CHAPTER 28
Chase
Icouldn’t argue with her on that. He did save her life. But there was more to her story, and I would seem like an asshole for being the one to bring those parts up. How could I ask her about that?
Ever?
And there were still the issues of why she felt she couldn’t talk to me about this.
“Can I have that drink now?” I asked her.
She jumped up from her chair and hustled to the bar area. She held up a bottle of pinot. “I’ve only been drinking from this bottle of wine. I didn’t want to touch too much of their stuff.”
Following her, I opened some of the cabinets and found a twenty-year scotch. “It’s my brother’s place, he’ll be fine with it. Do you want a glass?”
She nodded and I poured us each a glass. The burn of the brown liquid on my throat helped alleviate the pain in my head.
I poured another one.
I was setting myself up for a long night. But it was going to be one, anyway. As I walked back to my chair, Maryellen watched me intently from her seat. Her eyes followed my every move as I handed her the glass.
“What are you thinking?” She spun her drink in her hands, making the ice clink against the edges.
“I don’t know, Mare. There’s a lot of things going through my head right now.”
She tore her gaze from mine. Then just as quickly looked back at me. She leveled me with an expression that could take me down.
“You’re thinking that the girl you’ve been with, the girl you’ve been fucking, used to be a prostitute.”
Jumping from my seat, I started toward her. She turned her face, almost cowering from me as I advanced in her direction. So, I stopped where I was, a few feet from her.
“Mare, that’s not fair, putting words like that in my mouth. You haven’t given me a chance to think, or digest any of this.” I ran my fingers through my hair and across my face, not knowing what else to do with my hands. “And you were not a fucking prostitute.”
She still wouldn’t look at me. I wasn’t sure how to proceed.
How to make this move forward so it wouldn’t blow up in our faces.
“Have you eaten?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “Not since this morning.”
Getting out of here might help.
“C’mon, get your coat. Let’s go grab a burger. I saw a bar open down the road when I drove in.”
The mood in the room already seemed lighter as we headed to the door. We were doing something familiar, it felt normal.
The bar was more crowded than I thought it would be for the middle of winter. The locals were loud and rowdy as they watched a variety of games being broadcast on multiple screens along the walls. It was a warm, welcoming environment as we were brought to a booth toward the back.
“Can I get you anything from the bar?” A waitress appeared next to our booth and tossed two menus onto our table. That welcoming environment hadn’t transferred to her. She seemed ready to go home.
“I’ll have a bottle of Miller Lite please. What about you, Mare?”
“I’ll have the same.”
The server simply walked away.
“Looks like someone else is having a rough day, too,” I said.
