Wincing, she rolled onto her back and squinted at the ceiling. Crying herself to sleep in her makeup and a dress had been a bad idea. Almost as bad as talking Matt into taking her on a real date.
She pushed herself to her feet and stripped off her clothes from the night before. A very long, insanely hot shower was what she needed. And makeup remover. Very deliberately not looking out her window, she went into her bathroom and tried not to look in the mirror, either.
An hour later, she was ready for work, though it was seriously tempting to take a sick day. All she had to do was call the police station and ask them to post a sign on the door. She didn’t do it often, but with only one librarian it had happened a few times over the years.
But she wasn’t going to hide. Staying in her house, licking her emotional wounds and feeling sorry for herself wasn’t her style. If she was going to have to live next door to Matt for the foreseeable future, she needed to set the tone now.
It was fun, but now it’s not, so how about those Red Sox?
When she walked out to her car, she was relieved to see his truck was already gone. It was one thing to have a plan for returning to a state of neighbors-only, but she was still a little raw to put it into play.
Bear came barreling toward her, and she stopped to play with him for a few minutes, as she always did. He was so sweet, and she hoped Matt wouldn’t be a jerk and not let the dog come visit. She wouldn’t have guessed he’d act like that, but she hadn’t guessed last night would happen, either.
When she couldn’t put it off any longer, she gave Bear a belly rub and then told him to go in the house. Once he was gone, she got in her car and started it. She had to adjust the seat because Matt had been driving and just that small reminder made her mad all over again.
It wasn’t a good day at work. Very few patrons stopped in, which became a problem for about a month between the weather being too nice to be inside and being so hot they wanted the air-conditioning, which meant time crawled by. She deflected texts from Tori and then from Liz. Then Tori again. Even Katie texted her.
Finally she started a group text to get it over with. I’m trying to work. Matt & I are over. End of story.
It wouldn’t be the end of the story, of course. They’d want all the details. But she wasn’t ready to talk about it quite yet.
She wasn’t even sure what there was to say. She’d changed her expectations. He hadn’t. That’s all there was. It didn’t make for a great story.
It made for one hell of a heartache, though.
NINETEEN
MATT FOLLOWED PETE up the old logging road, the ATV engine roaring between his legs. They’d been trying to catch a couple of punks who were trespassing and riding wetlands for a while and now they were at it again.
Because they’d spread the word through the surrounding community, the residents were watching and an older woman had called in a tip. Based on her information, they knew the riders had to have gone through wetlands and across posted property to get where they were and they had a good idea where they’d come out of the woods. Matt and Pete intended to be waiting for them when they did.
They were cranking up the dirt road, with about two miles left to go. Matt calculated, based on when their caller had seen the suspects, that they’d arrive at the point where they’d cross paths with only a few minutes to spare.
It felt good to be out on the quads, blowing off some steam. God knew, he had plenty to blow off.
He’d overreacted to Hailey. In the back of his mind, he’d been aware of it even as it was happening, but he couldn’t help himself. And now, in the light of a new day, he knew he’d been an asshole. Or Prince Asshole, as she’d called him. He’d always thought he had a good sense of humor, and hers was one of the things he liked most about Hailey, but he hadn’t been able to laugh off what he knew she’d meant to be funny. She’d pushed his hot button without knowing and, rather than explain, he’d pretty much killed any chance she’d get close enough to push it again.
Now the question was whether he should apologize to her and try to explain, or if they were both better off the way it was.
He heard the pitch of the machine Pete was riding change and had to let off his throttle a bit to leave space between them. Pete was definitely slowing down and Matt pulled toward the center of the road a little, intending to speed up and pull along side him. If they didn’t haul ass, they were going to miss bagging the rogue ATV riders.
Then Pete hunched forward, his right arm coming up toward his chest. His machine slowed drastically without his thumb on the throttle, but his body jerked, yanking the left side of the handlebars toward his body.
He still had enough speed so the machine turned to the left, too sharply. His tire caught and the machine lifted.
“Pete!”