Who cares. I’ll walk around. I just need to see…
“Nathan.” I gasp. My stomach practically hits my shoes. “What are you doing here?”
“I work here. I can be here whenever I want. Who were you expecting? Your latest hookup?” His eyes are bloodshot, and I don’t respond.
I thought Sam turned on the location thing for Jude and that’s what the notification was. He must’ve thought so too because I could’ve sworn that’s what his goofy grin was telling me. I need to look at my phone.
I reach for my back pocket as Nathan walks toward me.
“Can’t look away from your phone for a minute, can you?” He laughs.
“Did you tell Gavin to get me?”
“Who? The kid with the trash? Yeah. You got a thing with him too?” He keeps inching closer, but the door’s locked, and they’d never hear me knock. I’ll have to run all the way around the building to get back in.
My shoes are slick from the greasy kitchen floor. It’s dark, and the ground is wet.
Maybe he’ll leave if I let him talk. “What do you want?”
“You got me kicked out of my house.” He adds a nasty term of endearment at the end.
“I haven’t even seen you!”
“All I needed was a little support, you selfish witch. You think you’re so much better than me while you’re out here sleeping with half the town.”
I ignore the accusation and focus on thekicked outpart.
“If Jackson kicked you out, that’s between y’all. Maybe you shouldn’t have fought someone who let you live there for free.”
Well, that was dumb.
His teeth clench as he takes a step closer, forcing me to step back.
“You gotta keep pushing, don’t you? Always had to kick me when I’m down.”
“I’m not the one who knocked a girl up. You can’t stand me anyway, so just go.”
I’ve got to stop talking. He doesn’t self-reflect or apologize. He won’t even give me the silent treatment when he’s like this. All I can do is not engage.
“I already told you I’ll be here whenever I want!” He charges toward me, spitting as he talks. “You ruined everything! I had to move! I lost my job!”
I stumble backward over some landscape rocks and fall on my butt in some mulch. My head smacks the side of the building, but he keeps coming toward me. I use my hands to scoot away from the wall so he can’t corner me, then instinctively cross my arms in front of my face. “I had nothing to do with any of that. I wasn’t even there!” I cry, beginning to panic.
Nathan stands over me and screams, “There’s no baby! She said it’s not mine. I lost everything because you couldn’t wait one more freaking month. Everything would’ve worked out!”
I don’t mean to close my eyes, but I can’t help it. He’s so close and so loud. The smell of alcohol on his breath makes me gag, and I snap.
With both hands and not enough air in my lungs, I shove him back as hard as I can.
Something pops in my wrist when I connect awkwardly with his face, and it burns like all the fire in Hades, but Nathan flies backward like he was jerked from the other side.
Somewhere I can hear Annie talking. Familiar arms hook under mine, pulling me up a rag doll just in time to see Jude’s fist connect with Nathan’s jaw.
Sam wraps around me from behind, pinning my arms to my chest like I might try to fight. I couldn’t if I wanted to. His heart hammers against the back of my head, but he’s the only thing holding me up. “You’re okay. Danny’s got him. Annie called the cops.”
Jude puts Nathan on the ground, restraining him with a knee in his back while he flails and screams obscenities. A police car arrives in seconds, blinding me with flashing LED lights.
“Danny Crawford? What the hell are you doing? Why are you out here street fightin’ in a dang suit? Don’t you own half this town?”
