Ink's Second Chance - Carol Dawn Page 0,11

to change for anyone. I’ve accepted that a long time ago. It doesn’t mean my feelings for him have changed. It just means that I can despise him loudly and love him quietly.

I finish my burger and fries while Sammy and the new chick argue about something.

“Fucking fine,” Sammy shouts. “I’ll be over there in a minute.”

With a satisfied smile, the woman walks to the other side of the room where her waiting friends must be.

“I need to go take care of this shit really quick, baby,” he tells me, much calmer than he was a few seconds ago. “It will only take a few minutes.”

I don’t say anything, but I do nod.

“Don’t move,” he says. “I’ll be right back.”

He stands, kisses my forehead, and walks away. I’m momentarily shocked at the sweet move but I’m not the only one. Sammy pauses for a second, throws a confused look back at me before walking away.

I bask at the butterflies swarming my belly for only a moment before crushing their tiny souls. I will not get myself wrapped up in this man again.

I sit here for ten minutes and he still hasn’t returned. Whatever those women wanted to talk to him about must have been really interesting to keep his attention.

I wait another five minutes before I toss money on the table, ping a taxi, and head outside to wait for my ride.

When the taxi pulls in some time later, I glance back through the restaurant window to see our table still empty.

Just as well. I needed the reminder of who this man is. Of what he’s capable of. The small piece of wall around my heart that he knocked down with this lunch and that sweet kiss was just fortified by his actions.

I’ll continue to despise him loudly.

But I’ll always love him soundlessly.

Why is that suddenly not enough?

Chapter Eight

Ink

Fucking bitch. How fucking stupid does she think I am?

“It’s true, Ink,” she whines. “I’m pregnant.”

I have to keep reminding myself that I don’t hit women.

“I wouldn’t doubt if you were pregnant, but I know for a mother fucking fact that it’s not mine,” I say for the tenth time.

“You’re the only person I’ve slept with in months,” she says. “It has to be yours. I remember that night like it was yesterday. We didn’t use protection.”

I don’t fucking hit women.

“I haven’t seen you in ten months, Lily,” I remind her. “And, in case I’m mistaken, if you were pregnant with my child, that baby would have already been born. Also, I always use a condom. I buy my own, I apply my own, and I discard my own. I’m not fucking stupid. But nice try.”

Lily starts more of her annoying whining, but I ignore her and walk back to my woman.

Fuck.

I mean, my table.

When I arrive at an empty table, I fucking panic. Damnit. What’s wrong with me? There’s someone going after the club and our families. Why would I leave her alone?

“Can I get you anything else?”

I look up to see the waitress smiling.

“Where did the woman go that was with me?” I ask.

“Oh,” she says, her smile falling. “She left with another man.”

“What?”

“Bro, she got in a taxi,” a man says from the next table. “Why the hell do women do that?” He glares at the waitress. “It only makes you sound desperate. And no one wants a desperate woman.”

I nod my head at the man and toss a fifty on the table to pay for our food. I’m heading for the door when a last-minute thought pops in my head.

“How long was she sitting here waiting for me?” I ask the man.

“Twenty minutes, maybe,” he answers.

Twenty fucking minutes?

Damnit.

“Thank you,” I say.

I’m going to have to break her door down. That’s the only way I’m getting into her apartment because there is no way in hell she will open her door for me.

◆◆◆

“Rachel, please open the door,” I beg for the hundredth time in thirty minutes. “I can explain, baby. Please, just open the door.”

Nothing. She hasn’t said a single word. She is so pissed that I can taste it from out here.

“I’m just going to sit out here until you open this door,” I warn. “One way or another, you will come out and talk to me.”

I sit on the damn concrete porch for another half an hour before I finally lose my temper.

Standing, I pound on the door. “Rachel, open this fucking door or I’m going to break it down.”

“You will do no such thing,” Rachel says