At First Hate (Coastal Chronicles)

I winced at the mention of his ex-wife. Derek, however, didn’t. He strode around Chuck, grabbed the back of his chair, and jerked it backward.

Chuck shouted, scrambling to keep from falling. But it was no use. Chuck fell backward on the hardwood floor. His feet dangling comically in the air before he rolled over with a groan. “What the fuck?”

“I said, don’t call her that,” Derek said calmly.

“Jesus Christ, it was just a fucking joke.”

“You weren’t joking, Chuck. You’re just a prick who never left high school behind. Marley has done more in her life than you’ll ever do, and I’m done letting your petty insults continue.”

Chuck clambered to his feet. Michael and Joseph similarly got up with wide eyes, staring at Derek as if they’d never seen him.

“Fuck you, Ballentine,” Chuck said eloquently.

Derek nodded and took a step forward. All three of them jerked backward in alarm. He laughed. “That’s what I thought. Now, get the fuck out of here.”

And to my shock, they tucked tail and all but ran from the bar. Sure, Chuck threw obscenities at Derek, as if it would make a difference. But they were gone.

Josie leaned in close to me. “Remember how I said that you didn’t have to marry him?”

I laughed. “Yeah?”

“I take it back.”

Lila’s head whipped to us. “What? Marry him?”

“You should definitely marry him,” Josie said.

Lila looked between me and Derek and then shrugged. “It’ll be an awkward wedding, but I have to say that I’m with Josie on this one.”

I shook my head. “Y’all are ridiculous.”

Derek held his hand out to the abandoned table. “Drinks, ladies?”

“We’ll get them!” Josie said. She grasped Lila’s hand and dragged her away, leaving me and Derek alone.

I stepped forward, brushing back a loose curl. “Um… thanks. That was unexpected.”

He pulled up Chuck’s overturned chair and offered it to me. I sank into it, and he took the seat next to me.

“Well, that’s how it should have gone the first time.”

“Yeah,” I whispered.

Derek reached out and threaded our fingers together. He dropped a kiss onto my hand. “That was always my biggest regret.”

“What was?”

He nodded down. “That I let you go over that.”

“Oh,” I said softly. “Well, you didn’t let me go exactly. You did show up at my house a bunch once you sobered up with no memory of what had happened and begged me to come back.”

“Yeah,” he said sheepishly. “I did that. But I’d already ruined it.”

“We both did.” My eyes trailed to my friends at the bar. “I should have told Lila long before I did.”

Silence stretched between us, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. For the first time in a long time, there were no more regrets between us. We were here again. I still wasn’t entirely sure what this was. The case was between us. It was hard to completely separate business from personal when it came to my life on the line. But I’d vowed to do it for the night.

Lila and Josie brought a tray of shots back with them at the same time that Maddox entered Dub’s. He shook out an umbrella in frustration and then found Josie and froze momentarily. She looked up at him and then quickly away.

“Goddamn rain couldn’t wait a few minutes for me to get here,” he complained.

“That’s Savannah for you,” I said.

“Hey, man.” Derek held his hand out for Maddox.

My brother looked down at it and then sighed, shaking.

“This is a bad idea,” he told me.

Derek and I both laughed.

He wasn’t wrong. I’d been shown time and time again that Derek could hurt me. I had no reason to believe he wouldn’t do it again. And yet here I was, falling head over heels for him. I hated him for our past, but somehow, I still felt exactly the same for him as I always had.

After that, we all settled in for my birthday. Lila discussing the current Falcons schedule and her role as a physical therapist in their training room. The final season of Academy was running this fall. Josie chatted about future plans. An indie film, some superhero movie she was in talks about doing, and a makeup line. But I couldn’t have been the only one who heard that she was afraid where her career would go without her hit show. Maddox didn’t say much about his animating, but he never did. That was who he was.

Derek pointedly didn’t mention work. And my research was on a temporary hiatus while I was on sabbatical. I should have been with Gran, but I wasn’t. She was missing from the conversation too.

We ended at Lulu’s again, just like we had for Ash’s birthday. Derek and I looked at each other, as if remembering but refusing to bring it up. Ash would not be a welcome conversation topic. I was still worried about him, but I’d been glad when I found out he was heading to LA to see his buddy Tanner during my birthday. The chance of us running into him was always likely with Lila in tow.