“Harleigh…” Dax warned.
“Mr. January…” The doors opened and Harleigh braced herself. “You have such a cute ass, Mr. January. Can I touch it?”
And Harleigh was off, with Dax chasing after her.
“I have my own sister,” Slate said as he walked with me out of the elevator at a normal pace. “I know how it is. But I swear to God. We’re not like they are.”
I snorted. “My brother and I are. Derek made our lives a living hell. It’s my greatest accomplishment when I can get him to hate me just a little bit.”
Slate grunted and walked with me in the direction that we could hear yelling from the two siblings.
We were almost to the door when two people came barreling out of a door to our right.
“…didn’t get pregnant on purpose, Theo.”
That voice.
Why couldn’t I escape that voice?
I held back as the couple hurried to the doors, not once looking to see if they cut anyone off.
“It’s fucking suspicious is what it is,” Theo said. “You said you were on birth control. In fact, you informed me that if you were ever to get pregnant what would happen. A high-risk pregnancy. So you told me that you were on the pill. If you weren’t on the pill, I would’ve worn a condom. And being here is fucking awful. People know me here, Shondra. They’re going to figure out that I knocked up the crazy chick because you just can’t fucking stop yourself from being a crazy chick and exposing yourself.”
“I’m not that crazy,” Shondra countered.
I slowed to an even slower walk, and I could feel Slate looking down at me.
“You are that crazy,” he said. “Who the fuck puts Nair in their friend’s hair? A crazy chick, that’s who.”
I felt Slate’s eyes land on my still kind of bald head.
He was putting two and two together really quick.
Theo’s comment about my hair, as well as my flinching at that hair comment and walking extra carefully behind the couple so I didn’t draw their attention, had him adding up the facts.
“It was an accident,” Shondra said.
I got pissed then, stiffening my spine.
“It wasn’t an accident and you know it. She was my friend,” Theo countered.
“Well she’s not anymore, is she?” Shondra hissed. “Stop looking at me. You make me annoyed.”
I would’ve laughed had I not been so angry.
“And why, out of all these fucking places, did you have to find a doctor here?” Theo continued. “You could’ve found one in San Antonio, and you know it.”
“Because you were coming home,” she said. “You were coming home, and I’m having your kid. This is just as much your responsibility as it is mine.”
I could no longer hear Dax and Harleigh fighting, so I was fairly sure that Dax had spotted Theo.
Which would mean they’d be spotting me sometime soon, too.
There were only so many places to hide in this hallway.
There was the end of the hallway where we’d come from the elevators, and there was the exit all the way on the other side.
“I don’t want you here, though,” Theo said. “I want you…”
“What are you doing here?” Shondra hissed.
She’d seen Dax.
“Could ask you the same question,” Dax drawled. “I thought you were in San Antonio.”
“Well, that’s what you get for thinking.” Shondra waved her hand. “Where’s that… friend of yours?”
“Behind you,” Dax said.
Shondra hissed and turned, like a cat startled to find that she wasn’t alone like she thought she was.
I wanted to shrink into the man at my side.
And Slate, obviously being the good man that he was, stepped forward and partially in front of me, protecting me without a second thought.
I squeezed his arm in thanks, not because I didn’t think I could handle Shondra—which honestly at this point I wasn’t really sure that I could—but because he was so fast at doing the protecting. He hadn’t even thought twice about it.
“Of course it would be you,” she hissed. “Do you ever fucking leave?”
I choked at that, my back stiffening in surprise.
“Do I ever fucking leave?” I asked, taking a step away from Slate so that she could see me clearly. “You do realize, correct, that I live here? I moved here. You are the one that’s doing the following.”
She snorted. “We were always coming here. Theo found out he wanted to transfer back months ago. We were just waiting for him to have a shift to slide into. Though, not sure why he bothered applying at the police station. Something about the long hours and a baby don’t mix is what he said. Whatever.”
I clenched my hands into fists.
He’d known for months that he was coming back? Jesus, he could’ve at least said something!
Not that I really cared at this point, but shit.
“Well, that still doesn’t change the fact that I was here first,” I pointed out. “But I’ll be sure to avoid wherever y’all will be. Kilgore is big enough.”