I lift my gaze, noticing his nose ring for the first time. “Please don’t do that.” My calm tone is at odds with the rage flowing through my veins. Callan broke my heart, but it’s not like he committed murder. We don’t get to run him out of town or dictate where he can and can’t go.
Every person seated at the tables surrounding us is watching this go down, and we’re going to be the subject of much gossip tomorrow. Something I truly could do without.
“He leaves, or I do.” Seán flings his napkin down on the table and stands, the chair screeching with the brutal motion.
I doubt there’s a single person in the restaurant who isn’t aware of the drama now, and I can’t believe he is doing this.
My hands are shaking with humiliation as I stand. Wearing the fakest smile, I turn to Travis and Callan. “I’m sorry for interrupting your night. Please return to your table before we give the gossips even more to talk about.” I’m choking back tears as I grab my purse, pointedly ignore my fiancé, and walk out of the restaurant, doing my best to keep my head up high.
When I exit onto the sidewalk, I turn in the opposite direction of Seán’s car, needing space from the stranger I’m engaged to.
“Astrid.”
I pick up my pace as he calls after me, refusing to acknowledge him. How dare he do this to me. My face is on fire. My body is trembling with embarrassment.
“Astrid.” Seán grabs my arm, and I almost trip over my heels when he turns me to face him. “What are you doing?”
“What amIdoing?” I shout. “You embarrassed the heck out of me back there! You know how important this project is to me. I work with those people, and I want them to see me as competent and driven, no longer the young girl they might remember me as, but it seems like you’re determined to undermine me any chance you get.”
“I was trying to make it more comfortable for you! I know how badly he hurt you. I’m just trying to protect you.”
“Bullshit, Seán. Don’t pretend that was about me. You were jealous, and you wanted to throw your superiority around, but that’s not the way things work in small towns. You can’t flash the cash and expect everyone to do your bidding.”
“Why the fuck not? I could buy this entire fucking town if I wanted to.”
“Let go of me.” I try to shuck out of his arms. “I’m not doing this with you in the street.” There aren’t many people out on a Wednesday night, but the two couples walking on the opposite side of the road have stopped, concern written all over their faces as they watch us.
“I don’t give a fuck.” He lets me go, and I take a step back. “All you had to do was shut your mouth and let me handle it. He was happy to leave until you interfered. What is it with you and him? He’s just some cheating asshole you fucked when you were a kid. Why are you still hung up on him?”
“I’m not still hung up on him.”
And he wasn’t just some asshole I fucked as a kid. He was so much more. My first love. My first lover. My first heartbreak. Iwisely keep those thoughts to myself, though I’m tempted to toss them out in the heat of the moment.
“This is about common decency,” I say. “You can’t demand people leave public places. You can’t do that around here.”
“There is no reasoning with you when you’re like this.”
“WhenI’mlike this?” I shriek, spotting Callan, Riley, and Travis at the door of the restaurant, glancing in our direction because it seems my embarrassment is not yet complete.
“You’re acting like an overwrought teenager. I take you out to dinner, and this is the thanks I get?”
“I’m not the one acting like a teenager. Why are you being like this?” Tears gather in my eyes. “This isn’t you.”
I want my loving, charming fiancé back.
“I could say the same for you. I wish we’d never come to this two-bit town.”
“Thistwo-bittown is my hometown.” Travis and Riley slip back inside the restaurant, but Callan remains outside. Seán will go crazy if he sees him, and I really wish he’d go inside and mind his own business.
“I can see why you left.”
A few silent tears roll down my face. “Wow, insulting my hometown now. Why not just slap me while you’re at it?”
He reels back as if I’ve struck him. “Astrid. I?—”
“I’m not doing this with you again.” I turn to walk off when he snags my hand.
“Don’t walk away.” Most of the anger is gone from his face. “Please. Let’s go home. We’ll eat the dinner you made and take some space to cool down.”
