“You’re blocking my sun,” he grumbled without sparing the man a glance. “Just take this and leave the other one down there. I’ll add another tip when I settle up for the night.”
His server said nothing. He also didn’t take his bottle.
“Hello…” Adrian prompted him rudely. “You gonna take this sometime today?”
The man took the empty bottle from his hand.
About fucking time.
“Just leave the other one and go.”
The sun returned in full force as the man stepped aside.
Alone again, Adrian closed his eyes and drew in a breath. He knew he was being an asshole, but he couldn’t seem to help it. The anguish he’d been living with since walking out of that damn hospital had made him this way.
No,youmade you this way when you ran off like a little bitch. Again.
Refusing to respond to his annoying inner self, he blindly reached for his newest drink. His fingertips met nothing but sand.
Opening his eyes, Adrian had just started his search for the misplaced bottle when a fountain of fresh beer rained down over his head. The cold liquid was a shock to his heated system, and he jumped up like a wild man to try to retreat from its path.
“What the fuck?”
He swiped a palm across his dripping face, knocking his baseball hat off his head and to the sand by his feet. The hat had helped block some of the fresh brew, but the position Adrian had been lounging in had left most of his face exposed to the attack.
“What the hell is your problem, man?” He rubbed beer from his stinging eyes. “Know what? Doesn’t matter ’cause you aresofucking fired.”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you don’t have the authority to fire me. Or anyone else, for that matter.”
Adrian froze because, shit. That wasnotthe voice of the man who’d been bringing him endless drinks these last few weeks.
“Dawson?” He licked a drop of beer from his upper lip. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Funny. I came all this way to ask you the same question.”
The man was dressed in a U.S. Navy t-shirt and a pair of khaki cargo shorts. And he looked pissed.
“It’s none of your goddamn business.” He walked back over to his chair. “Sorry you wasted a trip.”
Adrian made a move to sit down, but his ass met sand because Gabe had justpulledthat chair out from underneath him.
“Jesus.” He stumbled to his feet and dusted himself off. “What is your fucking problem?”
Gabe glared. “You’re seriously going to stand there and ask me that? I’ve known you as a lot of things, Walker. But not once did I ever see you as a fucking coward.”
The words didn’t hurt as their owner had intended. Mainly because Gabe wasn’t saying anything Adrian didn’t already know.
“Go home, Dawson.” He turned his back on the other man and started walking toward the water’s edge.
“She’s fine, by the way!” Gabe hollered after him. “Not that you bothered to ask.”
Adrian stopped in his tracks but kept his eyes glued to the water in front of him. His gut turned inward, and his back teeth clamped together. He hadn’t asked because he didn’t want to hear it.
He didn’t want to know that Jenna had moved on without him. Even though she had every right to.
It was why he’d left in the first place. To give her a chance to be free of him and the shadows that would continue to follow him. A chance to live her life without fear of his enemies coming after her—again—because of him.
A chance to be happy and fall in love with someone normal and safe.