by Joya Ryan
Michelle blushed reading Dex’s text. He was casual, fun, and always had some sexy remarks waiting for her. She’d promised to help him with all his hours, and she’d stick to that. No matter her decision to walk away, she owed him at least that much.
She’d thrown herself into her work these past few days. Crunching numbers and receipts. The math wasn’t looking good. She needed a few good weeks, maybe a solid marketing gimmick to really push her into the black.
She ran her hand over the pile of bills and invoices near her cash register and sighed. She couldn’t fail. But now it looked like that was inevitable.
The door dinged on her little shop, and she put her phone down to acknowledge the customer. Only it wasn’t a customer. It was…
“Mom?” she asked. “Dad?”
Bile rose in her throat as they walked into her boutique, both in matching Michael Kors fall collection styles and so much arrogance that her shop could barely hold it all in.
“Hello, Michelle.” Her mother came to her and gave her an air kiss on her cheek. Ah, affection from her mother could never be topped…
“What are you two doing here?” Michelle asked as shock settled in.
Her father walked through the store and examined everything. He didn’t say a word. Just looked and judged. Much like Dex’s mom had looked at her last week. Only with a different kind of judgment in mind. Her parents were clearly not impressed with her. And Dex’s mother was obviously sickened with Michelle’s “impressiveness.”
Those differences between Dex and her came flooding back tenfold. This was a battle. Always would be.
Her mother hovered near the cash register and looked around. “We thought we’d drop in on you. See how things were going.”
Ah, they’d come to check on her. Rub it in her face that she’d made the wrong decision leaving the city.
“Ariel just quit, maternity leave,” her father said from the back part of the store. Ariel had been his assistant for three years. And this was her father’s subtle way of informing Michelle she could now take the assistant job working for her dad. Michelle would rather take his overpriced cufflinks and gouge her eyes out.
“I’m happy for Ariel. That’s baby number two, right?”
“Correct,” her mother said with a hard look on her face. As if Michelle’s mere use of the word “right” was a sin. Was this how she sounded when she spoke to Dex? Snotty and rude and—?
Dex!
She clutched her phone. She had plans with him tonight for his final training hour. She texted him quickly.
Her mother glanced around and said, “Well, we came all the way here, aren’t you going to show us around this town you now call home?”
“Sure,” she said as she finished and sent her text to Dex.
Michelle: Sorry, something came up. Can’t make it tonight. I promise I’ll make up that last hour you need up to you.
“We’re staying at the bed and breakfast nearby. There’s not a single five-star hotel in this town,” her mother said. “I’d even take four.”
“The bed and breakfast is great. It’s right down the street and next to my friend’s restaurant.”
“Your friend?”
Yes, she had friends. Her mother didn’t need to sound so surprised. “Yes, Chloe owns the restaurant and bar, and my other friend Natalie has a gourmet cupcake shop in the same establishment.”
“Lovely,” he mother mumbled.
Michelle’s phone pinged back.
Dex: I look forward to collecting on this debt.
She smiled. Dex understood. Didn’t ask her why, didn’t make her feel bad. Just understood. He was a good guy. Whatever happened next, he’d been good for her.
Unlike her parents.
She had to figure out how to survive their visit. Their uneasy glares and judgmental smirks. Their unending disappointment.
“Perhaps while you show us around you can say good-bye to your friends,” her father said, eyeing the stack of bills near the cash register. “It’s time to stop this foolishness, Michelle. I know your business isn’t doing well. Give in to reality and come home.”
She was ready to defend herself, but words stuck in her throat. Sure, she’d had a few bad weeks that were turning into months, but she could pull it together…maybe.
“The boutique’s really not doing that—”
Her father looked down at her. “That badly? Honey, you know I’ve been keeping tabs on the shop. I don’t need to see the bills to know you’re six months from closing.”
“Then you know I still have time.”
He put his hands on her shoulders. “Part of being responsible is knowing when to fold.” Her father looked around her shop. “You’ve got a losing hand here, sweetie. Shut down and walk away with your head held high. Before you have to walk away in shame.”
Pain sliced through her chest. All of a sudden she felt like she was drowning. She’d jumped from a helicopter into a bad situation, except this time, there was no one there to pull her out. Not even Dex. She’d made sure of that.
Because if she did ask for help? If she couldn’t do this on her own?
Then she’d already lost.
Dex still couldn’t believe the text Michelle had sent him.
Michelle: I can’t come tonight. Something came up. I’m sorry.
He’d sent her a text back immediately. But she hadn’t responded. What had gone wrong? Why had she canceled?
Now it was taking everything he had in him not to send another text. Hell, not to go straight to her place and find out what could have made her cancel her appointment. It wasn’t his business. She wasn’t his woman. And he wasn’t her keeper. She could blow him off for a good, bad, or no reason at all if she wanted. And there was nothing he could do about it.
Which was why he spent the evening calibrating the GPS system and walking through the woods. He needed to do something. Keep his brain and body going, otherwise he’d think too much about Michelle.
He was set to train an actual class of people two towns over tomorrow. All he was waiting on was his last hour to get recertified. But surely Gage would clear him. Otherwise he’d have to go teach the survival training class instead of Dex. And honestly, wanting to be with Michelle hadn’t been about training in a while.
Still, recertification or not, he wanted his last hour with her.
After a few hours, he was ready for a beer. He brushed off his jeans, figuring he wasn’t too dirty to head to Chloe’s bar and meet East for a drink.
He checked his cell. Michelle hadn’t text or called since their last exchange hours ago.
Something came up…
Damn it, he hated this feeling. Wanting to be with her but knowing he couldn’t. He’d gone so far as to think about what he could actually offer her. Assuming he tried to turn this into more than a training session.
Would she still want him? For more than just sex and the games they played?
He was starting to convince himself he was ready to find out. Maybe he could try for more. Actually date her. Claim her. And have her claim him.
Or he could be dreaming.
He parked his truck and walked into Chloe’s bar. East was sitting at the counter. The restaurant was his favorite place to hang out since one, his friend owned it, and two, it was an old historic mansion renovated into a bar and grill of sorts. Around the corner was a small cupcake shop in what could have been the old study when this was a house. It was unique and a staple of his small town, and he loved it.
“Hey, man, I thought the GPS calibrations were supposed to help you get found, not lost,” East said, looking Dex up and down. Yeah, he was a little dirty, but not bad.
“I’m here, so it works just fine.”
East nodded. Dex sat next to him at the bar and had a beer in hand within the minute.
“Your girl didn’t show up?” East asked.
“She’s not my girl yet, and no, she had something come up.”
“Did you just say ‘yet’?”
East asked with a wide smile.
Christ, had he? He had. She’s not my girl yet.
“Yeah, I guess I did.”
“Well look at you, going for the prom queen. It’s about time.”
Dex always did have a thing for the too popular, too pretty, too far out of reach woman, and that’s exactly what Michelle was. But for some reason, she felt within reach. Just enough to get his hopes up.
“About time?” Dex said. “I’ve only known the girl for a couple weeks.”
“Yeah, but you like her and have spent most of your time not doing much about it.”
East was supportive in his own way, but he also knew where Dex came from and how he grew up. He knew what women used him for, so it was weird he’d been on Michelle’s side from the beginning.
“She’s different,” Dex admitted. Yeah, she might be the type he should stay away from, but she was also his type. She was unique and herself and made him feel like he was more, or at least had the potential to be.
“Why don’t you tell her that yourself.” East nodded at something over Dex’s shoulder. He turned and saw Michelle getting up from a corner table across the way with two other people.
She was there. Having dinner with…he assumed that based on the clothes, age, and general wealth oozing from, they were her parents.
So that’s what had come up.
He stood and walked her way. When was only five feet away, her gaze met his from across the restaurant. She didn’t look happy to see him. She looked shocked.
“Dex?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Came to get a drink with East,” he said.
“Um…” She glanced between her dinner guests and him. “These are my parents, Cynthia and Wayland. Mom, Dad, this is Dex.”
“Hello.” Her mother nodded.
Dex bowed slightly. “Ma’am, it’s a pleasure.” He shook her hand, then Michelle’s father’s. “Sir, nice to meet you as well.”
Michelle gave him the slightest smile, but it was so short and fast he barely registered it as a smile. She was uptight and nervous, and it was freaking Dex out. He’d never seen her like this. Like the woman with passion and fire was nowhere to be seen, and in her place was a rigid, borderline frightened girl with sharp edges.
Her mother looked him over like she would a rodent, and he tried not to fidget and brush his jeans. Why hadn’t he gone home to change first?
“Is this the one you were telling us about?” her father asked her.
Dex’s heart soared. She was talking about him. To her parents.
“Yes, Daddy. Dex has trained me in—”
“Yes, yes, the wilderness and what not,” his father said, shaking her off.
Michelle went cold. Frozen. Silent. This wasn’t the woman he’d come to know. The woman he’d met, the woman he’d made love to, would never let someone interrupt her and wave her off like a simpering fool. She just stood. Silent.
Where was the Michelle he knew? The one with spunk and stubbornness and…flare.
“Michelle here is really great,” he said, feeling like an idiot but also feeling the need to say something. Anything to get a glimpse of the fire inside her. “She certainly knows how to survive in an array of environments.”
He smiled, but no one else did. Not even Michelle.
“Well then, I should thank you for keeping my daughter safe,” her father said. “But her time here is over. Have you paid the man for these classes or training for whatever it is?” he asked Michelle.
Paid him? And what did he mean her time here was over? It annoyed him that her father’s mind went straight to money. It wasn’t like that between him and Michelle. Yeah, he got to spend time with her and get some hours for his recertification, but this was never about classes that involved money. Was that what she’d said to them?
He didn’t know, because she wasn’t admitting or denying anything.
“Your time here is over?” he asked Michelle.
She opened her mouth to say something but her father cut her off again. “Yes, it is,” he confirmed. “Her business is—”
“Just fine,” she snapped. Finally, Michelle was looking like the woman he recognized. With fire in her eyes and heat in her words. But Dex couldn’t help but notice the small tremble she was trying to hide in her shoulders.
“Are you really okay?” he asked softly. “Is your shop okay?”
“No, it’s not,” her father said. “Perhaps if she spent more time using her accounting skills and less time gallivanting around the countryside with you, she wouldn’t be losing it.”
“I’m not losing anything,” Michelle interjected. But Dex’s chest was aching and burning up at the same time. Her father’s words smacked him hard. He was the bad influence, and Michelle was suffering because of him.
“I’m a business owner, something I’ve done on my own. Dex is nothing and has nothing to do with anything I’m trying to accomplish here. I’m not failing.” Her voice broke on the last word, but Dex was struck by the several that came before it. He was nothing. Nothing to her. Nothing in her world. Nothing. All the time they’d spent together, the training, the moments he thought there was more…he’d been wrong.
She glanced at him but then looked away. A mask of fear and anger was written all over her face, and Dex couldn’t handle the intense feeling of his chest drowning in his own blood. Surely that was because his heart was ripped open and pouring out everywhere.
“You can’t afford to stay,” he father said to Michelle.
“I’m not giving up,” she responded in a definite tone.
“You have maybe six months left before you’re totally broke.” Her father threw his hands up.
Dex frowned. He knew that would be a hell of a spot to be in, and despite his ribs splitting from the kick her earlier words gave him, he couldn’t help but offer… “We can figure something out,” he said quietly and for her ears alone.
“We?” she asked. “There is no we. I have care of me.” The way her voice gave out on that statement made his heart sink. “I won’t fail,” she whispered.
“Well, about the payment,” her father cut in, obviously trying to get rid of him. “What do those classes of yours run?”
“No payment is necessary,” Dex offered. He was too busy trying to pick up the pieces of his shattered soul out from under Michelle’s expensive stiletto.
“Nonsense, working man like yourself depends on this kind of income, I’m sure.” Her father reached for his wallet, and Dex looked at Michelle.
She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Maybe because she’d said enough earlier. Hell, Dex had heard enough. He knew when he wasn’t wanted. It had never hurt this bad. To make it worse, her father was on the brink of paying him for his services, which would make him—
No. No fucking way was this happening.
“I’m sorry to disturb your evening.” Dex turned to walk out before Michelle could insult him further or her father could pull a stack of hundreds from his wallet. He was done. So done with that conversation and her father’s assumptions. The whole damn thing.
He knew better.
And everyone had been right. Michelle was beyond him. She was the prom queen. The classy woman. And he was the town’s hardworking blue-collar boy. The guy in dirty jeans who wanted more of her but couldn’t offer her anything more than a good time.
There is no we…
He repeated her words in his mind over and over. The cool night air did little to chill him. His veins had already iced over, and the bitter taste of the past crept up.
He was just a novelty item to her.
Always had been.
Chapter Thirteen
Michelle had never felt more depressed in her life. Even the massive double chocolate cupcake Natalie had brought to her shop wasn’t helping.
Last night, Dex had walked out. And it was her fault. Everything she’d said came out wrong. Her father insulting her was one thing, but she’d panicke
d when he was about to make her look weak in front of Dex. The one person who’d helped her be strong.
Worse than that, she’d accidentally called him “nothing” and dumped him. Funny thing was, she hadn’t even realized they were together until he’d left. But she’d never forget the look on his face.
Pain.
Pain she’d caused.
Pain that came when you were in shock from being dismissed. Dismissed like you were nothing. Like a wave of her father’s hand or an annoyed eyeroll from her mother.
“I never meant to hurt him. Never meant for those words to come out like that,” she whispered. Because Dex was everything. She didn’t want him to think she’d been using him. Didn’t want him to think she couldn’t take care of herself. Dex valued strength, and her father had tried to take that from her. In front of the one man who made her feel like more.
“I messed up,” she said to Natalie. In trying to stand tall, she’d cut off Dex at the knees.
Thankfully her parents had left the other night, and Michelle had stayed in town. She wouldn’t run home. Not yet. She was clinging to the last bit of strength she had…even though she knew it wouldn’t be enough.
She didn’t have Dex anymore. And soon she wouldn’t even have her business.
Maybe she did have to walk away. But she’d walk away with her head held high. However it played out, it would be her choice to make. Her failure or success. But Dex? She needed him. For so many reasons in so many ways.
She took another bit of the cupcake, and Natalie reached over the counter and patted her hand.
“Dex is an idiot,” she said. “You tried calling. Left a ton of messages trying to explain. So if he doesn’t want to hear your side of things, then it’s his loss.”
But Michelle couldn’t agree. Not this time. Because she’d seen the look on his face when her father had insulted him. When she had insulted him. When instead of defending Dex, Michelle had undercut him. She hadn’t meant to. She’d been nervous and scared and hadn’t known what to do. The walls were closing in, and it felt like she was being told what to do, how to live, because she was a failure. All Dex tried to do was show support. But at the same moment she’d realized just how deep that caring went, she’d been staring down her parents as they told her all the ways she was failing.