Danny rolled his eyes. “All to myself. Okay, sure. I shared you with the tourists and the townsfolk. With all the Clarks, the farm, the festivals, your students and their families. Maybe if you’d been more worried about keeping me happy instead of every other goddamn person in Kirby Falls, then we’d still be—” He broke off with a sigh. “I didn’t come here to fight.”
Scoffing, I crossed my arms over my chest, suddenly cold and growing more numb by the second. “Could have fooled me.”
He lowered his voice and repeated, “I didn’t come here to fight. I know you’re dating that bartender and moving on. Sowing your wild oats or whatever.”
I felt my mouth drop open at his dismissive words.How dare he?
Numbness quickly gave way to anger, white-hot and all-consuming. I took a step closer, replacing the careful distance I’d tried to maintain with blazing intention.
“You know what, Danny? You’re right. I gave a lot of myself to this town and the people in it. But the only person who ever made me feel like it was a waste was you. I’m done apologizing for how I spend my time. What I do or don’t do is no longer any of your concern.”
I was close enough to see the embarrassed flush enter his pale cheeks. But I couldn’t find any regret or remorse within myself. I was glad I’d said what I’d said. Danny needed to hear it. And he’d probably been stunned to hear me stand up for myself for once.
His eyes searched mine for a moment before he swallowed and said evenly, “I know that. I do. I just thought if we could talk for a minute. Slow things down and?—”
“Bonnie, you’re up,” Joan interrupted, appearing like an avenging angel at my side. The look she aimed at Danny had him backing up a step, but her voice was eerily calm. “Time to go.”
Danny’s clear blue eyes turned pleading, but I ignored him and walked with Joan through the dim, hazy interior, back to our lane.
“You okay?” she murmured, just loud enough to be heard over the music.
“Yeah,” I replied. And I meant it. For the first time, when confronted with my ex-husband, I didn’t feel that familiar knot of dread twisting me up on the inside. There wasn’t the painful pulse of my heartbeat in my throat, and I had enough air in my lungs. “Thank you, Joan.”
“It was nothing. You had it under control,” she said simply. Then, to my surprise, she walked past our table and out onto the approach area. She grabbed her bowling ball from the ball return and took her turn.
I looked to Candace and Mac as I resumed my seat, but they were deep in conversation, Candace showing my sister something wedding related on her phone.
Joan must have seen me, cornered by Danny in the lobby, and come to my aid. It wasn’t actually my turn, and the others hadn’t noticed me missing.
I watched as Joan took her second approach, knocking out pins nine and ten for a neat spare.
Candace and Mac whooped, offering up high fives as Joan returned to the table.
Before she could sit, I grabbed her in a quick, hard hug. She was tense, all hard, lean lines and toned muscles, but after a moment, she released a breath and patted me awkwardly on the back. “It was nothing,” she repeated, for my ears alone.
“Not to me,” I whispered back.
Then I released her and grinned. “Nice shot, Holy Roller.”
She snorted a laugh.
“Yesss,” Candace called. “A bowling nickname.” She pointed to her sister. “I love it.”
“No.” Joan shot me a betrayed look. “No nicknames. Joanie is bad enough.”
“Holy Roller! Holy Roller!” Candace chanted. Mac and I joined in.
Joan looked like she wanted to murder us, but there was a tiny tilt to the corner of her lips. “Okay.Jesus. Stop.”
“Oh! She’s already in the spirit,” Mac clapped. “The spirit. See what I did there?”
We all laughed and continued our teasing.
Then it really was my turn to bowl.
And I didn’t spare my ex-husband a single thought for the rest of the night.
Pun very much intended.
