“And Tabitha is going to end up with a full-time bodyguard if the three of you can’t stay out of trouble. You too.” He slams the door, leaving me alone.
And I get mad.
My entire life has been spent with everyone telling me what to do. How to be better. How to find someone to take care of me. Because apparently even in today’s society women are unable to do things without a man. I just thought the people on the West Coast were outdated. I thought by moving to the East coast I’d be around enlightened people. This was my chance to make it on my own. Prove myself. Take care of things. Practice my woman roar and all that.
It seems Bennett and the rest of the guys who work for Ridge missed the women’s Lib memo.
It’s a bunch of bullshit. And I’m sick of it. I don’t need another man telling me what to do. I get out of the truck and slam the door twice as hard as Bennett did. If he can slam car doors, then so can I.
“What the hell does that mean?” I ask stomping after him.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Bennett doesn’t stop to give me an answer. Instead he walks to the house like I didn’t even ask a question. Delores meets us on the other side of the front door.
“Oh, Anessa, I’m so glad Bennett saved you,” she says, wrapping herself in a thin summer jacket. “Liam is sleeping. I left you dinner in the fridge if you’re hungry.”
My lips pinch together in annoyance, but she’s too sweet and nice of a lady to tell her Bennett didn’t do anything to save me tonight. I was perfectly fine by the time he showed up. It seems a little petty, so I smile and nod like I was taught to do in these situations. But as I stand there grinning like a fool, I get more and more annoyed with Bennett.
He’s technically not even doing anything wrong right now. Just breathing the same air, but it’s enough.
I keep up the farce until Delores is happily on the way out the door with promises she’ll return in the morning.
It isn’t until Bennett turns the deadbolt, locking us in, that I take my fighting stance. My back straight, one hip popped to the side with the other leg bent, and a hand on each hip I prepare myself for battle. “What do you mean?”
He turns around, his eyes wide. “Shhh. Liam’s sleeping.”
Right. The sleeping child. It’s never been an issue I had to worry about before. “Well,” I whisper yell this time. He’s not getting away without giving me an answer.
“You went out tonight and found yourselves in a bunch of trouble. Why is it the three of you can’t get together and not have it fall to shit?”
“What the hell, Bennett? I went out with my friends. None of us did anything wrong.” Plus, we hang out all the time and nothing bad ever happens.
He throws his hands up in the air. “Anessa, three guys entered The Loft and shots were fired. Do you not understand how serious this is?”
I mimic his frustrated expression, my hands leaving my hips to swing out. “Yes! I’m the one who had a gun held to my head.”
“Exactly!” he yells and this time it’s me shushing him.
“What? So I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life without Tabitha or Katy?” His argument doesn’t even make sense. I’m the one who got us into the mess. Leasing a bakery with money stashed in a wall and then forgetting to give it all to Ridge. This is no one’s fault but my own. “You can’t live your life that way, Bennett. Plus, you’re the one who said everything would be fine. You and Ridge had it under control.”
“So now it’s my fault you didn’t give us all the money? I thought I could trust you.”
“You can trust me.” My hands go back on my hips. “I messed up. I understand that. I’m sorry. I’m sorry my stupidity put other people in danger.”
“I’m doing the best I can here, Anessa. I’m not like all the other guys who don’t have responsibilities at home. I have to think of Liam with every decision I make.”
I’m clueless to where he’s going with his new argument. I’m not a good decision for Liam? Is he saying his child could get hurt just being around me? He’s annoyed he had to leave him home tonight to help me? The entire conversation is twisted and it sounds like I’m the only one fighting about what happened here tonight.
“What does Liam have to do with this?”
Bennett scoffs, cutting me off. “How do you not see it? Do you know how worried I was when Spencer called? I’ve never cared about another human being so much besides Liam.” He pushes past me a few steps. “And you stand here and act like it’s nothing major.”
“It is major, but I’m not going to worry over small stuff. You can’t obsess over the things that could go wrong.”
He scoffs again, this time three times louder. “Says the girl who straightened my dishes because they didn’t line up perfectly with the edge of the cupboard.”
My mouth drops open, completely shocked he would sink so low as to bring that one random event into the argument. “That’s completely different.”
