Tinsel (Lark Cove #4)(72)

But he wasn’t here.

He’d gone back to his life without so much as a backward glance.





I was lying on the couch in my living room when the front door opened. I didn’t get up. My eyes stayed glued to the baseball game on TV, not that I was really watching.

“Dakota?” My uncle’s voice carried into the room. “Is that you?”

“Yeah.”

Xavier came into the room. “I, uh, thought you were in New York.”

“Nope.” Not anymore.

Not since I’d gotten there just in time to see Sofia with another man.

I hadn’t worked at the bar last night, but I’d stopped by to pick up my paycheck. I was bullshitting with Thea when she got the call that Sofia had been mugged.

The minute I heard, I bolted out the door, came home and tossed some clothes in a backpack. Then I hauled ass to the airport, buying the only ticket available to New York City.

My flight had two different connections, putting me in after midnight. But my second flight was delayed, causing me to miss the third. After sleeping on an airport bench, I finally arrived in the city this morning.

It seemed like a month ago, not less than a day.

On the trip, I’d tried Sofia’s phone a thousand times only to get sent straight to voicemail each time. Even if she had answered, I still would have made the trip. Talking to her wasn’t enough. I had to see her. I had to know she was all right and hold her in my arms to feel that she was safe.

Damn the cost.

My flight was a thousand dollars, my cab ride to Sofia’s building one hundred.

The cab ride back to the airport had been the same.

Timing was not on my side. I’d gotten out of the taxi, ready to beg Sofia’s doorman to help me track her down, just in time to see her get out of her town car with her hand in another man’s.

I turned away from them, unable to watch, and walked three blocks while my head spun in circles. Then I flagged down another cab, went back to the airport and spent the day flying home.

It was nearly dark out now, which was good. I was ready for this day to be over and to forget it had ever happened.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Xavier.

I wasn’t angry that he’d come over. He still had a key, since this had been his house not all that long ago. But I really didn’t want company. Not tonight.

“Needed to borrow your shop floodlight. Mine quit on me while I was trying to finish up a project on Hazel’s garden. Saw your truck in the shop and came on over.”

I nodded. “Did you find the light?”

“I did.”

He took a seat in a recliner, settling in like he was here to watch the game. Really, he was just waiting for me to tell him why my trip had been cut short.

“I don’t want to talk about it. But do me a favor, don’t tell anyone I went to New York. Ask Hazel to keep it quiet too.”

“Okay.”

“Thanks.”

It was embarrassing enough as it was without the whole town of Lark Cove knowing. Maybe if I was lucky, I could convince Thea to keep it under wraps too.

Xavier leaned forward and took the remote off the coffee table, turned up the volume, then relaxed back in the chair.

“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Who’s talking? I’m watching the game.”

“Fine.” I pulled my arms tight across my chest.

We sat for an inning, neither team scoring, until the commercials came on. Xavier shifted in his chair, chuckling at one of the ads.

I loved my uncle, but I did not feel like listening to him laugh at the moment.

“Did you need anything other than the light?” I asked.

“No.”

“I thought you were working on a project for Hazel.”

He shrugged. “It’s not urgent.”

“I’m sure she’s expecting you home.”

“She knows where I’m at.”

Fuck my life. He wasn’t leaving here until he got it all.

I took a deep breath, rubbed my hands over my face, swung my legs down and sat up. “She was with another man.”

“Thought you didn’t want to talk about it.”

“I don’t. But you aren’t leaving here until I do, so we might as well get this over with.”

Xavier muted the game then gave me his full attention. “Ready when you are.”

“I went to New York. She was with another man.”

My uncle nodded but stayed quiet. After years of working as a cop and listening to confessions, he knew when to press for more. He also knew when his subject would spill willingly.

“I feel stupid. It was stupid to spend money I don’t have and go out there. It was stupid to think she’d want me there. It was stupid to think she wouldn’t eventually move on. We ended things. Parted ways. And now I feel fucking stupid.”

“You’re not.”

I scoffed. “Come on. It was stupid.”

“Why’d you two end it?” Xavier had been wanting to ask that question for months, but I’d never given him a window. But now that the door was open, he wasn’t hesitating to walk right through it.

“There’s no future there. We both know that. It was better to end things sooner than later.”