Page 73

Marlo nodded but looked unsure. “Okay. If you need me to pour a beer on him or something, I will. That’ll get him out of here.”

I laughed, but she didn’t.

“I’m serious.”

“I know you are, Mar.” I hugged her quickly.

As I served a few more drinks, I noticed that Kyland and Shelly hadn’t left. In fact, they’d gotten a table up by the dance floor. I watched them from the corner of my eye and noticed that he was sitting stiff and rigid and she looked uncomfortable too. I vowed not to look in their direction again.

I went back to the bar and asked Al for another shot and slung it down. I hadn’t eaten dinner and so the two shots already had a buzzed energy spreading through my veins.

You’re okay. You’re okay.

A burly trucker sitting at the bar who had consumed one too many beers pulled me onto his lap. I gave a fake laugh and struggled to get up, but he pulled me back down. “Hey, come on now,” I said, trying to diffuse the situation. “How can I get your beer if you don’t let me up?”

“I’d rather take a long drink of you.” He laughed loudly and moved his hands up my body.

“Let her go before I rearrange your fucking face.” I recognized Kyland’s voice immediately. I stopped struggling, and the big guy whipped his head around, releasing his hold on me so I could clamor to my feet.

Kyland was standing behind the guy, his jaw hard and set, his hands fisted at his sides.

“Whoa, man,” the guy slurred, turning his hefty body in his seat. “No harm meant. I was just saying hi to the lady.” His eyes ran down my body again.

“Say hi to ladies with your mouth, not your hands.”

My head whipped from Kyland to the drunken guy. Now I was a lady? Interesting considering very recently, he’d told me he couldn’t live in the same town as me.

“I’d like to do that too.” He wiggled his tongue and then let out a sharp bark of laughter.

Kyland’s fist was a blur as it flew past me, straight into the guy’s face. The guy let out a grunt, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he toppled over, out cold on the bar floor. A loud whoop went up among the bar patrons. This was not an unusual occurrence at Al’s. Still, my mouth fell open. I stared at the trucker on the floor for a second and then looked back up at Kyland.

And suddenly I was angry. Maybe it was the liquor flowing through my veins, maybe it was the fact that Kyland thought he could mess with my emotions or that anything that happened to me was any of his damn business. Maybe it was the fact that he’d shown up on my territory twice this week and it’d hurt me deeply both times. Suddenly, I was furious.

“How dare you?” I seethed.

“How dare I pull a lecherous pig off you?” he asked. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were enjoying being manhandled. Then again, you are back here in this goddamned town working at the same goddamned bar.” His nostrils flared and I almost wondered if he might paw the ground like an angry bull.

“Maybe I was enjoying it. And either way, it’s none of your business what I like or don’t like.” I was so angry I was shaking. I grabbed a guy walking by and pulled on his sweater roughly. He stumbled toward me, looking surprised. I planted my lips on his. He tasted like beer and smelled like cheap aftershave. I pushed him away and the guy went stumbling off, muttering, “Wow. I really like this bar.”

I looked back at Kyland’s face, his expression frozen in something I wasn’t sure I could read.

“Tenleigh?” I heard Marlo’s voice and saw her in my peripheral vision. I put my hand up, letting her know I was okay, my eyes glued to Kyland.

“I do what I want, when I want,” I said. What was I even doing? I wasn’t totally clear. I just knew I was angry and out of control. And I knew it still hurt down to my soul that Kyland had betrayed me after I’d given him every last piece of myself—the pieces of myself it was becoming very clear I’d never figured out how to reassemble.

“Is that what you did in California?” he asked, moving closer to me.

I lifted my chin, literally turning my nose up at him. “All the time. As often as possible,” I lied. “Once you broke the seal, I figured—”

The look of raw pain that crossed his face stunned me and my words died on my lips. But just as quickly my anger flared again. He was upset by the thought of me being with other men? Of all the hypocritical bastards! He was here, with her, the woman he had cheated on me with—the woman he’d made a baby with.