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I watched him leave as tears streaked down my cheek, realizing that a few moments ago there was still hope. Now, there was nothing.
No hope.
No future.
No other options but to slip into the bathroom and touch up my makeup. The night was almost over.
Then I would cry and bury my sorrows in cheap wine and Netflix.RafeIt was a dick move to commandeer the big booth in the back of Big Mama’s Diner but I didn’t give a damn, right now I felt like being a dick. I was mad at the world in general. Mad at Janey specifically, not to mention those damn meddling matchmakers. If not for them, none of this would have happened.
Sitting there staring down at the giant Hero’s Breakfast that Big Mama had insisted on which I’d mostly been stabbing with my fork for the past thirty minutes, I could see it all so clearly now. The way they’d manipulated things, specifically me and Janey. All that damn talk about finding me a match and how she was all wrong for me. It was all a big damn trap.
And I fell for it. Hook. Line. And sinker.
“Damn he looks worse than I thought.” The amusement in Jase’s voice took my gaze away from my uneaten breakfast to where he and Nate stood. Staring. Smiling. “Ten bucks says he hasn’t touched that delicious looking breakfast.”
“Twenty,” Nate said and slid into the booth, grabbing a slice of bacon from my plate. “Damn that’s good. Big Mama, another Hero breakfast please?”
She flashed a smile at Nate and nodded. “And you Jase?”
“Same please. With a big carafe of orange juice, Big Mama?”
I groaned at the sickly sweet tone of Jase’s voice. For some reason he was buttering up Big Mama and that made me suspicious. “What’s going on?”
Jase dropped down beside me, a look of innocence on his face as he smiled. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” I growled at him and glared at Nate, “why the hell is everyone staring at me like I’ve just lost my job and my home?” I’d felt it all morning, well on the walk to the diner and the entire forty minutes I’d been inside working on my breakfast. People stared but no one said anything. “The damn looks of sympathy. You both showing up here when you have women waiting for you at home. What the hell?”
Nate snorted a laugh, flipping his mug over when Big Mama approached with her ever present coffee pot. “Heard about the fight between you and Janey. You good?”
My shoulders sank at his words. Of course the town already knew. I look to Jase. “Bo?” The sheepish expression on his face and Nate’s inability to look me in the eyes told me everything I needed to know. “Damn Facebook.”
“Looked pretty intense,” Jase said. “So what did you do?”
“Asshole,” I mumbled and smacked Nate’s hand from my sausage patty. “Wait for your own damn food, and why do you assume I did anything wrong?” I shook my head and stabbed the crispy home fries that were Big Mama’s specialty, actually scooping a forkful in my mouth with a satisfied groan. “Thanks for the faith guys. Really, it means so much.” My sarcasm wasn’t lost on them but I’d known these guys my whole life and they didn’t pull any punches.
Nate snorted and shook his head as he pulled his phone from the front pocket of the flannel that he wore to protect against the early morning breeze. “This is why we assume you did something smartass.” He handed over the phone with an angry look that got my attention.
When I looked down at the screen, my heart sank. The potatoes turned to ash in my throat, somehow morphing into a brick by the time it sank to my gut. “Hell.” Janey stood there just inside the emergency door at Black Thumb with both arms wrapped tight around her, looking so small and fragile in that sexy green jumper that should have ended up on my bedroom floor last night, instead of what actually happened. “She looks sad, like she’s been crying.”
“Figured that out all on your own, did you?” Jase shook his head and poured another glass of juice with a smile. “So…what did you do?”
“I didn’t do a damn thing!” All the busy sounds inside the diner stopped at my outburst and I sank down in the booth to avoid any further eyes. Or gossip. “Dammit I didn’t do a damn thing, it was the matchmakers!”
Big Mama smacked her lips and shook her head. “Don’t you go blaming them for your own mistake, Rafe. Own up to what you did and she’ll forgive you.” She kept her gaze on me as she unloaded almost a dozen plates for two more Hero breakfast platters. “Just say you’re sorry and all will be well.”
