Page 80 of No One Wants That (Blitzen Bay)

BUTCH

“Do you have any texts from him?”

After we hiked back to the car, I drove Kit into Big Bear to buy a new phone. Her data has been downloading for about ten minutes. It feels like ten years. I’m waiting for a text to pop up from her ex-boyfriend asking her to get back together with him.

“From who?”

“Kit. Honesty, remember? You know who I’m talking about.”

She leans against the wall in front of the store and looks down at her phone again. “It’s not done downloading yet. I’m sure I have texts from him but it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to get back together with him even if he wants that.”

“You’re going to have to talk to him again, right?” I lean next to her and circle my arm around her shoulders. “You said you lived with him in Spain. You’ll see him when you go back there.”

She looks down at her phone again. “Yeah, I’m sure I’ll see him. I want to see him to get some closure, but that doesn’t mean I want to get back together with him. Ooo, finally. Download complete. Do you want to read his messages with me?”

“Naw,” I say, looking around the street. “I’m not like that. Tell me if I need to know anything.”

She’s quiet for a few minutes. It takes every bit of my self-control to not grab the phone away from her and read his texts. I’m already way too into her and it pisses me off that I’ve let myself get to this point.

“Nothing more than what I read the other day,” she says, looking up at me. “He actually hasn’t texted me for a while. Like I said, he wants to get back together with me. He said he’d move here if that’s what it takes.”

“Okay.” I nod. I can feel my face getting tight. “Do you want him to move here?”

“Not at all,” she says, pushing herself off the wall. “You have to trust me. Okay?”

“Yep.” That’s all I can get out. I’m using all of my energy to control the anger that’s rapidly rising in my body.

She wraps her arm around my waist. “I’m starving. Do you want lunch?”

“Yeah.” I point across the street. “We were at that Taylor’s place last night before we came to the Ant. Their food looked pretty good.”

“Okay,” she says, laying her head on my chest. “I need protein. I’ve clearly done way too much exercise over the last twenty-four hours.”

I try to release some of the tension in my arm before I drape it across her shoulders again. “Alright. Let’s get you fed before you pass out.”

“Frankly,” she says, snuggling closer to me. “I’m a little surprised that you don’t have lunch for us in Hermie’s backpack.”

“The elves are on break right now,” I say, squeezing her into my body. “Hey. Isn’t that the guy from last night?”

“What guy?” Kit looks to where I’m pointing, but the guy has already disappeared into Taylor’s.

“The guy Millie hit. Elle’s ex’s dad or whatever. He just went into Taylor’s.”

“Oh, Trip Walker?” Her head darts up and down the street. “Maybe we should get lunch in Blitzen. I don’t want to see him again.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” I say, taking her hand and leading her across the street to our car.

As she crawls into the car, I see Trip walking out onto the restaurant’s patio. Two guys stand up and shake his hand. I don’t recognize one of the guys, but the other guy is Sam.

“What the fuck?”

“What?” Kit says, looking over my shoulder. “What are you looking at?”

“The table in the corner. Trip Walker’s sitting with Sam.”

“Sam? Our Sam?” Kit looks around me to where they’re sitting. “Wait. How do they know each other. What’s going on?”

She jumps out of the car and starts power walking toward them. She flings open the gate and marches over to their table. “Sam! What are you doing with him?”

---