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“Okay,” she whispered to herself as she wove through Manhattan’s night traffic. “Okay, you’re okay. You’re okay.”
So what if she had no clue where she was going? Starting from the shit show she’d just left behind, things could only be looking up from here, right?
Right?
Chapter Two
HUNTER
“It’s good to see you out and about, Hunter,” Bubba said, looking Hunter over as he sat his beer in front of him.
Hunter just nodded without comment. He hated coming out to town for just this reason—that look of pity on everyone’s faces when they talked to him. Even after more than a year. Drinking at home alone was even more depressing, though, so here he was.
Last week was the one year anniversary of Janine leaving him. What was the quote from that movie he loved—get busy living or get busy dying? It was from the Shawshank Redemption, a movie about being in prison. Which was what his house had felt like lately. He’d had enough of holing up there by himself. He was sick of the silence. He used to find the quiet of country living calming. Peaceful.
But for the past year all he heard was the absence of her voice. Man, she’d always been complaining about something. The hot water ran out too quickly. She hated the mosquitos in the spring. The gravel driveway meant her car was perpetually dirty. Not that she had anywhere to go where a nice car would be noticed.
It was funny how the things that drove you nuts about a person ended up being the things you missed most.
Or maybe he was just a damn fool. Sentimental. Nostalgic.
What he probably really missed was her body warm beside his in the bed at night. The way he could roll over and kiss the nape of her neck, and, no matter how ornery she’d been that day, her body would go all soft. How she’d open her legs and grasp his ass and pull him into her.
Even when they were both furious with each other, they could still communicate that way. By the end, it seemed like the only thing they had left. Stony silences all evening would give way to furious lovemaking at night. Biting and clawing as she brought him to the brink. Clinging to him for the briefest moment of their mutual climax like there was some hope, some future for them.
And then pulling away the second it was done, sometimes going to sleep on the couch like she couldn’t stand his touch a second longer.
He’d never understood her. But he hadn’t been able to ask her why she did it—why she kept coming to bed each night only to wrench herself away right afterwards. At first he thought it was because she loved him. But eventually he realized it was to punish him. Yet another reminder that he might have his ring on her finger but she’d never truly be his.
Hunter’s phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out to check who was calling. There was never a night off when you were the only large animal veterinarian within two counties.
Mom flashed across the screen. Hunter’s face soured. Jesus, if there was anyone worse than people in town staring at him with pity it was Mom with her cheer-Hunter-up routine. She meant well. He knew she did. But he could only handle so much enforced cheer a week and he’d already spent most of Sunday at her and Pops’ house. He let the call ring out since she’d know being sent to voicemail after a couple rings meant he’d rejected her call.
When it finally stopped buzzing, he shook his head. Jesus, coming out tonight wasn’t helping anything. He’d still been fixating on Janine as much as he ever did at home. And these bar stools were damn uncomfortable.
He set his beer back on the bar and turned sideways on his stool so he could reach into his back pocket to grab his wallet when he saw the door to the bar open.
And in walked the most stunning woman. She had long black hair that was pulled back in a slick ponytail. Her face was flawless. Porcelain skin, big blue eyes. Heart-shaped face, pink lips.
Unlike most of the women in the bar, she wasn’t dressed like she was looking to get noticed. She was wearing a dark t-shirt and jeans—not too tight but just enough to show she had curves in all the right places. Also unlike everyone else in the bar, Hunter didn’t recognize her. Unusual in a town the size of Hawthorne, which was barely a blip on the map.
Apparently everyone else found her just as interesting because half the bar had turned to stare at her.
Shit. Hunter knew that feeling. Hunter hated that feeling.
He turned back to the bar and took another sip of his abandoned beer. He was just about to reach for his wallet again when the woman sat down on the barstool beside him.
He froze, hands on his mug of beer. Had she seen him and come down to sit by him specifically or had she just randomly chosen an empty seat at the bar?
He watched her out of his periphery and she didn’t so much as glance his way. Yeah, wishful thinking, jackass.
Still, he didn’t go for his wallet again.
The woman glanced up and down the bar. Bubba was bartending tonight, along with Jeff. Jeff was at the other end of the bar, making an ass of himself like usual while Cherry and Lacey hung on his every word. Cherry was leaned half over the bar top, her cleavage so low he bet Jeff could see her belly button.
The newcomer smiled and shook her head a little at the scene, like it amused her in some way. Bubba finally finished mixing drinks and handing them off to Mary who was waitressing tonight and then came over to the woman.
Bubba was as much an institution as his bar. A big man with a belly to match, he had a long gray beard and a ride or die tattoo on his knuckles that pretty much said it all.
