Still breathless, he couldn’t say a word, only reach out to her, but she stepped back from his hand.
“Stay away from me, Caleb. Please.” Keeping her gaze away from his, but unable to hide the tears glistening in her eyes or mask the roughness of her voice, she whirled once again and stomped away. She slammed through the swinging door.
And the world lost all hint of life and color.
For a moment, Caleb kneeled, staring at the door that had swung shut. Talk about blown away, and stunned, not just by her revelation of her feelings but her actions.
She hit me.
Sweet, gentle Renny had hit him. She’d even raised her voice and used the A word. She called me an asshat. Renny never cussed. He should know. Once upon a time he’d made her speak aloud the dirtiest words. How he loved the way she blushed and stammered saying just the word “damn.”
But she wasn’t just using stronger language, she hadn’t been afraid to get physical and confrontational.
A forceful Renny. He didn’t know what to think of it. She’d changed an awful lot. Because of him? Or was it because of this baby she had, the one she was raising on her own?
For some reason, knowing she had no one to help bothered him, and it wasn’t just because he’d grown up without a dad.
Something of his trouble must have shown as he slid back into his seat across from Daryl.
“Nice mug. By the look of you, I take it things didn’t go well.”
“No. They didn’t.” And, yes, he might have said it rather sulkily. Despite all his protestations that he should stay away from Renny and she was better off without him, apparently a tiny part of him, that had remained hidden until this very moment, had hoped for a different outcome. Optimism fantasized she would fling herself into his arms and sob how much she’d missed him and still loved him.
I hoped that she loved me still.
However, it wasn’t just their showdown in the bathroom that shattered that dream, but the fact that she’d birthed a child. A child she created with another man.
It bothered him. Someone else had touched her. Yet what had he expected?
I expected her to wait for me.
Yet, while he might have harbored that foolish fantasy, he’d certainly not abstained from the opposite sex. I might have sated some needs, but I never loved them.
Not like he’d love a certain golden-haired girl.
A girl who’d grown into a woman.
A woman determined to ignore him.
If only he could do the same, but he wasn’t having the same kind of luck. In his defense, he wasn’t the only one checking out the hot chick serving drinks in short shorts, getting her ass slapped and taking it with a smile while he seethed.
“Dude, that is a serious brood you’ve got going,” Daryl said, waving his hand before Caleb’s face and breaking his stare.
“I don’t brood.”
“Fine, glower. Scowl. Whatever. You need to stop. Renny’s not interested, dude, so give it a rest.”
But Caleb didn’t want to give it a rest, which was why, when Daryl insisted on driving him home, he got out a few miles from home and claimed he needed to walk the rest of the way to clear his head.
Caleb wasn’t lying completely. He did walk. Just not home.
Chapter Four
Still shaken after her encounter with Caleb, after the club closed just after one, Renata took her time wiping down the tables and gathering her things.
Being warned Caleb was in town and seeing him in the flesh were two totally different things. For one, she’d not expected the sharp pang of longing when she saw him again.
How can I still want him?
He’d changed so much. Definitely not the same carefree guy she’d known years ago. Yet, for all the cynical hardness in his features, the sneer on his lips, all those signs he bore that showed he’d faced danger and hardships, drew her even more.
It didn’t hurt that he had a rocking body.
A fit guy when they dated, he’d passed in shape into superbly toned. His snug T-shirt had hugged his upper body, revealing broad shoulders, a defined set of pecs, a flat stomach, and arms that could squeeze the life from her.
She almost wished he’d try. How long had it been since she’d enjoyed a hug from a male other than her son?
But Caleb was the wrong person to be craving a hug from.
I hate him, remember?
Right. Hated.
Yet craved.
Abhorred.
Yet her senses tingled.
Wanted to kill.
Yet he made her feel alive.
Even now, with him gone for hours, awareness tickled all of her nerves, a hyper-sensitivity that initially let her know where he was at all times when he was in the club. She might not have an inner beast like most folks in town, but that never stopped her from knowing when Caleb was nearby. Melanie used to call it fate.
Now Renny had to wonder if it was a warning?