I sidestepped toward the door, encouraging my boyfriend to follow. Shepley began to turn toward me, but Rich reached out, grabbing a fistful of Shepley’s shirt and yanking him back.
Shepley didn’t hesitate. Rich’s eyes grew wide as he saw Shepley coming at him with a raised elbow. A thud sounded when Shepley’s elbow knocked against Rich’s cheekbone. Rich stumbled back, holding the side of his face, and the friend stood, pausing.
“I fucking dare you to jump in,” Shepley growled.
Rich tried to take advantage of Shepley’s momentary distraction and swung. Shepley dodged, and Rich fell forward as he followed through with the motion. I covered my mouth as I was in total disbelief that it was my boyfriend, not Travis, in the middle of a fight. It had been a long time since I saw Travis in the ring of The Circle, and even though he’d calmed down quite a bit since the wedding, Travis would still end up throwing a punch or two if someone pushed him too far.
Shepley was always the peacekeeper, but at the moment, he was landing punches on Rich, hard enough to draw blood. A cut began to bleed just above his right eye.
The bartender reached for the phone right when Shepley reared back his fist and grunted while he swung. Rich spun, doing a one-eighty, and then fell on the floor, bouncing once. He was out cold. The friend watched him from the stool, shaking his head. Rich’s eyes were already beginning to swell shut as he lay there, dazed, on the dirty carpet.
“Baby, let’s go,” I said.
Shepley took a step toward the friend, who jerked back in reaction.
“Shepley Maddox! We’re leaving!”
Shepley looked back at me, huffing. He didn’t have a single mark on his face. He walked past me, taking my hand and pulling me out the door.
Shepley
The Charger’s steering wheel whined as I twisted the wood with both hands. Rain fell from a dark blue sky, assaulting the windshield so loudly that America had to nearly yell over the noise. She was chattering a thousand words a minute, and it was all blurring together. She wasn’t mad but excited. I wasn’t mad. I was feeling unadulterated deep fucking fury. Adrenaline was still pumping through my veins, making my head throb like it was going to explode. That feeling was exactly why I wouldn’t lose my temper. It would leave me feeling sick, out of control, guilty—everything I didn’t want to be.
As the miles passed and we escaped Topeka, America’s voice came into focus.
She reached over to touch my hand. “Baby? Did you hear me? You might want to slow down. The rain is coming down so hard it’s starting to stand on the roads.”
She wasn’t afraid, but I could hear the concern in her voice. My foot lifted half an inch off the gas pedal, and I eased up, releasing the tension from my leg and then the rest of my body.
“Sorry,” I said through my teeth.
America squeezed my hand. “What happened?”
I shrugged. “I lost it.”
“I feel like I’m riding in the car with Travis instead of my boyfriend.”
I breathed out through my nose. “It won’t happen again.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw her face compress.
“Do you still love me?”
Her words were like a punch to the gut, and I coughed once, trying to catch my breath. “What?”
Her eyes glossed over. “Do you still love me? Is it because I said no?”
“You … you want to talk about this now? I mean … of course I love you. You know that, Mare. I can’t believe you just asked me that.”
She wiped an escaped tear from her cheek and looked out the window. The weather outside mirrored the storm in her eyes. “I don’t know what happened.”
My throat tightened, choking off any reply I might have had. Words didn’t come to me. I alternated between staring at her in confusion and watching the road.
“I love you.” She balled her elegant thin fingers into a fist and propped them under her chin, her elbow on the door’s armrest. “I’ve wanted to talk to you about the way things have been between us lately, but I was scared … and … I didn’t know what to say. And—”
“America? Is this a … is this like a good-bye trip?”