Page 51 of Seductress

I, on the other hand, took my first personal day in a very,verylong time. Not only because I was exhausted and had to see about hiring someone to come clean the debris in the backyard, but because the only way I’d convinced Asher not to lose her shit completely in front of everyone was by telling her I’d explain everything this morning over coffee and donuts.

I had a full pot brewed already—well, full, minus the cup and a half I’d already consumed. I was just waiting for her to show up with the donuts.

As I waited for her arrival, I thought back to the night before, to the look in Ford’s eyes. To the way he’d closed down on me, and a niggling of panic formed in the pit of my stomach.

I’d texted earlier to check on him, asking if he’d gotten any sleep, but I still hadn’t heard back. Usually, it only took a handful of minutes for him to get back to me, but we were coming up on two hours. I told myself he probably had a busy morning, and I was jumping the gun by thinking the worst, but I couldn’t seem to scrape the doubt from my mind.

The knock on my front door pulled me from my unpleasant thoughts. “It’s open,” I called out, having left the door unlocked for Asher. “Come on in.”

“Hey.”

I whipped around at the sound of a voice that was distinctlynotAsher’s. “Holy shit,” I breathed, placing a palm over my heart to keep it from escaping. “Jesus, Keith. You scared the shit out of me.”

He held his hands up in surrender. “Sorry. You said to come in.”

I moved to the small kitchen table and sat down, waving Keith over to join me. “No, it’s fine. I thought you were someone else.”

He bristled, his shoulders going stiff while he pulled out the chair across from me. “You seeing someone?”

I raised my brows at his odd question. “And that would be your business how?” As far as I was concerned, he didn’t have the right to know a damn thing about my personal life if it didn’t involve Hazel. He’d made sure of that when he ended us. I had no doubt in my mind that I eventually would have wised up and got rid of his ass myself, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a thorn in my side he’d been the one to break things off before I could.

He cleared his throat and lowered himself into the chair. “No, it’s not. You’re right. Sorry.”

I pulled the heel of my right foot into the seat of my chair and wrapped my arms around my folded leg as I held on to my cup of coffee, the heat of the mug warming my palms and providing comfort.

“You want a cup?” I indicated, lifting the mug in my hands.

“No, thanks. I appreciate it though.”

I took a sip as I studied him over the rim of my mug, letting him squirm a bit under my scrutiny before I finally asked, “What brings you by, Keith? Hazel isn’t here. She’s at school.”

“Yeah, uh...” He cleared his throat, tugging at the starched collar of yet another shirt he wouldn’t have been caught dead in in the past. “I know. I, um—well, I heard about what happened last night.”

“You did?” I asked in bewilderment. “How?”

“Well, Hayley found out actually. She apparently heard from some friends.”

Of course she did, I thought snidely. It was getting really creepy how that woman seemed to have a finger in most aspects of my life. But that was a conversation for a different time. After the night I’d had, the last thing I wanted to do was discuss his girlfriend, who was proving herself to be someone Ireallydidn’t like.

“Well, I appreciate you coming to check on us, but as you can see, we’re just fine. Asher’s actually on her way over now, should be here any minute—”

“That’s not why I’m here,” he blurted, his cheeks flushed with discomfort. “I mean, that’s notonlyreason. I’m glad you guys are okay. Obviously. That is, I’m relieved nothing bad happened, but it could have,” he said, stressing those last two words.

It was my turn to bristle. I lowered my foot, the casual position I was sitting in suddenly not fitting the tension crackling through the air, all thanks to the man across from me. “What are you getting at?”

“Well, uh... I think that what happened last night could have been a lot worse. And it’s simple luck that it wasn’t.” His neck started to grow red as he reached around to rub the back of it, his eyes darting anywhere but at me. “I mean, how many times did I tell you that shed was dangerous? It needed to be cleaned out a long time ago, and what happened last night was plain old irresponsibility.”

My upper body rocked back in shock and my vision turned red. “Excuse me?” I shrilled. “Who the fuck do you think you are, coming in here and callingmeirresponsible, huh? That has to be a joke!”

“Look, Hardy, I didn’t come here to fight—”

“Like hell you didn’t!” I put my mug down so hard, coffee sloshed over the side and burned my hand, but I didn’t have it in me to care about the pain. I slapped my palms against the table and pushed to my feet, feeling as though I could start breathing fire at any moment. “Tell me something, Keith. Did you think of all this yourself, or did Hayley and you have another ‘talk’?” I asked sarcastically, using finger quotes on that last word.

“She might have pointed it out—”

I let out a caustic laugh before crossing my arms over my chest. “You know what? I’m done. Get the hell out of my house.”

“Come on, Hardy. Don’t be like that,” he said in a pleading, whiny voice that grated on my ears.

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