He ignored her until he reached his driver’s-side door, but then he lost his composure and wheeled on her. “I’ve not ever fucked you, as you well know, but I sure as hell screwed you over pretty good. Seems fitting.”
“I lost my job because of you!”
“You can’t possibly think I care.” He was seething as he spoke the words, and her eyes had filled with tears.
“Yeah? Well, you used to,” she yelled at him. She stayed staring at him with her lips trembling as her tears started to fall, and with a final resigned shake of her head, she turned back to her bike and walked away.
He watched her small figure walk away from him, and he didn’t look away from her until she’d hopped on her bike and was pedaling away from him. He didn’t want her to catch him staring after her, so he forced himself to get in his car and drive away before she noticed.
That odd combination of hatred and hurt racked his brain on the way home, and once he was safely inside his own home, he flopped down on the couch and stared at his great room ceiling high above him. It was nearly thirty minutes before he realized he’d forgotten Macy, and he trudged back outside to jog the half-mile to the Anderson’s house. They were outside on their porch, and Macy was lying at their feet. She started barking the instant she saw Darren, and when Darren made it up to them, he apologized.
“I can’t believe I forgot her. My brain was just taking a break, I guess. Sorry about that.”
“Oh, it’s no problem. If we were worried, we’d have called. You know we enjoy Macy’s company.” Katherine Anderson was a plump, older woman with the sweetest face he’d ever seen. She always smiled, and Darren no longer thought she owned a frown. He certainly did, and his stress was more often than not etched on his face—at least Katherine often told him so. She also didn’t know how to hold her tongue. “You look upset, Darren. You okay?”
“I’m fine.” He sank to their porch steps as Macy wriggled up to him and tried to French kiss him before Darren could close his mouth. “Just a long day is all.” He could hear the drawl in his voice. It only ever really popped up when he was stressed. Another of Katherine’s very astute observations.
“How your folks doin’?”
She was studying him closely, looking for his deception. “They’re all right. Only see ’em once a week or so. Been so busy at the hospital.”
“Well, you make sure you get to see them soon, you hear?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Darren didn’t call anyone ma’am, but she seemed to bring it out in him with her strong southern accent. They’d retired up to the Ozarks from Louisiana. They liked seasons more than they liked hot, humid, year-round warmth. He stood and stepped down from the porch steps. “Y’all take care. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
They watched as he retreated with Macy, and with a final wave, he rounded the bend at the end of their driveway. He jogged most of the way home, still wearing his scrubs but at least with a good pair of tennis shoes on at this point. He was sweating when he finally reached his house, and he stripped out of his clothes as he stepped into his walk-in master shower. He stood with the water only barely warm, showering down over him, and he closed his eyes, seeing her. When he opened his eyes, it was no better. He couldn’t shake the image of her standing furious in front of him, her tears streaming down her cheeks and her cutting words, hell, his own cruel rebuttal. He wasn’t ready to have her near him again. He just wasn’t ready for this.
Chapter Four
Six Years Before
“Hey, Jess, you seen Bailey?”
“Shut up! My head is throbbin’, and your voice is the most obnoxious thang in the world.” His sister was sitting slumped over the kitchen island, and even though she was being rude, he couldn’t stop the smile that pulled up his lips. She did look like hell after a night of losing literally every game of quarters they played, and frankly, she deserved her pain. “She left a note. She was takin’ a walk this mornin’, and I haven’t seen her yet today.” She looked to the wall clock. “Helluva long walk.”
Darren knew exactly what Bailey was doing. She was avoiding him. He’d been trying to find her since he’d woken up. She wasn’t in her bedroom, she wasn’t anywhere in the house, and after breakfast and waiting for Trinity to leave to go shopping for a while, he was done waiting for her to show back up on her own. He knew she was embarrassed. Hell, he knew it was completely his fault, but it didn’t mean he was interested in letting her ignore him. He’d been up for two hours now, and he was anxious. He was also nervous.
He made his way down to the cabana that belonged to their rental house. It was a platformed deck with a pergola-style roof structure, woven with heavy waterproof fabric. There was a wide lounger the size of a king-sized bed with an adjustable head. The mattress was white linen, and it was soft. The head of the bed was raised at the moment, and it obscured his view. He didn’t know if she was on the lounger or not, but he’d been waiting for two hours for her to return, and he was out of places to search.
He was wearing only a pair of jeans and flip-flops, and it wasn’t until he rounded the side of the lounger and saw her curled up looking out to the water that he realized perhaps he should have at least put a shirt on. Her eyes glancing to his stomach quickly before she could stop herself confirmed that fact. It wasn’t as if she’d never seen him without a shirt. Hell, they’d been on the beach in Galveston for nearly a week, of course she had. But she’d never seen him naked before, and he was guessing shirtless was just a reminder of what she’d witnessed last night.
“How long are you going to avoid me?”
Her forehead wrinkled as she looked to his eyes before glancing back down to his stomach. “Forever?”
He chuckled quietly. He wasn’t at all amused; he was more terrified of what had happened than that, and he was trying to loosen himself up as much as her. “Bailey, you have to talk to me.” He sank down on the oversized lounger facing her, forcing her to look at him. But she couldn’t. Her eyes moved off to the side of them and down the beach. “Please.” Her eyes teared, and she brushed away a tear from the corner of her eye. It was painful to see what he was responsible for doing to her.
She was wearing a black bikini top and a pair of short white shorts. He was having a hard enough time keeping his own eyes where they belonged, and as she glanced quickly to him and caught his eyes studying her small breasts, her stomach muscles clenched and her shoulders wriggled under his invasive stare. He forced his eyes back up to hers, and he caught the furious blush on her cheeks.
“It can’t be like this with us, Bailey.” He leaned forward, rolling over to lounge next to her, shoulder to shoulder. “Game.”
“Darren.” She was warning him, but he wasn’t about to listen.
“How do you feel? Tell me. Close your eyes if you have to, but don’t hide from me.”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She did close her eyes. “Humiliated, embarrassed, mortified.”
“Come on, English major, you can do better than giving me three words that mean the same thing.” He turned to look at her, and she managed to open her eyes and give him a small smile.
Another deep breath later, and her eyes closed again before she took another stab at it. “Awkward, pathetic, stupid, immature, ashamed . . . and really, really embarrassed.” He reached for her hand, squeezing gently.
He opened his mouth, not bothering to close his eyes, and he watched her, waiting for her to look at him. “Guilty, frustrated.” She met his eyes as he spoke, and he forced himself to hold her eyes. “Cruel, inappropriate, indecent, so fucking sorry.” They stared at one another for a moment.