Page 30 of Peacocks

For half a second, though, I wavered, and I wondered whether the money would make any difference to Lane. Whether it would make up for my lack of degrees and lack of refinement and lack of ambition.

Just a few hours ago, I would have sworn he wouldn’t have cared either way, but suddenly, I wasn’t sure of anything…

Except that if I kept sitting here, I really was gonna pop Lane’s ex-boyfriend in the mouth, and then what would happen to Lane’s exciting job offer?

I was not going to ruin this for Lane.

I pushed to my feet and summoned a friendly smile. “Shoot, I just remembered I, uh… I’m not going to be able to do lunch after all.”

“Oh, no.” Lane stood too, eyes wide and worried. “Jay, are you?—?”

“Sure. Yeah. I’m fine.” I waved a hand. “Just remembered I promised I’d help… somebody with an Entwinin’… thing. I saw Chuck Gimbal out front. If I hurry, I bet I can catch a ride with him.”

I gave Lane another smile, a warmer one, because none of this was his fault. None at all. He was still the handsomest, kindest man in the world. He’d told me he only wanted casual, and I hadn’t entirely believed him, and that was my own doing. “I’ll catch you gents later.”

“I’ll see you at home?” Lane asked hopefully. “Tonight?”

“Probably, yeah.” I shrugged. “I live there, don’t I?”

It was a funny thing how a broken heart could feel so much like a sick stomach. I took a quick detour from the lobby to the men’s room, worried my breakfast was about to reappear. Fortunately, it only took a minute of me staring at my own reflection before I got my stomach back under control.

My heart was a different matter.

I didn’t know if that fucker was ever gonna work properly again.

I refused to look back at the dining room as I made my way outside. I hoped Lane was listening to Chad’s business offer, if that was what he wanted. I definitely didn’t want him to turndown his dream because his ex had acted like an utter asshole to his… landlord.

I wanted Lane for myself, yes. But I wanted him happy more than anything.

When I pushed open the front door of the restaurant, I grabbed my phone and texted Ava Siegel for a ride—I’d babysat for her brood on Valentine’s Day, and she kept reminding me she owed me a favor as well as a Purple Heart—then found a seat on a bench behind a big Entwinin’ topiary and waited for her giant minivan to appear.

This meant I had a birds’-eye view when Lane and Chad exited the restaurant.

“—an utterjerk, Chadwick! Honest to God. Were you this bad when we were together? Because if you were always such a genuinely awful, absolutely heartless human being and I was… was…blindto it, then I… I don’t even know!”

Lane sounded so miserable I wanted to walk up behind him and wrap my arms around him, but I didn’t think that would be helpful.

“Lane.” Chad sighed. “You misinterpreted?—”

“Misinterpretedwhat?” Lane demanded, sounding angrier than I’d ever heard him. “You interrupting my lunch plans? You whipping your dick out in the middle of the restaurant so you could compare it to Jay’s? You insulting him because you think he doesn’t make as much money as you?” His disgust was palpable. “You’re insufferable, and you hurt his feelings. You owe him an apology.”

Chad sighed again. “Look, I admit that I could have been nicer. But Lane, I had to be a little cruel. Think of it as an intervention.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake?—”

“Seriously,” Chad continued. “Open your eyes and look around you, Lane. Lift your brain out of your dick andthink.This town… this place… it’s notyou. You’ve got a Bachelor’s in Animal Science from UT, a Master’s in Veterinary Pathology from Cornell, and a Doctor of Veterinary Technology from UGA.”

“I’m aware, thank you,” Lane said, voice hard.

“The American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges awarded you the Gold Standard Veterinary Excellence Award seven years ago. Two and a half years ago, you won the UGA Excellence in Veterinary Education Award. Remember the reception at the dean’s house? How he said you had a bright future ahead of you?”

“I was there.” Lane sounded tired now. “Of course I remember.”

“And can you actually look me in the eye and tell me that man would turn down a job like the one I offered you so he could stay in some hick town and make calf’s eyes at Jaybird Proud?”

I shouldn’t have been listening to this conversation, and I knew it. When I was growing up, Grandma Emmaline used to tell me, “Eavesdroppers never hear nothin’ but bad news, Jaybird.” But at that moment, a crowbar couldn’t have pried me out of my hidey-hole behind the topiary.

Way deep down, beyond the pain and heartbreak, there was still a small kernel of hope inside me that Lane would pick me—and the Thicket—and tell Chad to take his stupid job and his even stupider, smarmy smile and fuck off (but politely).

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