by Rush, Olivia
But it was already too late for that. First, because I didn’t run from anyone. Never had and never would. Secondly, because fuckface and my ex-wife had already spotted me and made a beeline for us.
“It will be fine,” I said, but the words pushed out between gritted teeth. “Just stay calm.” That was more for my benefit than hers. I was already hot all over just at the sight of this asshole.
Perry and Tabitha halted beside us, both grinning broadly. Apparently, the other doctor’s swollen nose wouldn’t stop him from emoting his prickish behavior. “There’s the bitch I was telling you about, honey. The one who filed a false claim against me with the police? That’s her.”
“Mmm,” Tabitha said, shaking her head. “Some women will do anything to bring a good man down.”
“Fuck off, Perry.” The words were too loud. People in the line behind and ahead of us turned around and stared, many of them shaking their heads.
“Mason,” Becca whispered, “let’s just go. They’re not worth the trouble, OK? We’ll find another stall, and that will be it.” She tugged on my arm gently and set me in motion—guiding me away from the asshat abuser and my ex.
It was probably for the best. The last thing either of us needed was a scene, and Perry was just the guy to cause it.
“See? We’re good,” Becca said. “No need to hulk out on the guy.”
I couldn’t reply. All my energy was focused on restraining myself. If I turned back now, if I heard one more word out of Perry’s…
“That’s right, Dunn.” Jackson’s voice floated on the air, above the tinkle of carnival music and the laughter of kids and adults alike. “You walk away. Walk away like you always do. You know, for a military man, you’re not that tough.”
This motherfucker.
He thought I’d let him get away with this because he was in the middle of a crowded area.
“Ignore him, please,” Becca whispered.
“You’re so fucking done in this town, buddy,” Perry called out again. “You and your bitch. She chose the wrong target for her little slur campaign. You know she’s going to be fired, right? And after that, she’ll never work in Stoneport again.”
I halted mid-step. Becca tugged on my arm, but I couldn’t hear her over Perry’s words. They reverberated in my mind. Anger boiled beneath my skin, desperate for release.
“Just goes to show who the bigger man is,” Perry continued. “I win.”
It was the final straw—the comparison between us. In what world did this asshole think he was anything like me? He was a fake friend, a betrayer, an abuser.
I shook off Becca’s grip and slewed on the spot, the edges of my vision blurry. Perry was at the end of a tunnel, standing just behind the line, still grinning as if taunting me was the best fun he’d had in years.
“What you gonna do, big guy? In front of all these people? Huh? What are you going to do? Come on, just fucking hit me, and see what happens. I’ll sue your ass so fast your head will spin off your shoulders.”
I started walking toward him. Not walking, no—fucking striding, eating up the ground beneath my boots, and my fists wound tight, aching for a chance to hit him again. I’d break him this time. Snap him like a twig.
Blood rushed in my ears. My biceps tightened up, shoulders stiffened. Every muscle in my body was ready for this. There was Perry and only Perry. Nothing else.
“He’s not really going to do anything,” Perry said, glancing off to one side. “Don’t worry about it.”
I raised my fist and let out a feral roar.
Perry turned back just in time to witness it. Fear flashed through him, wiping the cocky smirk from his lips, at last. “No,” he said. “Stop.”
But I couldn’t stop. It was too fucking late. I whacked the container of food out of Jackson’s hand, then caught his collar and jerked him toward me. “Piece of shit,” I growled and drew my fist back. No punches pulled. I’d break his jaw.
Perry winced and raised both arms to shield his face, struggling against my grip. “Please,” he whimpered. “Please stop. I didn’t mean it. Please, Mason. Buddy, come on, it was just a bit of fun.”
I shifted my grip, raised him into the air, and tossed him away from me, breathing hard. “You’re pathetic,” I grunted.
Perry scrambled backward on all fours, blinking rapidly, silent.
I squeezed my eyes shut and let him go, struggling for control of myself, of this situation. Christ, I’d almost beaten the living shit out of him in front of everyone. In front of Rebecca.
My senses came back to me, one by one. I opened my eyes.
The carnival sounds returned slowly. It was surreal that everything had continued as normal during the time I’d blocked it out. The Ferris wheel still turned, the popcorn popped, and the line for the food moved on, though many of the folks in it stared at me in disgust.
“Shit,” I muttered and turned, searching the crowd for Rebecca. “Shit. Becca?” I called out.
But it was too late. She was gone.
Chapter 22
Rebecca
Idiot, idiot, idiot. I chanted the phrase to myself with every step I took away from the carnival. I’d already passed Mason’s Dodge and left it behind. I didn’t care about having to walk home—all I wanted was out.
All my fears about the complications of going on this date with Mason had screamed to the forefront the minute Perry had appeared, and with that woman on his arm. The same blonde bimbo who’d told me to get lost when I’d gone for an interview at the Dirty Rice Diner.
I’d already started putting two and two together.
Perry had betrayed Mason—he’d made that much clear in our previous conversations—and Tabitha had been involved. The blondie had to be her. And that meant she was Mason’s ex-wife.
What had he seen in her? Or rather, the question was, what did he now see in me?
I was nothing like her. I wasn’t stick-thin or top heavy. I wasn’t bottle blonde or pouty-lipped in the extreme. And I certainly didn’t dress like I was about to take the runway at New York Fashion Week.
It doesn’t matter! I tried shoving all the thoughts aside and focused on winding through the parking area in front of the carnival grounds, my sandals crunching the gravel underfoot.
“Hey!” A woman called out behind me. “Hey, wait a second!”
I kept walking. It didn’t matter who it was, just that I got out of here and away from everything that’d happened.
Mason would be better off without me. If it wasn’t for me, none of that would have transpired back there. No Perry to mock me and then him, and no tension between us because of our strange relationship.
“Hold up, girl, damn.” Heels critzed over the gravel and a hand grasped my forearm. A hand, tipped in perfectly manicured nails. “I can’t run in Versace.”
I wrenched my grip free of her, but she circled and blocked my path. It was her. The blonde with the lips and the twigs for legs. I’d never been particularly judgmental of other women or men, but the fact that we were so different stung a little.
Maybe I was jealous. Maybe that was immature, but right now, after that show back there with Perry and Mason, I couldn’t help myself.
“We haven’t been formally introduced,” the woman said and extended that same nail-tipped hand. “I’m Tabitha Barnes.”
I took her hand, simply because it was against my nature to leave anyone hanging like that. “Rebecca.”
“Oh, I know who you are. I remember you from the Dirty Rice the other day, and I know what you’ve been getting up to the past few weeks.” She clucked like a hen. “Silly me, everyone in town knows what you’ve been getting up to the past few weeks. That’s Stoneport for you.”
“What do you want?” I asked and released her hand. I wiped mine off on the back of my cotton dress.
“Oh, straight to the point? No time for small talk? What a pity. I love a good bit of small talk, you know?”
I remained silent and stared at her. She’d squeezed h
erself into a lace dress that cupped her massive breasts and, if possible, lifted them even more. I sighed after a second. “What do you want?” I repeated.
“I guess you could say I wanted to offer you some support.”
“Huh?” It was the last thing I’d expect from her. She’d behaved abhorrently toward me the last time we’d encountered each other, and that’d been before we’d known each other at all.
“Yeah, that’s right. Listen, I know what it’s like to get caught up in a guy like Mason. Actually, to get caught up in Mason in particular. I just, well, I figured I should warn you about him,” she continued. “Look, he seems all perfect on the outside, but Mason has some serious issues.”
“I’m not interested in talking about this.” I bristled.
“I know, I know, it’s rich coming from me, right? I’m his ex, so why would you believe me? But trust me when I say, I know firsthand why you should stay away from him.”
I side-stepped, but she tottered along with me and kept blocking my path.
“Mason will leave you when you need him the most,” she said. “He did it to me shortly after we got married. He left me alone in Stoneport for months at a time while he went to Afghanistan.”
She made it sound like his service had been a vacation. “I’m leaving,” I said.
“So you two have that in common, at least. Here’s the truth, girl—the minute times get tough between you and Mason, the minute anything nasty happens, he’ll leave. He can’t take the complication. Mason is selfish, and that’s all there is to it.”
My gaze tracked over her and took in the makeup, the perfect hair. She could say what she wanted about him, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe any of it. Mason had shown me nothing but kindness. In fact, when times had gotten tough, I’d been the one who’d bussed off to my sister’s place to wait it out. He was the one who’d continually put himself on the line for me, offering me help with the house, or asking me on dates, or just being there when I needed to talk about Kieran and the past.
“I don’t believe you,” I said simply and side-stepped again. Once again, Louisiana Barbie tottered along with me. “Get out of my way.”
“Oh honey, please. I know he’s good in bed, and that he’s probably made you fall for him, but it’s all a lie. You don’t know the whole truth about Mason. You don’t know what happened before he left. I caught him cheating on me.”
I froze and stared at her. That isn’t true. I didn’t have a whit of evidence to tell me otherwise, but I knew in my heart, in the deepest parts of my soul, that Mason wasn’t that guy. In the time we’d spent together, there’d never been a hint of it, and I had fucking feelers for that type of thing after Kieran’s expeditions with everyone from the waitresses at the restaurant to the bartender to the chick in the apartment down the hall.
“And when I confronted him about it, he told me he had to leave the next day for Afghanistan. He left me to sit for months on my own in an empty house, doing nothing. And the only one who was there for me was Perry.”
“Hmm, and I’m sure Perry’s a total saint,” I said. “Guess I’ll just break up with Mason, then.”
Tabitha flushed with pleasure, and a broad smile gleamed back at me. “That’s a wise idea.”
“I’m kidding.” I stepped up close, right into her space, and stared into her eyes. “I don’t believe a word of what you say. I already know what happened between you two, and with Perry, and I won’t fall for your bullshit tricks. It’s ironic that you’re bad-mouthing Mason, when not two days ago your boyfriend sexually harassed me.” I gritted my teeth. “You need to stay in your own lane and work on your own relationship before you come anywhere near anyone else’s. Heck, even when you’re done working on your relationship, you should probably reserve comment on other people’s lives, regardless. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m done here.”
With that, I stepped around her, not providing her with an opportunity to block me again.
I marched off, my stomach burning with anxiety now. God, the last thing I needed was to develop an ulcer because of all of this crap. I’d defended Mason because it was the right thing to do, but I still wasn’t sure about any of this.
Seeing him like that, caught in anger, had been a serious shock. He hadn’t heard a word of what I’d said. I’d begged him to stop, to leave, to let it go, because fighting Perry wouldn’t change a damn thing. Instead, he’d run directly for him and grabbed him by the collar.
I couldn’t watch that kind of thing.
Five minutes later, I hit the streets and kept walking, right through the center of town. Most of the stores were closed, though some restaurants were still open—but none of them looked particularly familiar. I wasn’t anywhere near the Dirty Rice Diner or Betsy’s Place.
A car rumbled up behind me, and headlights lit up the sidewalk.
“Becca.” Mason’s voice sent a shiver right through my center. My feet threatened to stop of their own accord. Every part of me wanted to stop and turn back to him. I forced myself to keep walking.
The Dodge followed me, and I ignored it.
“Becca, I swear to god I will follow you all the way home. I’m not letting you walk.”
“Go away,” I replied and kicked off my heels. I swept them up in one hand and kept walking. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not fine. Fuck it, none of this is fine. I’m sorry I lost control, OK? Just—get in the car.”
I stopped then, and the Dodge braked beside me. I glared at him, still so gorgeous with his thick forearm resting on the window trim and his face wrinkled with worry. “You don’t tell me what to do,” I snapped. “I do my own thing. I’m my own person.”
“I know that.”
“Good,” I said and set off walking again, ignoring the fact that I was totally lost. I might hit the end of town walking in this direction, for all I knew.
The Dodge kept pace alongside me. “You’re going the wrong way,” Mason called out. “Becca, let me help you. I’ll take you home. We can talk.”
“I don’t want to talk,” I said. “I want to go home, take a bath, and go to sleep. I’ve had enough of this shitty town and this shitty week.”
“Fine, then we don’t gotta talk. Just get in the Dodge and let me take you home. That’s all.”
My feet did hurt a little, true, and I had no clue where I was headed. I stopped again and looked over at him. “No talking?”
“None,” he said and made a cross over his heart. “Swear it.”
I pursed my lips and walked around to the passenger side of the Dodge then let myself in. The inside of the car smelled of him, of his delicious cologne and his personal musk. I tried blocking my nose from the inside and failed.
“Seatbelt,” he said.
I clicked it into place then folded my arms across my chest and looked out of the window at the main street. Mason cruised off down the road, and the silence grew between us. The minutes stretched out for far too long. I shifted my legs and busied myself putting my heels back on.
Finally, we arrived in front of my house. “Thanks,” I said and unhooked my seatbelt. I opened the door and slid down to the sidewalk.
“Becca, wait.” Mason’s voice followed me, but I slammed the door shut and headed for my front gate instead. Just go home. Just leave, Mason, I can’t handle being around you. I can’t think straight.
But the Dodge’s engine cut out, and a door slammed a second later. His footsteps chased up behind me, thumping against the concrete. “Becca,” he breathed, and it warmed my neck. Goosebumps rose, and I halted mid-stride.
Don’t turn around. Don’t do it. Just keep walking.
“We’ve got to talk about this, angelface,” he said.
“No, we really don’t.” I opened the gate and entered, but he followed me.
“I won’t leave until we do.”
Chapter 23
Mason
I followed her up the front path and all the way to the porch, my frustration building wit
h every step. This was my fault. I’d lost control of myself because of Perry, and now, I’d nearly lost her.
Becca had every right to be angry with me after what happened. I’d ignored her, gone with my gut instinct to punch Perry into a mush, and likely scared the shit out of her. She’d never seen that side of me. Even when I’d defended her in the practice, I’d still been somewhat in control of my faculties.
“Becca,” I said, for what had to be the fiftieth time. “I’m not going to leave until we hash this out. I know I fucked up.”
We mounted the front steps in darkness. She hadn’t left the porch light on for herself, or perhaps it didn’t work, and the night surrounded us. There was only the moon, blocked by the porch’s overhang, and the silent street. Crickets chirped in the bushes nearby, and Becca’s keys rattled as she brought them out of her purse.
“For fuck’s sake, Rebecca,” I said. “Talk to me.”
She spun around and glared up at me, stunning me again. Too much fucking beauty to handle, even more pronounced now that she was angry. She squared her shoulders and stared up at me. “I didn’t ask for any of this,” she said. “I just wanted to start my life fresh.”
“You’re saying I fucked it up?”
“A little, yeah,” she replied. “Because of…this.” She pointed from her chest to mine and back again, then shook her long dark curls out. “Because of whatever is going on between us, I’m now one of the most hated people in town.”
“Not true,” I replied. “You’re hated by a handful of idiots. The rest of Stoneport is decent.”
“Whatever. The point is I didn’t want to start a new life here with a shadow over my head, and now I have it, whether I like it or not.”
“So what are you saying?” I asked. “You wanna stop? You wanna forget about all of this because of Perry? Because of my ex?” I took one of her hands in mine and brushed my thumb over the back of it. “You’ll let some assholes decide your future for you?”
