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“Thanks for showing me around,” he said, getting out of the car. He finally seemed to realize that I wasn’t interested in spending my time with him. At least, I hoped he was starting to realize that. All this time together was starting to affect me in ways I didn’t like. I couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen if I just let him kiss me. If I just decided to give in to him one more time ...
The slam of the car door pulled me out of these thoughts, and I looked back at him.
“Thanks,” I said, but his confused face made me realize I had misspoken. “I mean, you’re welcome.”
“Hey Darcy!” The voice gave me a jolt of instant panic. I turned to see John, my ex-fiancé, walking toward me, grocery bags in hand.
“John,” I said as I breathed through a tightness in my chest. I hadn’t spoken to him in months. I had been so relieved when all the wedding business was concluded, and we didn’t have to endure strained phone calls and awkward meetings. After the final details of returning rings and getting addresses for his relatives who had sent engagement presents, I hoped we wouldn’t see each other again. Of course, I knew that was unrealistic. We lived in Maplewood, after all.
“I haven’t seen you in a while,” he said. His T-shirt was too tight, showing off the hard-earned muscles of his arms and his chest. It used to be enticing to me, but now I couldn’t see anything except a man far too full of himself to care about anyone else.
“Hey, man.” Callum stepped forward, putting himself between me and John. My eyes flipped over to the office door, hoping Liz might notice what was happening and come out to save me.
“Callum,” John said. John had gone to high school with all of us, so the two men knew each other a bit. Since Callum was older, their paths wouldn’t have crossed much, and I didn’t know what Callum knew about my past relationship with John.
“What’s going on, man?” I couldn’t miss the hint of threat in Callum’s voice. It made me wonder if he knew quite a bit about my history with John. Had Liz talked to him about it?
“I saw you were in town,” John said, flicking his eyes between me and Callum. “Sorry I couldn’t make the show.”
“No worries, man.” The words they used were friendly, but there was a darkness underneath them. I could sense tension building between them, an unspoken challenge that I didn’t know how to diffuse.
“So, what are you two up to?” John asked. He had likely watched us get out of the car together. I remembered that possessiveness he had when we were together, always suspicious of other men I was talking to.
“I was just showing Callum some properties,” I said, wanting to assure John that everything here was professional. But Callum spoke at the same time, talking over me.
“I don’t think that’s any concern of yours, man,” Callum said. “Not anymore, anyway.”
Yes, he clearly knew my history with John. And from the looks of things, he wasn’t very happy about it.
“Whoa, man,” John said. He put the brown paper grocery bag on the trunk of my car and I felt my stomach drop. The two men were squaring off against each other, clearly sizing each other up as they shared tense words. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
“If you’re talking to Darcy, you’re talking to me,” Callum said. He stepped forward and John and Callum were face to face, their chests puffed up as they glared at each other.
“Knock it off,” I said, shaking my head. “Callum, let’s go inside.”
Callum took another second to scowl at John before sliding his eyes to where I stood next to him. With a slight laugh in John’s direction, meant to belittle him, he turned and followed me back toward the door of the office.
“You’re gonna let a girl tell you what to do?” John asked. Suddenly, Callum was back in John’s face and then, before we realized what was happening, he shoved him.
“Enough!” I yelled, but John was shoving back, and I knew a full-blown fight was minutes away from happening.
“I’m leaving,” I cried out. I rushed back to the driver’s side of the car and got in, slamming the door hard behind me. I refused to look in my rear-view mirror, afraid of what I might see there. I simply slammed the gas pedal and sped out of there as John’s bag of groceries flew off the trunk and scattered all over the pavement.
12
CALLUM
“What were you thinking?” I sat in Liz’s kitchen, a towel full of ice pressed to my eye.
“What did you expect me to do?” I asked. “He was in my face!”
“Walk away! Do you think getting into a fist fight with Darcy’s ex is going to make her like you more?”
“He was being an ass,” I cried out. My head was throbbing from where John had clocked me hard in the eye. Luckily, I got a few good punches in before Liz heard the commotion and put herself between us to break up the fight.
“You deal with assholes all the time,” Liz said. She sat down next to me at the table. “Thank God no one saw you. It would not be a good look to have this plastered all over the Internet.”
It had all happened so quickly I hadn’t had time to consider that. I sighed as I realized Liz was right—I needed to keep my cool. That sort of bad publicity could kill a career. I leaned back against the chair, feeling the adrenaline finally draining out of me. Liz had bundled me into the car as soon as John stormed away, yelling back curses as he did so. I told her not to worry about me, that she should get back to work, but she locked up the real estate office and took me home.
