“Stop it!” I shout, reaching for Travis’s arm, but I end up getting an elbow to the face that knocks me on my ass.
Gabe’s eyes flare, and his already red face flames even hotter.
“Gabe, I’m fine,” I say from beneath my hand, which is pressed to the aching spot on my cheek, worried that he might kill Travis. He assesses me for a moment, then grabs Travis’s collar and punches him hard across the face, before shoving him down onto the ground.
I stand up and wipe off my shorts and the backs of my bare legs, which are dotted with tiny pieces of gravel. Several people are standing next to their cars now, watching the whole ordeal, including Audrey, who must have come outside to find me.
“Liv, what’s going on?”
I can’t answer her. I just shake my head.
Gabe wipes the blood from the corner of his mouth with a heavy hand and looks at me. His face is a mix of anger, disappointment, exhaustion, and pain, all wrapped up into one devastating look. “Did he hurt you?” he asks me calmly.
I touch my face. Ow. Yes. My cheek feels like it’s on fire. “No, I’m okay.”
He holds my stare, chewing the inside of his lip, conflicted and contemplating, but he doesn’t take a single step toward me.
“Gabe, please. We weren’t engaged. Not for very long, anyway. Just let me explain.” But he doesn’t give me the chance. Travis was quite convincing. Gabe gets in his truck and drives away, dragging my heart behind him.
“Liv,” Audrey says, placing her hand on my back, “are you okay?”
I clutch the hole that has ripped wide open in the middle of my chest, tearing through the scar tissue I thought had sealed it. “No.”
“Liv?” I look up and see Travis staring at me like the cat that ate the canary. He has a bloody nose and the early makings of a black eye. He runs his hands through his dark hair and laces his fingers together behind his head. “Jesus, Liv.” He drops his hands and reaches for me. “You know I didn’t mean to. I would never hurt you.”
“Don’t touch me.” I glare at him. “You couldn’t begin to understand how much you’ve hurt me.”
“Liv, that wasn’t me, okay? I’m sorry.”
I close my eyes and say, “Just go.”
“Liv...please.”
“Goodbye, Travis,” I say for the last time. I look at Audrey. “I can’t go back inside.”
“I’ll tell Lou you got sick. Don’t worry about it. Do you want me to drive you home? I can tell him that you need me to.”
“No, it’s okay.”
“Okay. Well, call me later. You know I’m here for you if you need me.”
I force a small smile. “Thanks, Audrey.” I catch a glimpse of Travis’s taillights when he tears out of the parking lot in his BMW and I watch his taillights fade from view, praying that I never see him again.
I fall into my car, thankful that I put my keys and phone in my apron pocket, and drop my head to my steering wheel.
I have to talk to Gabe. I leave the diner and head straight to his apartment, ignoring the speed limit as I go.
I pull onto the Norths’ property just a few minutes later, relieved to find Gabe’s truck in the back by the garage. I park beside it and listen for the usual sounds that he’s working, but I don’t hear anything coming from the garage. Instead, I hear a loud cracking noise coming from somewhere nearby. It sounds like wood splitting apart.
I follow the sound behind the garage and find Gabe swinging an axe at an old, gnarled tree trunk. I dodge a rogue piece of wood that comes flying at me. I don’t know if he sees me or not, but he doesn’t look up.
Roxy runs over to me and circles my feet, and I pat her numbly.
“Gabe.”
He keeps swinging the axe.
“Gabe.”
He swings it again.
“Gabe!”
He slams the axe down hard, leaving it wedged in the wood, and looks up at me.
“Gabe, please.”
“You should have told me.”
“Told you what? You knew we were together.”
“You should have told me it was serious. You brushed it off when I mentioned hearing that Travis wanted to marry you. You made it sound casual.”
“It was casual. I don’t understand why you’re so upset.”
“Because I can’t believe you were engaged to that asshole!” he shouts. “I know you were messed up after we... after I... I know it’s my fault, okay, but did you really lose yourself that much that you would turn to a guy like him?”
I stare at him, mouth agape, shocked by his accusation. He doesn’t know the half of why I was with Travis. And, as angry as I am with Travis, I feel suddenly defensive of him.
Gabe picks up the axe and starts swinging it again. “How could you agree to marry that jerk?”
I try to control my wild heartbeat long enough to explain. “We were not engaged. Yes, he proposed. I told you he wanted to get married, and technically I did say yes, but—”
He slams the axe down again, startling me with the loud crack, and I wonder who he’s truly angry with. Me, Travis, or himself. He leaves the axe wedged in the wood and looks up at the tall pine trees towering over us. “I feel like I don’t even know you right now.” He pulls his hat off and runs his hand through his hair. “Maybe he does.”
“You know me. Travis never did.”
“You expect me to believe that? You were together for two years.”
“I know, but I never gave myself to Travis.”
“Oh, it sounds like you gave yourself to him plenty. So much for protecting your virtue.”
I screw up my face and huff. “Seriously? Is that what this is about? You’re mad because I slept with him?” My chest tightens as I recall the rejection and loneliness I felt after we broke up. “I didn’t have physical touch for five years. Five years,” I cry. “I was desperate just to be held again. And no, I didn’t love Travis, but he was nice to me, and he made me feel safe and wanted.”
“Do you know what it’s like to have another man tell me he made you scream?” I know that cut him deep. And I hate Travis for saying it. But I do know what it’s like.
“Kind of like when Stacey McGillis told me that you tasted good? At least Travis wasn’t some trashy one-night stand.” I shake my head, which is completely clouded with anger now. “I cannot believe you had sex with her! God only knows how many people she’s screwed.” I cross my arms and glare at him. “The thought of you touching her makes me sick.”
“Stacey McGillis?” He shakes his head, and I raise my eyebrows at him affirmatively. “That’s not the same thing, Liv. It didn’t mean anything.”
“Oh, it meant something to her, believe me.”
He looks frustrated. “It was one time.”
“With her. Who knows how many others there were.”
“At least I didn’t agree to marry any of them.”
“I was confused,” I yell.
Disappointment chases away his anger. “That guy, Liv? Really?” He shakes his head. “The girl I knew wouldn’t have even talked to a guy like that.”
“Yeah, well, the girl you knew wouldn’t have had the opportunity to talk to a guy like that if you hadn’t thrown her away in the first place.” I regret saying it as soon as it leaves my mouth.