Page 21 of Suddenly Yours

Levi laughed, sharp and humorless. “Still hovering around, Cade? Still playing guard dog?” He shot Missy a sideways glance. “I told you he’d never stop. Didn’t I?”

Missy’s cheeks flushed, anger, embarrassment, and frustration all mixing together. “Levi, seriously, stop. I didn’t ask you to come here.”

“You didn’t have to,” he said, shrugging one shoulder. “I wanted to see you. To talk this through once and for all. But you ran out on me.”

“Because you were cheating on me. Whatever we had ended months ago,” she snapped. “And this”—she gestured between them—“is not happening again. No matter what you say to me.”

Good. She’d said it out loud. She meant it.

Levi’s gaze slid back to me, cold and assessing. “Of course you show up. You always do.” His lip curled. “Always glued to her side. Pathetic.”

My hands curled into fists. “Funny coming from the guy who hated that she had a best friend.”

“Oh, don’t flatter yourself,” Levi spat. “I hated you because you never knew your place.”

“And you never knew how to treat her,” I shot back.

Missy placed a palm on my chest, firm, steady, a silent Don’t escalate this. But I felt her hand trembling.

Levi saw it. And the bastard smirked.

“I’m only in town for a little while,” he said, turning his attention back to her. “I’ll be staying at a bed and breakfast a couple blocks away.” He paused. “The Blue Rose Bed and Breakfast.” His brows lifted pointedly. He leaned in just an inch, too close, and Missy stiffened. “Think about what I said. I’ll be waiting for your reply and for you to come to your senses.”

I didn’t know what he’d said to her earlier, but I didn’t need to. The way she recoiled from him told me enough.

He gave me one last venomous look. “Always in my way, Cade.”

“Always will be,” I said calmly.

He slammed the back door behind him.

Silence fell like a heavy blanket, and Missy exhaled as if she’d been holding her breath for minutes.

She sagged against the counter, and her shoulders trembled with adrenaline or frustration, or both.

I stepped closer, but not too close. She didn’t need me to swoop in and cause her more problems. What she needed right now was a friend and, before anything else, I was determined to be just that. “Are you okay?”

She nodded once as her lips pressed together tightly. “Yeah. I just… wasn’t expecting him to show up. And I definitely wasn’t expecting him to want me back.”

“He shouldn’t have touched you,” I said, my voice low with a heat I didn’t bother hiding.

Missy swallowed hard, her eyes flicking up to mine. “I’m sorry you walked in on it.”

“I’m not,” I said. “I’m glad I was here.”

Her breath hitched just a little. “Yeah, me too,” she admitted.

The tension stayed, charged, stubborn, tangled up in everything Levi always suspected and everything I was finally starting to admit.

And one thing was clear.

I wasn’t leaving her alone tonight. Not with Levi back in town.

Chapter Six

Missy

I had never seen that side of Levi before. But what bothered me most wasn’t that he’d shown up unannounced, not that he’d grabbed my arms. What ate at me was that I had frozen at his controlling and angry demands.