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“Can we go now before they realize we’re still here and call the cops?” I urged.
Rowdy gave a light chuckle but didn’t argue as he sped away from the restaurant. Of course, he didn’t immediately take me back to Hooker’s Cove. I made him stop at a pharmacy and buy me a new toothbrush to replace the one he destroyed. Afterward, we drove around getting to know each other without the heavy topic of my father’s death ruining the mood.
“Yo, you’re tripping,” he told me after I listed my favorite movies. “Die Hardis not a Christmas movie.”
“Yes, it is!”
“How, Atlas? Tell me one thing that made it a Christmas movie?”
“It happened during Christmas. Duuuuh!”
“Okay, two things,” he said. “Nameonemore reason, and I’ll believe you.”
“How about three? It snowed the entire time, like every Christmas movie. It brought a family together, like every Christmas movie, and the soundtrack has Christmas songs,like every Christmas movie.”
“All right.” He nodded. “I’ll give you that.”
“Thank you.” I smiled gently at my small victory. “Just because it dared to be different doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve to be included.”
He cut his gaze my way as he turned onto a new street. It didn’t seem like he had a destination in mind, and he seemed in no hurry to end our “date.” “You think you’re deep, huh?”
I shrugged. “I’m sure any new perspective will seem deep when you’ve been swimming in shallow waters.”
“Yeah?”
“Yup.”
“So, if I’m shallow, why did you agree to have dinner with me?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think you’re shallow, Owen. I think the company you keep—the woman you choose tofuck—are shallow, and it’s made you a selfish, entitled, emotionally-stunted jerk.”
I almost regretted my words when Owen Wray, the lion of Idlewild, honest-to-God flinched. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“I just did.”
I watched the muscle in his jaw jump as he strangled the steering—most likely imagining it was me. “Okay, Atlas.”
We didn’t speak again as we let Lil Baby’s album drown out the tension. After my little admission, Rowdy drove me straight back to the motel, and while I couldn’t say I was shocked that he wanted to get away from me, I was surprised by my disappointment.
Oh, well.
No matter which path we chose, we always ended up here—on opposite sides of understanding.
Maybe it was God telling us we weren’t meant to be, and all we had to do to be happy was listen.
“Thank you for dinner,” I said as I unbuckled my seat belt. He nodded but didn’t say a word, nor did he get out to open my door like he had each time before.Well, fuck you, too.“Good night.”
With his head down, he ignored me as he responded to a text on his phone.
I’d planned on leaving his presence with grace, but that option flew out the window now that he’d gone back to treating me like one of his hoes. I got out and slammed the door hard enough to make the glass rattle, but if I thought that would be enough to get a reaction out of him, I was sorely mistaken.
I could feel his eyes on me as I stormed to my door.
Key in hand, I stopped just short of inserting it into the lock.
The door was already ajar.
I’d barely had time to interpret the danger before Rowdy was at my side, gun drawn and wearing a scowl on his handsome face as he pulled me behind him.
