The moment she said the words, she wanted to pull them back. But it was too late.
Pain shifted over his face first, then it dissolved into a remote expression she had never seen on him before.
“Well, don’t worry. I’m out of the business of saving women.”
And with that, he turned and stalked out of the kitchen. Cynthia returned a second later.
“Jocelyn?”
She was numb. Afraid to think, to feel. At the moment, she just didn’t know what the hell to do. She concentrated on taking one breath, then another. He had left her. She knew she had used Keisha as an excuse to explain why she hadn’t told him about the news of Greg’s deal. But if there had been some truth to it, he wouldn’t have gotten so angry.
“Chris.” Cynthia’s voice had turned panicky.
Chris came back in and Jocelyn felt warm arms surround her. “Come on, Jocey.”
She almost allowed him to bundle her out of the kitchen, but she stopped at the door.
“No.”
“What?” he asked.
She stepped away, straightened her shoulders and then looked from Cynthia to Chris. “No. I have a cake to do.”
“Oh, Jocelyn, I can call the woman and tell her you couldn’t do it,” Cynthia said.
She shook her head. “No. I don’t need to be taken care of.”
“I think we need to call Dr. Sawyer.”
She stepped away from her brother and raised her hand to his cheek. “I love you, but if you don’t back off, I’ll have to stab you with a fork.”
His eyes widened. In the next instant, he stepped back.
“I’ll have the damn cake done on time.”
Then she would go home and fall apart.
Chapter Fourteen
“I think you need to call Evan,” Dee said as she walked into Micah’s office. He smiled at his wife. She looked particularly interesting in her uniform tonight. Of course, he didn’t know when she didn’t look interesting in it. Or out of it for that matter.
“Stop looking at me like that, Micah. We don’t have time. You need to call Evan.”
“Why should I call my partner?” he asked.
She motioned toward the monitors. They showed his club Rough ’n Ready was starting to hop, but it also showed his business partner’s brother-in-law drinking alone.
“It’s his fifth whiskey in thirty minutes. I was about to cut him off. I know we have the one-drink max for the players, but we both know he isn’t going into the rooms. And he’s in one pissy mood, so I figured you might want to deal with him—or get Evan to. I’m assuming he had a fight with Jocelyn.”
He was already dialing the number when Evan stepped into the office.
“Well, this is good timing,” he said, rising from behind his desk.
“What?” Evan asked.
“You showing up. I was just calling you.”
“Why?”
He nodded toward the monitors and Evan’s expression relaxed. “I’ve been looking for him. He turned off his cell phone a while ago. May’s been frantic.”
Evan turned to go. “Need help?”
“Might. Boy grew up on the docks, and while I’m bigger, he’s sneakier.”
Micah followed him out the door. “I got your back.”
Kai felt them walking up behind him before he turned to look at them. He should have gone somewhere else, but he knew he’d picked Rough ’n Ready because he wouldn’t pick a woman up here. How pathetic was he that he picked a place he could get drunk and not be tempted to cheat on the woman who had just shattered his heart.
“Hey there, son,” Evan said, clamping a hand on Kai’s shoulder. “I’ve been looking for you.”
He cut him a look out of the corner of his eye and said nothing. He didn’t care if it was sullen and immature, but he didn’t feel the need to be particularly nice to anyone at the moment. Especially his brother-in-law who was seriously happy in love with May. Granted, most days he was happy for them, but tonight it was salt to his wounded pride.
“Sent out by my sister?” he asked with a snarl.
Evan smiled, but Kai could sense the brittleness to it. He squeezed Kai’s shoulder as another hand came down on the other. He didn’t need to look to know it was Micah.
“Why don’t you come with us?” Micah asked, but he understood it wasn’t a question. They would pick him up bodily to get him out of there.
“Fine.”
He stopped by Dee. “Tattler.”
Her eyes were soft. “I couldn’t let you get that drunk. I could see that you would end up sick.”
He smiled at her. “I should have stolen you from Micah.”
“That I would have paid to see,” Evan said as he urged him up the stairs. It took a while because Kai’s feet didn’t seem to want to work. By the time they dropped him on the couch, his head was spinning.