Page 69 of One Sweet Day I Found You

What did he expect? To see her facedown on the floor?

“Why are you talking to me like you’re my father right now?”

“Sorry. Was I? I just—I worried about you a lot after…” He let the sentence go.

“After?”

He had given up the right to worry about her—or check on her—a long time ago.

Courtney stared at him. It might have been the wine talking, but the quiet rage in her gut was growing.

Austin cleared his throat. “I’m just glad to see it didn’t—you know, slow you down, sideline you.”

Courtney’s eyes narrowed, and she raised her voice a notch. “You mean, because you’d have to feel guilty if I were a mess? Or, because you’d actually feel some sort of remorse?”

The people on either side of them turned and stared, and Austin’s cheeks turned bright red. But he played it off. He’d always been good at keeping a solid public face.

He leaned in and softened his tone. “Okay, I get it, Court. But can we keep it down?”

It sounded more like a statement than a question. Courtney’s palms felt sweaty. Now shereallywanted to talk. Her voice was steely but she lowered the volume. “You want me to keep it down?”

Austin sounded nervous. “Babe, let’s not get into it all right here.”

“Why not?” Courtney kept her voice as calm and quiet as she could.Babe.Her heart pounded in her chest. “You said you wanted to talk?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t mean so the whole place could hear.”

Courtney huffed and turned away from him. She rubbed the center of her forehead and took a deep breath.

He was right. It would be the last thing she needed—for this to become a scene that got back to Nick. Or, for Kira’s friends to see her like this. She didn’t need a reputation as a public drama queen.

She missed Nick desperately right now. But this had nothing to do with him. She was just raging mad about something that happened almost a year ago. She had to have this out. Nick would understand. She hoped.

Courtney looked around. She was a hot mess. It was time to get out of here.

Austin rubbed his forehead. “Can we go somewhere else and talk?”

* * *

Austin clutcheda six-pack of light beer that he’d purchased on the way out of the bar, and tipped the driver on the rideshare app with his other hand. Courtney unlocked her front door and let herself inside the cottage, Austin on her heels.

She switched on the lights in the living room and kitchen and glanced at the clock on the wall. Almost one o’clock.

“Nice place.”

“Thanks.” She said flatly, tossing her keys in a shallow bowl on the counter. She threw her jacket and handbag over a chair then checked her phone again.

Still no message from Nick. Not even a text. She breathed in deeply and let it out. She didn’t want to be angry with him, but on one level, she was. If hedidhave to go out on a rescue today, he could’ve at least called or texted when he got back, right? Hemustbe back by now.

Why were all the men in her life either full of themselves or unreliable? She pursed her lips and went into her bathroom. She needed to run a comb through her hair and freshen her lipstick. Austin needed to see the best possible version of Courtney—so he’d remember what a jerk he’d been to toss her aside. So he wouldn’t think she’d missed him even for a day.

She sighed. She really wished it were Nick here with her right now. Watching a late-night movie marathon or something. Cuddling on the couch over a bucket of popcorn.

Instead, it was the guy who had ripped her heart out and left it to rot. She walked back out into the living area and cast a stony glance at him.

Austin had never even come to talk to her about the breakup. The only official end they’d had to the relationship was a few short words after she’d found him with Alicia, right before she threw him out of the apartment.

After that, she just refused to take his calls. Refused to have anything to do with him. She had nothing to say to him—then. Soon after, she’d left for Australia.

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