“I’m pretty lucky, myself.”
Chapter Twenty
They’d gone out for sushi when the texts started. And then the calls.
Jared was pissed that she’d blown him off. She felt bad about that, having called him earlier and broken the news to his voice mail—honestly, in all her excitement, she’d damn near forgotten all about it—but he was overreacting. Apparently, he’d gone by her apartment because he wanted to know where she was. As if she had to answer to him.
When Seth asked her who the hell was trying to get in touch with her, she waved off his questions and silenced her phone. Dammit. She should’ve told him from the start that her own psycho ex might be hatching right before her very eyes. Ugh. Jared had never struck her as that type. Then again, Jared had never seen her getting seriously involved with someone else.
“Are you sure everything’s all right?” Seth asked, startling her out of her thoughts. They’d been lingering over their finished food for a while now. And still basking in the afterglow of everything they’d done just before coming here—or at least, she was. She quickly took a drink of her water.
“Oh, sure.”
“If something’s going on back home—”
“No, nothing like that. I do need to make a call though. Is that okay?”
“Sure.”
“Be right back.” She slid out of her seat and headed for the ladies’ room, jaw tight with all the words she wanted to fling. The simplest solution would be to turn her phone completely off, but he’d already pissed her off.
The restroom was empty, thank goodness, and hopefully she could make this brief. Jared answered right away.
“Macy?”
“What is your deal, Jared?”
“Why didn’t you come today?”
“I told you. I’m sorry, but something came up. End of story. Now stop this. Right now.”
“I don’t appreciate getting ditched at the last minute. This isn’t like you. What’s happened to you?”
Despite the flare in her outrage, his words stung. “I think you had it built up in your mind as more than what it was. It wasn’t a date. It wasn’t a door opening to you and me getting back together someday, no matter what you might have deluded yourself into believing. The more I thought about it, the more it all seemed like a bad idea, anyway.”
“I guess you’re off f**king him again. Blowing off the people who really care about you for that trash. I never thought I’d see you come to this, but now that you have, maybe you deserve each other.”
Silent, shaking fury ravaged her, stealing all ability to speak, and she hated that, she hated it. Tears burned her eyes. The only thought that could squeeze itself in among the tumult in her head was, What would Seth say? The answer came quite readily—at least, part of it did.
“Jared? Fuck right off. I can only hope to deserve him.” She couldn’t jab the red End button fast enough. Then she did what she should have done from the start: turn the damn thing off. As she slammed her way out of the restroom, she almost ran into some poor lady who was coming in and muttered an apology before skirting past and stalking blindly back toward their table.
Big mistake, she realized as she sat. She should’ve taken a minute to compose herself. Seth’s dark eyebrows dipped as he looked at her. “What the hell happened?”
“Nothing.” She strove for nonchalance as she collected her purse and her coat, but didn’t think she quite achieved it, so she gave up. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Jesus, you need to talk about it. Your face is the color of your sweater.” Which was fuchsia. “Looks like you’re about to combust. C’mon, babe. Whose ass do I need to kick?”
Oh, she could think of one right off. How dare Jared say that about him? About her? Had he always been that big an a**hole, or had she just not paid attention in her naive youth? “It’s nothing. Can we go back to the room now?”
The shift in his demeanor was apparent without him saying a word. His dark eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, and there was no mistaking the tightening of his jaw. “Macy. Who was on the f**king phone.”
Shit. If she told him, she had to tell him everything. And he might very well do what he threatened. “It’s just someone I know being an idiot. It’s nothing you need to worry about, okay? Let’s just go back and not let it ruin the night. I’ll cool off, I promise.”
His gaze bore into hers a few seconds longer before he cursed and snatched his wallet from his back pocket, slinging a few bills on the table before standing and shoving it back in its place. He wouldn’t look at her.
“Hey,” she said gently, standing up beside him. “It’s not—”
He walked away from her. Actually freaking turned his back and left her standing there.
Well. Looked as if acting like an a**hole was catching. She followed him, struggling into the coat he was usually all too happy to help her into. “Seth.”
At least he held the restaurant door for her, but he didn’t answer, and he didn’t meet her eyes. And if she was being deliberately ignored, damn if she was going to beg for his attention. She surged ahead of him and snatched open the passenger door of his car before he could touch it. If he’d even been inclined. The force she used to close it after she flung herself inside probably clued him in a bit to how his behavior was affecting her already shitty mood.
What the hell? Damn Jared Stanton. In the momentary silence while Seth walked around to the driver’s side, she watched the headlights on the interstate blur, then clenched her eyes shut. All that accomplished was squeezing the tears out. She wiped her cheeks as he dropped into his seat.
“Tell me what the f**k is going on.”
“Why the damn inquisition?”
“Because you’re keeping something from me, and I don’t like it.”
“So my life’s an open book when I’m with you? I have to clear every phone call with you and relay all my personal conversations for your approval?”
“Where is this shit coming from? I only asked for details on the one phone call that had you looking like you want to tear someone’s head off. If someone’s f**king with you, Macy, I want to know about it.”
“Well, I don’t want you to know about it.”
The silence that descended was terrible and absolute. Then his leather jacket creaked as he turned away from her and cranked the car, grumbling something that sounded like, “Crazy ass f**king females.” He backed out of the parking spot and peeled out so fast she was scrabbling for a handhold. But at least he didn’t drive crazy once they reached the interstate; her heart was in her throat enough as it was.
“I thought we’d turned a corner, you know,” he said as he violently shifted gears. “And I always thought you trusted me more than this.”
“It’s not that I don’t, it’s just… Shit. I’m mad at a friend. So what. Why are you making it such a big deal?”
“Why are you? It’s only a big deal because you’re shutting me out. I doubt you’re this mad at Candace. Or Sam.”
“No,” she said cautiously.
“A friend, huh.”
She clamped her mouth shut.
“Has this friend at any point stuck his dick in you?”
Her vision practically went black. “You did not just say that to me.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Then I think you need to shut your mouth before you say something else you’re going to regret later.”
“I won’t regret shit, except maybe that I set myself up for this to start with. Thanks for your lack of denial, by the way. Tells me all I need to know.”
“God! You’re being so unreasonable. I realize you’ve been burned and all, but don’t project that onto me. I won’t tolerate that.”
He was quiet for a long time, too long. “There’s a lot I won’t tolerate, Macy. I have a line. Once it’s crossed, that’s it. Secrets, sneaking around, other motherfuckers sniffing around while you pretend like it’s no big deal. Been there. These are major fuckin’ issues for me. You should know that.”
Macy scoffed, trying to hold on to anger that was fast morphing into heartbreak. “Poor you. Get over it. I don’t think I’d be too out of line in suggesting that you’re just looking for some reason to believe the line has been crossed when it hasn’t. I haven’t done anything. I’ve explained to you that I don’t lay my drama out for everyone to see. You want everything up front, and that’s a major friggin’ issue for me.”
“You brought your drama to the f**king table back there. You had your drama written all over your face. What am I supposed to think?”
“Fine, Seth. The friend I was talking to is Jared Stanton. You saw him at the bar on Valentine’s night. I’ve known him for as long as I can remember. We dated from the time I was fourteen years old until I had my accident. After that, he knocked up some other girl, got married, had twins, got divorced. I give his daughters horse riding lessons because he works a lot, and he knows I’m damn good at it. And yes, he wants me back. I saw him at my parents’ house last weekend. He wanted me to come to a roping today. I agreed to go for old time’s sake, but I blew him off to see you. And he’s pissed, and he said some really shitty things just now. End of story. Satisfied?”
“All this has been going on since you’ve been seeing me?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck.”
And that was that. He completely shut down. Maybe she deserved it; maybe—no, definitely, she supposed, considering his reaction—she should’ve been up front with him about it all. She really hadn’t considered it that big a deal. Because it wasn’t one, at least in her mind.
Then again, she’d never been the one left behind before. She’d always been the one who did the leaving.
Jesus. Who’d have thought being the type of person who liked to keep your mouth shut instead of flapping a hundred miles a minute would blow up so spectacularly in your face? Wasn’t it usually the other way around?
“Look, I’m sorry,” she said, hating the pleading undertone in her voice. “None of this is as bad as it sounds. I’ve been telling him and telling him I’m not getting back together with him. He knows about you. It’s not like I’m keeping us a secret.”
“Just keeping him a secret from me.” He braked so hard in the parking lot of their hotel that if she hadn’t been wearing her seat belt, she might’ve been thrown into the dashboard.
“For good reason, apparently!” she snapped, unbuckling and flinging the belt off. Once she’d gotten out of the car, she noticed he made no move to do the same. He didn’t even kill the engine. Holding on to the door, she leaned in to look at him, her pulse in her ears. “Are you leaving?”
His face was in shadow, but given the ice in his voice, that was probably a good thing. “Shut the door.”