change the fact that Crosby might not be what I needed. I didn’t want to question where the man in my life was late at night. Didn’t want to wonder who he was with. I’d been through that before, and I had no desire to revisit it. And more than anything, I wanted to feel like a gift in someone’s life. Never again did I want to feel like a burden.
43
Crosby
I took another long sip of my coffee as the owner of The Mad Baker set down my donut. Jules gave me a long once-over. “You’re looking a little worse for wear.”
I forced a grin that I knew fell short. “Nothing one of your bacon maple bars won’t cure.”
“You’re too old to be tying one on like that.”
“I’m a twenty-one-year-old at heart. Doesn’t that count for something?”
She shook her head. “The older you get, the steeper the price for a night out on the town.”
I winced. She wasn’t wrong about that. I glanced down at my phone. Nothing from Kenna. I’d texted her at one a.m. when the bar closed and hadn’t heard a peep in response. She’d probably been asleep. I’d fucked up royally. I hadn’t meant to. But Alicia had gotten another phone after I’d blocked her number and had begun texting me around six, demanding to meet. I’d put my cell on silent and shoved it into my pocket. I’d then proceeded to have one too many drinks with Michael, conveniently forgetting about all of my problems—Kenna, along with them.
By the time I’d sobered up, it was five hours past when I was supposed to be at her house. I’d texted her immediately. Apologizing profusely. It was after eight a.m. now. She was definitely awake. I cringed. It wasn’t a good sign that I hadn’t heard from her. Maybe I could grab her a muffin and her favorite coffee to ease myself back into her good graces. She loved the hazelnut lattes here.
The bell over the bakery rang, and I looked up. I had the sudden urge to hide under the table. My brain could not deal with Alicia this morning.
“Crosby,” she bit out. “You haven’t returned a single one of my texts.”
“Why would I?”
Alicia’s cheeks reddened. “I’ve had just about enough of this. You’re throwing a temper tantrum like a spoiled little boy. I messed up. I’ve apologized. You need to get over it so we can return to Boston and get back to our lives. It’s been four years. That should’ve been long enough for you to lick your wounds.”
Now, this was the real Alicia. The one who demanded everything to be her way, on her timetable. The woman who had no concept of how her actions might affect other people. The person I hadn’t recognized for far too long. “I am over it. What’s amusing is that you think that after four years, you have some magic hold over me. You’re poison, Alicia. And I won’t let you infect the new life I’ve built here.”
But she already had. Her presence alone had thrown me for a loop, made me question everything that I had with Kenna. It’d sent me into a tailspin where I’d done the last thing I wanted to do—I’d caused Kenna pain.
Alicia rolled her eyes. “Always so dramatic.”
I pushed to my feet. “By dramatic, do you mean that I have a heart? I know it’s a foreign concept to you. But most people find it an asset. You wouldn’t because you’re a vampire. You suck the life out of everyone around you. You take and you take until they have nothing left to give, or you find someone else who looks like they have more. I’m done playing your messed-up little game. If you don’t leave this island in the next twenty-four hours, I’m filing a restraining order. I’d say your string of text messages and showing up unannounced on my doorstep would give me a pretty good case.”
It would be embarrassing as hell to have to present that case to a judge, but I didn’t care. I was done letting this woman ruin my life. Through allowing her to twist my mind.
Alicia blanched. “You wouldn’t.”
“Test me.” I’d do whatever it took to finally be free of her.
Tears filled her eyes. The thing was, they were tears because she was losing her fallback meal ticket, not because I’d hurt her in any real way. She moved quickly before I had a chance to sidestep her, throwing her arms around me. “Please,