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“Everything with Janine was over a year ago,” Sandra said, leaning over so he could get a peek down her plunging neckline, no doubt. “You’ve got to get back up on the horse again.” God, he could barely breathe with all that perfume she was wearing. “And cowboy, I’m happy to help break you back in.”
Beside them, Cal choked on her beer as she audibly bit back a laugh. Sandra glared at her.
You’re too late anyway, he wanted to tell Sandra. Another woman already had that privilege. His eyes skirted past Sandra’s shoulder toward where he’d last seen Isobel dancing, sandwiched between Liam and Mack.
Only to find Isobel staring directly at him. The two guys were still on either side of her but she’d stopped dancing. The smile was totally gone from her face. She looked stricken, in fact. Her eyes went from Hunter, then to something right beside him.
Hunter turned his head to see what she was looking at.
And ran right smack into Sandra’s lips. She’d stepped in between his legs and was right there, just fuckin’ landing one on him. He got the brief ashy taste of cigarettes before he yanked back, launching backwards off the barstool.
“Christ, Sandra.” He swiped at his mouth. His hand came away with a smear of her red-orange lipstick.
But she was still coming at him, her eyes lowered in what he assumed was her come-hither look. With all that black make-up around her eyes and her orange middriff baring halter top, she just looked like a dead-eyed hooker.
“Oh come on, Hunter. You don’t have to do that coy cat and mouse bullshit with me.” She put a lacquered orange-nailed finger on the center of his chest. She grinned at him. She had lipstick on her teeth. “Take me home and I’ll make sure you get a very happy ending.”
And a venereal disease, he thought.
Sandra tried to dip forward again but he held out a hand and gave a firm shake of his head. “I’m sorry, Sandra. This is never gonna happen between you and me.”
Suddenly her bottom lip began to tremble. Aw, shit. Was she going to cry? He never knew what to do when women cried.
“But I thought…” she hiccupped. “When you hired me on at the clinic—”
Over her shoulder, Hunter saw Isobel fleeing down the back hallway in the direction of the restrooms. She didn’t stop at the ladies, though. No, she blew past the restrooms and shoved open the back door, then pushed into the night.
Hawthorne was a pretty quiet town but they weren’t that far off the interstate. What was she thinking, running out there all alone when she was drunk off her ass?
“—that we had a real connection. You gave me that look when we were scheduling the surgery for Mr. Bartlett’s poodle. I knew you wanted m—”
“Sorry, if you’ll excuse me,” Hunter cut Sandra off midsentence and went to chase after Isobel. What the hell was wrong with her supposed escorts that they abandoned her right when she needed them most? He was going to have words with Xavier. If the man couldn’t corral his men to act responsibly when they were out in town, something had to be done.
Hunter shoved people aside on the dance floor when they didn’t get out of his way fast enough.
“Whoa, Hunter, why in such a hurry?” more than one person asked him. He ignored them all and just kept moving, finally jogging when he got to the hall corridor.
When he exploded out the back door, he looked left or right. Dammit, which way did she go?
But finally he heard the faint sounds of a woman crying.
Christ, that sound was enough to rip any man apart, but coming from her? What had happened? If one of those assholes had hurt her… His hands clenched into fists.
“Isobel?” he hurried toward the sound and found her crouched down against the wall behind the bar’s dumpster, knees to her chest.
“Go away!” she turned her back to him when she saw him.
“What’s wrong? Did one of those bastards touch you? I swear, if either of them laid a hand on you, I’ll—”
“What?” She sounded both confused and incredulous. She stood up, using the wall for leverage. “God, no. Mack and Liam are great.”
Hunter took a step back. “Then why…” his voice trailed off as she swiped at her cheeks.
“It was nothing. God, I’m just an idiot.” She’d kept her face averted the whole time but suddenly her eyes flashed up to him. “What do you care anyway? Won’t your date be mad you left her to chase after another woman? That’s kind of an a-hole move.”
“Date?” Hunter’s mind was blank before it finally registered. “What, you mean Sandra?” He scoffed. “She’s not my date. She just came up to me and—”
“Hey, no need to explain.” Isobel held up her hands. “I’m not trying to get in the way of your next hookup. Your business is your business.”
