Page 65 of Home Town
He drew back into the darkened room just far enough he could see them through the window but they wouldn’t see him watching.
The problem was, he couldn’t see them inside the dark car any more than they could see him in the pitch-black living room next door peering out the narrow space between the sheer white curtains and the window’s molding.
She didn’t get out of the car right away.
It was all he could do to not stalk over there and bang on the vehicle’s window. Pound on the glass until they stopped whatever they were doing in there. Until the damn glass shattered all over Kirk’s smug pretty face.
When he felt about to crawl out of his skin she opened the door. The interior dome light showed her and Kirk inside. She leaned over and gave him a hug and Corey held his breath.
He didn’t see a kiss—not that that meant there hadn’t been one at some point. Then she got out, slammed the door and with a little wave, headed for the house.
The moment Kirk’s car was out of the driveway and out of sight, Corey took off running. Out the door of his mom’s house and across the lawn.
Barefoot and in nothing but shorts and a T-shirt, he caught Josie just before she closed the door with her on the inside.
“Did you have sex with him?” he blurted out.
It was what he most wanted to know. But it wasn’t the question he’d wanted to ask. How was your night? Can we talk? Are you and I okay?
Any of those would have been a better option. Those choices probably wouldn’t have yielded him the reaction he got from Josie now.
“You don’t have the right to ask me that.”
Didn’t he though? It sure as hell felt like he did. His silence had her drawing in a breath and shaking her head.
“Go to sleep, Corey.” She moved to close the door, but he stuck his hand out and blocked it.
“Are you going to see him again?” Another bad choice, but he needed to know.
“Maybe I will. Now goodnight.” This time she did manage to get the door closed.
He heard the lock engage and turned back toward home.
The level of devastation he felt was shocking in its intensity. How could something hurt this much?
He’d lost friends. Good ones. And that had hurt. Of course it did. But with it came, eventually, a level of acceptance. Of knowing there was nothing he could do. Nothing he could have done. They were gone. And it was out of his power to change that.
Somehow knowing Josie was still right there, alive and well but not with him, and he still couldn’t control the situation was infinitely worse.
He couldn’t do it. Couldn’t be next door and watch her go out on date after date with Kirk. Not after they had been together.
This mental anguish and pain couldn’t be good for his brain’s healing. It certainly wasn’t good for his stomach. He headed right for the medicine cabinet and grabbed the bottle of antacids. And his heart—this definitely wasn’t good for that organ.
Who knew love could hurt this damn much?
Love.
Didn’t it figure? He finally let himself fall for a woman and she broke his heart.
He booted up his mother’s computer in the den, the little room she used for paying bills and stuff, and navigated to a travel website.
Last minute flights were outrageous. But Amtrak could get him to Florida. He didn’t care how long it took. As long as he was away from here. And away from her.
Chapter Thirty
“Did you get home at like one-thirty last night?” Quinn asked as he glanced up from the kitchen table late the next morning.
“Ugh. Yes,” she groaned. “I forgot how late the double feature at the drive-in lets out.”
