“Fuck no.” He yelps like a child when my grip tightens on his jaw.
“Try that again,” I demand, moments away from beating his head into the table.
“I’m sorry,” Carter mutters, staring at her lap.
“Be a fucking man and apologize to her face.”
“I’m sorry!” he shouts. “Ow,” he groans as my fingers dig so hard into his neck that his face begins to turn blue.
“While you’re at it, tell her how sorry you are for cheating on her. For being stupid and pathetic and walking out on your relationship.”
A large hand lands on my bicep. I look back to find my father giving me a warning stare. I ignore it. He’s going to have to rip me off Carter if he wants me to stop before Carter does as I ask.
“What the fuck.” Carter manages to get out through gasps of air.
Margo is the only one who can pull me from my rage. Her voice breaks through the anger, pulling me out of it. “Beck,” she murmurs, “it doesn’t matter. I don’t care what he thinks of me. It doesn’t matter.”
I look to her, my fingers applying slightly less pressure to where he can get a deep breath in.
“He doesn’t matter,” she repeats, giving me a hesitant smile. “All that matters is you.”
Relief washes over me as I let go of him. The sudden movement has him lurching forward. He groans, rubbing at the handprint I’d left on his neck.
Walking up to my mother, I give her a kiss on the top of the head. “I love you, mom. We’ll catch up when he’s not around. Sorry to ruin our dinner.”
My dad and I share a knowing look. He doesn’t argue with me or try to convince me to stay. Words aren’t needed for us to come to an understanding. We’ll talk later. But I can’t be in the presence of Carter for another second and keep my temper at bay.
Before going, I stop in front of him and look at him down my nose. “Don’t fucking speak to my future wife again. In fact, don’t even breathe in her god damn direction unless it’s to utter an apology.”
“It was good to see you again.” My words come out so quick they sound all jumbled as I stand up from my seat. I give them both an apologetic smile. I was really looking forward to catching up with them, but I’m seconds away from losing Beck’s retreating form in the crowd of diners.
“We’ll speak with you later, darling,” Beck’s mom says, giving me a soft smile. I don’t even bother to look at Carter. It’s beyond me how I gave years of my life to that man. He fails in comparison now that I’ve gotten to know Beck. It’s wild to me that I’d spent weeks crying over someone who clearly didn’t deserve me. Hell, I don’t know if any woman deserves him. He’s as pathetic as they come.
I give them one last wave before I rush toward the exit. Beck disappeared in the few seconds it took me to say goodbye to his parents. When I fly out the front doors of the building, I’m disappointed when I don’t see Beck anywhere. My heart thumps in my chest as I look in every direction, trying to find where he went.
Fighting past the panic of where he went, worried about how angry he was and him being alone, I pick a direction and search for his body through the throng of people. He’s nowhere in sight. I stop in front of a narrow alleyway, pulling my phone from my handbag in hopes I’ll be able to get ahold of him.
I’m about to click on his name in my contacts when a hand snakes around my waist and pulls me deeper into the alleyway. I let out a loud shriek, gasping for air as I prepare to scream for help. The body engulfs my back, pulling me against a familiar chest. I’d know him anywhere by his smell, the scent I’ve grown far too attached to.
“Beck.” I let out a sigh of relief, only now realizing how worried about him I was.
He turns my body to face his, backing me up until my shoulders hit the brick of a building. I immediately wrap my arms around his middle, going underneath his suit jacket so I can feel the heat of his body as I do my best to comfort him.
His hand comes up to cradle the back of my head, holding it against his chest. “I’m so furious he spoke like that to you, Margo,” he admits, his voice hoarse. “I can’t begin to apologize enough on his behalf.”
I squeeze him tighter, relieved to have found him. His heart beats against my ear, the rhythm wild and untamed. “You don’t have to apologize for him.”
“He never should have spoken to you like that. Fuck, I could kill him for that.”
Pulling away, I cradle his cheeks between my hands. He presses his left cheek deeper into my palm, his eyes searching my face frantically. “Forget about it. It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it fucking matters.”
I shake my head at him. God, the intensity in his eyes has me locked in a trance. I’m drawn to the pure anger radiating from him. I feel something deep inside that his anger is in defense of me. “It doesn’t. Not one bit. We’re what matters, Beck. Not him.”
A muscle ticks angrily away at his jaw, like a visible countdown before he loses the restraint of his control. He places his forehead against mine, taking a deep breath. For a long moment, we breathe in each other’s air. I hope my steady breaths help calm his erratic ones.
“No one gets to talk to you like that. I don’t care if you love him or have history. I’m not okay with it.”
“Loved.”
“Like past tense?”
I could die from the vulnerability in his eyes. The sounds of the city echo in the distance, but I’m lost in his dark eyes, the blue the same color of the ocean from our first night together. I pin my focus on him and only him. “Yes, past tense. If you could ever even call it that to begin with.”
A shaky breath falls from his lips, tickling my face. “Fuck, you have no idea how much I needed to hear that,” he confesses.
My hands tighten on his face, my pulse racing with nerves. “Can I tell you something else?”
“Anything.”
“I’m afraid the other Sinclair brother will steal my heart.”
“Margo. Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
My hands shake against his cheeks. I’m so nervous to come clean, but I can’t hold it back. In the process of working with him, or pretending, I haven’t been able to help myself. I’ve caught feelings for him. “I’m not,” I answer with conviction. “Beck,” my voice quakes as I stare into his deep indigo blue eyes. “I think through all the pretending, I’ve started to wish for all of this to be real. I have feelings for you. The kind of feelings I’m afraid won’t fade. The kind that I’m scared that soon will solidify themselves so deep in my soul that I don’t know if I’ll ever remember what it was like to not have my heart want you desperately.”
He lets out a long breath of relief, his entire body visibly showing the tension leaving his body. “I’ve been waiting so god damn long to hear you say that.” His fingers tangle in my hair as he brings my face to mine, kissing me with so much reverence I can’t help but think that maybe he feels the same way too.
The sound of a loud whistle a few feet away from us breaks us apart. We pull away, looking toward where the sound came from. We find Ezra pulled up to the curb, his passenger side window rolled down with a smirk on his lips. “Would you two like to get back to get a room?” he asks smoothly, a teasing tone to his voice.