Page 14 of Charmed By the Enemy

She left, following the same path that Michael took and I just stood there, watching her walk away. She didn’t look back at me once.

“Levi?”

I turned around at the sound of my name and saw that Keith had just walked out of the pizzeria. He had stayed behind when we all left to pay the bill, but now he came toward me.

I wanted to act normal, like nothing was wrong, but I just couldn’t do it. My emotions were too frayed, the pain too fresh. This whole thing was a nightmare that I just couldn’t escape, no matter how much I tried.

“Are you okay?” Keith asked when he reached me, and all I could do was shake my head.

“I need a drink.”

Keith looked at me thoughtfully for a moment. “Okay...how about we check out that bar the waitress was telling us about? It’s just a couple of blocks away, right?”

I didn’t have the words to tell him how much I appreciated that he wasn’t pressing me for information. So, I just nodded and we headed in that direction together. Maybe getting drunk off my ass was just what I needed.

CHAPTER7

Summer

Ifelt like a dark cloud was hovering over me for the rest of the day after my encounter on the street with Levi. I tried to convince myself that I did nothing wrong. He was the jerk in this situation. We would still be friends if it wasn’t for his actions.

So, why did I feel so bad about it?

Faith and Michael had planned a big family outing for all of the relatives on both sides of the family. It was supposed to be a chance for the two families to get to know each other before uniting as one before the wedding ceremony. It was a lovely idea, but I then found myself stuck on a golf course for most of the afternoon.

“I don’t get it,” Poppy said from beside me. We were standing next to a golf cart, watching my parents take their shots in front of us. “Why do people get so into this game? It’s soboring.”

I had to agree. I wasn’t a fan of the game either. And I sucked at it.

“You know, that guy I went out with last night called my music boring.”

“He. Did. Not!” Her outrage at the idea of that was one of the reasons that I considered her to be such a good friend.

“Oh, no. He did.”

“So, it didn’t go well?” she asked as we trailed behind the others on the green. “I had hoped that you would hit it off. I know it’s been a while since you dated anyone.”

“Yeah, but is it really a good idea to find a boyfriend on vacation? He could be from anywhere in the world.”

“Good point.”

And yet, I ran into Levi here. Not that he was going to be my boyfriend or anything. No way.

“So, what’s going on with you and Michael?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “I just thought I noticed some tension between you two earlier.”

“Yeah, maybe.” I thought back to the look on his face this afternoon when he found out that I’d kept Levi’s presence a secret from him. He’d been so angry…

“You wanna talk about it?” Poppy asked.

“Not really,” I admitted. “It’s not you. I just...I feel like talking about the problem will just make it worse.”

I looked over at my parents. It would definitely get worse if they overheard. I didn’t want to ruin this family outing.

“I understand,” she said. “Sometimes it’s best to just let sleeping dogs lie.”