Page 55 of Daddy's Little Farmer

The woman was beyond skinny, but it was the way to look if you wanted to be in her circle of friends.

“You bastard,” Tabitha hissed. She yanked on Rafael’s arm. “Come on, darling. I can’t be around people like this.”

Rafael moved away from them and headed to where Trowbridge was standing. They shook hands and immediately started talking about business.

“Oh, isn’t that sweet,” Tabitha said.

“What?”

“The retarded girls are here.”

He knew she meant the littles, and it pissed him off. He looked over, and his heart about stopped.

His little Mara stood just inside the doors with the others. She was dressed in a shimmery white dress that made her skin look luminous. Her blonde hair was curled and fell around her shoulders and down her back. She wore short heels, but they made her legs look great. He could tell she had on makeup from where he stood, although it made her look beautiful. He liked her natural beauty better.

“Oh, man. I wonder if that woman is taken,” a man in their circle said, making Rafael want to punch him.

She turned his way, and her eyes lit up when her gaze went down to where Tabitha had her arm linked to his and was pressed up tightly against his side. Jesus, he saw the devastation in her eyes and her face pale.

“I’ll be right back.”

He walked over to her and grabbed her upper arm, dragging her out into the hallway and down a bit so they had some privacy. Rafael kept a tight grip on her arm and bent to get in her face.

“What the fuck are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at home.”

He hated the tears that ran out of the corners of her eyes.

“I … I thought if you saw me looking nice, you wouldn’t be embarrassed by me and would want to be with me. I didn’t know you had someone else.”

“Dammit. She’s just someone I take to shit like this.”

“Because she doesn’t embarrass you.”

Fuck, the whole night fucking sucked. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’ll talk about this at home.”

She shook her head and tried to pull away from him.

“Rafael, please let go. You’re hurting me.”

He looked at his grip and saw the red marks he put there. He grabbed onto her hand and led her to an empty room. He got out his phone.

“Jorge, Mara is coming down. Please take her home and then come back for me.”

He saw the look in her eyes and had seen it once before when Tiny was killed.

“Listen, honey. We’ll talk about this.”

She shook her head. “No. I want to go home.”

“I know. Jorge is going to take you.”

“No, I meant my real home.”

It made him sick when she described how hurt she was and she wanted to leave him.

He grabbed onto her shoulders. “Listen. I’ll fix this. I’ll be home in a bit.”

“Rafael, darling, Mr. Trowbridge is looking for you,”

---