“I dunno man. Sure. Why not?” Zac said, letting him off the hook and grabbing the last stool at the table. He glanced at the other two women and nodded. “Blondie. Tabby cat. How was your day?”
“Fine. You?” Tabitha asked, sitting ramrod straight on her stool, giving nothing away besides how awkward she must have felt.
“Good. Good,” Zac returned with a similar level of discomfort.
The group sat quietly, looking at each other. The only movement was Lark slowly reaching for a tater tot from the fresh batch Frankie had returned with.
Why didn’t I go home after leaving Todd and the rest of the crew?
“Hey, stranger.”
Zac startled as Maggi popped up beside him and walked her fingers across his shoulders. He stiffened, shrugging off her touch and turning to face his short-lived date from Sunday. “Hello, Maggi.”
“I’m surprised I didn’t hear from you after you left in such a hurry the other night.”
“Right. I’ve been pretty busy this week,” he said, inadvertently glancing over her shoulder at Tabitha, who watched the interaction with thinly veiled dismay.
She followed his gaze and hummed. “Oh, right. The ex-flame. Hi, I’m Maggi.”
“Tabitha,” she said with a forced smile.
Maggi turned back to Zac. “I thought I’d come over and remind you that it’s my last night in Leavenworth, so if you weren’t doing anything . . .”
“I need a new beer,” Tabitha said quietly to Lark and then slid off her stool to make for the bar.
“Sorry, Maggi, I don’t think it’s going to work out. Excuse me.” Zac dismounted his stool as well, attempting to ease around Maggi without making contact, and fell in step with Tabitha. “Let me get that drink for you.”
She didn’t stop after he offered and so he followed, to insist. But she didn’t stop at the bar either and picked up the pace to exit the beer garden.
“Tabitha. Wait.”
He pushed past a cluster of customers, muttering clipped apologies, and continued his pursuit. She kept walking, and boy, those legs made her quick. She turned down a tiny alley toward the end of town and stopped where a parked delivery truck created a dead end. She growled at her lack of escape route and turned back to Zac, who waited at the start of the alley.
“Why are you here?” she demanded, finding her voice for the first time since Zac had joined the group at the beer garden.
“I came for a beer and snack.”
“No, I mean here?” She flailed her arms around her.
“It’s a nice alley,” Zac half-teased; he couldn’t resist messing with her a little. Old habits.
“Zac.” She slammed her hands on her hips and speared him with a look meant to kill. “You should be inside with your new friend.”
“Maggi? Are you jealous that she approached me?”
“No. I was still reeling from you showing up out of the blue.”
He inched closer, slowly. She flinched, and he held up his hands to calm her feral movements. “I didn’t have a clue you’d be here. And Frankie invited me over. I should have said no, but she’d turned away before I could. But then you stormed off and—”
“And what? You thought you needed to follow me? Typically, people storm off because they want to get away.”
“Sure, I get that. Been there.” Zac took another step forward and kept his words low and calm.
“You were who I wanted to get away from.”
“Again,” he said with a soft chuckle, now only a few feet away, “I get that. But I don’t understand why exactly. It’s been so many years since we last had history. And we’ve been getting along fine this week. You only have one more day of climbing with me, so why are you feeling so skittish now?”
“Because I don’t like how you make me feel,” she huffed, crossing her arms even tighter against her chest.
