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I’m moving before I can stop myself, yelling, “What the fuck are you doing?” I’m not sure who those words are directed toward, but it doesn’t seem to matter because they both stop in their tracks and look up at me. Colton looks confused while Jamie’s eyes are wide—deer meet headlights—as if I’ve caught her doing something she shouldn’t be. Was she flirting with this motherfucker, right here, in my home?
The fucking audacity.
“I was just trying something…” she says, her voice low, eyes refusing to meet mine.
“Bro, what’s your problem?” Colton says through a chuckle.
“My problem?” He’s still holding on to her, and she’s not stopping him. I should rip off his hands and beat him with them. One hand for touching her at the diner, and the other for this. Because he’s not worthy of the touch, no one is. No one but—
I stop my thoughts there… stop them from pulling me down, dragging me under. Jealousy is a dangerous emotion, and it’s one I hadn’t felt inyears.Not until I saw Jamie again.
“My problem?” I ask, trying to keep my shit together. “My problem is that you look ridiculous, Jamie.”
The look on her face…
I wonder if I looked the same when Dean walked into that room.
“And this is a place of business. It’s not exactly professional having you looking like an eight-year-old flailing around on rollerblades. What if a supplier came in? Or aclient?”
“Bro, it’s really not that big a deal,” Colton chimes in. As if he has a say.Fuck him.
“No, he’s right,” Jamie says. “I shouldn’t be doing this.”
Colton eyes me a moment before helping her toward the curb, not releasing her until she’s seated and removing the rollerblades. I turn my back on them because it hurts too much to watch and get back to work, ignoring the voice inside my head telling me it was too much, that I was too harsh.
A few minutes later, IfeelColton’s presence before he makes it known. “Want to tell me what that was about?”
“Not particularly,” I murmur, focused on trimming the citrus plants that need to go out tomorrow. “What are you doing here?”
“Maggie asked me to drop off some stuff from the bakery.” Colton’s parents own the wheat farm in town, along with the bakery. It’s been in his family for generations, and like me—the business is his future. His legacy.
Without looking at him, I state, attempting to keep my voice even, “Cool. You can just leave it in the house.”
He’s quiet a beat before stating, “I heard Jamie was still around…” Fuck him for having her name anywhere near his mouth. “So, what’s the deal?”
“There is no deal,” I sigh out.
“Ah, so that little act of yours at the diner was just for what? Shits and giggles?”
I shut my eyes tight, try to regain my composure. Finally facing him, I give him the footnotes. “She’s a girl I dated in high school who I haven’t seen in years, and she just randomly showed up here, and I don’t know what she wants from me, but whatever it is, I can’t give it to her.”
“Right.” He nods slowly, again and again, but it’s clear my explanation isn’t answer enough, and I wish he’d just fuck off. Crossing his arms, he says, “It’s just that… I mean, you know that whenever you used to leave town, Bri and I would hook up, and you didn’t seem to have a problem with that.”
I keep my mouth shut.
“And there was that one time when you and I both—”
“I get it,” I cut in. I don’t need a reminder of when Colt and I were drunk and high, and Bri somehow convinced us it would be “fun.”
It wasn’t.
What can I say? We were young, dumb, and full of cum.
And Colton won’t shut up. “And Bri’s yourcurrentgirlfriend.”
I match his stance, feign boredom. “Your point would be good right about now.”
“My point is that she has you pressed, bro, and I want to know why.”
