AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I need to talk to her again.”
“No.” Devon blocked his path. “You’re not. You’re going to go collect your stuff and your fucking date and leave.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about. I know Lilac. She’s mine.”
“She’s not yours. If she was yours, then she wouldn’t have been on the floor, staring up at you in utter fear.”
“That . . . I didn’t mean to scare her. I’m not sure what happened.”
Devon sighed. “I know you’re a good man, Tanner. But if you go after her right now all you’re going to do is make her more skittish. I don’t want her running.”
Fuck. Neither did he.
Now he was going to worry about her running off again.
“Why do you care?” Tanner asked.
“Because it’s obvious that Lilac hasn’t had an easy life. I hired her on because she needed this. A job. Someone to give a shit about her. That’s what I’m going to give her.”
Tanner clenched his hands into fists, battling back his jealousy. “You want her?”
Devon sighed. “I can’t do something nice for a woman without wanting her? I have to have an ulterior motive? You don’t think much of me, do you?”
Great. He was being a complete ass all the way around.
“Fuck, sorry, man.” Tanner ran his hand over his face. “It was just a shock seeing her. We didn’t part ways under the best circumstances. She just left. Didn’t message me, didn’t answer her phone, and all this time I had no fucking idea whether she was dead or alive.”
“I get that must have been awful. Not excusing what she did, but did you ever think she might have had a good reason?”
Had he?
Or had he figured that no reason would have been good enough?
“And did she actually promise you anything? Did you tell her how you felt about her?” Devon asked.
No. But it was unsaid. Or at least on his side, it was. He knew he’d just told her it’d been nothing more than a fling. But he’d been lying, since that certainly hadn’t been true for him. Had it been for her, though?
“I worried about her . . . she ghosted me. I deserve an explanation.”
“Maybe. But you don’t need to terrify her to get it.”
He’d done that, hadn’t he?
Scared her.
Fuck. What was wrong with him?
“I’ll go apologize.”
“Like I told you, not now. Just . . . go get some air and sleep on it. She’s had enough tonight. I don’t know what she was like when you first met her, but she seems like she’s close to the edge. And you don’t want to be the one who pushes her.”
Yeah. He nodded and walked out, aware of Devon walking behind him. When he entered the bar, his gaze instantly went to her. He couldn’t help it. She was like a beacon pulling him in, tugging him home.
But he finally took the time to take stock of her.
Fragile.
Yeah . . . now that he could think clearly, he saw it.
