Page 98 of Unexpected

“We’re going to meet at Roast right around the corner in like twenty minutes,” she said, stepping up next to me and running a hand down my arm.

“Good that you’re meeting in a public place.”

“Yeah, it was a condition if he wanted to see me.”

I huffed out a long breath, feeling a little more in control of my emotions and turned to face her. “I’m going with you.”

In another reaction I wasn’t expecting, she smiled and bit her bottom lip between her teeth. “I figured as much. But I think it would be best if you stayed somewhere where he can’t see you. You can still come in and listen and whatever else. But if Michael sees you…” She shook her head and her eyes fell closed.

As hard as it was for me to let her walk in there and meet the bastard, I knew it was a thousand times harder for her to confront her abuser. I needed to keep that in mind. It wasn’t about me.

“That’s fine. I can do that, but if he touches you, I’m getting involved. No questions asked.”

“I know,” she said quietly.

I pushed her hair back over her shoulders and cupped my hands around her neck, using my thumbs to push her chin up so she’d look at me instead of at our feet. “Talk to me, Hazel. What are you thinking?”

She wetted her lips as her eyes darted around my face. “I’m running through every damn scenario of how this could play out. None of them include him apologizing or being regretful of his actions, but I just hope he lets me leave without a fight. I hope you don’t have to get involved. And I hope that he doesn’t cause a damn scene because he loves to cause a scene.”

“He won’t get a chance,” I promised, and I meant it more than I think I’d meant anything in my life up until that point.

“Okay, we should probably go then and drive separately. He said he was already there, but I told him it would be a little while until I could make it.”

I agreed and hovered by the door as Hazel flitted around the apartment, turning off the lights and grabbing her things. She was running off nervous energy as she bounced from one room to the next, and I was saying a silent prayer to all the coffee I’d consumed that it’d actually keep me awake.

Pulling up to the coffee shop at a little past seven that night, there weren’t many people inside. The front of the business was made entirely of large glass windows, so it wasn’t hard to spot Michael, who was dressed casually for once—not in his usual designer suit—seated at a table by the far door.

Hazel hopped out of her car only a second before I shut my truck off. She made eye contact with me and nodded before she approached the door. With the metal door handle in her hand, she stopped. She stared at her hand for a moment, wrapping the other jacket-clad arm around her body before she shook off the doubts that were likely simmering in her mind and flung the glass door wide.

I followed suit on the opposite side of the coffee shop. Luckily, Michael’s back was to me, and I easily slipped in without him noticing.

When he saw Hazel in front of his table, I was still approaching, so I couldn’t hear what he said, but I saw the forced smile cross her face. Her eyes were tight, and she nervously worried her lip as he stood and gave her an awkward hug.

Every muscle in my body tensed as I approached the table behind them. I had the urge to rip him off her, and I knew I needed to get my shit in check and fast—their entire conversation was going to make me want to rip him apart. That was just a fact.But watching him touch her was even worse.

A gangly-looking teenage guy was seated at the table behind them. Once he noticed I was stalking directly toward him, he stiffened in his seat, eyes wide.

I fished my wallet out of my back pocket, grabbed a twenty and tossed it on the table in front of him. He watched the money fall to the table and then looked back at me. Without saying a word, I pointed to the cash and then motioned with my thumb for him to get the fuck away.

He shrugged but grabbed the money, took his coffee, and found a new table just a few feet away.

I sat down at the opposite side of the table from the seat the boy had just vacated, so I could not only hear but also see what was happening.

By the time I sat down, Michael was already speaking a mile a minute. Seemed like he had consumed nearly as much caffeine as I had.

Hazel’s eyes stayed planted on the paper cup in front of her—how sweet, he’d ordered her coffee—as he spoke.Chewing her thumbnail in intense worry.

“These two weeks apart have been the worst two weeks of my life. And the fact that I couldn’t talk to you made it so much worse. I wish you hadn’t blocked me, I have so much to tell you. I’ve made some serious improvements, and I’m going to work on being the man you need me to be.” He shook his head, looking down at his coffee and Hazel took the opportunity to peer over his shoulder at me. I gave her a tight, hopefully reassuring smile which she returned. “I am so, so, desperately sorry for what I did to you. I should have never hurt you. But you have to know that I’m not that man anymore. I’m going to be better, and I went by the house. I know you already moved out and that broke my heart, baby. Seeing all your stuff gone broke me. But I want to make another go of this. I want to be better for you. We both have stuff to work on, and maybe living apart and working on it would be for the best. It would give us some space while we figured us out. What do you think?”

Hazel didn’t speak and didn’t lift her eyes from her cup. She was nervously pulling at the label, and I could see under the table that her leg was bouncing. She was so uncomfortable, and there was nothing I could do about it without causing a scene. I wished we’d come up with a signal that told me she wanted out.

Michael reached his hand out to touch her, but she flinched away.

“Hazel, baby. Please don’t do this. We had a good thing going for so many years. I know the last year has been rough, but—”

“Rough, Michael? Rough? You beat the shit out of me,” she seethed.

There it was. I didn’t know what her reaction would be—if she would be submissive and nonconfrontational, or maybe indifferent and just let him talk to himself. But anger wasn’t the first thing I’d expected. Good for her, though, she deserved to get angry.

---