CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The smile froze on Lanie’s face as Jeremy shook her hand, but her eyes went wary.
“I see,” is all she said.
“Jeremy,” I hissed.
Oh, my God, if I could have crawled under that table and disappeared into the pavement, I would have in a heartbeat. I was mortified.
No.
I was livid.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he was saying from somewhere in my blood-red haze, “I get wanting to come here.” He made a show of looking around. “You’ve been wanting to ever since this thing popped up, haven’t you, babe?”
“Please don’t do this,” I said under my breath. It felt like every possible heat molecule in the air joined up to hover over my skin. “Jeremy, let’s walk off somewhere and talk, just me and you.”
“No.”
Leo’s voice cut through the air, and Jeremy’s head whipped to the side.
“Excuse me?”
“She’s not going anywhere alone with you.”
Fuck, shit, hell, if I could have strangled Leo with a bacon wrap, I would have. My eyes filled with angry tears as the frustration rose to the surface. If my head could have erupted into flame, it would have.
Jeremy stared at Leo, his eyes going hard. He tossed a pepper into his mouth and nodded toward Nick as if Leo had vanished. “You must have been cooking your whole life. This is good stuff.” He tilted his head a little. “Nah, you look like you did construction or something before this.”
Nick’s eyes narrowed. “You knew that before you got here. I worked for your dad, didn’t I?”
Jeremy shrugged. “Lucky guess.” He snagged another. “My girl loves food—I can see the appeal—but maybe your loser brother she’s fucking on the side is the real reason she’s still here.”
It was like a wall of men shored up at once. Nick filled the space at my left, Sully loomed behind Jeremy, and Leo had Addison behind him and was nose to nose with Jeremy without me ever seeing him move.
“Sir, you need to leave,” Nick said, his tone leaving no room for interpretation.
“And keep going,” Leo said, his voice little more than a growl. “You have no business here.”
“And you do?” Jeremy seethed, his lip curling. “Was it you on the bike? Was that your grand plan?”
Grand plan? What the hell was he talking about?
“It’s over, man,” Leo said. “She made her decision.”
“Which she are you talking about?” Jeremy seethed.
“Walk away.”
“Stop it,” I said through my teeth.
Everything stopped as my words, laced with rage and hurt and mortification, sliced through the air. I was shaking, I was sweaty, and tears were streaking down my face.
“All of you, stop this,” I said, my voice trembling with anger. “I’m right here. Nobody needs to talk for me or about me. I apologize that my business has just vomited all over yours, and that my ex has been so fucking rude, but I will deal with it.” I sucked in a shaky breath, glaring at Jeremy. “How dare you come here and do this. You want to talk to me, you do it in private like a decent human being.”
“You want to spout decency now?” he said, his voice rising as he came halfway over the table toward me, veins popping in his forehead. “With you spreading your legs for this piece of shit you barely know—”
A flash of motion at my left made me gasp as suddenly Nick had Jeremy by the front of his collar.
“You keep coming over this table, sir,” Nick said in a low voice, “and you’ll be in my world. I have the feeling that my brother won’t hesitate to shove you the rest of the way.”
“Nick,” I heard Lanie and Allie say in unison.
My brain was shutting down. I couldn’t process the embarrassment, the horror, the everything of it all. These people I’d barely gotten to know were swimming in a pool of my toxic waste, all because of my choices. I met Leo’s eyes over Jeremy’s form. He was glazed-eyed and primed and he couldn’t see that that was exactly what I didn’t need. I felt hands on me. Gabi gripping my hand. Lanie and Carmen with their hands on my back and shoulders. Telling me they had me. I was poisoning them and they had me. How was that right?
“This how you treat all your customers?” Jeremy said in a tight voice.
“Not usually,” Nick said, his voice smooth. “But you bring out the love, what can I say.” He set Jeremy back on his side of the table.
“You’re going to regret that,” Jeremy said to Nick before sneering down at me and turning it on Leo. Sniffing him. “You smell like you used to smoke,” he said softly. “Nasty habit.” He gave Leo a long look and turned to go, then glanced back. “Since you seem to like my worn-out leftovers, be my guest. I’m done with her.”
The move was up and done before I could process the smacking sound. The sound of Leo’s fist slamming into Jeremy’s mouth.
“No!” I screamed, along with the various other shrieks and yelps and gasps from others.
Jeremy staggered, as Sully caught him and stood him upright with a look that dared him to so much as blink. He came up with a maniacal bloody grin and a chuckle to match.
“You’ve always been so easy,” he whispered, laughing again as he shook Sully off and preened like a psychotic peacock. He winked and pointed as he walked off. “Be seeing you.”
It was like a bad dream, as everyone turned to look at me. A bad dream that made no sense whatsoever. I put my hands to my face and shook my head.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I’m—”
“Oh, my God, I’m so glad you dumped him,” Gabi said. “What a tool.”
Hot tears kept burning my eyes. “Y’all. I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?” Leo said.
I stared at him through my tears. “Because he’s not going to let this go. Why did you go all caveman and tell him he couldn’t talk to me? Who appointed you my spokesperson?”
Leo stepped back as if I’d slapped him, and part of me was sorry for that in front of everyone, but damn it, he’d undone every ounce of personal progress I’d made with myself the last week.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Leo asked.
I laid a hand on my chest and told myself to breathe. My heart was racing so fast, I could barely catch a breath.
“No, I’m not,” I said, struggling to get the irritating tremor out of my voice. “Look, I appreciate the save-the-girl routine and all, but I don’t need saving.” I closed my eyes and blew out a breath. “I realize that seems contrary to our short history, but I really don’t need anyone fighting my battles or slaying my dragons, or punching out my ex because he insults me.”
I was gulping for air, and I grabbed the table before I hyperventilated myself into passing out.
“He’s a maniac, Micah. You let him talk to you that way?”
“There’s no letting Jeremy Blankenship do anything,” I said. “I can take his insults. What I can’t take is someone ignoring me when I say to stay out of it and let me take care of my own damn business.”
Leo narrowed his eyes at me like I was speaking Russian.
“I was helping you!” he said, every visible muscle taut and ready to spring, his eyes dark and angry.
“I didn’t need that kind of help!” I cried. “It’s not your fight!”
He chuckled bitterly and pointed at me.
“You’re damn right about that.”
I watched him turn and disappear into the growing crowd, tears still choking my breaths. Nick watched him as well, until he finally turned and held out a hand to Addison.
“Come back here with us, baby,” he said, running his other hand over his face. “Get out of the crowd.”
“What was that?” she asked, her face pale.
“That was the kind of man you don’t want,” I said, grabbing a napkin and patting at my face. “I’m sorry you had to see it.”
“That was a blowhard,” Carmen said. “His dad is just like him, just not as good looking to get away with it as often. Guys like that are all talk.”
I shook my head slowly, blindly arranging things that didn’t need arranging.
“I don’t think so,” I said softly. I wasn’t even sure the thought had made it to my lips.
“Why?” Gabi asked.
“Because he didn’t win,” I said. “Jeremy always wins. He always has the last say.”
“He didn’t on your wedding day,” Lanie said.
“Exactly,” I said. “Which is why he was here. To put me in my place.”
“And then my brother put him in his,” Nick said. He frowned as though thinking hard. “I was a grunt on the crew, so I never met any of the owners, but I do remember when the company shut down. There was a fire or something.”
“Jeremy’s family home,” I said.
Nick’s eyes went far away. “Something’s off about this.”
“Maybe you should go check on Leo,” Lanie said to her husband.
“It won’t go well,” he said, rubbing at his eyes.
“Do it anyway,” she said. “He’s your brother, Nick. Put this crap behind you and move on.”
“I’ll go,” I said, breathing deeply and fanning myself with the napkin. “It’s my fault Jeremy was here in the first place.”
“Stop,” Gabi said. “No.”
I looked at her, wiping my eyes. “What?”
“Stop blaming yourself for what that Neanderthal says or does,” she said. “You did the right thing. His choices are his.”
“I second that,” Carmen said.
Lanie raised a hand. “Ditto.” She put a hand on her belly. “And I count for two votes.”
* * * *
I walked to the florist shop with trepidation, not even knowing if that’s where Leo went. This damn walking everywhere thing—he had a motorcycle and still walked just about anywhere, so there was nothing to look for.
It was a start, however. I went inside, and Drew was at the counter.
“Leo come in?” I asked.
“Boy, did he,” she said. “All grunts and steam. Who pissed in his Cheerios?”
I sighed. “That would be me.”
“Good luck with that.”
I peered up the stairs. “Yeah.”
I repeated those words to myself as my wooden wedges clomped up the stairs and down the hall and passed my door the four steps to stand in front of his. I would have thought he might have gone out to our roof spot—and I gritted my teeth that my head had just called it our roof spot—but his door was ajar. Like enough that I could see in.
And see everything.
Two big duffel bags sat askew, one spilling out onto the floor, one crumpled up against a wall, its contents falling out and scattered. The bag of motel shampoos was ripped open and the bottles were all over the living room. Was he living like that? Surely not. The man that wiped down a bathroom nearly to perfection after using it wouldn’t live like—my heart jumped into my throat. Was he robbed?
I pushed open the door before clearheaded logic could tell me, Hey, stupid, what if the crime is still happening? But just as that thought could seep in, there he was. Sitting on his couch, leaned over with his elbows on his knees, staring at the floor. In front of him on the coffee table were the petrified cigarette and a lighter.
He glanced up at the sound, but then resumed his position when he saw it was me. That was fulfilling.
“Leo, what’s going on?” I asked.
“Just go,” he said, still facing the floor.
“What happened in here?” I asked, stepping inside.
“You listen well,” he said under his breath.
“Yeah, about as well as you do,” I said, my irritation simmering back at the surface. He looked up at me again as if he was measuring what it might involve to throw me out a window. “So deal with it and talk to me.”
“Talk to you.”
“That would be what I said.”
He stood up. “You also basically just told me to go to hell out there, so what is it you’re wanting me to talk to you about now?”
“Look, I’m sorry that Jeremy has it out for you because of me,” I said. Leo raked his fingers through his hair with something that sounded like a growl and turned around as if he needed to keep his hands from throwing something. “And I know that you are prewired to go all alpha protector and all, but—”
“I am a man, Micah,” he said, whirling back around.
“Fully clear on that,” I said, hands on my hips.
“I don’t have much,” he said. “But what I have is important to me. All I can do is look out for the things I care about—the best way I can.”
I had something ready to say but it died halfway to my mouth.
Did he just say that he cared about me?
Did he just—
He shook his head and walked across the room.
“My life has been simple,” he said, grabbing a pen from a table and flicking it open and closed as he turned and headed back the opposite way. “Maybe not the happiest, maybe not the greatest, but that was okay.” The floor ran out and back he went the other way again, flipping that pen over and under his fingers like a magician. “I made my bed a long time ago and I’ve had to live with it.”
“Meaning?”
He stopped pacing and tossed the pen behind him, sending it clattering off into the kitchen. Okay. Maybe he did live like that.
“Meaning that you weren’t in the plan.”