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I’d spent too much time with them, gotten too close, for this to happen again.
Then Dani grabbed her mother’s hand, tugging it toward her father’s, and I couldn’t watch anymore because I didn’t care how this horror movie scene ended. I was done watching.
Done participating in my own eventual heartbreak. Because, surprise, that eventual day was here.
Right now.
“Here you go.” I shoved the money back at Mrs. Coy without bothering to make change. “Your drink is on the house. Enjoy it. Have a lovely day.”
>
“Macy, wait.”
Before she could finish, I whipped off the apron I’d donned after dousing myself with part of a mug of coffee an hour earlier. My shirt and bra were still fucking damp, but I hadn’t wanted to take time to run upstairs. I was watching Dani and—
I was the bloody fool who was taking a fifteen-minute break.
Without another glance back, I marched into the kitchen and dumped my apron on my desk chair. I jerked straighter when the door swung open behind me. Freaking Vee was so intuitive that if I so much as swallowed hard, she would rush over and try to mother me. Add in pregnancy hormones, and she was fifty times worse.
“Look, not sure what you think you saw, but I’m fine. Peachy keen.” I turned around and took one look at Gideon, then aimed straight for the exit.
“Wait a second. Just you wait a fucking minute.” He slammed a hand on the door as I started to open it, and I stomped on his instep without compunction.
He let out a startled oof, but I didn’t use my opportunity to escape.
Fuck no. This was my kitchen. My coffee shop. My life I was fucking fighting for, in the realest sense.
“Let’s get something straight, okay? I may have spent time with you. May have fucked you. May have even enjoyed it. But you do not get to come in my place of business and throw your weight around. You definitely do not get to attempt to prevent me from leaving. My life. My coffee shop.” I jammed my thumb in my chest. “My rules. Got it?”
The door to the dining room opened and Vee stuck her head in, her eyes going wide as she glimpsed the two of us. But she didn’t back down or step away. Instead, she clenched her jaw.
“Need backup, Mace?”
Gideon looked between us with a mixture of frustration and exasperation. I hated how well I could read him now. I didn’t need his facial expressions or much else to gauge his emotions. It felt as if I was absorbing his irritation through my pores.
“Backup for what? I was trying to have a conversation with my girlfriend and she just went fucking mental on me.”
“I’m not your girlfriend. That little ‘fake date’ thing we had going? Done. Finito. You’re going to get back with Jessica, so you don’t need me anymore. And I definitely don’t need you.”
He glared at me. “So, it was fucking fake when you were begging me not to stop last night?”
Vee cleared her throat. “Okay, I’m going to go. I’ll be right out—”
“Right, because I was horny and I liked your dick. Did you hear that past tense? Liked. As in over it now. Had fun though. It was a great way to pass some hours. Now let’s not make it messy.”
“Messy? Is that what this is?” He started to laugh a little too loudly and the first hint of concern flared in my belly. This flame of an argument was about to spill over into one helluva inferno.
And I was at work. Dani was just outside the door. My customers and friends were out there too. I couldn’t do this. I’d worked too hard to build my little empire to burn it down with one heck of a lit cigarette.
But right now? I didn’t give a flying fig.
“You better have your wife take your daughter outside. Because shit is about to get very real in here, and I don’t want her to be hurt.”
Unlike Gideon. I wanted to rain punches on him until I was numb. Until this void inside me was full of anything but confusion and pain.
Tears stung my eyes as I turned away to slam my palms on the counter by the sinks. What did I do wrong this time? Was it my fault? Could I just not have a healthy adult relationship without the guy running back to his ex, no matter how much of a witch she was?
“Ex-wife, as you damn well know. Dani and Jessica are gone. Dani wanted to come back here and say goodbye, but I told her she could talk to you later.”
