“I did, not anymore.”
Fernando slams his fist on the table and jumps to his feet, causing Dylan to jerk. He walks behind Dylan and yanks him away from me, further ripping his jacket. His chest is heaving and his face flushed red. “You heard her, you’re done. Over. Finalizado. It’s time to get lost.”
Dylan sags as he realizes how much taller and more built Fernando is than him. He drops the bouquet to the floor and tucks his chin to his chest. Fernando starts to drag him toward the gate.
“Wait!” I shout. Both men turn. “Before you get rid of him, there’s one more thing I need to know.” Dylan shoots me a smug look. “Why did you come to Spain?”
“When I called the practice to ask Vicki about a box I forgot, she mentioned you were going to Spain.”
“Okay, but Spain’s a big country. How did you find me?”
Dylan’s face turns into one of panic and he lets out an audible gulp. “There’s an AirTag in your purse,” he says so softly, I almost need a microphone to make it out.
“How? When?”
“At the airport in Denver. I dropped it into your purse. In hindsight, it was probably a stupid move.”
“You think?” My eyes twitch. “Why did you do it?”
“I, er, wanted to keep track of you. You stopped sharing your location with me when I got to Colorado.”
He’s an even bigger creep than I thought. “You’re lucky I’m not filing a restraining order against you!” I’m seeing red, and if I were a lion, he’d be my first choice of prey. “This is adiósforever,Dylan.Don’t text, call, or ever try to reach me again.”
“Is that clear?” Fernando grunts.
Dylan lifts his chin weakly.
“Get rid of him,” I say, gritting my teeth. Marching over to my purse, I remove my wallet, phone, sunglasses, and lipstick before locating the AirTag. Throwing it as hard as I can, I watch with deep satisfaction as it lands in the ocean, hopefully being destroyed in the process.
Chapter Twenty-Four
How could he stick an AirTag in my purse? It certainly explains a lot. I can’t believe he’d sink to such a low level to keep track of me. Ugh, I should’ve listened to Daphne. She knew years ago he was trouble with a capital T. And she was right. When I tell her the stunt Dylan pulled, she’ll want to kill him herself.
As I sit in the car beside Fernando, I replay scenes in my head from over the past eight years. In vet school and throughout my residency, Dylan balanced me out. He made sure I didn’t spend all my time buried in a corner of the library. He pulled me out of my shell and helped me develop the social skills I needed to be able to confidently speak to my clients. But that’s where his help ended. As I grew, he stayed stuck in the past.
Dylan only cared about number one. Himself. He said he loved me. But I doubt it was ever the type of love I craved. I was just a pawn. A stepping stone to another woman, project, job, or whatever else he was after. He had no problem dumping the Queen of Vultures right after they got engaged.
It would only be a matter of time before that was me. My heartwouldn’t be able to take riding the Dylan roller coaster a second time. It’s already been broken once. A second time would be... I don’t even want to think about it. There’s already a bitter taste in my mouth. “Goodbye, Dylan,” I whisper softly.
I swallow hard and shift my attention to the man beside me. Fernando has his hands steady on the steering wheel and eyes focused on the road. It’s funny. The paths we’ve walked in our past relationships are eerily similar.
I pined after Dylan for years, while Fernando loved his Isabel. Neither of us could see their flaws until it was too late. And when they broke us, it hurt as if someone had forced us to walk through a bed of hot coals barefoot. I take a deep breath. At least he’ll finally get his happy ending. Isabel is a lucky woman. She’ll never find a better man than Fernando. I hope maybe one day, I’ll be lucky too. After my trip to Spain, I’m gonna need another vacation from my vacation.
I don’t notice until Fernando stops the car that we’ve left Santa Luz behind us and we’re in a dense forest area. The foliage is so thick, it’s hard to tell what time of day it is. Only a few patches of sunlight filter through the canopy of trees. Climbing out of the car, I feel how the temperature has dropped. I run my hands over my forearms.
“Here.” Fernando slips a fleece jacket over my shoulders. “We have about an hour before the sanctuary closes. We can come back another day and explore some more if you enjoy it.”
I don’t have to ask where we are. I hear the mighty roar of a tiger. It’s a sound that I heard often at the Colorado Zoo. When you stand beside a tiger, only separated by a few inches of thick steel, the sound of its roar reverberates through your bones and reminds you as a human how puny a species we really are. The sound still sends a chill through my body.
“We can have a look at whatever big cats you’d like,” Fernando says.
He purchases our admission tickets, and we wander silently from enclosure to enclosure. I can’t believe Fernando thought to bring me here. It lifts my spirits to see the animals in wide open spaces, doingnatural behaviors like sleeping and surveying their territories from high perches.
“I thought they’d be more active,” he says as we pass another exhibit, where the lion is stretched out asleep on top of a pile of rocks, soaking up the winter sun.
“Big cats are like their domestic cousins. They’re creatures of the night,” I reply.
It’s the first time I’ve spoken in over an hour. I’m happy to have the animals to focus on instead of my nonexistent love life.
