Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
Reid
My knuckles throbbed, but I barely felt the pain with the fire still burning in my veins. That asshole was lucky the whole town was watching. He deserved far worse for the way he was talking to Avery.
My breath came hard and fast as Avery dragged me out of the festival grounds, away from the crowd. She moved fast, her grip tight on my wrist as if I might try to turn around and finish what I started.
Hell, maybe I would have. I should have hit him harder and made sure the bastard stayed down. Only now, Avery was looking at me like I was the problem, and that just twisted the anger in my gut tighter.
She stopped moving abruptly once we were far enough away. “Reid, what the hell was that?” She spun on me, her eyes blazing. “You can’t just go around punching people.”
“The hell I can’t. And I’d do it again. He deserved it.”
“He did not.” She put her hands on her hips, and a flare of completely inappropriate desire shot through me. “No one deserves to be punched.”
“They sure as fuck do when they’re talking to you that way.” My pulse throbbed in my head. I needed to calm down, but I was way too wound up. “Nobody can talk to my wife that way.”
“I’m not your wife.”
“The fuck you aren’t.”
She took a staggering step back. I reached for her and pulled her back, but she shook my arm off. “You know this isn’t real, Reid. This wasn’t supposed to be anything more than…”
“Don’t say that.” I wasn’t going to stand by and let her dismiss everything between us. Not so carelessly, and not when I knew she didn’t mean it. There was no way she could mean it. But I also knew it wasn’t the time or place to get into this. Not with so many people who could overhear us. If she wanted to blow us up, that was one thing. But I wasn’t going to let her throw it all away. Not when she was so close to the inn being hers for good. “Not here.” I glanced around. “Don’t?—”
“It’s over.” She shook her head and looked down. “He already knows, Reid.”
“Jacob doesn’t know shit.” Again, I moved to reach for her, needing to feel her, but something in her gaze stopped me. “Avery?”
She looked so defeated. So sad that it broke my heart.
“He doesn’t.” I softened my voice and tried again. “Nothing is over. It doesn’t have to be. Not unless…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
She turned away, and the anger that had only barely died down burned hot and fast again. Jacob did this. He’d taken a strong, carefree, optimistic woman full of hope for the future and turned her into a sad shell of who she’d been when she’d first arrived in Trickle Creek.
I’d fucking kill him.
As if Avery could read my mind, she turned again. “Don’t,” was all she said.
I forced my hands to relax at my side. “Don’t what?”
She blew out a breath but didn’t answer me right away.
“Avery?”
“Don’t make it worse, Reid. Worse than you already have.”
“Worse?” I turned and paced across the sidewalk and back. “Worse? You think I made it worse? Seriously, Avery? How could I possibly make this fucked-up situation any worse than it already was?”
I hated myself for raising my voice at her. She didn’t deserve it. She didn’t deserve any of this. But I was so frustrated I didn’t know what else to do.
“He’s going to press charges, Reid. How is it made any better if you go to jail?”
Fuck. I didn’t think of that.
“I’m not going to go to jail. I was defending you.”
“There were witnesses.” She dropped her face in her hands. “And he is the type to press charges, Reid. This isn’t going away. None of this.”
I could see it on her face. She was giving up.
“He’s going to press charges and use that as leverage to prove that our marriage isn’t real. He’s going to get the inn, Reid. He’s going to get it, and I’m?—”
“No.” I gathered her up in my arms and held her tight to my chest. It wasn’t going to end this way. I refused to let it end this way. I refused to let it end at all. “Avery. It will be okay. I promise. I will take care of it. I will take care of everything. You’re not going to lose the inn.” I stroked her hair, inhaling her sweet scent while I murmured what I hoped were reassuring words in her ear.
But she didn’t soften in my embrace the way I expected her to. She didn’t wrap her arms around me and sink into my touch. Instead, she held herself stiff until I took a step back.
“I need to be alone, Reid.”
Her words stabbed me in the chest. “Avery, I don’t?—”
“I think you should maybe stay somewhere else tonight.”
“What? No. I’m not?—”
“It’s too complicated,” she said. “And with Jacob at the inn, having you there will be?—”
“You’re not seriously going to let that son of a bitch set one foot back inside our inn, are you?”
“It’s my inn, Reid.” Her expression hardened. “At least for the moment.”
I took a step toward her, but she held a hand out to stop me. “Go, Reid. Please. You’ve already made this worse than it needed to be. I just…” She dropped her head.
And while I stood by and watched, Avery turned and walked away from me, leaving me standing alone on the sidewalk with nothing to do but watch her go.