Chapter 6
Tabitha
After he’d bought all four of us drinks at the bar, Tim hovered at a high table next to the wall with an ice water, brooding and silent.
That wasn’t like him. He was not the brooding type.
Through the years, when I’d caught sight of him at village events, he was the first one up dancing and drinking and bantering.
Well, the tables were turned. Tonight, I was the one who was going to dance, and I was going to drink and banter with whomever took my fancy!
My only plan was to give my phone number to a cute, confident, attentive man.
A couple of hours later and drink tally lost, I was chatting up a guy called Westy, who looked solid and assured and handsome.
He suggested we go for a quiet nightcap around the corner.
I said good night to Ishani, who was getting very cozy with Kingston from the pub, and Sunny, who’d called her girlfriend, Shikha, and was dancing with her.
“Well, we’re off,” I said to Tim. “Thanks for the ride.”
Tim stepped toward us and peeled Westy’s arm off my shoulder.
“No, nope, not happening,” he said to Westy. “She’s been drinking, and you’re taking advantage.”
“Hey. What are you doing, Langston?” I said, steaming mad. “This is none of your business.”
“Who are you, her brother or something?” Westy asked.
Tim threw back his shoulders, straightened his spine, and stepped closer until their faces were almost touching.
“Or something.” Tim jerked his head. “Now, fuck off.”
I looked to Westy, waiting for him to challenge Tim. Only a slight shadow of what might have been disappointment crossed his face. Then he turned tail. Worse, he scurried away. The guy I thought was so hot and hulking ran off like a frightened rabbit. How humiliating.
Typical Tim, making my night cringeworthy. It was enough that he plagued my days, questioning everything about my plans for my parents’ house. Now he was bollocksing up my evening too.
I collected my overnight bag from coat check, and stalked out to the front of the bar to call an Uber, watching Westy stride down the steps to the street. Tim joined me, and we both huffed silently.
Despite Westy’s accurate impression of a bunny, albeit a lumbering, big-arsed one, I thought about following him, just to save face and make a point. I went to step forward, then hesitated. My shoulders flushed with—what was it? Relief?
Yes, maybe I was secretly relieved.
After four years of Perry, however dull he was, his flat was clean, and though he insisted his sheets were royalty-appointed, they were clean too.
I imagined a one-night stand with a man I didn’t know, in a flat I’d never entered.
There would be kissing in his kitchen—but near a sink stacked with dirty dishes?
There would be taking off clothes in his bedroom—but with a futon on the floor, football posters on the walls, and half-empty bottles on the windowsill?
Ugh. So many more off-putting elements to this one-night stand business than I’d considered.
Not that I was letting Tim off the hook. He had to know I was pissed off.
A large, rough hand clasped around my upper arm.
I looked up to see Tim’s face.
“Get your hand off me.” I squirmed.
“Sorry.” He released me.
“What’s all this possessive caveman nonsense anyway?”
He turned around to face me with more forceful energy. “Let’s get this straight. I’m not possessive. I’m protective. I want you to be safe. However much we fight, I care about you, Tabitha.”
My breath caught. I care about you, Tabitha.
His brown eyes lit like whisky next to a blazing fire, burning me up with his heat.
It was like he was thinking differently about me.
Not like I was the annoying client he’d spent the last three months arguing with at my parents’ house.
He cared about the woman standing in front of him now, in her new red dress. My cheeks blushed hot.
His face was so close to mine we were breathing the same air, so close our lips were almost touching, causing butterflies to take flight in my stomach. All the feelings I’d had for him when I was twenty-five rushed back. What was happening here? Was he going to kiss me? Did I want him to?
Surely I didn’t…
“I’d do the same for my sister,” he said, breaking off the stare.
Ouch. Why did that make me feel so…disappointed?
I wiggled my shoulders and gathered my wits, annoyed at his reaction—and annoyed at myself for thinking of him as anything but bloody annoying.
“But I’m not your sister. And I know your sister, remember?
Amy would tell you to take a running jump too.
I make my own decisions, and tonight, I decided to get off with someone.
” Perched on the top of the steps outside the nightclub, I flung my arms around like I was making a great speech.
“And it’s none of your beeswax!” Ugh, that last bit ruined the whole dramatic rhetoric.
I had a bad habit of blurting out dorky things.
His lips twitched slightly. “I’d forgotten about that.”
I rolled my eyes. That was the worst thing about this human thorn in my side—he’d known me since I was five years old.
He sighed wearily. “Please, Tabs, just let me take you home.”
Suddenly, I was very, very tired too. I glanced up. Across the road, Westy was already chatting up a group of twentysomething women in slash dresses and clutching tiny, fruit-shaped purses, which made me feel every one of my thirty-two years. I trudged wearily down the stairs.
“You ruined my night, you overbearing lump of an oaf,” I grumbled, softly slapping at his arm with every word. At least he hadn’t brought up the show and fought me on it, which was a huge relief.
“Happy to help.” He elbowed me gently in the ribs. “Here, let me take that.” He motioned to my overnight bag.
I handed my bag over, and he gave me one of his grins, back to his old self for the first time tonight, making my lips curve up in a smile. Until a passing thought nudged me.
Did I want the possessive version of Tim back?
In the car park, he slung my overnight bag in the back of his truck and helped me up into the front seat. His hand on the small of my back felt warm and comforting and sent tingles up my spine.
I paused, surprised by the feeling.
“C’mon on, old girl,” he said, clicking, as if I were Bessie or Bonnie, the two gassy, lumbering old ponies we’d ridden to the swimming hole when we were young.
“Hey, you.” I pursed my lips. “Enough of the old.”