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No, she’d been right. He couldn’t think straight, couldn’t do his job when all he could think about was her. They both needed time and distance to get their worlds under control again.
They’d been living in this tiny bubble since they’d arrived in Jubail. Only a matter of days, though it felt longer. It meant so much to him—but just like that beautiful afternoon at the oasis, it had been a mirage. A fantasy. Now it was time to get back to reality. Best to make a clean break of it. No more kisses. No more goodbyes. He’d let her have the last word, and he’d just…go.
After a deep breath, he returned to the sitting room and grabbed his bag. Duffel in hand, he headed for the elevators, hesitating only long enough to take one last glance back toward Toni’s room.
“Goodbye, sweetheart,” he whispered before heading home.
12
“Dude, you gonna drink that beer or stare at it all day?” Gage asked, kicking up his booted feet on an empty chair at McGruff’s Pub. This early in the afternoon, they had the whole place to themselves apart from a few regulars bellied up at the bar. The smell of fried onions and melted cheese drifted from the place’s tiny kitchen, and the numerous neon signs on the walls buzzed and crackled as they heated. Gage’s girlfriend, Anna, pulled up a seat as close to Gage as humanly possible, and Spencer shook his head. She should’ve just straddled the guy’s lap. Would’ve been more comfortable for both of them than pretending to balance across two chairs when they really only needed one. Especially given the way she was now wrapping herself around him in a heated kiss.
“You two need to get a room,” Spencer said, his tone peevish.
“Who died and made you the PDA police?” Gage gave him a dirty look.
Spencer responded with a middle finger. “I’ve got things on my mind, okay?”
“Yeah, things named Toni Williams,” Scotty said, sitting in the chair beside Spencer before taking his girlfriend’s hand and kissing her palm.
Hayley leaned across Scotty, her expression sympathetic. “Have you tried talking to her since she got back from Jubail?”
“No.” He’d been tempted—God, had he been tempted—but he’d kept his distance, since it seemed to be what she wanted. Well, he’d kept his distance in that he hadn’t tried to see her or call her. Hehadspent quite a lot of time routing himself to drive past her office, no matter where he was actually headed. If he wasn’t careful, the cops would pick him up for stalking. At least he’d confirmed she’d made it home okay, though.
“Don’t worry.” Hayley gave him a sad smile brimming with pity.Perfect.She thought he was pathetic. They all did. A pathetic, lovelorn fool.
Yeah, lovelorn. It had only taken a few days away from her for him to diagnose what he was feeling. It was love. No wonder he hadn’t recognized it—he’d never experienced anything like it before. He felt like he should call all his ex-girlfriends and apologize. If this was what they’d been expecting from him, no wonder they got pissed off with how little he gave them.
“Everything will work out in the end,” she said. “It always does.”
Spencer avoided rolling his eyes at the cliché, mostly because he knew Scotty would punch him at any hint that he was mocking Hayley. Instead, he concentrated on peeling the wet label off his beer bottle. His head hurt nearly as much as his heart from thinking about Toni and what they’d had together.
But it had been a month. It was time to move on and get back into life.
Alone.
As it should be.
The door from the street opened, and Kyle walked into the pub, a newspaper in one hand and his phone in the other. “As if things weren’t crappy enough,” he said, tossing the paper down on their table. “Coran Williams just cut himself a cushy deal with the government. Says he’ll help the FBI track down and apprehend Arrieta. Damn feds.”
“Hey,” Hayley said, indignant.
Kyle hailed the bartender and ordered a beer, then rubbed a hand over his face. “Sorry. I didn’t mean you.”
“Damn straight,” Scotty said, squeezing Hayley tight around the waist. “My girl’s perfection from head to toe.”
“Thanks, sweetie.” Hayley kissed Scotty, and this time Spencer couldn’t hold back the eye roll. It was like living in a frigging Disney musical around here. He half expected bluebirds to start flying around his teammates’ heads one of these days.
Gage and Anna excused themselves and headed hand in hand over to the jukebox in the corner.
The bartender brought over Kyle’s beer, and he leaned back in his chair, rocking precariously on two legs while squinting at the paper’s headline. “Looks like your girlfriend did pretty well at her auction, Spencer. Ended up bringing in a cool one point seven million for her foundation, on top of what her father bid for his own books.”
Spencer tore off another long strip of paper from his bottle, scowling. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Huh.” Kyle took a long drink and watched him, gaze narrowed. “Thought you two got pretty close there in the desert.”
The opening strains of “Rock the Casbah” by the Clash blared over the bar’s sound system, and Gage smirked at Spencer as he boogied down with Anna on the small dance floor.
Spencer straightened and gave Gage a death glare. “What the hell, man?”
