Whiskey Flight - Violet Howe Page 0,1

behind and moved to a different aisle, glancing over my shoulder every couple of seconds to see if he was behind me. I considered abandoning my cart and heading outside, but I worried he might follow me to my car, and I felt safer indoors in the company of other people.

Twice more I spotted him as I hastened to grab the few items I needed. He didn’t seem to notice me. He never made eye contact or came closer to me, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that his presence was connected to me.

Though I was hesitant to leave the relative safety of the store, I had no proof that he meant me harm, so eventually, I made my way to my car. I sat and waited, and sure enough, within a couple of minutes of my exit, he walked out into the sunlight, adjusting his shades down over his eyes from their perch on the top of his head.

Who walks through an entire grocery store, aisle by aisle, and leaves with nothing? Not even a candy bar?

I’d kept an eye out for him in the days that followed, but I hadn’t seen him again until tonight in the bar.

Lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed he had looked up and caught me staring. A grin played at the corner of his mouth as I looked away, my face hot with embarrassment.

I preoccupied myself with the peanuts in the bowl in front of me, cracking open a couple of shells to pop the stale, salty nuts into my mouth. I chased them down with a swig of whiskey and then motioned to Shannon that I’d have another glass.

She raised an eyebrow, and I ignored her. It wasn’t every day that a woman got a call to let her know her ex-husband was being transferred to a federal prison. Who could fault me for wanting to be a little more numb than usual? I’d walked the three blocks to the bar with the full intention of being unable to drive home. I could stumble that far back if needed.

I tossed a peanut into the air and opened my mouth to catch it, but I missed, and it fell inside my shirt. As I reached to fish it from my cleavage, my elbow made contact with the person about to take the barstool next to me.

“Oh, sorry.”

“That’s all right,” he said. “It was just my arm. I’m sure if you had seen it was me, I’d have a black eye.”

Seth Donovan. Quite possibly the last person on earth I wanted to see at that moment. Well, all right, Victor Gallo was the last person I wanted to see, but since my ex-husband was in prison, my childhood sweetheart had moved from second place on the list to first.

“Is that whiskey you’re drinking?” Seth asked as Shannon placed a full glass in front of me and took away the empty one. “I’ve never known you to be a hard liquor girl. What are we celebrating?”

“We aren’t celebrating anything,” I said, shifting my weight on the stool to turn away from him. “I’d prefer to drink alone.”

“Ouch,” he said. “You know, I thought at some point we’d at least be able to be cordial now that you’re back in town. I guess not, and I guess that’s my cue to find another seat. Shannon, nice to see you.”

He walked away, and Shannon stared at me with a stunned expression.

“What?” I growled.

She held up both hands and shook her head.

“I didn’t say a word. My lips are sealed.” With a zipping motion across her mouth, she turned away.

I frowned, embarrassed at my own rudeness. Seth had been nothing but polite each of the three times I’d seen him since moving back to town, and I’d gotten nastier every time.

It wasn’t like he’d done anything to deserve it. I was the one who broke things off all those years ago. It was me who’d ended all contact and stopped taking his calls.

At the time, I’d felt betrayed by him. He’d backed out on our plans. He’d refused to run away with me and escape the confines of Cedar Creek.

Now that I’d tasted real betrayal—betrayal so deep and so insidious that it left a black, rotted spot inside my heart—I knew that what Seth had done didn’t measure up to that in any way.

The problem was, I’d been angry with Seth for so long that I didn’t know how not to be. It kind of blurred into