“I, uh…” I stumbled for some way I could console her. “I don’t take well to men treating women like that. Not on the job, and not off.” I paused, swallowing down the urge to push a rogue strand of dark hair behind her ear. “I fired him.”
Her eyes slid up to meet mine under heavy eyelashes then. Something about us being crammed up in this little space together had me wanting to… protect her in some way. Shroud her from every fucking idiot in this bar.
I imagined walking at her side, arm cradling her nice and close to me, slaying all the dragons for her.
“I told him if I saw him treat a woman like that again, I’d leave him with a one-way ticket to the emergency room.” I shifted, thinking what a terrible idea it’d been that I ducked behind thiscurtain at all. She didn’t want a big annoying bastard like me around her.
“I just wanted you to know that. Hopefully I ran him off for good.” I pushed the curtain aside. “I’ll leave you to your space now. I just wanted to apologize on behalf of—”
“What if he comes back?” she spat fiercely.
“What?” I asked, too rattled by the sound of her soft fierceness to even register her question.
“What is he’s out there right now, waiting for me to get off my shift? Or tomorrow night? What then?”
I stood a little, stumped, before ducking back behind the curtain with her. “I’ll leave you my number. You can use it day or night if you—”
“Right, like my own personal bodyguard?” She shook her head, wiping her tears. “Sounds like a great pickup line. Ya know, you construction workers are all the same.”
“Is that so?” My voice dropped an octave, suddenly very interested in whatever this woman was saying. “Care to tell me how I’m the same as that fucker who just grabbed your ass?”
“Because.” She crossed her arms, taking a step closer to me. “You’re trying to leave me with your phone number. You’re all pigs.”
“Oh yeah?” I couldn't think beyond proving her wrong, whatever it took.
“Yeah.” She edged closer, arms brushing across the wide wall of my chest. “Every last one of you.”
Just as the thought was runnin’ through my mind that I should prove her right and pull her into my arms and kiss her senseless, she did the opposite, tossing me the middle finger and then doing the damn unthinkable and pushing through the curtain before walking off.
“Well, sonuvabitch.” I thrust a hand over my day-old beard, leaving that crowded little phone booth more confused than I’dentered it. “So much for makin’ things right.”
I walked off down the hall, waving at the boys once as I passed, not bothering to stop to tell them I was done for the night. Pushing into the clear night air, I scanned the crowded parking lot once for Josh, making sure he’d left like I’d told him to.
Then I slid behind the wheel of my truck to wait. If there was any chance in hell that no-good piece of shit was coming back to fuck with her again, I’d be here for it.
And then he’d regret the day he was born.
C H A P T E R T W O
Daphne
“You need me to walk you to your car, Daph?” Will, the bartender, asked.
He was
a really sweet man in his forties, running bar on the weekends to help
pay his wife’s hospital bills. I smiled at his withered face that looked much
older than his 43.
“Nah, I think I’ll be okay. Thank you for asking,” I said as I put my
share of tips in my pocket.
When I got outside, the night air hit my face, and I took a deep breath.
As soon as I got to my car that was parked across the street, a large hand
