AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You know Cee,” he says with a carefree shrug. “She doesn’t hold onto anger.” Then his eyes dim again. “But she and I don’t have that in common.”
My whole body ripples with goosebumps. Even the hair at the back of my neck is standing on end. Seeing Ilarion again after all this time shouldn’t be this much of a shock to the system. He shouldn’t be able to get under my skin so damn easily.
But he’s there. Where he’s always been.
Maybe he never left in the first place.
“The waitress outfit suits you,” he observes wryly.
“Fuck you,” I snap, slamming my notepad down on the table. “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone we choose. And I’m refusing you service right now.”
“Taylor, dear, what’s going on? Everything peachy out there?”
Shit.Mabel.It’s the first time I’ve actually been genuinely annoyed with her inclination to stick her nose where she doesn’t belong. She peeks her head out of the double doors and glances back and forth between Ilarion and me like we’re in a tennis match.
“I’m kicking him out,” I inform her curtly.
Mabel raises her eyebrows. “Why?”
“Because he’s an asshole!”
“I’m not disagreeing with that,” Ilarion chuckles. He’s cranking the charm dial up to eleven out of ten, flashing Mabel that hotter-than-sin smile of his. “But if you refused every asshole who walked in, you’d be out of business.”
Mabel licks her lips. “He has a point, darling.”
“Are you siding with him?” I exclaim with no shortage of exasperation.
I’m completely losing my grip on the entire situation. My messy bun is falling apart, my cheeks are flushed to the point of burning, and my voice is just this side of a whiny, croaking wheeze.
I only have myself to blame.
I should’ve known this day was coming.
“Why are there sides at all, darling?” Mabel ponders before turning to Ilarion. “I’m guessing the two of you know each other.”
“You could say that,” he drawls. I feel my heartbeat start to race with panic. He wouldn’t blow up my life. He wouldn’t. Not like this. “I’m the father of her child.”
On second thought…
Ka.
Fucking.
Boom.
6
TAYLOR
“You son of a bitch!” I cry out, reaching underneath the counter for something, anything, to hurl at him and that smug, life-ruining smirk. “How dare you waltz back into my life and—”
“Excuse me,” he interrupts, so softly that I immediately fall silent. “If I remember correctly, you are the one who left. I’m not walking ‘back’ into anything.”
“It was the only way—”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
“Well, it worked out, didn’t it?” I ask, feeling the blood drain from my face. “You and Cee are happy in your little corner of the world. And I’m happy in mine.”
