Page 74 of The Leaving Road

“Dexter, I know we don’t know each other well, but believe me when I tell you, she has to go.” Lexie laid it all out there, and the silence that followed was deafening while he absorbed her words.

The serverfinallycame by and took our drink and food orders, and after that, small talk started to fill the table and the tension of what happened started to seep away. Lydia returned from the bathroom looking a bit more at ease, and once her margarita had been delivered, she sucked in down in two full gulps.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Dexter ground out as his eyes faced the entrance, and I looked behind me to see what made him upset. I caught none other than Cassie walking in. Dexter’s gaze moved from Cassie to Lydia, and she at least had the decency to look guilty under his intense glare.

“Did you do this?” he asked her low enough that only Sloan and I could hear because we were right next to them. Her silence was loud enough for everyone to hear.

Cassie, being as classy as ever, pulled up a chair without asking. “Hey, guys! Thanks for the invite, Lydia.”

Lexie’s eyes had turned into slits, almost as if she were daring Cassie to say something about me, but Cassie didn’t pay her any mind. She immediately locked in on Sloan’s arm over my shoulder and the fact that his fingers were caressing the exposed skin over my shoulder. Rage clouded her features.

“Fancy seeing youbothhere, andtogether,”she fumed, not tearing her eyes away from us.

Sloan just shrugged, barely paying her any attention, while he kept his attention firmly on me. Despite howawkwardthis was, I found myself smiling up at him.

“Well, isn’t this justperfect?Sloan and Magnolia,finallytogether!”

“Cassie,” Jace said in a warning tone, “don’t do this.”

“Do what, Jace?” she snapped at him. “Congratulate the happy couple?”

“Make an ass out of yourself,” he mumbled back at her, and that’s when she really lost it.

“If he wants to be with Maggie Moo, that’s not a problem, but we all know who had him first, who he will come crawling back to when she slithers off to wherever it is she came from.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at her, at thisgrownwoman standing in front of a guy, knowing what she did to him, and still behaving this way.

“Don’t youdarelaugh at me like you’re better than me!” she screamed and moved to get in my face. I immediately saw Lexie get up from her chair, and I shook my head at her, which had her grimacing her displeasure but she sat back down.

“Iambetter than you.” I shot her aknowinglook, and she immediately knew what it meant—that I knew the truth,her truth. Her body started to shake in rage, and she turned and pointed that rage at Sloan.

Her voice reached levels of crazy I wasn’t aware even existed while everyone else in the place was looking at her in horror as she continued her rampage. “You signed an agreement! An NDA about the money I stole! You weren’t allowed to tellanyone!”she screamed while pointing at him.

Sloan barely spared her a glance, and when he did, he looked bored. It was a hard thing to witness, hisdisinterest. “The agreement said I couldn’t inform anyone who was a resident of Rockland, Maine; anyone you considered a friend or a future employer. It said nothing about a past resident, and I doubt Magnolia considers you a friend, nor would she hire you.”

“Definitely not.” I backed him up and he smiled a lazy smile at me, only adding fuel to her fire.

“I thought you said you didn’t take it?” Lydia whispered from across the table. “That’s why you wanted to talk to Sloan, to make him see reason.”

“Oh, don’t be sonaïve, Lydia!”She turned to face her, and it was as if in that moment she realized where she was.Out in public, with many of our small-town residents looking at her with their mouths agape.

“I…uh…” Her features turned to a mask of horror as she realized how many sets of eyes were on her and where she was. The fact that she dropped her façade in her fit of rage and how she ousted herself. There wasn’t a single resident in our small town who wouldn’t know the gossip by morning. Without a single word, she turned on her heel and stormed out.

“You knew about this?” Dexter ground out. He kept his face forward.

“Dex…please, it isn’t what you’re thinking,” Lydia whined. “She lied to me.”

“I’ve made a lot of excuses for you over the years, Lydia. We’ve been together a long time, but this…this—”

“This what?” The tears she was trying to squeeze out immediately dried when she realized that Dexter wasn’t even bothering to look at her.

“This is just the icing on the cake. I’m done. Find your own way home.” He threw a few twenties and his napkin on the table before he addressed us, “Talk to you guys later.”

It took Lydia a few seconds of silence after Dexter left before she got up to run after him.

“I wasn’t expecting dinner and a show,” Jace said, somewhat in a state of shock.

Lexie just shrugged. “I did.”

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