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She sighed and smiled back at him. “I sure do. Bye,” she told the other two and then followed Adam to his bike a few spaces away.
Easy was still tending to the wounded Brenda. Daisy tried to pretend that it didn’t irritate her. He shouldn’t care so much about that bitch. She swung her leg over Adam’s bike, settled her feet onto the pegs, and willed herself not to look back as he pulled onto the road. Easy had been flirting with her all night then Brenda waltzed in and it was like she didn’t exist anymore. For a guy who said he was over her, he sure didn’t act like it. Daisy refused to wonder what was so wrong with herself that he preferred a woman who’d insulted him so horribly over her.
Chapter 20
Daisy stepped out of her clothes and into the shower, which was lukewarm on its best day. But it was hot out, so she didn’t mind. She washed the stink of beer and fries out of her hair and was determined not to think about asshole Army Rangers or bitchy bar bunnies for the rest of the night. She’d dry her hair and crawl into bed and that would be the end of that. She hadn’t even finished the hair drying part when someone pounded on her room door, startling her.
She slung the towel over her shoulder and checked the peephole. It seemed the rest of the night was shot as well, at least as far as forgetting about assholes was concerned.
She unlocked the door and opened it. Easy swept into the room like he was the one paying for the place.
“What the hell was that?” he demanded.
She shrugged, not feeling conversational.
“Running her mouth? What did you mean by that?”
Daisy sensed she was on dangerous ground here. Easy had a lot of pride and it wasn’t smart to stomp all over it by admitting that she knew the real reason he’d broken up with Brenda. She threw the damp towel onto the bed and crossed her arms in front of her. “Well in case you forgot, she called me a slut in front of the whole damn bar. And she took a swing at me first! I don’t know who she thought she was coming back to Maria’s after all that, but I’m not about to let that shit stand.”
He seemed to consider this at length, and if he doubted her, he didn’t say anything. Instead he moved toward her and took hold of her hand. He turned it over in his, inspecting her knuckles. Angry that he only cared about her now, as an afterthought, she jerked it back. “I know how to throw a punch, Turnbull. Been doing it all my life.”
“You’re right,” he told her. “She shouldn’t have come to the bar.”
Daisy glared at him. “And maybe if you weren’t gawking all over her, exactly like she wanted, she would’ve just left.”
His gaze darkened. “That guy she was messing with is bad news, a one-percenter. She was in for a whole lot of trouble with someone like him.”
Daisy let out an exasperated breath. “Oh, so you just had to be the one to save her. Good thinking. Maybe she’ll give you a Thank You blowjob once she can breathe through her nose again!”
“It wasn’t like that! She was going to get hurt. I couldn’t let that happen.”
Daisy turned away and, for lack of anything better to do, pushed a sketch around on the table next to her. “No, but you’ll let me get hurt,” she said quietly.
There was a long silence between them before he said, “You don’t need my help. You can take care of yourself just fine.”
Daisy scratched the surface of the table with her thumbnail. Of course she could take care of herself. That wasn’t the point. The point was to have someone who cared enough about you to fight for you. She’d taken Brenda down a few pegs for insulting Easy, that’s what you were supposed to do. She sighed to herself. He didn’t know that’s why she’d done it and she could never tell him.
“You’re right,” she told him and turned to face him. “What happened between me and your girlfriend is our business, not yours. Long as she stays the fuck away from me, I’m over it now. But I work there, that’s my job, so keep her out.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Bullshit. You showed up here to bitch at me about it, about her. She’s yours and that also means she’s your problem.”
“That’s not why I’m here and you know it.”
For one crazy moment, Daisy thought he was going to confess to her the truth about Brenda. She imagined him telling her everything, about why he hadn’t been with a woman in so long and how badly it must have hurt him to hear her say those things about him.
