Damn it.
With another growl, I tugged on Nate's collar and strong arm him and his buddy out onto the street. With a shove, the pair of them go sprawling onto the sidewalk.
"Get lost, the pair of you. Find another place to get your from bagels unless you want a side of your own ass on the same plate."
I have no patience for any excuse of a man who thinks it’s okay to talk about women that way, but they were talking about Libby, my Libby, and that made me see red.
I've waited too long pussying around pretending I could live without her. No more. No one was ever going to speak to Libby like that again, because she was going to be mine and no one in this part of town was crazy enough to go against me. I'd do whatever it took to get her.
One way or another, she was going to be mine.
CHAPTER TWO
Libby
I'm so embarrassed the only thing I want to do is get as far away as possible from the bakery and all the customers in the line staring right at me. Half of the old bats probably agree with every word those guys said. Mrs. Burgess is always trying to get me to try her diet pills or come with her to her fitness group like I'm in desperate need of help and I want to tear my hair out, because the only thing they see is that I'm not some size six stick insect.
I'm out the back, the door slamming behind me before I can see any more of the scene playing out right in front of me. There's only so far I can go when home is right above the shop, and I know Dad will kill me if I take more than a few minutes, but I just can't stay there.
Lilah's had her hand in the register since day one, but her parents own the building and Dad calls it extra rent. I can't leave her alone with the morning customers for long, but I have to clear my head for as long as I can risk it.
I fumble for my key and jog up the stairs, trying to piece it all together. I'm barely holding back the tears.
I heard everything those idiot guys said about me and then Tony went and made it worse by making a big deal out of it all instead of ignoring it. I don't even know why he keeps coming in every morning other than to torment me with his presence. I swear I turn into the biggest klutz when he's around, usually right when I'm trying to impress him. Not that he'd be impressed, now or ever.
I've heard a million and one stupid comments from immature, idiots like the guys Tony was telling off. But the last thing I ever wanted was everyone to know what they thought. And by everyone, I mean Tony. Because I like to think that maybe he's the one guy on the planet who doesn't see me like that. I know he's my Dad's friend, and he probably just sees me as a kid, but maybe he could think that I'm a pretty kid at least, even if he doesn't really see me as a woman, or at all attractive to a guy like him.
In my fantasies, he sees me as the young woman I like to think I've grown into, and one day he'll realize that we're meant to be together. That I'm the perfect one for him.
But right now that fantasy's well and truly blown out of the water, and I don't need my Dad's best friend turning all parental on me and pulling out the whole protection detail just because of a few nasty comments from idiots who probably only get laid with ditzy drunk girls.
In the front room, I go over to the windows and peer out of the curtains in time to see Tony toss the two guys out of the shop completely. I shrink back against the wall in case any of them look up. The last thing I want any of them to see is how much even that apology hurt. I don't want Tony to think of me like that.
They're wrong about me. I'm not some desperate slut in the making just because I never get attention from jerks like them. I’ve never wanted anything from guys like that. I'm not easy. I'm a virgin through and through and the only man who's ever caught my interest is Tony. He's the only one I've ever dreamed about, the only one I've ever wanted. And they could never compete with a real man like him even if they tried.
I guess I've been saving myself for him like some total naive fool, and I never, ever wanted him to hear the kind of things guys like that think about me. It's too humiliating to bear.
Right from when he first came around to our house when I was small, I had been totally infatuated with him. Tony's handsome and kind and good and exactly the kind of man I don't get to be around all that often because we live in a shitty part of Chicago and Dad grew up around the corner and everyone is always paying someone else to keep their mouth shut or look the other way. Except Tony.
Tony doesn't have to do any of that because he walks into a room and everyone respects him. Sure, part of it comes with the Family, but Tony himself, he doesn't lean on that.
No one else ever stood a chance in my fantasies and that's a sad little truth. I'm not delusional enough to think that he'd ever cross that line, even if I begged him to, and I've thought about doing that a couple of
