My stomach twisted. It shouldn’t bother me. She had left me long ago and hadn’t looked back.
Still…when Whize reached out and touched her shoulder, I felt like I was going to crawl out of my own skin.
The waitress dropped off my beer, and I drank it in three gulps.
The pint glass hit the table too hard. My date flinched.
“Um…is everything all right?” She looked truly concerned for the first time.
“Yes,” I said automatically.
Silence settled between us. The longest one yet.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Skye chewing at her thumb. Her knee bounced in a frantic rhythm under the table.
My heart sank.
She wasn’t okay. I couldn’t see clearly from here, but I remembered what her nail beds looked like when she was stressed—bleeding, cracked, picked until raw.
My hands balled into fists. My own knuckles still ached from that unwise round with the punching bag. I’d covered the lingering bruises and scabs with a pair of leather driving gloves. I felt slightly silly in them, but they weren’t too conspicuous peeking out from my long-sleeved shirt.
I swallowed hard. My skin burned. My muscles twitched with the need to get up. To go to her.
I forced my gaze back to my date. “I’m sorry,” I said, my voice low and strained. “I’m—I’m not feeling well.”
She blinked, looking slightly shocked. “Are you okay?”
I pulled out my wallet and dropped some cash on the table as I stood. “I think I should go home.”
She put her hands on her hips. “We didn’t even order our food yet,” she complained.
“You can stay if you’d like.”
“Fox…” she started.
I let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled, reminding myself that this really wasn’t her fault. “But I’m going to call a cab. I’ll gladly pay for one for you too, if that’s something you want.”
She stared at the money on the table, and then at her unfinished drink. Something seemed to click into place. She glanced back at where Skye and Whize were seated, still leaning in too close to each other.
Her eyes widened. “Oh.” She looked back at me. “Didn’t you and her have a thing once upon a time?”
My back teeth ground together. I barely knew this woman, but somehow I wasn’t surprised she knew about my past. Even if it was a long time ago, Skye and I had been an item around this town back then.
I ignored her comment. “I have to go.”
Her nose crinkled in annoyance. “Seriously? After all this time, you’re still getting bent out of shape about her?”
I wasn’t about to explain myself to her. I could barely explain it to myself.
“Are you going or staying?” I asked, deadpan.
She rolled her eyes, grabbed her drink, and drained the last of it in a few gulps. “What a disappointment this was.” She sighed. “I hope she’s worth it,” she muttered as she stepped around me and headed toward the door.
I let her words hang in the air as I watched her walk a few paces before I followed behind. It took more willpower not to have one last look at her as we exited the brewery.
Skye wasn’t worth it. That’s what I’d tried to convince myself of a thousand times over since the day she ran away from everything we could’ve been.
But Skye Adler was back in Ember Hollow.
