“I understand.” She didn’t want to, but she did for me, and for right now, that had to be enough.
My boots hit the front porch. “Can I call you next week? Chat with Lucy, maybe?” I asked, twisting my neck to look through the front window. A sharp pain shot through my chest as my eyes landed on the back of Margo’s head. Her hair, usually pin straight, was curled and swept up off her neck, displaying the delicate arch of it. It was intimate, something the outside world rarely ever got to see. Jealousy seeped into my bloodstream, cold and vile as I noted how perfect her fair skin was tonight, the mark of my teeth completely healed—erased. My sister’s words faded away entirely when that stunning arch deepened as she threw her head back and laughed.
What the fuck was she laughing at?
Nothing was fucking funny.
A low growl came from me then, my fingers tightening around my cell phone at the thought of that man—Gordon—being here. I didn’t know if I would be able to—if he put his hands on her around me…fuck.
Cool it, Mitchell.
“Hayes?” my sister called. “You there?”
My jaw tightened, pain radiating up to my temple as I ripped my gaze from that infuriating woman. “I have to let you go.”
The call ended and the front door opened, revealing Carrie and all her light. “Hi, Hayes!” she practically cried, lunging for me. Her arms were wrapped around my waist, her cheek against my chest. “You made it! I was so worried you couldn’t come.”
Inside, Grayson appeared with his hands in his pockets, dressed in black slacks and a light blue button-up. He jerked his chin to me as my arms wrapped around Carrie, returning thewarm embrace. “Wouldn’t miss it,” I murmured as she stepped back, still beaming.
“I’m so glad,” she whispered, looking back at Grayson. “Tonight is a big night.”
A small smile found my friend then. “Yes, it is, Sunshine.”
Carrie grabbed my arm. “Come on in! Dinner is nearly ready. You want a beer?”
I cleared my throat, stepping over the threshold. “No, I’m all right. Thank you.”
Carrie nodded, her curls bouncing as Grayson shut the door. Her voice filled their cozy but cramped living room then. “The food should be ready in just a few minutes, everyone!”
The boys from Red Snake flashed her grins and a few of the locals nodded and smiled. I could feel my angry girl’s gaze burning into my profile as Grayson rounded to my front, holding his hand out for me to shake. “Thank you,” he said, sincere.
My hand clapped with his as I pushed words out. “No need to thank me, Gray. I’ll always be here when you need me.”
He slapped me on the shoulder, shot me a grin, and moved away, following his woman around the corner and into the kitchen. The smell of herbs and garlic was all around, and I knew if I got even a whiff of jasmine, I would snap. I couldn’t look at her. I couldn’t go near her. If I did, everyone in this house would know the truth, and the last thing I needed was more of my pain exposed.
Chapter Five
Margo
Ifelt him before he came through the door.
If I was being honest, I felt him the second his Jeep pulled around the street corner. I shouldn’t have looked, but I did. He parked in his usual spot, under the streetlight just across thestreet, and seeing the outline of him was nearly enough to bring me to the ground. I wasn’t ready for this—to be in the same room with him after he’d treated me like an afterthought. Not when I still wanted him. Not when I knew that it would take months—probably longer—a questionable amount of cookie dough ice cream, and at least twelve more shower cries to get over him.
Now he was here, twenty feet from me, wearing a black Henley, jeans, and a suede jacket that wouldn’t look good on anyone else but him. He could pull it off because he was Hayes. Between his short blond hair, sharp jaw, straight nose, and his dark emerald eyes, Hayes Mitchell was the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen.
This was a truth I’d accepted years ago: I was a mess—in all areas of my life. From a very young age, before she died, my mother told me that good things don’t happen to Bennett women, including finding good men. The women of the Bennett family never ended up with good men. That was our curse. My grandfather was an abusive, unfaithful alcoholic. My father and uncles were alcoholics and drug addicts. All my ex-boyfriends were scum bags. Hayes was different.
Hayes was untouchable, until he wasn’t.
I didn’t belong with a good man like him. I deserved scum, because that was who I thought I was at my core. I’d been fighting to change that for the last few years, to give meaning to my name, to prove that I could be something other than a train wreck, a shit show who could never seem to do anything right.
Hayes gave me a taste of something I never thought I could have: perfection.
Then he tore it out of my grasp, leaving me cold, confused, and alone. Hayes wasn’t supposed to be the kind of man who fucked a girl and moved on. He was supposed to be the kind of man who disappeared the next morning to grab bagels from your favorite bagel place by the docks, the kind of man who came back andfound you wrapped up in the sheets, the smell of his cologne lingering on your skin, the taste of him still on your tongue, and smile at you. He was supposed to be the kind of man who couldn’t break a woman’s heart. That’s who I imagined him to be the second I pressed my finger into his chest and demanded him to bring my best friend back home safely. That’s who I needed him to be when he found me curled up on the floor of that god-awful fishing shed and told me that everything was going to be okay, that nothing would ever hurt me again because he wouldn’t allow it.
And yet?
I gave him my heart, and he held it in his hands and shattered it within a matter of hours, leaving me to rot in the middle of my own destruction. He broke his promise.