“Fuck, I’ve never seen a woman dismiss you like that before. She either hates you or totally wants to fuck you. I’m going with the hates you option because I’m betting she actually wants to fuck me, not you,” Nash surmised.
His words faded into the background as I continued to track Harlow’s movements. Nash was right; women didn’t fucking walk away from me. But more to the point; I didn’t chase them, so I diverted my gaze away from her and looked at Nash. He was watching me with a smirk on his face.
“What?” I demanded.
“Like I said, I’ve never seen a chick walk away from you, but I’ve also never seen you make the effort to check one out. You got a hard on for that one?”
Scowling, I said, “Highly fucking unlikely. She’s got a hot ass but there’s plenty of hot asses out there for the taking.”
He laughed. “Whatever you say, brother. Whatever you say.”
I ignored him and looked at J who was motioning for us to come and eat. “Let’s go and eat and get this over with. The sooner the better as far as I’m concerned.”
***
“Madison told me you’re still dealing with that cat and Michelle,” J said midway through lunch.
“Yeah, the bitch is high all the time and has no idea what’s going on with her daughter or her cat.”
Madison leant over to Harlow who was sitting next to her. “That’s the cat he brought into your work.” We’d worked out the connection between us all, but Harlow still looked confused. She was sitting across from me and was eyeing me strangely. It looked like she had something to say but wasn’t sure how to say it.
“Spit it out,” I said gruffly.
“Spit what out.”
“Whatever the fuck is running through your mind right now. Looks to me like you’ve got something to say.” Jesus, she’d been shooting me filthy looks all lunch and my patience was wearing thin. I lived my life one way; if you’ve got something to say, then fucking say it.
She huffed, displeasure clear as day on her face. “I’m just confused as to why you leave your child with a woman who is high. And your cat too.”
Anger flashed through me at her judgmental attitude. I leaned forward and stared her hard in the face. “You should get your facts straight before you go shooting your mouth off. For one, Lisa isn’t my kid. Two, that cat isn’t mine either. And three, the last place I would leave Lisa, if I could help it, would be with her own fucking mother.”
Surprise flared across her face. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh is fucking right.”
“Scott..” Madison tried to shut me up.
I shoved my chair back and stood up. “Yeah, I’m out. Thanks for lunch but I’m going to go.”
“I’m sorry, Scott. Please don’t leave because of what I said,” Harlow apologised but I didn’t really want to hear it; people had one shot with me and she’d said more than enough for me to work out the kind of person she was.
“I’m not leaving because of you but I’ll be honest; I’ve got no interest in anything else you have to say.”
Her eyes widened and Madison sucked in a breath. She looked pissed off with me. “Fine. Go.” Yeah, I was in my sister’s bad books again but it was a place I was familiar with.
Without even bothering to say goodbye to J, Nash or Stoney, I left through the side gate. I stalked to my bike, gripped by anger, but I wasn’t sure who the anger was directed at. And my suspicion that it was actually directed at myself only served to annoy me even more.
Chapter 6
Harlow
I sat in stunned silence. Scott had just stormed out of Madison’s get together, because of me. I was mad at myself for causing this to happen, and really freaking shitty that I’d judged him incorrectly and actually voiced my thoughts out loud to him. It was so out of character for me to do that. I was the kind of woman who thought stuff about people but never had the guts to say it to their face. Keeping the peace was high on my agenda in life. For me to say what I’d said to Scott was so far out of left field for me that I was sitting here stewing on it and trying to work out why I’d opened my mouth.
Everyone else had just carried on as if nothing had happened after he left. This also surprised me. Not one of them got up and followed him to try and get him to stay. The more I thought about it, the more I felt the urge to go and catch him before he left, and apologise again.
I quickly stood, grabbing Madison’s attention as I did this. “What’s wrong, honey?” she asked.
“I’m going to go and apologise to Scott again. I feel awful about what I said.”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Pfft, don’t worry about him. Scott’s a moody bastard; it’s best just to let him go when he’s like this.”