What in the world is wrong?
Lacey stared over her shoulder at the corner of the room, but there was a couple standing at the next table over talking, and I couldn’t see who had pissed her off so much.
“Is the service that bad?” Wick joked as he pulled out a seat and sank down. We set our beers on the table together, almost as if we’d practiced it, and I took the seat next to his.
Some of her bad mood finally vanished as she spun around to look at me. “No, but the clientele is. We should leave. I already had to deal with him, and I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“One of your exes?” I asked, racking my brain to dredge up anyone she’d dated who was bad enough to warrant this kind of reaction.
“Not mine.” She lifted an eyebrow and tilted her chin down as she stared at me, and I shifted around uncomfortably. She glanced over her shoulder again. “Damn it, I made eye contact.” She whipped back around toward us and covered her face while she scrunched her shoulders.
Confused, I stared at her until someone came around the people behind our table and pulled out the seat at her side—and then I gaped. There was nothing else I could do. Matthew sat across from Wick, and it was like looking at a ghost from my past that still haunted me. He was the same as ever with a wide smile and big brown eyes, and he gave me a grin that showed off his dimples and made his bright lips even more apparent. His brown hair was longer than he used to keep it, pulled back into a ponytail at the base of his neck and sun-kissed with blond that was probably from spending time outside. The clingy red shirt stretched across his chest showed off his muscles, and he wasn’t shy about leaning his elbows on the table and grinning at me.
“Long time, no see, Reece. I didn’t think you were still alive.” He leaned his cheek on his hand and somehow managed to resemble a sweet puppy, which was half of what had snagged me in the first place when we’d met.
“Uh.” I nervously picked up my beer and sipped it. The hops hit my tongue and jump-started my brain. “How have you been?” I set the mug down and spiraled into a hellish pit in my head. Matt looked better than ever, and it made me feel awful when he smiled again.
I hadn’t done any of the things I’d told him I wanted to do when I left him.
I hadn’t hit the gym and lost all the weight.
I was still more or less the same guy.
He was probably judging my lack of integrity. I had trouble breathing. He’d made me feel so used.
“You’ve slimmed down,” Matt said, frowning a little as he darted his gaze over what he could see of my body. “Are you dieting?”
“Funny, I was just thinking I haven’t changed at all, but you have.” I cleared my throat.
“Excuse me,” Wick loudly interjected, shoving his hand at Matt, who shook it with a frown. “We haven’t met. I’m Wick Guidry.”
Matt dropped Wick’s hand as if he’d been scalded. “Matthew Bankrift.” He turned to look at me again, and I felt like a bug under a microscope, even though he was simply being friendly and not acting in any way I could take issue with. “If you have a minute, I would really like to talk to you. I didn’t like the way we left things, and this is the first time I’ve seen you out. You’ve been keeping to yourself, and Lacey more or less said I was to blame for that. It’s been what? Three years?”
“Five,” I replied, then winced. Why did I do that? He didn’t need to know he’d hurt me so bad I kept count.
“Damn it, Matt. I told you that so you would leave,” Lacey hissed, but he ignored her.
“You want to do what? Apologize?” I felt uneasy, but overall he didn’t seem to be doing anything awful. He’d never been a terrible guy. Anxiety twisted my stomach into a writhing ball of snakes and each one wanted to squiggle away in a different direction.
“Talk here.” Wick slid his hand under the table and squeezed my thigh, which made everything inside me simmer down a bit.
Matt frowned at him, and I finally saw some of the real irritation I knew he was capable of. It was almost comforting to get a peek at the man I’d lived with until I couldn’t take it anymore. “This is a private conversation, friend.” He flashed Wick a toothy grin.
“Sure. Okay,” I said.
Wick’s grip on my thigh tightened until it was nearly painful.
With a smile, I shoved Wick’s hand off. “I want to know what you have to say for yourself because I don’t feel like I ever did get a good explanation from you.”
I didn’t mean to brush Wick off, but I had no choice when I stood. He stared at me as if he was hurt, but there was a part of me that needed to hear whatever Matt had to say. Things had ended so terribly and strangely between us. I patted Wick’s shoulder as I moved behind him, then leaned forward. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Wick looked stunned as I walked only a few feet to another table, and I didn’t like that, but this was something I needed to do for me.
15
WICK
Lacey slappedher hand to the table hard enough that the iron clanged, and she let out a tiny growl that was louder than anything Snowbell could’ve managed. I moved around to sit at her side and turned in my seat so I could shamelessly stare. Maurice sat facing our table, and rather than sitting across from him, Matt went around and parked his ass next to Maurice.
