“She won’t let me.” I looked up at the sky and let out a long breath. “But I’m willing to be patient. I’ll give her as much time and space as she needs.”
“Yeah, well, if you really care about her, and it sounds like you do, that’s the best thing you can do,” he said. “As gross as the idea is to me, you two morons seem like you both like each other. I hope things can work out, but you’ll get nowhere if you push too hard.”
“I’m trying, man.”
I heard a noise a couple rows down in the parking lot. Nic heard it too. We both cocked our heads to listen. It sounded like someone was pouring out a beer on the asphalt.
Nic’s eyes widened and he smiled. “Dude, gross, I think someone’s taking a piss.”
I looked in that direction, unable to see anyone, but the voice I heard was crystal clear.
“Can you believe it?” Dixie asked. “Back working on the high school play. Again. What a loser.”
Nic wrinkled his nose. “I still can’t believe you dated her,” he whispered. “She’s such a trash bag.”
“I know,” I said softly.
Another female voice said something back, but it was lost in the wind.
“Fuck Clara Snow,” Dixie said loud and clear.
I growled and headed in the direction of the voices. Nic stopped me with his massive hand, strong as an iron clamp. He held a finger to his lips, shook his head, and pointed at his ear, telling me to just listen.
Dixie was clearly drunk and talking big in front of whatever friend was listening. It turned out my ex could bear a grudge, from the sound of things. “I got that fucking theater shut down.”
“How?” her friend asked.
“It’s easy when you’re fucking the mayor, babe,” Dixie said. “He sent an inspector. I wanted the place torn down, but I had to settle for closing it down for a few months. Fuck it, Clara’s show got canceled and they fired her ass.”
“Got her.” Her equally low-class friend laughed.
Dixie laughed cruelly. “That’s what she gets for stealing my man back in high school.”
Nic glanced at me and I shook my head quickly, mouthing the word,No. I had no idea what she was talking about.
“And just wait,” Dixie said. “I’m not done. I’m going to get her shitcanned from the high school play, too.”
“Yeah, right,” her friend said.
“You’ll see.”
I took another step forward then, needing to stand up for Clara even though she wasn’t mine to defend. Nic grabbed my arm again and shook his head.
“Donotget involved,” he said quietly. “I know you mean well, but if you go defending Clara to that psycho ex of yours, I’m sure it’s just going to make things worse. It’ll ruin Clara’s Christmas more than you already have.”
I was torn between putting Dixie in her place and listening to Nic. My ex had some fucking nerve talking about Clara that way. And Clara never stole me away from Dixie in high school. That was absurd. I broke up with Dixie because she was the worst. End of story.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay,” I said to Nic. “I’ll let you take the lead.”
“Let’s go back inside and get you a beer, huh?”
We made our way back into Tipsy’s without Dixie ever knowing we were out there to witness how shitty she was. She had been sandbagging Clara’s life over and over. It was unreal.
Clara had always had her heart broken, her plans stalled, because of other people, and I was part of that list now. I couldn’t let it stay that way.
CHAPTER 34
CLARA
