thing on speaker.
"Gideon?"
I hated that my heart leapt into my throat at the sound of Lex's voice. In that moment, I kind of hated Lex too. I hated him for what he'd done to me, what he’d turned me into. Logically, I knew it wasn't his fault, but I needed to vent my frustration somehow.
"What?" I asked again. I suspected my tone had startled Lex because he didn't respond right away. But I wasn't about to apologize to the man who was driving me crazy. I was sexually frustrated, but worse, he was making me question everything about myself. I’d envisioned spending the rest of my days in Fisher Cove in quiet solitude, but now that I finally had it, all I could think about was Lex.
"Are you here?" he asked finally. He definitely sounded nervous. I tried to tell myself I didn't care if I was the one who was making him nervous with my attitude. He was the one who’d started this whole thing by accepting me one minute and then pushing me away the next.
"Am I where?"
"Here. At the cabin."
"No."
"Well, Brewer is."
"What?" I asked in disbelief. I stepped over to the window and checked my truck. Sure enough, the bed was empty. I let out a streak of curses as I went back to the stove and turned off the burner. "I'll be right there," I barked and then I hung up on Lex.
I was in a pretty decent snit by the time I pulled my truck into Lex's driveway. Lex was sitting on his porch with Brewer pressed up against his legs, happily enjoying his attention. I wanted to strangle the dog and the man.
"Brewer, come!" I called as I got out of the truck.
The husky mix ignored me.
"Get your ass over here right now!" I yelled.
My dog didn't move toward me. But he did lie down. I instantly felt guilty for my harsh tone. I’d found Brewer on the side of the road a few months after I'd returned to Fisher Cove. The dog had been emaciated and scared to death, but he'd still come to me when I'd offered him some food. In addition to the obvious neglect, there had been signs that the dog had been abused at some point in his life, so it had taken me quite a while to fully earn his trust. Once I had, I'd been rewarded greatly.
I was about to crouch down and call Brewer to me in a more gentle manner when Lex climbed to his feet and said, "You don't need to be a dick, Gideon! You're obviously scaring him!"
He was right, of course. But to have him call me out on my behavior only served to worsen my mood. "Maybe he should be scared! I mean, obviously I'm a pretty shitty person to be around, so who can blame him for taking off?" I knew I was being petty and childish, but I was truly afraid of what I would do if I got anywhere near Lex. All the worry, confusion, and sexual frustration from the past week had been churning inside of me almost nonstop and I was afraid that even one more word from the man at the heart of it all would send me over. No, I’d never raise a hand to Lex, but I knew I could end up saying something I regretted.
I realized it had been a mistake to come here for my dog without trying to cool off first. "You know what, you two can have each other!" I yelled as I spun toward my truck.
"Maybe if you weren't a lying sack of shit, your dog wouldn't have taken off on you!" Lex shouted.
His words caught me off guard. I turned and saw that he was making his way down the porch and he was doing it surprisingly well. Of course, he had Brewer to offer him a little bit of extra support as he moved.
"I'm not the one who buries his head in the fucking sand every time things get hard!"
"Are you sure about that?" Lex asked. He'd made it to my truck and was standing just feet from me. His cheeks were bright red and his stunning eyes were brimming with anger. Anger that I still had no clue what the source was. "Isn't this entire fucking town one big sandbox to you?”
"You don't know what you're talking about!" I snarled.
"And you don't know when to tell the fucking truth!" Lex shot back.
"I don't know what