I watched the crowd and immediately identified several douchebags. “No, he would not. Xander is not like that. He’s far too reserved to hit on a woman so openly.”
She smiled before stepping up to help a customer. “Good, because I would hate to have to kick his ass for treating women like the men I’m seeing here.”
The young man waiting for his drink stared at her. He looked terrified. I knew she had purposely said what she did for his benefit. Nelle didn’t hold back. She’d been in the bar business a long time. Her tolerance level for drunken antics was pretty low.
“You will not have to kick his ass,” I assured her. “Now, I must make the rounds and make sure nothing is falling apart in the kitchen. I have a feeling I won’t be getting a great review for this one.”
“If that asshole gives you a shitty review, you let me know,” she said and practically thrust the man’s drink at him. He took it and ran like the hounds of hell were on his heels. The poor kid hadn’t even seen Nelle mad. He would have really run scared then.
“It’s fine,” I told her. “I will soothe things over.”
“Don’t you dare!”
I smiled and drifted into the crowd. I blended in, quietly listening to the chatter. My ears were open, listening for any complaints about the staff, the food, or the drinks. I couldn’t fix a problem if I didn’t know about it. I found the best way to identify any issues was to blend in and pretend I wasn’t listening.
I heard no complaints as I made my way around the room. I found a place out of the way to observe things. I was not all that surprised to find the owner of the company making moves on a pretty, very young woman. I felt sorry for his wife. He was a scumbag.
While I watched him flirt and make a general ass of himself, I thought about Xander. I knew in my heart he would never behave like that. I was confident he wasn’t the cheating type. While I knew there was no way to know for sure, there was something about Xander that said he wouldn’t. He was a proud man that didn’t seem to be prone to temptation. He was practical and certainly did not appreciate the company of strangers.
I smiled as I thought back to our first interaction. It was like pulling teeth to get the man to talk to me. He was a hard nut to crack, but I was so damn glad I managed to do it. Then again, I would probably end up regretting the fact that I did. I just knew the man was going to break my heart. I knew it and yet I couldn’t stop it. He was going to leave me. I’d felt it this morning in bed.
I needed to prepare myself for the inevitable. It was going to hurt. Dammit, I didn’t want it to happen. I thought about texting him. I loved the idea of him at my place waiting for me. I had given him the key, but deep down, I knew he wouldn’t use it. If he left without saying goodbye, I would never speak to him again. I refused to be tossed away a second time.
I felt sick to my stomach at the idea of not seeing him again. I sent up a silent prayer, hoping against hope that when I walked through my front door, he would be there with music playing and candles burning.
A girl could dream, couldn’t she?
Chapter 61
Xander
I got up and immediately knew I didn’t want to be in the house. Last night had been awful. No matter how hard I tried, I tossed and turned. I couldn’t bring myself to forget. I thought about taking Evie up on her offer, but I knew I had to test myself. Was there a chance I could come home? Not now. Not after my long, sleepless night.
I promised her I would tell her I was leaving and that was what I was going to do. I didn’t want to wake her and found myself trying to kill time while I waited until it was an appropriate time. When nine o’clock rolled around, I felt I’d waited as long as I could. I was confident she would be up by now.
“Good morning,” I greeted when she answered.
“Hi,” she said, her voice filled with hesitation.
“I didn’t leave,” I told her right away.
“When you weren’t here when I got home, I assumed you decided to go. You didn’t answer my texts.”
“I’m sorry,” I quickly apologized. “I fell asleep early, and by the time I saw your message, it was late and I didn’t want to wake you up.” It was the truth. I had fallen asleep on the couch before eight. I slept for a couple of hours and then a nightmare woke me up. From that point on, sleep was elusive. I wasn’t interested in trying too hard out of fear I would have more nightmares.
“I see,” she said, and I could feel her hurt and anger in her voice.
“I came home,” I replied. “I wanted to check on things.”
“Oh?”
I wasn’t going to get into it over the phone. “Do you have any plans for the day?”
“Not really. I was thinking about taking a walk, but not much else.”
“Would you like to drive up the coastline a bit?”
“What does that mean?” she questioned with weariness in her voice.
“I was thinking we could find somewhere quiet and enjoy the day. Anything you want. I just want to spend some time with you.”
“I would like that, sure,” she said after several very long seconds. “I think that’s a good idea.”
“I’ll be at your place in an hour. Does that work?”
“Yes,” she said.
I was going to have to kill more time, but I wasn’t going to do it in the house. I had already showered and gotten ready for the day, hoping she would agree to spend it with me. If she would have shut me down, I would have said my goodbyes and hopped on the first flight out. I was a coward and obviously afraid of ghosts.
I left the house, a cold shiver going down my spine as I headed for my car. I didn’t know if it was mind over matter or if I was just plain crazy, but I couldn’t shake the ghost feeling.
I got to her place forty-five minutes later. She was just finishing with her makeup. The moment she opened the door, I knew she saw too much. “Are you okay?” she asked right away.
“Fine,” I replied. “Why?”
She pulled a face, gesturing for me to go inside. “You look a little rough around the edges. I take it you didn’t sleep well last night?”
There was no point lying. “No, not really. It’s tough being in that house. I know it’s dumb but it’s the way it is.”
“It is not dumb. We are all entitled to our feelings.”
I groaned, rolling my eyes. “I don’t need my head shrunk.”
She laughed softly. “I won’t try to shrink your head. That would require a professional with a lot of experience to sort through all of that.”
“You are right. I was hoping we could avoid the subject altogether. Hence my desire to do something fun and completely unrelated to the real problems I’m facing.”
“What did you have in mind?” she asked.
“Do you want to play tourist?” I asked.
“And what would that entail?”
I shrugged. “I was thinking we could go down to the boardwalk, check out the aquarium, and just hang out on the beach. Or maybe we could drive up to LA. We could visit Hollywood and really play tourist.”
“I’ve been to the boardwalk a few thousand times, but I’ve never been to Hollywood.”