CHAPTER 41
CORALINE
Before my horrid date can lean in and his lips collide with mine, I take a step back. Placing my hand on his chest, I squirm away.
“No…” I mutter. “I’m sorry, but no.”
After seeing Gavin and Georgia, Everly made us go to the local bar just outside the rodeo. I didn’t want to go; I just wanted to go back home and wallow, but she insisted. The first cowboy to ask for a dance, I said yes. I’m here for a good time, but I’m drawing the line at kissing.
I want to forget what I saw hours ago and stop crying for once…but I’m already regretting it.
“Come on, sweet thing.” Chase wraps his arm around my waist as I smell the liquor on his breath. It makes my stomach coil. He’s drunk way too much tonight, and I’m not some buckle bunny. He was boasting about all the girls who lined up for him after each rodeo. That should have been the first and last strike, but I continued. “Just one kiss.” He’s eager and desperate in all the ways that turn me off. His black cowboy hat pokes my forehead, and his stubble rakes my face painfully as he tries to fight his way to my lips.
He isn’t taking no for an answer.
Instead, he leans in deeper, but I keep shielding myself with my cheeks, turning and eager to give him a knee to the groin.
“I said no.” I use my arms to push his chest away, but he isn’t getting the message.
Where is Everly?
Before I can kick him in the balls, someone’s large fist sends him to the ground. Chase lands hard on the floor, dazed and halfway to unconsciousness. My hands shoot up to my mouth, completely taken aback in shock.
“No way in fucking hell,” the man who punched him snarls.
That voice.
That scent.
It paralyzes me and sends an electric shock of heat into my blood.
Gavin.
The bar’s bouncers intervene and pull him up to his feet.
“We were already on our way to you anyway,” one of them says. “Let’s go, Chase.”
Gavin’s hand curls around my forearm and hauls me deeper into the crowd.
Isn’t he with Georgia? What the hell is going on? How did he find me?
“Gavin! What the?” I stumble but palm the walls to keep myself from falling. “What are you doing here?” I pull myself from his tight hold, and he lets go.
“I’m here to drink. Celebrate,” he says nonchalantly. I can’t even look at him without seeing the image of him being with someone else in my head. It hurts, and he’s only making this harder. He has no right to be here or to fight off my first date in months.
He stalks forward, a toothpick in between his teeth. I keep taking step after step back until I hit the wall. Fire courses through my veins, and something inside of me twitches withneed. He’s dressed in all black from head to toe, easily towering over me as he used to before. Everyone around us is dancing or drinking the night away, completely oblivious to us.
“I saw you.”With Georgia. “You moved on.” I shake my head in disbelief. “You don’t get to do this.” I breathe softly, my voice quivering. I give him my back before he can see or hear me choke up. Blinking away the heartbroken tears, I locate the exit. “You’re with someone else. I’m going to try and move on now.”
I walk away because I don’t want to break down in public or cause a scene more than we already have. I’ll text Everly that I’m waiting for her at the car. I just need to breathe before I break. I weave through the dancing crowd and head for the neon sign that leads to the parking lot.
As soon as I’m out the door, the summer Texas air wraps around me like a comforting blanket. The humidity calms my nerves. The parking lot is half empty. The building’s roof is the only source of light.
“Coraline.”
Why is he still here? I know he’s not anything like Liam, but for some reason, seeing him with Georgia, with my own eyes, I got that familiar ugly feeling in my chest when I caught my ex-husband cheating on me with my best friend. I know Gavin is single and so am I, but he’s had my heart since we first met. I belong to him even though I left. I’ve been trying to convince myself that I’m not in love with him, but it hasn’t been a choice for me; it’s been an unfair, permanent attraction that no time or distance can sever.
“No!” I shout without looking at him. I stop walking over the gravel and search for Everly’s jeep. “Don’t say my name.”
