Marcus’ fingers slowly uncurled from around her arm, and Tessa pulled far enough back that he couldn’t reach her. “And I’m not your messenger, so you’ll have to go talk to him yourself.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Marcus said, acting as though he just recognized her. “You’re the gal he’s hooked up with this time.”

Tessa tried not to let the “this time” in his statement bother her. She failed. It’d been an emotional day, she was curious. “What do you mean ‘this time’?”

Marcus glanced away, his eyes searching the room before landing on hers once more. Tessa kept her mouth shut, waiting for him to answer when she wanted to grab him by the shirt collar and insist he tell her everything.

“It’s just time Cooper go back home. He’s done this before, but this is the longest I’ve seen him stay away.”

A sour taste filled Tessa’s mouth and her stomach felt as though it might revolt. She gripped the edge of the bar, trying to convince herself that this guy was a liar, and she shouldn’t listen to anything he had to say.

Marcus sipped his drink, and after setting it back on the bar, he looked at her with a serious expression on his face. “Oh, sorry, sweetheart, I guess he hasn’t informed you that this is a phase he goes through every now and again. Takes him some time to cool off, but he always comes back where he belongs. Sometimes I just need to give him a little push.”

“What do you mean a phase?” Tessa asked, just for the hell of it. She’d already heard more than she needed to. A smart woman would’ve told this guy to fuck off, but something had Tessa rooted in place. A need to know more? To get someone else’s opinion, maybe? Heaven knew she’d already gotten herself in over her head with Cooper.

“Oh, you know,” Marcus began, acting as though she should already know what he was talking about. “Last year he ended up in Arkansas. Some backwoods town he took up residence in. Stayed there for a couple of weeks with some filly he picked up in a bar.”

Tessa actually felt her heart drop from her chest to her stomach. She didn’t want to believe this guy, didn’t want to take him at his word. Not after all she’d learned about him, but he sounded so confident, she was having a hard time.

Wanting to appear busy, Tessa grabbed a towel from beneath the bar and began wiping down the top slowly, staying close to where Marcus was sitting. Her gaze darted between the guy in the expensive suit and the cowboy who was now heading down the steps at the side of the stage. Cooper didn’t look happy.

“It’s about damn time,” Marcus said with enthusiasm. “You sounded good up there.”

Tessa watched as the men shook hands, Cooper’s eyes darting back and forth between Marcus and her as though he were trying to figure out whether they’d had a conversation or not. Was he feeling guilty? Did he not think she’d learn that he did this frequently? After all, the topic of their conversation from the day before did get derailed every time she had asked about it.

She suddenly felt sick to her stomach. Really, really sick. Thankfully a customer walked up asking for a beer and Tessa moved out of earshot to handle the request. Before she could finish, Cooper and Marcus were heading out through the front doors, obviously wanting to talk in private.

Well, she was more than willing to let them chat it up if they wanted to.

“Hey, Eric,” she called out after she made change and the customer was on his way back to the table he’d been sitting at.

“What’s up?” Eric’s deep voice startled her, sounding much closer than she expected him to be.

“I’m not feeling well,” she explained hurriedly, her eyes darting toward the front doors. “You think you can handle things tonight? Jack’s here and so is Izzy.”

When Eric didn’t respond immediately, she glanced up to meet his eyes. “You know I can, Tessa. But I don’t think –”

Interrupting him before he could finish, Tessa mumbled her thanks, grabbed her keys that she kept under the bar and fled to the back door. Never looking back.

A few minutes later she was driving out of the overflowing parking lot, not bothering to look around to see if Cooper was out there. She didn’t want to see him. Not now. Hell, maybe not ever.

When she was halfway home, Tessa glanced down to realize she had her hand over her heart. It was aching. Physically hurting in her chest, but she knew it wasn’t a heart attack. No, this pain was self-inflicted. All because she had been stupid enough to get caught up in Cooper’s life. She should’ve known better.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Once she was home, Tessa continued to fight the urge to have a breakdown. He wasn’t worth her tears. She knew that. And no matter how much she’d started to like him, she had worked diligently to keep some emotional distance between them. Even if he had seemingly tried to bridge that gap a time or two, Tessa had forced herself to stay back.

She was grateful for that.

That and her two huskies.

“Hey there. Did you miss me? Huh?” she asked Harmony and Havoc when they met her at the front door.

She wished they could talk, but since they couldn’t, she settled for taking solace in the way their entire bodies wagged with their happiness. Making her way into the house, she went straight for the dog food, knowing that’s the first thing they expected even though she was several hours early. Just as she was pouring the last scoop in Harmony’s bowl, a knock on the door nearly sent her into hysterics.

Whirling around, she found Izzy standing on her front porch, staring at her through the screen door.

Damn that Eric. Why’d he have to be such a loyal friend?

“Eric send you?” she asked her friend as she motioned for her to come inside.

“Of course he did. And I came running.”

Izzy was usually a big help when the bar was busy, but she knew Eric wouldn’t hesitate to send her to make sure Tessa was all right.

“Want some wine?” Tessa offered.

“Nope. I brought something stronger,” Izzy answered, revealing a bottle of Tito’s vodka.

“Thank heavens,” Tessa exhaled on a sigh. Even if the bottle had come from her bar, she wasn’t going to ask questions.

“Come on, let’s go back outside.”

Izzy knew her all too well. Tessa didn’t do well being cooped up inside, no matter the time of day or the season. She’d much rather be sitting on the front porch, enjoying the weather. She never actually thought about why that was, but for as long as she could remember – even as a child – Tessa had always escaped outdoors.