“You are no real man,” I said, “so there’s no worry there.”
He scoffed and grabbed his cart, pulling it around so he faced the other way before looking back over his shoulder at me.
“She’s going to come back home sooner or later, asshole,” he said.
I was vibrating. I was so angry, but I let him go. If I got my hands on him in that moment, I didn’t know if I would stop. I would tear him from limb to limb right there in the produce aisle. The cameras wouldn’t likely get any of the dialogue, but they would document all the blood that I would coax out of his face, and I would most certainly end up behind bars.
He wasn’t worth it.
I had to keep telling myself that.
I waited there in the aisle for a few moments, breathing deeply and clenching the cart with both hands so hard that the plastic dug into my palms. I made a deal with myself that if I saw him in the store again, and he opened his mouth, I would shut it for him. But I had a feeling he wasn’t stupid enough to hang around.
Pushing the cart ahead of me, I finished shopping as calmly as I could. But I kept my eyes open and swiveling around in case I caught sight of him. Just in case.
I headed home, and as soon as I pulled in the driveway, I texted Lauren and told her she should come over. I needed to tell her about what happened, but I also picked up a few things for her and thought the look on her face when she saw them might be enough to make all that worth it. I didn’t tell her any of that in the text, though, and was happy when she said she would be there in about twenty minutes or so.
Heading inside, I put the groceries away and set the basket of soap and bath bombs I had picked up for her on the bed. I also grabbed a few new soft towels and a big plush bathrobe for her. She had mentioned that she liked mine so much that I wanted to make sure that she had her own for when we showered together. Not that I wouldn’t happily be cold if it meant she was comfortable, with winter coming, having both of them would probably be a good idea.
When she arrived, I was sitting on the couch, a bag of potato chips on the coffee table in front of me, still unopened. I was too distracted to even eat junk food. At some point I had turned the television on and only noticed when she arrived that it was just on the menu screen.
“Hey, you,” she said as I opened the door. She reached up on her toes and planted a kiss on my mouth, and I pulled her tight for a hug. “Is something wrong? Are you okay?”
“Come on in,” I said. “Something happened at the store.”
She followed me inside and dropped her purse on the coffee table beside the chips. As she sat down on the couch beside me, I could tell she was worried, and I hated that she was upset. I hated more how she was going to be extra upset when she found out what happened.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “What happened at the store?”
“I ran into Ashton,” I said, and she took a sharp breath, her hand going to her lips.
“Oh no.”
“We got into it a little—just words, but it was close,” I said. “He said something about how it was only a matter of time before you came home to him. I refrained from breaking his arms off but let him know he needed to leave you alone.”
“You didn’t need to do that,” she said. “You could have avoided him.”
“I don’t think I could,” I said. “He saw me too. But as soon as he opened his mouth, I was going to say something.”
“He might just tell everyone now,” she said. “We won’t even get a chance to tell people if he does. Ashton is an idiot, but he’s also a vindictive idiot. If he knows something like that and he has any idea that it’s supposed to be quiet or a secret, he won’t be able to keep it to himself, even if he wanted to. And he definitely wouldn’t want to. He has a big, stupid mouth, and it’s a small town. People talk. People gossip. It wouldn’t take a week before everyone we knew would know we were seeing each other and that would include Harleigh, who would be crushed I didn’t tell her, as well as Deacon and Everett.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I just couldn’t let things go like that. I needed to at least try to put things at rest for your sake.”