Reaper's Wrath (Road to Salvation A Last Rider's Trilogy 2)

Reaper was then left alone with Silas, who was staring at his house thoughtfully.

Realizing he was being stared at, Silas gave him a comforting look. “Don’t worry. We can go in through the back door. If she was that mad, she would have locked that door too. That’s why Dad just put a screen door on it—became too expensive tearing one of the doors or breaking a window to get inside.”

Walking beside Silas, they headed to the back door. When Silas reached out to open the new door that Reaper suggested Ginny’s brothers put up, it refused to budge.

“Don’t worry.” Silas ran his fingers over the ledge. “I hid a key, just in case.” When his hand came back empty, Silas gave a frustrated sigh before turning around to face him. “Okay, you should be worried.”

Chapter Fifty-Four

“You need another refill, Ginny?” Mick yelled out from behind the bar.

“No, I’m good. Thanks, Mick,” Ginny reassured the bartender. “Silas should be here any minute.”

Staring down at her full drink, she wondered why Silas was taking so long. She started to reach for her purse to leave, then she saw who entered.

“Silas asked me to give you a ride home.”

“I called Silas, not you.”

“He asked me. Moses called, one of your goats wandered off.”

“Then I’ll call Matt.”

Ginny had pointedly refused to look at him, pretending an interest in watching Dustin and Jessie dancing on the dance floor. The scraping of a chair alerted her that Gavin had taken a seat at the table with her.

“Why are you here? Silas said you came here to eat. No one comes to the bar to eat, especially this bar.”

“Never mind.” Sarcasm rolled off the end of her tongue. “You’ve made no effort to get to know my likes and dislikes of places I go, so I’ll let that comment slide. And what’s wrong with this bar?”

“It’s a dive; people only come here to get drunk or laid.”

“Be careful, Mick could here you,” she hissed.

“Mick owns the fucking bar, he knows.”

“Go away, Gavin. I changed my mind I’m not ready to leave.”

“I’m not in a hurry. Take your time.”

“You are not getting my message. I don’t want a ride home with you.”

“The message you’ve been giving me the last three days is pretty fucking clear. You’re done with me. See, I get it, hard not to when after sleeping for two days straight, I wake up and find you put my favorite T-shirt over the target hanging on the tree. And if that didn’t paint a clear enough picture, you disappeared the first day I’m awake.”

Ginny spared him a brief glance. “You look more rested than I’ve ever seen you.”

“I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time.”

“I’m glad for you.”

Ginny turned her attention to the dancing couple.

“I never imagined you’d sink to a hook-up bar just because you’re pissed at me. What I did had no bearing on you. Just because you hate me and finally realized you had no future with me doesn’t mean you have to settle for the men that frequent this place.”

Her mouth dropped open at his assumptions.

“Are you flipping kidding me?” Ginny scooted her chair closer to the table. Folding her arms on the table she leaned closer to him. “You … you … big flipping jerk! You think I’m waving a flag over my head saying I’m giving up on us?” Anger had her railing at him. “I said you’re not my soul mate. It doesn’t mean I no longer love you. I’ll love you to my dying day, you big jerk. Soul mates don’t hurt each other the way you hurt me.” Ginny lowered her voice to combat wanting to yell her lungs out at him, and God forbid Dustin and Jessie overhear. “What you know about love couldn’t fill a thimble. You know who you remind me of?”

Stiffly, Gavin stared at her with a clenched jaw.

Ginny continued her rant not giving him time to answer.

“The prospectors that were gung ho to go out west looking for gold. Then when they found it, they made all those grand plans about what they were going to do with all this gold. Happily they went to sell it, guess what they found out? It was fool’s gold.” Angrily, she pointed a finger at him. “What you had with Taylor was fool’s gold. What you can have with me—if you would just be willing to see with your heart instead of your eyes—is the real thing.”

“What I had with Taylor was not an illusion.”

“Wasn’t it? I beg to differ.” Being the sweet, understanding woman was getting her nowhere fast; it was time Gavin heard the cold hard truth. “You’ve built up this fantasy about the two of you being happy together. And for some reason, you can’t break yourself out of the illusion of wedded bliss, with the 2.5 children you two probably planned to have. The fact is, if you had married Taylor you would have been miserable.”