Page 34 of Fake Coral and Keys

“No problem,” Kane says, still jerking me away. He shoots a daring look at the dirt bag, who’s wiping his mouth and glaring back at me. “Do we have a problem?”

Greg shakes his head, and that perfect-toothed sneer comes back. “No problem here.”

Kane leads me back to where Daisy is standing, now joined by Lily and Justine. Daisy watches me intently, a little line creasing her brow.

“What did that twat waffle do now?” Lily asks as Kane deposits me in front of Daisy.

“The asshole made a rude gesture to Daisy while practically eye fucking her,” Kane tells Lily.

That little sparkle Daisy had in her eyes earlier has vanished. Now they seem dark, the green shadowed by somethingI can’t identify. Anger? Or worse, it may be disappointment.Fuck. I want to tell her I’m sorry, but I’m not.

Kane claps my back and squeezes my shoulder before looking Daisy dead in the eye. “That guy deserved that little shake-down and more.”

“That seemed unnecessarily violent,” Justine says to me, her mouth twisted into a sour frown. She steps in close, looking at Daisy. “Seems you have a thing for violent men.”

“Seems you have a thing for other people’s boyfriends,” Daisy snaps.

Justine steps back, a serpentine smile on her lips. “They say that once a woman loses respect for herself, she attracts abusive men.”

“They?” Daisy asks, her voice so cold I’m surprised she’s not breathing ice. “By they, do you mean toxic people like you?”

Another smile from Justine. “Is that why you wrote your silly little books? To feel some self-worth after Jim?”

A small whoosh of air escapes Daisy. I don’t have to look at her to see her face fall. I press my fingers to my eyes, my shoulders slumping. I wish I could take back the last few minutes. Letting my hand fall, I catch Daisy’s expression. Her eyes shimmer with my betrayal.

“Whoa, what is happening here?” Lily asks, stepping between the two women. She glares at Justine. “You need to back off.” Lily wraps an arm around Daisy and leads her away, throwing a narrowed glare at Justine as they leave.

Justine casts me a sneer that reminds me of the creep whose face I just smashed into the bar and stalks away, tossing her hair over one shoulder.

Kane scoots in close to me and claps my back again. “I have no clue what’s going on, but the smack down you gave that jerk was gold.”

***

“I’m sorry,” I say before the door completely shuts behind me. My apology feels weak, so I clamp my mouth shut.

Daisy sits in the center of the enormous bed, wrapped in a robe, shoveling chips in her mouth. She leans over, grabs a can of soda and a small mini bottle of rum from the nightstand, and takes a tug off each. Making a face, she places them back on the table and digs in the small potato chip bag, her eyes boring holes into me.

“What I did was over the top,” I tell her. It took me about thirty minutes of walking along the waterfront to come up with what seemed like an adequate apology. Looking at her now, I feel like nothing I say will be good enough.

She nods and pops a chip in her mouth, then chews slowly, her eyes never leaving mine.

“Even though the creep deserved it, I shouldn’t have gone near him.”

Another nod. Another chip.

“I acted like an over-jealous boyfriend.”

This time she doesn’t nod. Instead, she just pops another chip into her mouth.

“Are you mad at me?”

My answer is a loud crunch as she eats another chip.

“The silent treatment won’t help me fix anything,” I tell her and sit at the end of the bed. “Talk to me.”

She rumples up the bag, the cellophane crackling loudly in the quiet of the room, and places it on the nightstand, then resumes her silent glare.

“Are you mad at me?” I ask again.Duh, dumb ass, of course, she’s mad at you.

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