Top Dog

“Pizza!” Lanie said.

“We had pizza yesterday for lunch,” I said, chuckling. “How about spaghetti?”

“Amana coming?” she asked.

I hugged Lanie close before I pressed a kiss to the side of her head.

“We’ll make some for her just in case. But I think Amanda’s busy tonight,” I said.

Lanie and I headed back home, my heart thudding painfully in my chest.

CHAPTER 23

AMANDA

“Why the fuck is this asshole even in town, Sarah?” I asked. “I mean, what the hell did he think I was going to do!?”

“Go home with him, I guess.”

“And what the fuck did I ever do in the past two months to give him that impression?” I asked.

“It’s Daryl, Amanda. He doesn’t need an impression. He gets an idea and thinks if he goes hard enough for it, his charm will do the rest.”

“Charm? He stood right on that fucking sidewalk and called my art a ‘silly little hobby’ or whatever the fuck he said.”

“Which is why he’s an asshole, and you broke up with him,” she said.

“But why the hell is he in town? How the hell did he even know I was here?” I asked.

“I think that might partially be my fault,” she said.

I stopped as the other end of the line went quiet.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“It wasn’t intentional. I swear. When you weren’t responding to his text messages and shit when you left, he came to my work, asking me a bunch of questions about where you were. I might have let slip that you were flying here to get away from him.”

I sighed as I fell back onto the couch.

“I swear to hell, I didn’t think he’d follow you. I was just trying to make a point about the lengths you were going to in order to get away from him. Remember how insistent he was to talk with you those first couple of days after you broke up with him?”

“How could I forget? I almost changed my damn phone number,” I said.

“And it just sort of got blurted out.”

“I’m not angry with you,” I said. “I’m angry with him. Can I get a restraining order?”

“If he hits you or something. But you won’t need one once that happens because I’ll kill him,” she said.

I laughed. “I think you’d need to get in line.”

“So, what happened when you met him on the sidewalk?” she asked.

“He was his usual asshole self and, of course, Brian pops up out of nowhere.”

“Ah, the hero to the rescue.”

“But I don’t need rescuing, Sarah,” I whined. I knew how ridiculous it sounded, but still, I was annoyed. “Sure, yeah, it was hot when he stood up for me in the restaurant. But popping up and basically threatening the guy in the middle of the damn street with Lanie in his arms, is a little much. I can handle my damn self.”