Page 92 of His to Love
With my back to the bar, I was facing the doors that led to the kitchen. Every time a server moved in and out of the doors, my breath lodged in my throat as I wondered if Tyson would appear in the doorway like he did the first time we came here.
Conversation around me drifted off. I vaguely heard Chelsea talking about how she had spent much of her summer on vacation. She also spent time landscaping her backyard, which I’d heard was absolutely beautiful. She said after her husband had left her, she made it her mission to make the yard her private oasis. It sounded like she spent hours outside working, planting, and weeding every day. I couldn’t wait to see it someday.
Camden talked about her job at an accounting firm, while Paige and Suzanne lovingly complained about their husbands and their habit of leaving dirty towels all over the floor and their inability to find anything in the refrigerator.
Their voices drifted around me while the pain that’d been in my chest for the last three months began to grow and pulse with an emptiness I hadn’t yet experienced. Suzanne and Paige, as much as they bitched about their men, were completely in love and had the one thing I’d always wanted. It wasn’t the first time I had wondered if I should have heard Tyson out during all the weeks he called and texted me.
My father and Malik had done despicable things and they deserved to be punished for them. I hated them both equally. But I still felt used, knowing Tyson lied to me. And while I understood it was his job and he had to, it didn’t change the fact that it hurt.
Deeply.
The kitchen door opened and my back straightened when I saw Declan enter the dining area. I watched every step he took, with a tray in his hand and his eyes on me, until he was unloading all the dishes from his tray and onto our table.
“Oohh…personal delivery,” Suzanne sang, wiggling her eyebrows. “I could get used to being served like this.”
“Then train your husband,” Declan drawled as he slid my burger in front of me.
I snickered at Suzanne but froze when Declan placed his hand on my shoulder. I twisted my neck and looked up at him. Sympathy softened his typically hard features. “I’m sorry to hear about your mom. You doing okay?”
“As good as can be expected,” I answered, truthfully.
“You’ve had a shitty few months, wouldn’t blame you if you weren’t okay.” Then he leaned closer, placing his lips near my ear.
“Want you to know my boy feels like utter shit. But what he did, he had to do. Doesn’t mean he enjoyed a single second of it, though, from what I’ve heard. It’d be worth it to give him a few minutes of your time.”
I blinked rapidly and looked down at my lap. In my peripheral vision, I saw that all other conversation had stopped, and I had four sets of eyes locked on Declan and me as he continued speaking into my ear.
“Whatever he felt for you, whatever he feels for you, that wasn’t his job making him do that shit. Just want you to know.”
“It’s not that simple,” I said, my voice thickening with emotion. Shaking my head, I turned to meet Declan’s gaze. “You don’t understand.”
“I understand wanting something so badly and watching it slip through your fingers. I also understand giving someone a second chance, or at least giving them the time to explain so you can walk away knowing you did everything you could.”
I blinked at him, speechless.
He squeezed my shoulder and, with those parting words, he nodded to the other silent women at the table, and then walked away.
“Personally,” Paige said, her voice just above a whisper, “I think the man has a point.”
One thing I’d learned about Paige in the last few months was that she was the quintessential girly-girl and truly believed fairy tales and happily ever afters happened, and happened frequently.
My lips pressed together as everyone watched for my reaction. I didn’t give them one. Instead, I picked up my burger and dug into it like it was my job. The longer I avoided this conversation the better.
Thankfully, my new friends understood my strong desire to avoid Declan’s point and moved on to listening to Paige. She was talking about school starting next month where she was a kindergarten teacher at the elementary school. I shuddered at the subject, all those slimy noses in one room, and I only barely paid attention.
I was still thinking about Tyson, and what Declan said.
A part of me was happy to learn Tyson felt like a shit. A bigger part of me, one I knew would be impossible to ignore forever…
Just really missed him.
—
I was sufficiently inebriated a couple hours later when we began saying our goodbyes. It was late, just after eleven, and Chelsea and I were outside waiting for a taxi to show up. Out of all the women, Chelsea was the one I had grown closest to. She was sweet and kind, with a large heart. Since she was not as boisterous as Suzanne or Paige, she seemed to always understand things on a deeper level.
“You know I was married,” she said, her words slurring as we sat on a bench just outside the Fireside Grill. The summer air was still hot and the humidity still thick. I lifted the hair off the back of my neck to cool myself before dropping it again. “Wanna know why I got divorced?”
“If you want to tell me.” I rested my head on her shoulder, fighting to stay awake. It felt like the bench we were on gently bobbed up and down like a boat in a marina slip.
