Sin City Baby

“I don't know. Whatever you normally get,” Evan said, his cheeks flaring with color.

I kicked him underneath the table and shot him a look. He flinched then glared at me. “Sweetie?” I mouthed to him – and again, he just shrugged.

Hadley and I exchanged a look, while Jared sat down at his end of the table, looking amused. He was grinning as he watched it all play out, clearly enjoying the drama. All he needed was a bucket of popcorn and he'd be good to go. I, on the other hand, wanted to keep my little brother as far away from that witch as humanly possible. She didn't deserve to be sitting at the same table as him. “So Rebecca, where do you plan to live once the house sells?” I asked, trying to drive home the point that they were done. “Thinking of moving back to Denver?”

She raised those big, chocolate brown eyes and stared at me, a smirk on her lips. She started to answer me when Katie brought out our food to the table.

“Aw, I didn't know you had someone joining ya,” Katie said. “What can I get ya, sweetie? I'll try to hurry it on up.”

“She's not staying,” I said, stopping Rebecca before she could even speak. “She was just leaving, actually.”

“Uh, no, I was going to have the chicken salad actually,” she said, closing the menu. “And a Diet Coke, please.”

“Make that to go, please,” I said.

Everyone else at the table, and the wa

itress too, just stared at the two of us. But, I didn't care. I'd had enough. It was obviously going to be a battle of wills between Rebecca and me, and so be it. After the shit she put my brother through, I wasn't about to sit there and pretend like everything was normal. Like everything was okay. She was the one who screwed up. She was the one cheating on him. She was the one using him. She was the one who fucked up. Not me.

Finally, Evan spoke up. “You know, Rebecca, I really wanted to spend time with my family,” he said. “Maybe you should head out.”

I leaned back in my seat, arms crossed in front of over my chest. I couldn't take my eyes off Rebecca. She turned to Evan and gave a less-than-friendly smile, a dark look crossing her face.

“Fine,” she said.

She stood, and without saying a word to anyone else, including poor Katie, she pushed through a crowd of people coming out onto the patio and left in a huff of anger and hurt feelings. Beside me, Hadley breathed a sigh of relief. Jared looked almost disappointed. Evan was the one I was most worried about though.

“She has some nerve,” I muttered.

I excused Katie, letting her know everything was fine and we all started on our meals. I was seething inside though. I couldn't stop thinking about how Rebecca was trying to weasel her way back into Evan's life – and I was upset with my brother for nearly letting her. “Yeah, she's trying to get back together with me,” Evan said, shrugging. “Thinks we can put it all back together.”

“She's delusional,” I said.

He stared down at his plate, not touching his food. Pushing his glasses up on higher on his nose, he started to say something, but then stopped himself, and closed his mouth again.

Hadley said, “Well, I obviously missed a lot.”

“You don't want to know,” Jared said. “That chick is a real piece of work.”

“She's not that bad,” Evan said softly.

“Excuse me?” I said, very nearly spitting out my drink. “I did not just hear you defend that horrid wench. Did I?”

Hadley reached out and touched my arm, as if trying to communicate to me that I should calm down. I pulled away from her and continued staring at Evan.

“Gabe, maybe we should just drop it,” Hadley whispered.

“Yeah, can we just drop it and enjoy our lunch? Please?” Evan said. “Instead of fighting in front of Grayson.”

I turned my attention back to Grayson, who in turn was staring back at me with wide eyes. The expression on his face almost made it seem like he was afraid of me. I recalled Hadley saying that Grayson wasn't big on conflict. She said he was a sensitive boy – even more so these days, it seemed.

I sighed. Evan and I would have a talk later, but for the moment, they were right. We needed to throttle it back, relax, and enjoy the afternoon together.

“Fine, let's eat,” I said.

“And get back to planning our get-together tonight,” Jared said with a grin.

I stared at him, and he shrugged. I had to wonder if Jared every took anything seriously. I wasn't much in the mood for a get-together anymore, but whatever.