“Yeah,” Maris gives me a wry smile and lifts up the bag holding her breakfast. “I didn’t drop this, so I’m good.”
I set her on her feet and look around the coffee shop. “Are they always like this with you?”
“This is a good day. It’s usually worse."
“Fucking animals.”
Maris’ eyes widen when I say that. I know why. It doesn’t fit the image she has of me as the calm, kind doctor, the easygoing, not a mean bone in his body doctor. I wish she knew that even that kind of man wouldn’t stand for this shit. My anger rises quick and hot. If I wasn’t trying to maintain a low profile I’d take revenge for Maris right here and now. Fuck witnesses. They’d all find out what a soulless demon monster bastard I am, and that secret would die here with them. There wouldn’t be a single one of them left to tell the tale. Every last one of the blood bags sucking down lattes would be dead at Maris’ feet before they realized what was happening.
But as it is…
I take in a deep breath, unclench my fists and force myself to tamp down my murderous rage before I throw a table at someone. These fucking mortals think they can get away with disrespecting my wife?No fucking way.
“I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that,” I tell Maris.
She looks away. “But I-”
“You don’t even know what she did.”
Maris and I both look at Billy. I should have thrown him through the front window earlier.
“Fuck off, Billy,” Maris snaps.
He rolls his eyes. “Right, right. I’ll be seeing you Mare. I’ll call later, come around after dinner tonight. Leave the porch light on. Nine o’clock.”
“What?” Maris’ eyes bug out. “You better not. I do not want to see you, you idiot.” She looks ready to hit him with her breakfast, which won’t do at all. I need her to eat.
Billy doesn’t pay any mind to her anger. He lets it roll off him like he’s used to it. He’s already back at the counter to order his morning coffee. For a second, I think about hitting him in the back of the knee to take him down but in the end, I take Maris’ arm and guide her out of the coffee shop.
He’ll get what’s coming to him later.
“Is he really going to come by your home tonight?” I ask. I already know the answer before she says it. I saw it in the leer he gave her. Billy thinks he still has a shot with Maris.
“Yeah, he’s stupid enough to do it. We’ve been over for a while now. Two years,” she sighs and looks back at the coffee shop when we’re on the sidewalk. Two years. I put together the timeline. Billy dropped her the second the town turned on her. Somehow the low opinion I had of him sinks even lower. Men are disgusting, weak-willed creatures. They always have been.
She glares at Billy where he lounges against the counter and talks to the barista like he wasn’t just making a fool of himself. From the shit eating grin on his face, he thinks he’s fucking Casanova.
“I wish…I wish I didn’t live here,” Maris whispers. Her voice is so soft at the end that it makes me sad. The feeling is entirely new. It hurts. It makes me angry. I feel like I’m too full and coming apart at the seams.
This will not do.
“I’ll be there to meet him then. You don’t have to worry about him anymore,” I tell her and then nod up the road towards the newspaper office. “Why don’t you show me around now?”
Maris nods and takes a sip of her coffee. “I’d like that.”
Twenty
MARIS
To say this morning has been weird is definitely an understatement.
I sip my coffee while I play tour guide and peek at Julian out of the corner of my eye. I just pointed out the iron anchor that washed up in 1900 during one of the worst storms in the town’s history. The Storm of the Century. The townsfolk didn’t move the massive anchor but built around it in memory of the survivors and those lost in the storm, and now it takes up prime estate just off Main Street in the plaza where they hold the Christmas Market. Real interesting stuff, as in not that interesting unless you’re a nautical buff or into local history, which I guess Julian is because he paid attention like I was going to be quizzing him. Maybe he thinks I will?
The man has been hanging on my every word this morning.
I take another sip and clear my throat. “So, this morning wasn’t normal.”
“And yet, you said it was a good day.”
