Page 24 of Forget Me Not

I look to where she’s sitting at the bar, frowning and toying with her cell phone.

Bad idea.

But then, as I’m about to decline, a man in a pair of fancy jeans and a too-expensive sweater slides up to the bar beside her.

“Yeah, I will.”

Manto and Tara leave and I watch the new addition to Nova’s growing line of bachelors. He’s young—probably around my age—but it’s the way he towers over her . . . I don’t like it.

She doesn’t look happy to see him and when she takes a step back, he takes a predatory step forward.

Fuck no.

I rise from my chair, making my way across the bar toward them just in time to see Nova storm off and bolt for the door.

Fucking hell.

“Nova,” I snap and she pauses, hand on the door and her eyes shining.

“I’m leaving.” Then, she turns and goes, letting the door fall shut behind her.

Guess that means I’m leaving, too.

Something tells me tonight is going to end well.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” I grit, storming up the sidewalk toward the cottage.

I mean, who does he think he is? He can’t just waltz onto my island, steal my friends and then make me look like a fool in front of everyone.

Wait, that was Crusty with his rendition of Greatest Love Songs of All Time.

“Who said I was following you?” I can’t think with Reid near. Especially not in those damned jeans that make his butt look like the Michelin of butts.

“Go home.”

He chuckles, a dark sound that both irritates me and fills me with warmth . . . which irritates me even more. “In case you forgot, my home is right in front of your home.”

I’m going to throw my shoe at his head.

“That can be rearranged.”

He doesn’t stop at the inn—somehow, I knew he wouldn’t. He’s just got to be annoying and follow me up the hill toward the cottage.

“Not following me, huh?”

“You aren’t walking home by yourself in the dark?”

“I’m a big girl,” I growl. “I’ve been walking this path for over twenty years by myself.”

“And if I let you do it alone, tonight, and something happens, you know who’s getting castrated and hung in the town square.”

“Right now, castration seems to be like a fine option.”

Some deep, recessed part of myself knows, without a doubt, I can trust Reid with my life. Maybe that’s why his presence is so overwhelming. Like he’s swallowing all the air out of my lungs with a single glance. Maybe that’s why I can’t get him out of my head.

“Who’s to say you aren’t following me up here to murder me yourself?”

“Could be,” he murmurs darkly as I reach the stairs of the cottage.

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