Chapter Six
Hayes
“Who is Gordon?” I repeated, taking a step forward as she staggered back, fear dancing in her eyes.
The woman in front of me was the most infuriating woman on the fucking planet.
I’d spent months trying to get close to her, to make sure she was okay, and to be her friend, some unknown force compelling me to do so.
From the moment I saw her, I wanted her, and up until that night I came into her bar, I’d been tired of denying it.
“Answer the question,” I said, folding my arms over my chest. “Who is he to you?”
“I—I—How do you…” she stammered, trailing off, the air around us disappearing.
“What kind of man do you think I am?” I questioned through my teeth. When she said nothing, I shook my head, a low, rough chuckle rising from deep within my chest. “You think I wanted to leave you?”
Confusion covered her face, a crease forming between her cute brows, her full lips pressing together in a frown. “What? You didn’t—”
My arms fell to my sides, disbelief slamming into me, realization looming over me like a cloud, her words finally registering.
No, you don’t get to make love to me and then treat me like shit.
“I hurt you,” I whispered.
Again, I was met with silence. She was staring at me as if she’d never seen me before, as if I was a threat to her.
Suddenly, things shifted. Alarm bells sounded in my head, my gut finally catching up as the sour taste of regret coated my tongue.
“Margo, who is Gordon?” I asked for a third time, softer.
She wasn’t staring at me anymore, rather staring through me, just like she had the day I found her curled up on the floor of the fishing shed.
Her fair skin paled even more, all the color in her cheeks and the emotion in her eyes vanishing before my eyes.
Fuck.
I knew what this was.
My feet moved then, carrying me to her. I reached out, grabbing her chin between my fingers.
“Look at me,” I murmured, tilting her head back.
Her eyes met mine, but she was someplace else.
Somewhere far away. A place I couldn’t reach her.
But fuck me, I wasn’t giving up until she was back in my arms. “I made a mistake,” I confessed, hating how the words tasted, how they poisoned the air between us. “I shouldn’t have left you.”
I’d hated every second of it, but for now, she couldn’t know that. Not until she let me in. Then maybe I could let her see me—truly see me.
“Margo,” I called, my hand stretching across her jaw as I cupped her face. “Come back to me.”
She jerked in my arms then, blinking a few times, and I watched with caution as she slowly came back to her senses. My arm banded around her waist, pulling her to me. “You wanna tell me what the hell that was?” I queried gently.
She dipped her head, pulling away from me. I allowed it, letting my hand fall. When she finally spoke, her eyes were on the deck. “How do you know that name?”
I narrowed my eyes, unable to dismiss the horror dripping off every word. “Margo, you said it in your sleep,” I confessed, grinding my teeth. “I woke up in the middle of the night and you moaned his name.”
Those gorgeous pink lips of hers parted. “What?” she breathed, her breaths coming out rapidly. “You heard me…”
“I left your bed because I thought another man was supposed to be in it.”
She flinched as if I’d hit her, her skin blanching, eyes wide with horror. My stomach dropped.
Fuck, I was such an idiot.
“Who is he?” I pressed.
I felt her stiffen in my arms then, her back snapping straight, muscles tightening as her walls shot back up, barricading her secrets. She looked up at me, eyes burning as she put her hands on my chest. “Get off me!” she practically roared, shoving me back.
I moved back three steps, giving her the space she needed. “Margo,” I warned. “Don’t shut me out.”
“Is everything all right?”
Both of our heads snapped to the side. Rossy was standing halfway out the door, his eyes bouncing between the two of us. “Mr. Mitchell?”
“Everything is fine, Rossy,” I answered sharply, looking at Margo.
He hummed, clearly not believing me, and then he adjusted his glasses, turning his attention to Margo. “Darling, if you’re okay now, Carrie would like you inside. She has a surprise for you.”
“I think I’m good on the surprises, boss man,” Margo replied lightly, brushing off the last ten minutes.
Rossy gave her a small smile. “Yes. Well, nevertheless, she has asked for you.”
“Right,” she muttered, fidgeting with the clip in her hair. I watched, utterly tortured by the sight of her beauty, how quickly she was able to hide the agony that had been clearly eating at her. Agony that I’d had a part in.
I’d hurt her.
Fuck, but I’d hurt her.
My gut tightened as she looked at me. “Have a good night, Hayes.”
Then she disappeared inside, Rossy giving her an encouraging smile on her way.
That smile quickly faded when he looked back at me.
Stepping outside, he let the back door fall closed behind him.
He pulled off his glasses, plucked the handkerchief out of his chest pocket, and started cleaning the lenses.
“I owe you a debt, you know?” he said, focusing on his glasses.
“For bringing Carrie back home. For finding my girls and protecting them.”
I said nothing, watching him closely as he continued to close the distance between us.
When he was about a foot away, he pocketed the baby blue cloth and slipped his glasses back on, looking at me.
This time, his eyes were filled with malice.
“But I need to make certain you hear me when I say this, Mr. Mitchell, because if you don’t, the consequences will be most unpleasant. ”
My eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”
He stepped up to me, hands in his pockets, eyes sharp. “If you hurt my Margo in any way, at any time, I’ll make sure your coworkers and your family back in Kansas never find your body.”
My spine snapped straight. “Watch it,” I warned on a growl.
The bookstore owner looked me up and down. “I’ve been around men like you before, Mr. Mitchell. Whatever you have to say won’t scare me in the slightest.”
“Threatening me isn’t a smart move, Rossy,” I bit off, stepping close to him.
“Hurting my girl isn’t either.”
I blinked as he stepped back, looking toward the town. “Carrie came here to find peace, and she found it. Margo came here to find herself, and after three years, she is still looking.” His eyes met mine. “Don’t mess that up for her, Hayes.”
Before I could say anything, he gave me his back and walked inside, leaving me out in the night to drown in my mistakes.
“I want to thank everyone for coming,” Carrie began from her place in front of the hearth. Grayson leaned against the wall beside her, his eyes soft. “This last year has been a year of change, each of us having to undergo some sort of transition.”
The packed living room was quiet.
It had been over two hours since I ventured out onto the back deck in search of Margo, and those one hundred and twenty minutes had been dowsed in misery.
Margo wouldn’t even look at me, staying close to Sarah or Rossy.
The only people who seemed to have picked up on the tension between us other than Rossy were Dominic and the town sheriff, Michael, both silently watching from afar as I remained in my corner for the duration of the evening.
Dinner had been served and devoured, dessert had been plated, sitting on the kitchen table, awaiting distribution.
But before the night could end, Carrie and Grayson had an announcement.
“Everyone in here has welcomed me,” Carrie continued softly, her eyes scanning the room, meeting everyone for a moment.
When they finally landed on me, she gutted me.
“Everyone here has become a part of my family, something I thought I’d never have again.
” She smiled at me and I gave her a simple nod in return, feeling my gut twist again.
Ash was on my right, Jake on my left.
“She’s going to make me cry again,” Ash muttered under his breath.
“You’re so in tune with your emotions tonight,” Jake replied, pushing his glasses up his nose. “I haven’t seen you this emotional since DiCaprio slipped off the door and sank to the bottom of the ocean in Titanic.”
“Fuck off, Murphy.”
“Would you two shut the fuck up?” I bit off slowly as Carrie continued her speech, focusing on Sarah and Michael now. “Pay attention to Carrie.”
Gray’s eyes met mine from across the room, and then they bounced back and forth between the idiots on either side of me. I gave him a reassuring nod, silently telling him I would keep these guys in check.
“That door was big enough to fit them both, dammit,” Ash said, leaning forward a bit to glare at Jake.
“It’s been over two decades since that movie was released,” Jake whispered, shaking his head. He kept his eyes on Carrie. “It’s time to move on.”
“Both of you need to be smacked,” I grumbled, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“And to Grayson’s team, the Red Snake crew,” Carrie said.
All three of us snapped our focus to her.
Out of the corner of my eye, Dominic, who had been by the front window the majority of the night, shook his head at us.
“You boys saved my life,” Carrie croaked.
My jaw tightened to the point of pain as her eyes filled with tears.
Grayson pushed off the wall, coming to stand beside her. “I can never repay you for that.”
“And you’ll never have to, sweetheart,” Dominic said, and the rest of us nodded.
My skin prickled, feeling Margo’s eyes on me then.
As Carrie began to tell everyone how amazing we were and how we’d saved her life—leaving out the gory details—my eyes dropped, instantly finding my angry girl.
She was sitting on the far end of the couch, curled up under Carrie’s strawberry pink blanket, a hint of red blooming in her cheeks.