Fireflies From Heaven (20 page)

“I don’t know,”
I admitted, knowing I’d hate it if Reed pitied me. “Do you really think there’s
a chance I haven’t screwed things up with Reed?”

“Like I said,
talk to him.” His gaze traveled down me, noting my clothes and seeming not to
miss a single detail. “You’re not going to work, are you?”

“No. I was
fired.” I’d surprised him again. “Apparently, my boss doesn’t think it’s
professional of me to sleep with the patients.”

His eyes
widened and his jaw dropped. I saw the moment he realized that I was talking
about Reed. “Does Reed know?”

“He was a
willing participant,” I quipped wryly.

Jase laughed.
“Eager, I’ll bet.
 
So he knows that
the two of you had sex.
 
Does he
know you were fired because of it?” he drawled deliberately.

For the first
time I considered that question, wondering how Mrs. Brown had found out about
my relationship with Reed. “Maybe,” I answered thoughtfully. “Jase, I’ve got to
get going. I’m meeting someone.”

He was quiet
and gave me a measuring look before he asked, “Where you going?
 
I can give you a ride.”

I told him but
declined the ride.

“Take care,
Ellie,” he called to me as I left.

I waved.
“Thanks.”

Davis was
already seated at an outside table when I got to Rachel’s and he’d ordered two
large iced coffees, which were sitting on the table invitingly. When he saw me
he stood up, his eyes widening at my appearance.

A woman at the
next table slid an appreciative look over Davis, and I admitted he looked good
in his dark suit.
 
Suddenly, I
wished I’d taken the time to fix my hair and put on some make up. I didn’t like
anyone feeling sorry for me.

 
“Where’s Brooke?” I asked glancing
around.

“She doesn’t
know I’m here.”

I didn’t like
the sound of that. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” I told him, imagining what
Brooke would think if she knew that I’d met with Davis behind her back.
 
She’d be livid.
 
Aunt Lacy would verbally crush me like a
bug beneath her dainty shoe.

“Please sit
down, Ellie.
 
Just give me five
minutes. I’ve been really worried about you.”

My gaze snagged
on the coffee with longing, and I sat down, not wanting to be rude. “Thanks,
but you don’t need to worry.”

“Brooke thinks
you’re upset about us getting married,” he stated, wasting no time getting to
the point.
 

“Davis, I’m
happy for you and Brooke.
 
The two
of you belong together.”

“Do we?” he
asked, leaning forward and propping his elbows on the table. “Because I’m not
sure.”

I blinked,
startled. “I don’t think I’m the person you should be confiding in.
 
You should talk to Brooke.”

He reached out,
covering my hand with his own and looking into my eyes. “I miss you, Ellie.”

I breathed in a
heavy whiff of his cologne, and it nearly made me gag.
 
It wasn’t new.
 
He’d worn the same cologne when we’d
dated, but now it seemed almost suffocating.
 
I tried to focus. “Think about what
you’re saying,” I said, enunciating each word clearly and trying to pull my
hand from his.

“I have. Brooke
is everything I want in a wife. She’s gorgeous, rich and comes from an influential
family, but I don’t feel the same way about her as I did with you.”

Sadly, I knew
that Davis didn’t realize the unflattering picture he’d painted of his feelings
for his fiancé.
 
I hoped that he
loved Brooke at least a little.
 
“It’s not the same,” I agreed with him. “We went out on a few dates.
You’re marrying Brooke.”

“I don’t know,”
he replied, squeezing my hand.

“I know. You’re
getting married in two months. I’ve got an invitation for your wedding.” It was
actually a ‘save the date’ request, but I wasn’t going to nitpick.

“We should go
out again,” he announced, as if he’d just come up with a brilliant idea.

“No.
 
We shouldn’t.
 
You’re going to marry my cousin.”

“I shouldn’t
have left you for Brooke.
 
I know
that now. If you’ll give me another chance, I can prove to you that I don’t
care about money and connections as much as I do being with you.”

As far as
‘let’s get back together’ speeches went, Davis’ sucked, and I hoped if he ever
had to do this with Brooke he’d toss in something more along the line of ‘I
love you and can’t live without you’.

“Davis, let go
of my hand,” I said firmly.

“Is this about that
guy Brooke mentioned?” he asked with undisguised irritation.
 
He didn’t wait for me to answer. “You
look like someone has knocked you around.
 
Who is this asshole you’ve been seeing?”

“That would be
me.”

I jumped at the
sound of the deep, achingly familiar voice, turned, and my heart split open at
the sight of him.

Reed stood
casually behind me, his arm propped above his head on the brick wall to his
left, and his gaze was fastened on Davis’ hand, which covered my own.
 
He stepped from behind me, and I saw that
his sensual mouth was pressed into a firm line and his eyes glittered
dangerously.

Davis was
eyeing Reed warily.

I met Reed’s
hot blue gaze, all of the sudden realizing why he was here. “Jase called you.”

He didn’t say
anything.
 
I felt the back of his
hand brush my face in a feathery light touch that sent sparks firing my blood.
Dragging in a shivery breath, I leaned slightly into his touch.

“You came after
me,” Reed said softly. “I never even looked back.” I heard the self-recrimination
in his voice.

“It wasn’t your
fault,” I assured him.

“Are you sure
about that Ellie?” Davis broke in. “You don’t look like you fell.
 
If this guy’s been hitting you, I’ll
call the police.”

“No one hit
me.
 
Davis, I need a moment alone
with Reed,” I told him, standing up.

“I don’t think
that’s a good idea.” Davis was giving Reed the stink eye.

“She didn’t ask
for your opinion,” Reed replied easily. “She did ask you to let go of her
hand.” Though his tone was calm, there was an unmistakable command in his
words, and Davis must have heard it because he released my hand immediately,
looking afraid of Reed.

 
I stood up and slipped my purse over my
head so that it crisscrossed my body. Then I met Davis’ eyes and saw the
confusion in them.
 
Clearly, Davis
could not understand why any woman would turn him down. He was handsome, rich
and successful, but next to Reed’s virility, Davis was like a sparkler being
compared to a firework.

“I’ll see you
at the wedding,” I said pointedly to Davis, reminding him that he was getting
married. “Bye, Davis.”

“We’ll talk
later,” promised Davis, standing with obvious reluctance. “If you need me, give
me a call.”

I shook my head
not wanting to encourage him. “That won’t be necessary.”

“Ellie—“
Davis began, but Reed cut him off.

“She doesn’t
need you to call the police for her. If I get a little rough, she can call the
police as well as you can.” Not picking up on the sarcasm dripping from Reed’s
words, Davis looked horrified.
 
The
expression on face would have been comical if he hadn’t of been pale and
clearly afraid that Reed was dead serious.

“He’s joking,”
I told Davis quickly. Laughing, I turned back to Reed but he was refusing to
play along. Except for the amusement in his eyes, Reed’s stoic expression gave
nothing away and I saw why Davis might see Reed as a threat.

“Goodbye.” Our
talk had been a mistake, and I was more than a little relieved that we’d been interrupted.

Reed took my
hand and a shiver shimmied down my spine at his touch. Leading me to another
table, we sat down and I glanced toward Davis, who was still eyeing Reed as if
he was a serial killer.

“You broke up
with me for that guy?” Reed asked clearly unimpressed with Davis.

“I didn’t break
up with you for anyone,” I said, unable to believe that’s what he thought.

His gaze
clashed with mine. “He’s not good enough for you.”

“Davis is
marrying Brooke,” I insisted, needing him to understand that nothing was going
on between Davis and I. “I thought I was meeting the two of them or I wouldn’t
even have come.”

 
Davis was still glaring at us, and Reed
glanced in his direction, shook his head and turned his attention back to me
with a look of disbelief. “He left you alone with me even though he thinks I’ve
been knocking you around.”

“Davis doesn’t
believe in violence. He’s not confrontational.”

 
“No way in hell is that guy marrying
Brooke. He’s looking at you like he wants to get you naked, and he’s glaring at
me like he’d like to kick my ass…or maybe hire someone to do it,” he smirked.

Reed’s eyes
darkened and he leveled me with a scorching look. “If I thought some guy was
hurting you, I’d take care of it first and call the police later. I wouldn’t
leave you alone with him.”

From the corner
of my eye, I saw Davis looking at Reed and making the, ‘I’m watching you
gesture’ with his fingers.

Reed cocked a
brow before turning his attention back to me.

“I’m not
interested in Davis,” I told him.

“That’s good to
know.” His brows drew together as he studied my face, looked down at my wrist,
which was still encased in a brace. “Looking at you breaks my heart. Are you in
pain?”

His words tore
at my heart. “It’s only a few bruises and a sprained wrist. I don’t know why
everyone is making a big deal about it.”

“No one wants
to see you hurt,” he replied.

“I appreciate
that.”

“Jase told me
you were fired. I’ll call your boss and explain.”

A cloud of
sadness fell over me. “I behaved unprofessionally.
 
Nurses aren’t supposed to have sex with
their patients.”

Reed stared at
me a moment before replying. “You and I were more to each other than nurse and
patient, and we weren’t having sex while you on the job.” He rubbed his jaw and
sighed. “Shit, this sounds bad. I’ll tell them it was my fault. You didn’t do
anything wrong.”

“It was my
fault, Reed,” I replied with resignation.

“No. I won’t
accept that you’re being punished for what happened between us,” he insisted, a
note of finality in his voice. “I’ll take care of this.”

I knew he meant
well but there wasn’t anything he could do. “You didn’t tell them about us,” I
breathed in relief.
 
Knowing Reed
hadn’t betrayed me soothed the worst of the pain.

He shot me a questioning
look, but it quickly turned to understanding and then anger. “You really
thought I’d get you fired because you dumped me?”

“I wasn’t
sure,” I admitted, feeling guilty for thinking exactly that.

He swore under
his breath. “I’m sorry to know you have such a low opinion of me. Now I know
why we broke up.”

“Reed, I’ve
made some mistakes and I want to fix them.” The words were pulled from deep
within my heart.

His expression
was shuttered. “What exactly do you want to fix?” he asked, lifting a brow.

“Everything.
Us.”

“You think you
made a mistake breaking us up?”

Yes! My heart
was shouting the word. Glancing up, I saw Amber walking toward us and I went
cold all over. “Was it a mistake Reed?” I asked, jealousy rising like a tidal
wave inside of me.

His eyes
flashed quizzically before following my gaze. “Amber and I are friends. That’s
it,” he insisted.

“She wants to
be more.”

“No, she
doesn’t.
 
Unlike you, she
understands our relationship.”

“It’s a
coincidence that she happens to be here now?” I asked with disbelief.

“I told her I’d
be here. She’s helping me with something,” he replied vaguely, and I got the
feeling there was a note of challenge in his words, as if he was daring me to
ask what she was helping him with.

Jealousy, hurt,
and anger warred within me.
 
I did
not know which I felt more. “I’ll be she is,” I whispered, hoping I didn’t
reveal my pain to Reed.

“Ellie, I am
not dating Amber,” he persisted, and for the second time today he touched me.
 
His hand caught mine, and I absorbed the
warmth of his touch.

A few seconds
later, Amber joined us looking fabulous as always in a cute dress with denim
jacket and boots.
 
Unlike me, her
make up was perfection and her hair was a cascade of curls that rained gently
down her back.

“Hi Ellie!”
exclaimed Amber with an enthusiasm that rang false to my ears. I’m not sure if
Reed picked up on it, because he’d stood up when Amber arrived and she wasted
no time in folding her arms around him in a hug that lingered longer than
necessary.

I couldn’t be
sure exactly what she said to him, but it sounded as if she was asking him if
he was doing okay.
 
Frowning, I
wondered what she was talking about and didn’t like that Amber knew more about
what was happening in Reed’s life now than I did.

He moved to
grab a chair for Amber, but I stood up quickly, nearly knocking mine over.
 
“She can have my chair. I’m leaving
anyway.”
 
Sure Amber, take my chair
and the man I love. Okay, so I needed to tone down the drama. I pushed back the
bitter thoughts and forced a smile, not wanting show weakness in front of her.