safer choice for a boyfriend than Devlin.
Too bad I was done being safe.
Chapter Eleven
Rena
Oak & Sage was hoppin’ for a Sunday night. I strode through the front door, my wool coat’s collar scratching my frigid cheeks. The weather had gotten colder since dinner at Mom’s house. Snow had coated the ground, but at least the roads had been clear. My tires slipped and slid all the way here.
Inside, the lighting was soft, pale yellow, and glinting off the shining wood walls and dividers. Relieved not to be on the clock, I nodded hello to Heidi, one of the hostesses, and then cut through the bar to the kitchen. Diners, glasses of wine in hand, ordered around the bustling, harried staff.
The kitchen was a different world. Harsh, bright fluorescents spotlighted the servers that rushed by. The sounds were not of tinkling silver and chatter, but instead clanging pans and sizzling steaks and shouts for orders “on the fly!”
Chet loaded plates onto a large oval tray and called for a runner. A small smile tickled my lips as I recalled Devlin demanding I meet him in the office. If he’d intended to scare me off, the tactic had failed.
I’d shown up tonight, after my “date” no less, like he asked. I wanted to believe I was merely helping out a friend in need, but I knew the truth. I was helping him because in that office, when he’d stripped my pants from my legs, he’d been sweet and doting. I showed tonight because of what he did to me, and he did that to me because he knew I’d show up.
I wished I could get to a point where I wasn’t okay with that transaction.
I dodged the dishwasher, who sped by me with a net on his hair and a stack of clean plates in his hands. No sign of Devlin in the prep area, and the office door was closed, the window dark. I kept walking, past the maintenance closet—empty—and past the employee bathrooms—also empty.
Where is he?
At the storeroom my steps slowed when a feminine giggle punctuated the air. Devlin’s soft and almost… soothing voice followed. Their conversation sounded intimate. Too intimate. My reaction was instant and intense. Fists balled at my sides, I entered the room, mouth poised to interrupt. What I found stole my words before I could say them.
Melinda, so tall she stood nearly eye-to-eye with Devlin, had her back against a shelf. She was eyeing him like she wanted to take a bite out of him. He wasn’t touching her, but his hand rested on the shelf next to her. He was leaning over her ear, his body arched toward hers.
Bastard.
Her gaze cut to me and she reached up to touch Devlin’s black T-shirt. I trailed my gaze over his strong back, then down to his black-with-white-skulls chef’s pants. By the time I jerked my gaze to his face, he was regarding me without an ounce of guilt. He hadn’t backed away from her in the slightest.
“Give us ten seconds,” he told me, then he turned back to Melinda.
Oh, hell, no.
I flew from the room, leaving him with the blonde I was now sure I hated, and stomped away, pausing for not one but two prep guys leaving the walk-in fridge. Once they dispersed, I shoved open the back door and nearly plowed over another employee crushing a cigarette under his shoe. He was the same guy who’d yelled at me the day I had trouble with the touch screen. He went inside, brushing by me without a word. Jackass.
Before I could decide what to do now that I was at the back of the restaurant and my car was parked out front, Devlin called my name.
“Go away.”
He lifted a dark eyebrow. His expression didn’t hold enough remorse to suit me.
God, it was freezing out here. It was going to be a long walk to my car. I’d rather freeze than walk past Devlin to go back inside, though. Plus the frigid air might tame my temper, which admittedly needed taming. As much as I’d like to jump in my car and peel out, giving Devlin the finger while I was at it, the smarter move was to leave as gracefully as possible, and not run my fender into a telephone pole on the way home. I stuffed my hands in my pockets and steeled myself for a cold walk.
“I’m not chasing you, Rena.”
“Good!” I pulled my face out of my collar to shout. I didn’t want