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Daniel shook her arm. “It makes no sense. You said you never wanted to return to your home town. I was sure you’d hopped on a return flight when you left my place.”
“A flight back to what, Daniel?” Celia asked. “I had already gotten rid of all my stuff. I thought we were going to build a life together.”
“Don’t do that,” he said, shaking his head at her. “Don’t make it my fault.”
Celia closed her eyes, letting out a breath. “No, it’s mine.” She had been impulsive, completely unlike herself. Opening her eyes to study him, she had a hard time understanding what had come over her. She’d been so careful for so long, switching jobs as she got comfortable out of choice, not randomness. Her mother had been the spontaneous one, and it had always ended badly. She huffed out a breath at the thought. She really should have known.
“You think this is funny?” Daniel asked, shaking her again. “Stalking me?”
“What?” Celia blinked at him. “I’m not stalking you.”
“Seriously, Cele? You haven’t even left my neighborhood.” He waved his free hand around the supermarket, drawing the eyes of some of the other shoppers.
Celia’s skin crawled at their shifting gazes. She took another breath. They weren’t staring at her, but at him, she told herself. She was the one acting normal. “I’m staying with someone near here. I honestly forgot you lived so close.” It was a sad underscore to how much she’d fooled herself. She hadn’t cared for the man at all if he’d been so far out of her thoughts in less than a week.
Daniel pulled her closer, lowering his voice. “Don’t bother lying. You stalking me is what I would expect after everything you told me about your mother.”
A rushing sound filled her ears, blocking out his next words. She had told him bits of her past, a first for her in a relationship. She’d considered spending her life with him, she reminded herself. It hadn’t been crazy to tell him.
Her lips felt numb as she said, “Is that why?”
He stared at her. “Is what why?”
“You chose not to build a life with me. After we had talked about nothing but that for months.” Her thoughts sped up as she realized it hadn’t been long after she’d shared that piece of herself that he’d broken things off. “Was what I told you about my family why you did what you did?”
“Well, hell, Cele, who would want the genes of a lunatic running through their kids?” Daniel frowned at her. “You know who my family is.”
He said it like the snob he was, but that wasn’t what she remembered. When she’d met his family, they had been nice to her. They’d seemed so normal.
Celia’s arm hung limply in his grip. “Why not just tell me, then? Why did you let me come all the way here?”
“See, you are pissed.” Daniel’s eyes narrowed on her.
“Celia?” The voice at her back, so unexpected, brought a rush of warmth into her stomach.
Trenton’s arm came around her shoulders, and he tucked her protectively into his side. He frowned down at the other man’s grip on her arm. “You need to take your hand off her, now.”
Celia’s eyes flew up to his at the tone she’d never heard from him before. Trenton wasn’t smiling as he stared at Daniel.
Daniel let her go, raising his hand in defense. “Hey, I’m not the one we need to worry about here. She’s the crazy stalker.”
The whispers of the shoppers became a drone as Celia dropped her gaze.
“She’s no such thing,” Trenton said, squeezing her shoulder. “I assume you’re the fiancé?”
Daniel let out a laugh. “So she has been talking about me after all.”
Celia raised her eyes to stare at the man she had barely known at all. “I couldn’t help but celebrate escaping the worst decision of my life.”
The smile dropped from Daniel’s face as he lurched toward her.
Trenton pulled her out of reach, stepping between them. “She’s under my protection. Don’t do that again.”
Daniel raked his eyes up and down Trenton before latching them onto her again. “It didn’t take you long.”
“Is that really where you want to go with this?” Celia asked, remembering the blonde from before. She started to turn away. “It’s okay, Trenton. Let’s just go.”
“I pity you,” Daniel told him. “She’s the worst lay I’ve ever had, and that’s saying something.”
