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“No.” Ethan shoved me hard. “You should’ve never gotten involved with her in the first place. You caused this, you sick prick. She is twice your age.”
“Look, you have this all wrong,” I started.
“I don’t know what kind of lovers’ quarrel you two had—”
“Whoa! No.” I shook my hands insistently. “There was no quarrel. And there certainly wasn’t any lovers’ anything. That is so not what we—”
“You should’ve just kept it in your goddamn pants and never fucked her to begin with,” Ethan went on savagely.
“Well, I didn’t fuck her,” I growled. “So…”
This was irony, right here. There must be dozens of guys out there who could probably legitimately go after me for shit I had done with their mothers, or sisters, or wives, yet the only person who decided to confront me was freaking wrong. How whack was that?
“You…” His voice broke. “You hurt my mom.”
Shame pierced me because he was right about that. I had been one of the only people who’d ever listened to Amanda, and I had let her down. I did feel as if I’d caused this. His mom was hurt because of me.
“I’m sorry,” was all I could think to say, shaking my head as my gut burned. “But maybe she’s in the best place she should be right now. They can help her there. You can’t deny she needed something.”
“Well, she never would’ve needed anything if you’d just fucking stayed away from her.” He shoved me a third time. “I’m going to make you pay for this. I’m going to—”
“Lowe!” the voice of one of my coworker’s called from around the side of the building, “Yo, Lowe, you out here, man?”
Ethan and I both looked toward the direction of the call.
“This isn’t over,” Ethan hissed, backing away. “You
’ll pay for this. I’ll hit you where it hurts the most. Mark my words.”
He took off and was jogging away, disappearing into the dark just as Mac rounded the corner. “What…?” He paused in confusion when he found me just standing there.
“Dropped my keys,” I said, thinking quick as I lifted the set in my hand to jingle them. “Just found them.”
“Ah.” He cleared his throat and began to back away. “Well, good. Now, come relieve me. I need to take a piss something fierce.”
I laughed. “No problem.” Slapping him on the side of the arm, I followed him back to the valet station.
I couldn’t help but glance off into the direction that Ethan had run, though. I wasn’t worried about his threats. I think I’d gotten so many threats and blackmail issues lately I was becoming immune to them.
But I was worried about his mom.
I never thought I’d helped her that much by simply spending a few minutes letting her unload her worries and frustrations onto me. It made me wish…
I don’t even know.
It made me realize how powerful a simple kindness like listening to someone could be, though. It also made me want to call Reese and tell her about what had just happened, get her opinion on it. For some reason, I thought she’d know how to handle Riker. Aside from being a dick and clueless about how to deal with his mother, he wasn’t that bad of a guy. He just needed a little guidance.
While Mac was taking his break, I tried Amanda’s phone first. She didn’t answer and I didn’t leave a message. I tried Mental Health next, but, of course, there was no way they would give out any kind of information about their patients. I was just finishing that call when Mac returned from his break, so I couldn’t call Reese after that.
It was late by the time I got off work, so I decided to hold off until the next morning. Except, I slept in, so I decided to just find her on my lunch break and get some feedback then.
By the time I finally approached Reese, however, I was just so happy to see her and get a chance to talk to her again that I’d forgotten everything I’d wanted to discuss the night before.
“Hey.” I plopped my bag onto the bench seat across from her and drew in a deep, giddy breath when I smelled her familiar scent. God, yes. “Sweet pea,” I nearly groaned.
Reese looked up and blinked before smacking a hand to her chest and gasping out fake shock. “What is this?” she said. “You’re sitting with me…in public? Have the horny guy urges subsided then? Have I lost my seductive appeal completely? Say it ain’t so.”
I laughed, missing her sense of humor. “No,” I answered as I sat. “They have not subsided. I’ve simply come to the conclusion we’re going to have to accept that the urges will probably be a permanent facet of our relationship from here on out. And if you say you can control yours, then I’ll try to control mine.”
