13. She Saw No Effort in His Apology
She Saw No Effort in His Apology
Lola
Brooke slung her bag over her shoulder. “Are you sure you want me to come over for dinner?” She stuck her key in the clinic door and flipped the lock.
The day was officially over.
Finally .
“Yes,” I said. Instantly. No pause. The last thing I needed was more time on my own. “After today…” I grimaced.
“The joys of living in a small town. Did you see any patients who didn’t mention what happened on Friday night?”
“One. I think the mother with the projectile-vomiting toddler had bigger problems to worry about.”
“You have a special talent for attracting the pukers.” Brooke grinned. “How about I wash up, get out of this uniform, and drop ’round in about an hour?”
“Sounds great.”
“I’ll come with wine and this face.” Her features crumpled into a serious frown, and she nodded, tapping her chin.
I laughed. “That’s one heck of a listening face.”
“Yup! I take my friend duties very seriously.”
I waved goodbye and wandered down the street to the village store, my eyes glued to my phone.
I needed to look busy—way too busy to stop and talk to anyone still itching to ask me about last Friday night.
I saved my only smile for Ryan Hollyoak, who spared me an awkward conversation and simply tipped his hat and held the door open for me as I stepped into the store.
I grabbed a metal shopping basket off the pile and ran through the list of ingredients to host another lonely girls’ dinner and drinks.
This wasn’t the night for moderation. I stumbled around the shelves like a zombie.
Yeast to make pizza dough? Get in my basket.
Extra cheese? I’m sprinkling the whole bag, and it still won’t be enough.
The dairy fridge was tucked away at the back of the store. My final stop. My fingers curled around the silver handle, ready to pull open the door.
I froze.
No. Not today of all days. Line after line of cold, lonely shelves. All empty.
No milk.
This couldn’t be happening. I bounced up and down on my toes, eyes scouring the bare shelves of the fridge. Nothing.
A heavy sigh caved in my chest as I trudged to the register.
Ashley’s eyebrow arched.
I dropped the cheese on the counter. “I don’t suppose you have any milk hidden out back?” I knew the answer was no, but I was a glutton for punishment. It seemed like the day for it. “I’ll pay you a hundred dollars.”
Ashley’s smile was sympathetic. “Our dairy restock got held up outside Hobart. An accident on the road. We’ve been running low all day,” she explained as she scanned my groceries. “We might have some milk powder left on the shelves.”
I wrinkled my nose. Yuck. That stuff tasted like chalk. “No thanks.”
Sighing, I lined up the last of my groceries. A carton of milk slid behind it.
Huh?
I darted a look over my shoulder. A big, broad chest stuffed inside a black Henley… A beard…
Well, wasn’t that just peachy?
Aiden was the last person I wanted to see. I glared up at him. His face was grim, and even darker circles bruised under tired grey eyes. Good! A lifetime of bad sleep was the least of what he deserved after the way he’d treated me.
He said nothing, but he dipped his chin. His way of saying hello. Or maybe he was silently pleading with me to accept his peace offering. Yeah, right. He could take his carton of milk and shove it where the sun didn’t shine.
I stared him dead in the eye and pushed the carton away from my pile of groceries.
“Don’t need it,” I said.
Aiden’s face gave nothing away. If he knew I was imitating the way he’d spoken to me outside the coffee shop, he didn’t show it. The man was a stone wall.
“You need milk. You just said so. Here.” Aiden slid the carton back. “It’s the last one. Take it.”
My eyebrows scrunched together. I’d never be in debt to that man. Never. I pressed the carton back again, but my palm was fuelled by too much anger, and the container toppled over on the counter.
“Don’t want it,” I said.
Aiden’s eyes screwed closed. “Lola… I…”
“There is nothing you need to say to me.” I refused to look at that traitor for another second. Whipping my head around, I scooped up my groceries and shoved the pile to the end of the counter away from his milk.
Ashley let out a laugh tinged with nervousness as she leant over and grabbed the milk, whisking it under the counter.
“Well, would you look at that?” The carton reappeared, and she plonked it at the front.
“I found some milk out back after all.” She winked at me.
“But you can keep your hundred dollars.”
I folded my arms across my chest and stuck my nose into the air, completely ignoring Aiden while Ashley scanned the last of my groceries.
I couldn’t get out of that store fast enough. The second Ashley was done, I tapped my card to pay, muttered a quick, “Sorry for being such a… well… you know …” and flew out the door.
My fists clenched so tightly around the handles of my cotton grocery bags that my fingernails dug into my palms. My heart hammered faster when the bell for the grocery store tingled in the background. Boots pounded on the sidewalk behind me.
“Lola!”
I pretended not to hear Aiden calling me. He tried again, but I still ignored him. His footsteps picked up, and moments later, a wall of black Henley blocked my path. I jerked to a stop. My grocery bags kept swinging.
That nasty brute of a man! What did he want?
I stuck my foot out to step around Aiden. His hand reached for me like he wanted to grab my arm, but he quickly pulled back. Instead, he blocked my way past.
I huffed in frustration. “Excuse me, Mr. McKinnon.”
Again, I tried to dodge past. Again, he blocked my way, and his hand shot out, then retreated before his fingers skimmed my skin. Why did he keep doing that? Was I so tainted and unlovable that he couldn’t even bear to touch me now?
“Lola, can we please talk?”
Maybe if adorable pigs with pink swirly tails soared through the valley. “No.”
I pushed past him and charged down the path, but I jolted to a stop as he somehow managed to block my way again. For a big guy, he sure was quick on his feet.
Exhausted, quiet frustration roared out of me. My eyes widened. It had been a very long time since I’d felt comfortable enough to express anger. He really did bring out the worst in me.
“What?” I snapped at him. “What do you want, Aiden?”
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I wanted to, um”—a deep breath—“to tell you—”
“What?”
Aiden’s eyes fixed on his boots. “I’m sorry.”
I didn’t freeze—I just stopped feeling. His apology left me numb.
The whole production felt like a kid being forced by his mother to apologise for something he definitely wasn’t sorry for.
But even though I ignored the hope aching in my bones, my heart softened enough to offer Aiden one final chance.
I hiked up my chin. “For what?”
“Pardon?”
“What are you sorry for?”
“Um…” He eyed me warily. “Everything?”
I couldn’t help laughing. Everything? He had no idea what he was apologising for or why. He wasn’t sorry. Not really. Whatever. I was done with him.
“Oh, well, in that case, you’re forgiven.” I forced my sweetest smile. “You know, for everything .”
Aiden’s eyebrows lowered in suspicion. “Just like that?”
“Sure.” I shrugged. “If you can only be bothered to give me a half-hearted apology, you’re most welcome to my very half-hearted forgiveness.”
Aiden tossed me a helpless look. “Lola, you know I’m not good with words.”
I snorted. “You seemed to have no trouble finding all the words you needed outside the coffee shop.”
Aiden flinched.
“And what about your grand speech at the bar? You really outdid yourself on that one.” I lowered my voice to mimic his rumbly baritone, but it sounded more like a cranky Santa Claus than Aiden. “I know a lot of things about you I wish I could forget—”
“I didn’t mean that the way you think—”
“—Take the hint. Stay away from me. Please.” I rolled my eyes. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, I took your hint. I’m trying to stay away from you. So, if you could please move out of my way—”
“I can’t do that. I need to…” He shrugged a shoulder. “Make things right between us… Apologise.”
I sighed. “Look, Aiden. If Brooke or Ryan or someone told you to apologise to me, you don’t need to. We weren’t dating. It was one night. Instead of lying and making up a whole bunch of crap about it being the best night of your life — ”
“I meant every word I said that night.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. I’m not wasting another minute of my life thinking about you. So, let’s pretend nothing happened between us. Okay?”
“I can’t pretend nothing happened, Lola. You’re here.” Aiden knocked his fist against his chest. Right above his heart. “Locked in.”
My eyes narrowed. Why was he doing this? A week ago, his words would have melted me into a puddle of forgiveness. I knew better now.
“Do you want to hear a story about the best night of my life?” I asked him.
“It was when I finally grew a backbone and told a man who treated me worse than poop on his shoes to buzz right off. Guess when that night was?” I held out my grocery bags, gesturing at the darkness starting to smother the valley. “Need any more hints?”
“Please, Lola. Give me a chance.”
A sad, broken laugh broke free. “I already did.”
And this time, when I charged past Aiden, he didn’t try to stop me.