Page 43 of Rough Return

Oh, but she did want him. Forever. Not that she had the courage to tell him. Or would likely ever have the courage to tell him.

“Second.” Jez stared at Fiona hard. “I think you love that boy.”

Love? No. Love meant missing him when they were apart. Looking forward to seeing him. Wanting to spend every minute together in his arms. Dying to hear anything and everything he had to say. Needing to… Oh, hell.

She swallowed hard. She didn’t want to blurt her feelings out for the whole restaurant to hear. “No.”

Jez patted her hand. “Your daddy would be so proud. It’s all he ever wanted for you.”

And had she not been so intent on denying her feelings, she would have teared up again at the mention of her father, but now she stared at Jez, wondering if Grier had somehow read her the way Jez had.

“I don’t love Grier.” That lie burned in her throat, leaving her with no choice but to argue it into truth.

“Okay.” Jez’s disbelief turned her voice into one of those cartoon character sounds.

“I’m serious. I like being with him fine, but I could live without him.” Oh yeah. She’d have to work on making that one convincing, too. “I mean… I would miss him, of course, but…” She couldn’t imagine not having him near enough to touch. She’d even tried to get out of dinner tonight so she could stay with him. “Jez, I’m screwed.”

Jez laughed. “No, baby. You are head over heels. And it’s beautiful. And exciting. An adventure the two of you can take together.”

“What if he doesn’t…?”

“He does.”

“What if he…?”

Jez laughed. “He bought you the baby bed of your dreams. He doesn’t even look at the Wall Kats or the Hell Kats. And baby, they’re doing a lot of looking at him.”

The vein in her temple throbbed. “Who is?”

“He’s good-looking. Women notice. Don’t worry. I put out the word that he’s off-limits.”

“Who. Is. Looking. At. My. Husband?”

Jez shook her head. “You don’t know her.”

“Lisa? Maggie? Jez, I don’t want to have to ask again.” And she hadn’t meant it to sound like a threat. She really didn’t want to ask again.

“Autumn.”

Fiona slammed her hand on the table. What the fuck was she doing back? Fiona had made Max send her away a long time ago. She would’ve thought Autumn would have gotten the message back then.

“Look, Fi, she rode in with Kale. He didn’t know, and she didn’t know. I told her. And now she knows.” Jez chased her out of the restaurant as she lifted her arm to wave down a cab. “Fiona!”

“I’m not going to kill her. I’m just going to make very clear that Grier is spoken for, and if she tries anything, I’ll put her right back on the wall she slithered off of.” Okay. There were perks to being the chick in charge.

Fiona climbed in the cab and Jez slid in beside her. “What about your car?”

Jez had driven them to the restaurant. “I’ll get it tomorrow. I can’t have you running off all hormonal and jealous. With the way you’ve been treating Grier, he might be more inclined to leave you in jail than bail you out. So I need to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

Fiona flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Fine, but if I have to punch her in the throat, just know it isn’t going to have one damned thing to do with my hormones.” Jez pulled out her phone and shot off a short, fast text. Fiona scowled. “Did you warn her?”

“Warned Grier.” She held up her phone. The screen read, Fiona warpath. Meet at club.

“Succinct.”

“Thanks. I’ve been working on my text skills.”

Fiona fumed all the way across town, on the turnpike, through the neighborhood where she’d played as a child. Finally, he pulled into the parking lot. Fiona threw some cash over the seat and swung her legs out of the car. She strolled past Grier’s bike and into the bar. No Autumn. No Grier. Her blood boiled.