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"You done with the dude?" he asked me, though he was looking at the dude.
"Yes."
"No," Rowan remarked.
"She says she's done. So, you're done." Arturo was six-five, two hundred twenty pounds of muscle. He was a pediatrician at New York Presbyterian and was the sweetest man I knew. He wouldn’t know how to fuck anyone up if it came to that. But he was big and looked scary, and he took advantage of that if you didn't know him.
"It's obvious you all care for Isha, and I'm very happy to see that. I care about her and—"
"No, you don't, fucker." Arturo walked up to Rowan and towered over him by four inches. "You think we don't know what you and your brother did? We do. And we don’t like it. We don't like you."
"I know. I fucked up. He fucked up. Doesn't change how I feel about Isha."
Arturo leaned down and smirked. "Maybe. But it changed how she feels about you. And your feelings don't count for shit, pal."
"I'm trying to make it right." Rowan didn't back down a millimeter.
"Arturo, cut it out." I rolled my eyes. "And you too, Rowan. What is wrong with you? You show up after six years and want to…what? You think we're going to hold hands and walk into the sunset together?"
"Why not?" Rowan demanded.
"This guy has some brass balls on him," Arturo announced. "You called Isha a hooker…actually, you said she wasn't even good enough to be a mistress."
"I can't believe I told you all of that." I looked at Rowan. "In my defense, I was exhausted and had a few too many glasses of wine, which they made me drink. Flora was sick for the first time. I was vulnerable. Arturo is a pediatrician, so he and Mick were helping."
Rowan smiled sadly then. "I fucked up, Isha. Nothing to hide there. And you can talk about your business with anyone; I wish you'd also talk to me about it."
"I just want you to know that I don't go about telling my life story to everyone. Art, can we go now?" I was just about ready to lose my mind.
Arturo looked at Rowan for a long moment. "How good are you at darts?"
"Arturo," I cried out.
"I work on a ranch, so I spend a good amount of my down time in bars that have dart boards."
"You beat me at darts and maybe we give you permission to talk to Isha."
"Bugger it. I'm out of here. Arturo, lock up after you get rid of Rowan."
Chapter 20
Rowan
"Would you have ever looked for her if you hadn't bumped into her accidentally?" Arturo demanded after Isha left.
"I don't know," I replied honestly. "I wanted to. All the fucking time."
"Then why didn't you?"
"I was scared."
Arturo looked me up and down. "It takes a man to be able to say he was scared. But, dude, she's not the girl you remember."
"I'm not that man, either."
"I see something in you." Arturo leaned against the closed front door of Isha's condo. "Do you know about her childhood?"
"Some."
