Not able to deny her anything, even the disgustingness of pizza, I’d taken her to the place around the corner from her place and ate the mess with her.
All the while, though, the entire night swirled in my head.
By the time we’d finished dinner, she’d talked nonstop about Cerise and the night, and I hadn’t gotten a word in edgewise.
But the sweet innocence of her asking me what I was going to do with that man that we’d taken to the clubhouse was the push that I needed.
She got off the bike, bouncing lightly on her toes, as she waited for me to answer her.
The words were out before I could call them back.
“Don’t call me again, Baker.”
Her hopeful eyes deflated. “What?”
I jerked my head at her, then at the house behind her where her kid slept, and expounded, “I’m not a good guy. I don’t want you calling me again unless you’re in really big trouble, and the only thing that you need is someone to kill that trouble for you.”
She swallowed hard.
“But, Copper…”
“No,” I stated firmly, knowing that she needed to be cut loose, not tied to me tighter. This life wasn’t for her. She deserved the world, but she wouldn’t get the kind of world she deserved from me. “You deserve the world, Baker. You deserve a man who can walk into a job interview and not have to disclose that he’s an ex-con. You deserve a man who can walk into the school with your son, and not have the teachers look at him like he’s about to cause problems. You deserve the white picket fence, and the dogs and all the kids. I can’t give you any of that. So, leave it be, Baker. Leave me be. I can’t handle much more.”
Nineteen
Moister than an oyster.
—T-shirt
BAKER
“You deserve the world, Baker. You deserve a man that can walk into a job interview and not have to disclose that he’s an ex-con. You deserve a man that can walk into the school with your son, and not have the teachers look at him like he’s about to cause problems. You deserve the white picket fence, and the dogs and all the kids. I can’t give you any of that. So, leave it be, Baker. Leave me be. I can’t handle much more.”
With that parting comment, he marched down the length of my walkway, then got onto his bike before quietly wheeling away.
Even in his anger, he was thoughtful enough not to start the bike up and wake up Holt.
I don’t know why, but that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
When I turned around, it was to find Audric on the couch, eyes intense.
“Give him time, darlin’. It’s hard falling in love. Especially when you don’t think the other person loves you back,” he observed.
After saying his piece, he gathered up the car seat where Lottie was asleep and headed out the door.
He closed the door softly behind him, leaving me a complete mess.
“Yo.”
I glanced at Keely, who’d roughly yanked me out of my contemplation of the worst moment of my life.
“Yeah?”
I wasn’t sure how I’d ended up in the middle of a crowded bar on a Wednesday afternoon, but there I was, with a beer in my hand.
I wasn’t even sure how the hell I’d ended up with the people that I was with.
One second I’d been moping around on my porch, and the next Audric had jerked his head at his truck and said, “Get in.”
