Chapter 16 #2
Dante winked at me and took another sip.
“Hey, baby.” A woman linked her arm with mine. A glance down found Milly in a black sweater dress. “Oh, hey, Dante.” She granted Dante a saccharine smile that had nothing to do with pleasure at seeing him. “Is Tonya here, or is she at the Walmart?”
“She had to work today. Too many out sick,” Dante said.
“Never a day off for management, right?” I asked.
Milly hung off my arm, grinning up at me in a way that made me sweat and want to run.
“Always interesting to see you, Milly. I…uh…I see someone I’m going to go talk to.” Dante emptied his spiked punch in one gulp, tossed the cup in the trash, and ditched me. Some wing man he was.
“Nice speech. Are you doing okay?” Milly asked.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine. You look stressed or something.”
“I wonder why I’m stressed.” It came out sarcastic. I just buried my mentor and his wife. And I’m watching Drew make a move on Erika.
A part of me knew I should be kinder, but I was running hot right now. Now wasn’t the moment for another speech from her on how terrible Erika had been to me in the past.
“She’s leaving. It’s good for all of us.” Milly stared at Erika.
“In what way is it good? Vinny gets pulled out of everything he knows. I’ll lose the best player on the baseball team. I’ll have no one to help me handle the overload of patients and overnight emergencies. What you mean is her leaving is good for you.”
Milly’s eyes bugged out and filled with tears. She visibly folded into herself.
I’d hit hard, fully expecting her to give me an Erika-style comeback. Erika would’ve gotten in my face and sniped right back at me about being a selfish jackass. I was gunning for a fight because…
Damn it. Drew was still holding her hand. I was going to hit or break something, and I didn’t even understand why.
I stared down at Milly, wishing she’d push back, argue—hell, wishing she were Erika so I could justify the rage boiling me from the inside out. Instead, she looked up at me with unshed tears, and guilt hit me square in the gut. I felt like an ass for putting that look on her face.
Still, I thought I deserved a little sympathy. This was the funeral reception for my mentor, my business partner, and the man I admired most. I was only days away from falling apart, with no idea how I was supposed to keep the clinic running without him.
“Excuse me.” I untangled myself from Milly. “I’m not good company right now.”
Murray Gibson, senior deacon at the Baptist church and self-appointed morality police, intercepted me as I tried to disappear into the back of the clinic. He treated fun like a communicable disease and believed society peaked when dancing was sinful and alcohol was the devil’s mouthwash.
He leaned in like we were sharing town gossip. “Good thing that Chomping girl is leaving. I hear she’s trouble. I think she’s bad for your business.”
Of course he did. Murray collected rumors the way other people collected stamps.
“Who told you that—Timothy?” My brother had shown up for the funeral but skipped the reception, either out of cowardice or indifference. Hard to say which annoyed me more.
“I just heard it around,” he said, his gray hair still clipped into a military flat top from some long-ago war.
“Dr. Chomping surgically removed an arrow from a dog’s chest the other day,” I said. “Missed the heart by a hair. We’d be lucky if she stayed.”
“Bad seed,” Murray said, waving it off. “Too bad she didn’t stay away for good after that baseball-field mess.”
I glanced at Erika—still trapped in hugs—then smiled tightly. “Excuse me,” I said, before I decked the senior deacon. “I need the commode.”
I speed walked to the back of the clinic, away from everyone, with the excuse to check on our two boarding dogs. The dogs stared at me with a mixture of boredom and hope.
I knelt and petted them through the bars.
The beagle was so big he could barely stand, his brown eyes hopeful for food.
His shaggy poodle-mix housemate spun in tight circles, bangs hiding his eyes.
“It’s not time to go out or eat,” I said.
“You’re just jealous Petey went home yesterday.
She does incredible work, doesn’t she? Think we can convince her to come back? ”
Someone pushed through the door.
It was Erika.
Embarrassed she might have overheard me, I held my breath. When she said nothing after several awkward seconds, I snapped, “What are you doing back here?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Am I interrupting a soon-to-be rendezvous with one of your girlfriends?”
“What? Come with me.” I dragged her into the office, turning on the lights as I went in. I stepped away from her once I shut the door. “I really need you to stay. To work here.”
“I have a life up north to sort out.” The sternness of her lips said she’d made up her mind to leave. Panic socked me straight through the skull.
“Why are you leading on Drew, then?”
“Drew?” Her head jerked back as if confused by the conversational detour. Wrinkles formed between her eyebrows. “He was sweet to stand with me through people offering sympathy and telling me stories about my dad.”
“Don’t you have a boyfriend?”
“Not anymore. He…” She started to say something. I could tell whatever it was would upset her. But then she just shook her head. “Forget about it. He’s history.”
Her words brought me up cold, exactly as she meant them to. “What did the fucker do to you?”
She tilted her head, studying me like she was dissecting every flaw I’d tried to hide. “I forgot how deep your hero complex runs. Newsflash: you don’t get to swoop in and save me. I don’t need rescuing. I’m perfectly capable of handling mooching, control-obsessed losers who cheat on me.”
“He cheated on you? Was there…more than that?” I watched her expression closely, catching the tiny flinch she probably hoped I wouldn’t see. My voice dropped to a whisper. “Did he hurt you? Did he ever lay a hand on you?” Despite trying to keep steady, my voice broke.
She didn’t answer with a quick no. And she wouldn’t look at me, which from her was a screaming yes.
My stomach turned to ice. “Jesus—” I sucked in a breath, so I didn’t break. I forced myself to step back, to give her space when every cell in my body screamed to demand his name, to track him down, and to lay him out until he understood what pain felt like. “What exactly did he do to you?”
“I got myself into it,” she whispered, arms wrapping around herself. “I’m ending it. It’s my fault.”
“Bullshit.”
Her head snapped up like I’d slapped her. “What?”
“You’re ending it for sure. But it’s not your fault if he cheated on you, or—” I dragged both hands over my face, fighting the burn behind my eyes. My voice fell to a rasp. “He hurt you and you stayed with him? Did you love him that much?”
“Why do you care? Don’t you hate me?” She threw the words like stones.
“I don’t hate you,” I breathed. You’re my always and whenever. “I just… I can’t stand the thought of anyone hurting you on purpose and you taking it.”
“I can handle Jay on my own.” She stared me down, eyes flashing with warning and fury.
Jay. His name is Jay.
“Forget about him. He’s in the past.” She swallowed hard.
“Maybe we should talk about who you’re dating now.
” I couldn’t stand the quiet pain in her tone when she talked about the guy—like she was trying to hide a wound still bleeding.
“The old Josh would never have gone for someone like her. I don’t trust that choir-angel act for a second.
Milly was deceitful back in high school.
Kind of doubt that’s changed. I think she hurt Dante something fierce junior year.
Something about framing him for weed that wasn’t his? You should be careful.”
“Why does it matter to you who I’m with or who I’m careful of? You’re leaving.”
“Why does it matter to you if Drew wants to start something with me? Or that my latest ex is a jerk? Rule of exes is that we don’t get to be judgmental of who the other might be seeing. This is a funeral. People usually have sex afterward, right? Maybe I thought Drew would be a great rebound.”
“Drew doesn’t deserve you using him to get to me.” It came out tight and a lot angrier than intended.
“Of course, this has to be about you.” Erika rolled her eyes. “You’re so full of yourself. Are you implying I’m not good enough for Drew?” She put her hands on her hips. “Have you considered I might like him?”
“Do you like him? Enough to want to…” The words scraped out of me. I stared at the wall above her head, forcing a breath into my lungs before I said something I couldn’t take back. “I mean, he’d never hurt you. That’s good.”
She shrugged.
I took a step toward her, unable to keep my hands to myself any longer. I wished to pull the pain out of her and take it for my own. She was so heartbreakingly beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. I brushed my fingers along her cheek and whispered, “He can’t handle you.”
Her chin lifted, sharp and defiant. “Do you think you can?”
That flare of defiance was everything. That asshole, Jay, hadn’t succeeded in killing the flame that made her who she was.
Erika radiated confidence; she’d bite back if I pushed her too far.
I missed this gut-wrenching, mind-blowing desire to battle.
I’d forgotten the excitement of the anticipation.
She glared up, not at all intimidated. “Did you handle me the other night? I remember you there. You got Vinny to bed. I learned about your baseball injury, but I can’t remember anything after that.”
My lips split into a grin. “I said no. You tried to convince me to say yes. You tried real hard.”
“You should tell Tonya you’re not the decent guy she thinks you are. You’re an arrogant heir-to-the-castle asshole.”
“Are you saying you prefer a polite Prince Charming?”
“Hell, no. I prefer the nasty-minded pirate.” She grabbed the back of my head and pulled me to her lips.
It wasn’t the limp kiss of someone expecting me to lead the way.
It was a full-on attack with several kisses back-to-back until she dug her fingers into the back of my head and nibbled along my lower lip.
I opened for her. With a groan of approval, her tongue met mine. A hard jolt slammed into my gut.
God, I missed Erika Chomping. No one else had ever lit me up this fast. No one else knew how to use her tongue like this.
I didn’t even realize her legs were around my waist, dry humping me with her skirt pushed up to her thighs, until we both came up for air.
I needed this kiss. I needed it so bad. What I didn’t need was to come in my Sunday pants with the entire judgmental congregation of both churches on the other side of the door.
I had to slow this down, potentially stop it entirely.
She skimmed her hands over my back under my suit jacket. “I hate that you can still make me want you this much.”
Then she was kissing me again like I was the only man she’d ever needed.
I carried her to rest her butt on the desk. My mouth never left hers. I moved my hand up from her waist to gently touch the contour of one breast. I couldn’t stop tracing it.
“Admit no one gets you hot as fast as me?” I stopped kissing her to glare a demand she answer.
“Fuck you.”
“That’s what you want, beautiful.” I stroked my hand down to her waist and went in for another kiss. She moaned and craned toward me.
Her hands were on my belt.
I had no choice but to stop her. I wanted to continue. I just didn’t want to do this here with forty people on the other side of this wall. I also refused to start anything when she was set to walk away. My busted-up heart didn’t have that kind of mileage left.
I opened my mouth to try to stop, but seeing her face drugged on my kisses was too much. I kissed her again. I wasn’t going to be able to say no.
We had to stop.
I didn’t want to. I might never get a chance to kiss her again.
“Admit whatever this is—you’ve never had it with anyone else.” That came out wrong. I meant to say that this was how I felt about her. Damn it, I didn’t want to see that flash of pain twist into anger in her eyes.
She accused, “Was this some kind of challenge? You didn’t want me to forget how good you are at this?”
“We’re both pretty great at—”
“Or,” she cut in, shoving me away, “was it you saving your friend from me?”
“Saving—”
“No.” Her voice sharpened. “This was about your annoying need to beat me. Like always.”
“What the hell, Erika? You’re the one who blew back into town as the high-and-mighty big-city vet, dripping attitude about me and this clinic.” Internally, I cringed. How had things gone this sour so fast?
“At least I got where I am on my own.” She straightened and moved out of my embrace. “My daddy didn’t buy my way into college or plan on handing me a business so he could keep me on a leash.”
“He didn’t buy me jack shit,” I snarled. “And you? Sounds like you’re not doing so great up there alone.” She’d hit the daddy-pays-for-everything button—the one that always sent me off the deep end.
“My life is hard work and dedication,” she said coldly. “I’m a rockstar at what I do. You’re just middle-of-nowhere mediocre. This was a mistake. My mistake.”
“I don’t practice mediocre medicine. This was a mistake. Agreed. And you ruined it. Go ahead and leave. Good luck changing the world all by yourself.”
She clenched her fists until her knuckles went white. “I am changing the world on my own terms. What about you? How long are you going to roll over when your brother whistles for you to obey?”
I saw red but jammed my hands into my pockets to keep control. “You don’t know shit about me or my life. Maybe I’m entitled, but at least I’m not selfish and blind to everyone around me like you.”
Her cheeks flamed. “Selfish is one thing. Spoiled brat is another. You ruined this—you can be such an asshole.”
“That’s right,” I said, voice flat and burning. “I’m the asshole.” I yanked the door open. “Get out. Go fuck yourself.”
She brushed past me. “I already do it better than you ever could.”