“Please don’t lie to me,” he says gently, wrapping his fingers around my wrist to stop me from walking away.
Turning to look up at him, I swallow over the sudden lump in my throat. “I’m not lying,” I state, and his eyes close. “Please let me go so I can get this mess cleaned up,” I whisper, and his eyes open then he dips his head and touches his forehead and lips to mine in a soft touch that makes me want to curl myself into him and tell him everything that happened with Lisa and her posse.
“Leave the glass. I’ll clean it up,” he orders, letting me go, and I let out relieved a breath.
“Eat your lunch. I know you’re hungry. I can clean this up.”
“I’m not going to let you clean up glass. Just go get some towels from the back,” he instructs while he heads toward the office.
Standing there, I watch him disappear before I head to the storage closet to grab a stack of bar towels along with the mop and bucket. It takes us a while to get all the glass and water cleaned up, and I can tell Colton is frustrated and annoyed, but he doesn’t ask me to tell him again what happened.
Which I’m pretty sure is worse than him asking me over and over again.
CHAPTER 8
Falling Fast
Gia
“GIA, CAN I TALK to you for a minute?” Rose asks, sticking her head out the office door.
Meeting her gaze, I set down my cleaning stuff. This morning, Colton didn’t drive me to work like he has been doing every day for the past week. He told me that he had some stuff to take care of, so he gave me his keys to the bar and instructions on how to go about turning off the alarm and rearming it once I was inside. He also told me that his mom would be here before opening so I wouldn’t be alone.
I didn’t ask him what he had to do, but I could tell that whatever it was, it annoyed him, which in turn worried me. He didn’t bring up what happened again, but I know he still hasn’t let it go, because things between us seemed different last night and this morning. Yes, he kissed me after I got home from visiting Grandma and before he went to bed last night, but it was just a soft peck to my lips. And this morning when he left to do whatever he had to do, it was the same, just a quick touch of his lips to mine. Nothing more. And totally opposite of the heated kisses we’d been sharing the last few days.
Shaking off the worry in the pit of my stomach, I quickly wash my hands and wipe them on one of the bar rags before resting it on the edge of the sink under the counter.
“What’s up?” I ask, stepping into the office, finding Rose sitting at the desk with her laptop in front of her.
“Have a seat, honey.” She motions to the chair at the edge of the desk. Taking a seat, I rest my hands in my lap and study her profile, noticing she looks upset.
“Is everything okay?” I ask quietly after a couple of minutes, and her jaw clenches as she turns the laptop in my direction. Seeing the image frozen in time on the screen, my stomach drops. It’s the moment when Lisa pushed over the glasses, right before they landed on the floor.
“Colton asked me to have a look at the video tapes yesterday. He said you seemed freaked when he got back here after picking you two up some lunch. He’s been worried. He wanted to make sure that if someone was bothering you, we knew who they were so we could prevent it from happening again. I thought he was just being overprotective, so I didn’t check the tapes right away. I see now I should have checked them sooner.”
I didn’t know there were video cameras in the bar, but I should have guessed there were.
“I—”
“Why didn’t you tell us what happened?” I lift my eyes to hers, unsure of how to answer her question, unsure of what to tell her. “Gia, this is not okay.” She points at the computer. “Not even a little bit okay.”
“I know.” I wring my hands together in my lap, dropping my eyes to the tops of my thighs.
“Honey, why didn’t you at least talk to me?” she asks, sounding concerned.
“I should have said something, but I didn’t want to give her what she wanted.”
“What did she say to you?”
Lifting my eyes, I bite the inside of my cheek. “Nothing really.”
“I can tell by the look on your face in the video that whatever she said upset you, so don’t lie to me,” she scolds gently, closing the lid on her laptop. “And don’t say nothing happened, because there was one part during the video that I could tell you wanted to jump over the bar to get at her.”