How had he known I was going stir crazy?
"I figured a trip to Jo's, and some fine baked goods, would make you feel better," he said after a sip of coffee.
"Thank you." And I meant it. Already, I felt marginally lighter. At least a little.
Rewinding the last few days and erasing the library kiss would make me feel even better about myself, but without a time machine, that wasn't possible. But I shoved that thought down.
We sat in silence for a while, with me trying not to stare at his chiseled jaw covered in sexy scruff or the way his pecs stretched his white tee. Thankfully, the cafe had filled up in the time we’d been sitting here. A group of middle-aged cyclists and their chatter helped distract me.
A teenage girl had appeared to help Jo serve. I caught her watching Conal with a dreamy expression on her face and wondered if that was how I looked like to casual observers.
Conal hadn’t noticed.
The longer we stayed enjoying the cafe's ambiance, the more the tension left my shoulders. It was good to be somewhere different, among people who didn't look at me with pity in their eyes.
As Conal relayed an amusing anecdote about Saoirse from when they were kids, my phone, which I'd placed on the table in case Saoirse called me, blipped with a message from my 'unknown number' asshole, aka Anton using a burner phone.
Two words.
Fucking whore.
Conal glanced down at the message on my lock screen and his face morphed from relaxed to furious in a heartbeat. He snatched my phone and stared at the offensive message. Another blip and a new message. This one was evidently disgusting enough to trigger a fatal embolism, judging by the way a vein throbbed ominously in Conal's temple.
"Ignore them," I advised. Anton would get bored with messaging me one day soon. If he didn't, I'd change my number.
"Unlock your phone," Conal demanded, passing me the phone.
"Why?"
He looked pointedly at the handset, so I raised it to my face and unlocked it, then handed it to him. He snatched it from me, jumped up, and stormed outside. As I watched, he jabbed at the screen and placed it to his ear.
Shit.
"Why didn't you say something?" Conal growled as we walked back to his SUV. He'd finally given me my phone back, and when I looked, the messages were gone.
I shrugged. "Didn't seem important."
He spun around and pressed me back against the passenger door. The rain had slowed to a faint drizzle. Faint rumbles of thunder heralded another incoming weather front, but Conal didn't seem to notice.
"You should have told me. Toldus. The stuff in those messages…Jesus." His jaw ticked with anger. "Goddammit, Verity! No woman deserves that shit, and especially not you. I wish I’d fucking gutted the bastard."
My eyes widened in surprise. How did he know the messages had come from Anton?
Then I sighed. Nothing in Anton's messages was new to me. He'd said a lot of the same shit to my face during arguments. Perhaps I'd become immune to it. Or more likely, I just accepted it as my due because, subliminally, this was what I felt I deserved.
Conal brushed a strand of wet hair off my cheek. The gentleness of his touch shocked me from my introspection.
"Sweetheart."
I looked up, rain blurring my vision. Or were they tears?
"Those messages are bullshit. You are beautiful…perfect."
I huffed derisively. "Stupid, more like." Stupid enough to fall for Anton's superficial charm. Stupid enough to believe Evan when he told me he loved me. Especially stupid enough to give him my virginity. An experience that left me wondering why Saoirse had lied when she said sex was amazing, because it hadn't been for me.
A firm hand cupped my jaw. "You're not fucking stupid, sweetheart." When his gaze dipped, lingering on my mouth, I swallowed hard. Given how cold it was out here, the icy windcutting me to the bone, I should have been shivering. But the heat emanating from Conal's hard torso kept the cold at bay.
I wondered what it would be like to sleep tucked into his shoulder, cherished and protected. But that was just a dream. A broken girl like me was not meant for a man like Conal. Besides, he had a girlfriend.
