“Who?” asked Rosie.
“Eric.” He spat out the name as if it were poison. “Where is he? I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“Dunno.” Rosie scuttled away. Fair enough.
“He’s gone.” I stopped pretending to be deeply engrossed in refilling the condiments. Vaughan’s evil eye turned my way. Shit. The man was beyond enraged, top lip curled and shoulders heaving. You’d have thought I’d knocked up his sister, the way he was glaring daggers. “He left a little while back.”
“Coward.”
Not good. With all of the violence from the four-dude epic battle in his sitting room earlier this week, you’d have figured he’d have had his fill of punch-ups for a while. Guess not, though.
“I’m pretty much finished here,” I said. “Why don’t we go?”
After a moment he jerked his chin. “Yeah. Grab your shit. Let’s go.”
Oh-kay. I went and grabbed my bag from the now curiously vacant office. Maybe it was international Use the Back Door Day. No puns intended. Or perhaps Nell had also decided she needed to escape unseen.
I’d check on her later. Boyd had keys, he could lock up the bar.
Vaughan threw open the door and stomped out onto the sidewalk. I followed more slowly, giving him some space. Hopefully, there’d be no sign of the baby daddy tonight. If Eric had any survival skills at all, he’d be off somewhere lying low.
All of a sudden, Vaughan about-faced and stomped back, coming to an abrupt stop in front of me.
“Do you know?” he demanded.
“Know what?”
“About her being knocked up by Eric.”
“Yes.”
He huffed out a breath. “And you still want to stay here, buy into that bar?”
“Nell told you about that too? Okay.” I didn’t take a step back, just kind of leaned away from him, trying to put a little distance between us. Not that I was afraid of him, but nor was I keen on anyone getting up in my face. “Yes, I do. I’ve enjoyed working there and I think I have a lot to offer them.”
“No. Come on.” He about-faced again and started pacing back and forth outside Inkaho, Pat’s tattoo parlor. Light shined around the edges of the large framed illustrations hanging in the front window, hiding the bulk of the interior from view. I guess if you were getting your ass inked, having people walking past and seeing in would not be desirable.
“Lydia!” he shouted.
I jumped in surprise, starting to get a wee bit pissed off myself.
He squinted at me like I was beyond recognition. Like I was just some shit on his shoe.
“First you get engaged to a guy you barely know,” he said. “Get sucked into that poisonous fucking family. Now you’re jumping straight into this? You’ve only worked there a couple of days.”
“I have given this some thought. I’ve seen how they work, I’ve looked at their figures,” I said, standing as tall as possible. “And there’s going to be a month-long trial period to give all of us a chance to assess whether it will work or not. I’m not just jumping into anything.”
“Christ.” His laughter was so not funny. “What the hell is wrong with you? Do you never learn?”
Huh. Nice to know what he really thought of me.
“Well?”
I just shrugged. “Well, what?”
“Are you going to answer my question?”
“No.” I crossed my arms, watching his anger grow and grow. He stared at me, face a mask of fury and frustration. Sucked to be him. “I don’t owe you any answers, Vaughan. Not about my business decisions. Not about my life. And especially not while you’re behaving like an asshole and insulting me.”
He swallowed hard, turning away. “Well, I am not staying here, not for this kid, and not for you.”
“Who the hell asked you to?” I shouted, voice echoing up and down the empty street. “I mean, seriously.”
He stopped.
“You seem to think this is all some grand conspiracy to trap you in town. It’s not.”
He scoffed.
“Go and make merry with Conn and Henning Peters in L.A. These people don’t need you here,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. “For what … ten years? For ten years they’ve all managed just fine on their own. So shit happened. Shit always happens. The world turns round and people screw up, they make mistakes. Your presence here wouldn’t have changed a damn thing.”
In silence, he glared at me.
“They don’t need you, and neither do I.” I stood tall, something inside of me breaking, tears welling in my eyes. “I’m sorry you lost your parents and your sister isn’t living up to your expectations of exactly what she should or shouldn’t be doing. Thing is, we’re all only human and people do die.”