Our Star-Crossed Kiss (The Rooftop Crew #4) - Piper Rayne Page 0,50
texted me after we broke up, but I’ve ignored him.
He casually walks up to the register, staring at the menu as though he doesn’t know every item already from all the time he used to spend here, waiting for me.
“Can I help you?” I ask.
“Yeah, I’ll get an asiago with vegetable cream cheese. For here.”
My shoulders sink. “Brock, why are you really here?”
“Can’t a guy get a bagel? Or should I go to your fiancé Andrews’ place now?”
The phone rings and I hear my mom answer it in the back.
I inhale a deep breath before I speak. I guess we’re doing this. “We were already over before anything started with Seth.”
“Do I look like a fucking idiot? You embarrassed me. My friends and family think you broke up with me for that piece of shit, Andrews. Either that, or you were already screwing him behind my back.”
“I guarantee you, our breakup had nothing to do with him.” I narrow my eyes. “That was all you.”
I turn to busy myself making the bagel with the hope that the sooner he gets it, the sooner he’ll leave. If he’s here when Seth gets here, I can’t imagine what might happen.
“It’s like going down memory lane being in here again. Reminds me of when I used to sit here and admire you from the booth. You took so long to warm up and finally accept a date with me.”
I keep my back to him, not wanting to stroll down memory lane with him, but since he brought it up, I do anyway. And it’s like a mental block opens. I reflect on the days he spent here, as though he’d wait a lifetime for me to say yes. The stream of friends coming and going. How he’d make them buy a bagel or a drink and then—
It all clicks together.
How was I so fucking naïve?
I whip around, pulse hammering in anger, and shove his bagel in a bag before tossing it on the counter. “You were selling drugs here.”
“What?” His forehead scrunches, but I know I’m right. “You’re listening to your boy toy too much.”
I shake my head. “No, you were. That’s why you hung around here. Not for me, but for a place to sell your drugs on the sly. You asshole!” My voice raises. “You put my family’s business in jeopardy.”
“You’re crazy! Why would I sell drugs? I’m the next in line to run Floyd Steel.”
That’s the only thing that doesn’t make any sense and the entire reason I had a hard time believing Seth when he accused him. “I don’t know, but I trust Seth.”
A cackling laugh escapes him. “You trust a guy whose family screwed yours over? A guy you’ve hated for two decades?”
I shove the bag across the counter. “It’s on the house. Now go. And don’t ever come back.”
He scoffs and shakes his head. “You’ve fooled this town, you know that? You think you’re above everyone? Got them all fooled into thinking you’re so sweet and endearing when you’re no better than any other girl.” He walks backward, a condescending smile on his lips the entire time.
My gut clenches when Seth rounds the corner, and I watch him through the window, walking closer to the shop. He opens the door.
I’ve missed what Brock was saying, but I do hear him when he says, “You’ll spread your legs for anyone.”
Brock turns to leave and Seth’s fist cocks back and punches him in the jaw. Brock stumbles, the bag with the bagel fumbling from his hands.
“Fucking hell,” Brock says, wiping the blood from his mouth.
I’m half surprised they’re not wrestling on the floor right now. I can only assume Brock doesn’t want me to call the cops. Maybe he has drugs on him.
“I’m going to have to call you back,” my mom says from behind me on the cordless phone. She walks up to my side, her hand on my forearm as if she’s afraid for me.
“Get the hell out of here and never come back!” Seth grabs two fistfuls of Brock’s shirt, pushing him against the glass. “If you ever speak about Evan like that again, I swear to God, Floyd, you’ll be in a body bag.”
Seth releases him and Brock tries to straighten his shirt. “Then stop spreading rumors about me. I didn’t hook your fucking brother on drugs—he did it to himself.” He walks out of the bagel shop.