She huffed, displeasure clear as day on her face.  “I’m just confused as to why you leave your child with a woman who is high.  And your cat too.”

Anger flashed through me at her judgmental attitude.  I leaned forward and stared her hard in the face.  “You should get your facts straight before you go shooting your mouth off.  For one, Lisa isn’t my kid.  Two, that cat isn’t mine either.  And three, the last place I would leave Lisa, if I could help it, would be with her own fucking mother.”

Surprise flared across her face.  “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh is fucking right.”

“Scott..” Madison tried to shut me up.

I shoved my chair back and stood up.  “Yeah, I’m out.  Thanks for lunch but I’m going to go.”

“I’m sorry, Scott.  Please don’t leave because of what I said,” Harlow apologised but I didn’t really want to hear it; people had one shot with me and she’d said more than enough for me to work out the kind of person she was.

“I’m not leaving because of you but I’ll be honest; I’ve got no interest in anything else you have to say.”

Her eyes widened and Madison sucked in a breath.  She looked pissed off with me.  “Fine.  Go.”  Yeah, I was in my sister’s bad books again but it was a place I was familiar with.

Without even bothering to say goodbye to J, Nash or Stoney, I left through the side gate.  I stalked to my bike, gripped by anger, but I wasn’t sure who the anger was directed at.  And my suspicion that it was actually directed at myself only served to annoy me even more.

Chapter 6

Harlow

I sat in stunned silence.  Scott had just stormed out of Madison’s get together, because of me.  I was mad at myself for causing this to happen, and really freaking shitty that I’d judged him incorrectly and actually voiced my thoughts out loud to him.  It was so out of character for me to do that.  I was the kind of woman who thought stuff about people but never had the guts to say it to their face.  Keeping the peace was high on my agenda in life.  For me to say what I’d said to Scott was so far out of left field for me that I was sitting here stewing on it and trying to work out why I’d opened my mouth.

Everyone else had just carried on as if nothing had happened after he left.  This also surprised me.  Not one of them got up and followed him to try and get him to stay.  The more I thought about it, the more I felt the urge to go and catch him before he left, and apologise again.

I quickly stood, grabbing Madison’s attention as I did this.  “What’s wrong, honey?” she asked.

“I’m going to go and apologise to Scott again.  I feel awful about what I said.”

She waved her hand dismissively.  “Pfft, don’t worry about him.  Scott’s a moody bastard; it’s best just to let him go when he’s like this.”

Well that would explain why no-one was going out of their way to stop him from leaving.  However, I still wanted to try apologising again.  “No, I’m just going to see if he’s still out the front.  I won’t be long.”

I followed the path he’d taken when he left, and hurried out the front.  When I saw him sitting on his bike, I felt both relief and apprehension about approaching him.  His face was a mask of anger and the moodiness that Madison spoke of was rolling off him.  I stalled for a moment, but then threw caution to the wind and walked to where he was.

He must have heard me because he whipped his head around and turned his angry eyes on me.  I held up my hands in a defensive gesture.  “Just hear me out, okay?”

A minute passed as he contemplated this and then he nodded.

“I truly am sorry for what I said, Scott.  Yes, I presumed you were Lisa’s father and Monty’s owner.  Yes, I thought you were a shitty pet owner for not bringing him in sooner.  And, yes I presumed that Lisa’s mother was your partner and that you were happy to leave Lisa with someone who was high all the time.  Which then led me to the conclusion that you were a crappy father and human being -“

He cut me off.  “Is that supposed to be a fucking apology?  Because if it is, it’s the worst one I’ve ever heard.”

“No, this is the apology bit.  I’m sorry that I judged you.  You have no reason to believe me or even care, but I’m not usually this judgmental.  In fact, if you were to ask any of my friends or family they would say I was the least judgmental person they know.  They would also tell you that I never, ever speak my thoughts like I did to you.  I have no idea what came over me today.”

He held up his hand to stop me.  He didn’t seem as angry anymore.  “As far as I’m concerned, you should always speak your mind.  I’m not pissed that you did that.  But as for judging me, yeah, that shit me.  However, I’ve been sitting here thinking about it, and as much as I fucking hate to admit it, I can see how you could have come to the conclusion you came to.”

“So, apology accepted?” I asked, pushing him.  He didn’t seem like the kind of man to easily accept an apology.

He hesitated for a moment.  “Yeah.”

He gave me a one word answer, and yet it felt like he’d given me something rare.  I didn’t know Scott well enough to know for sure, but I sensed from his body language that he didn’t really want to give what he’d given.