward the back of the restaurant where he’d presumably left his married girlfriend somewhere along the way.