When I'm with You (Hope Town #3)(39)

Losing the battle with my nervous fidgeting, I twist my fingers together in my lap. His eyes cast a quick glance at them before they flit back to my face. “Yeah, sorry about that. After the girls got here, things just kind of went crazy. They had me busy from the second they opened the pizza boxes until I got home last night.”

“Hmm,” he remarks.

“Anyway, how was your night?”

“Interesting,” he discloses ominously.

“Did you have a lot of call outs?” I ask, trying to ease the alarm I feel over his calm anger.

“Not really. Just one.”

“Are you okay?”

He studies me for the longest breath before leaning back with one side of his mouth tipped up. Instead of looking like a smile, it only makes his face look like an evil sneer.

“Levi?” I coax when he doesn’t speak.

“Tell me, Ember,” he starts. “Would you think for one second that I would be okay with my fucking woman dressed like a slut while some man had his hands on her?”

“What?” I gasp in shock. I don’t take my eyes off him, but I have a bad feeling things are about to get ugly.

“Did you fuck him?”

“Levi! No, of course not. You know I’m not that type of girl.” Except, I’m not really sure what would have happened if rational thought hadn’t returned after the touch of Nate’s lips to mine last night. If I’m honest with myself, we were, in fact, seconds away from becoming a tangle of naked flesh.

“I’m not sure I believe you, Ember. Imagine my shock when we get a call to come check on that new fucking club because of the crowd size, and I walk in to see my girlfriend in the middle of some weird bar lap dance. I have two goddamn eyes, and I would be a fool not to believe what was right in front of my face.”

Shit.

Damn.

Well, this wasn’t exactly how I had pictured this going, but I might as well get it over with. Rip off the Band-Aid and finally make the long overdue move to end things between us.

“Nothing like that happened, Levi. I’m sure that Nate was just putting on a show because he knows the girls would think it was hilarious to embarrass me.”

His eyes flare at the mention of Nate’s name, and I feel my heart pick up speed and my skin flush cold with chills.

“Nate?” he bursts out, the sound like a deep rumble of thunder, making Bam bark. Levi’s head swivels toward where Bam is sitting, and I hear my poor baby whine, which is so unlike my sweet-natured pup. He loves everyone.

My mind goes back to the other morning when I found out he had been tied to the fence, and I know, somehow, deep in my gut, that Levi was responsible.

“Look, Lev. I had hoped that we would be able to go out to dinner tonight to have this talk, but clearly, this just needs to happen now. I’ve felt this way for a while now, but we’re just not working. I think it would be best if we broke things off.”

There. I said it and the world is still spinning away.

His head twists from Bam, and he studies me with his stoic and quite frankly terrifyingly calm mask still in place. I wait with bated breath as he continues his silence. The clock on the wall behind me ticks away. Bam’s panting echoes against the walls. My heart is in my stomach as trepidation climbs up my throat.

I watch as something dark dances across his face, briefly, before he gives me a nod and stands. I lean back in my seat at his sudden movement.

“If that’s what you want. I’m not going to stick around if you would rather whore yourself out around town and look like a fool.”

He stomps toward the door before stopping when his body is in front of the small entryway table I have next to it. His hand comes up from where he had been clenching his fist at his sides, and I watch as he picks up one of the many frames that decorate the surface. I try to visualize the order of my framed memories but can’t seem to recall what could have possibly drawn his attention.

The muscles in his back ripple with tension, pulsing through the tight fabric of his dark tee shirt, before he turns to lock his evil gaze on me. I don’t have time to comprehend his movement before the picture is sailing through the air and crashing into the wall, just barely missing my head.

“Family friend, my fucking ass. Have a nice life, bitch,” he seethes before opening the door so hard that the doorknob sticks in the drywall.

My breaths come in rushed gasps as I stare in fear at the open doorway. Bam rushes to my side and lays his head in my lap with a gentle whine meant to soothe me. I hear the sound of Levi’s truck start up, but it isn’t until the sound of his engine had long since faded away that I rushed from my spot and muscled the door out of the wall before slamming it and throwing back the locks.