AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We’ve got it, you can go ahead and go,” I said firmly as I folded table linens.
“No, I can help…”
“I said, we’ve got it. I’d like you to go,” I repeated more harshly.
Dillon looked at my face for the first time since coming back and flinched.
“Laurel,” he said, taking a step toward me.
“I’m working right now, Dillon, I can’t do this…”
“We’ll just give you guys a minute, yeah?” Shane said, motioning for the girls to follow him outside.
Once they were gone and we were alone, Dillon took another step toward me and said, “Jasmine was taken by surprise, and yes, she got pissed, but that’s just because she didn’t understand how things are between us.”
I ignored his words. Now that everyone was gone, I allowed the emotions in. All the hurt, the anger, the betrayal.
“This whole thing has been a lie,” I said, wincing when my voice cracked.
“What? No, it hasn’t,” he denied.
“Jasmine told you to treat me like a princess … She meant in Chicago, right? That’s why everything was different between us, why you were different. No longer sniping at me, or giving me those dark, untrusting looks of yours, no looking over your shoulder, waiting for old annoying Laurel to ruin your trip.”
“Laurel…”
“The whole thing was a lie. God, you must have had a good laugh at how easy I made it for you. Took your whole attitude change in stride and melted at the thought of Dillon Lewis showing me an ounce of charm. Hell, I even propositioned you, making it even easier for you to show me just how good life could be. What an idiot…”
“Don’t call yourself that,” Dillon said, getting angry himself. But there was no way he was as angry as I was, no way in hell. “And that’s not what happened in Chicago. Sure, she told me to show you a nice time, and that is why I put the past behind us and tried to see the weekend as a new start, but it isn’t why I took you up on your offer. And, it certainly isn’t why I sought you out once we got back here. I wanted to be with you Laurel.”
I heard him, but I couldn’t actually hear him. His words bounced off me like bullets on a flak vest.
“And when I told you about Travis, about what happened in Houston … you let me go on and on, bearing my soul to you, and you never once let on that you already knew.”
That really stings. In fact, out of everything, that may be the thing that hurts the most.
“Yes, Jasmine told me some of it, but I hadn’t heard it from you, and I was honored that you trusted me enough to tell me,” Dillon said, running a hand through his auburn hair in frustration.
“Well, I don’t trust you now, and I need you to leave. I have work to finish up, and then I need to go home and be alone. I need some time to think.”
“Please,” he began, but I brought my eyes to him, allowing the hurt and misery to show through.
“No, Dillon, please go,” I begged, then turned and gave him my back.
A few seconds later, I heard his footsteps trail through the room and out the door.
39
Dillon
“Just give her some time, then go talk to her,” Reardon urged.
We were sitting on his back deck. He was drinking a beer, and I was nursing a scotch, as I wondered how in the hell things had gotten so screwed up so quickly.
I sighed and looked out over his yard, barely registering that the leaves had changed color. “She was so upset. So hurt. Jesus, I felt like I’d been punched in the gut when she looked at me like I was an asshole. I know her ex treated her like shit, and I hate that she’s in her apartment comparing me to him right now.”
“She knows you’re not…” Reardon began, then joked, “Well, you are an asshole, but she knows you’d never intentionally hurt her. Not like he did. There’s no comparison, Dillon.”
“I should have told her what Jazzy said, and I should have told Jazzy about me and Laurel,” I said, hanging my head in misery. “It’s just,” I sighed, “things were going so great. We were moving forward, had agreed to try an exclusive relationship… Hell, I’m falling for her. I’ve never felt this way for anyone before. Shit, Rear, what am I going to do?”
