Page 92 of My Almost Ex

She lays her cheek on my chest and I wrap my arms around her body, squeezing her to my side. Fuck, I wish I had the luxury of forgetting that moment like she did. It would make this a helluva lot easier.

“Dinner’s ready.” She looks up at me, her forehead creased with worry. “You okay?”

We agreed we’d be honest about everything, I remind myself. “There’s a reason I didn’t want to come in here.”

“Why?”

“This is where it happened. This is where you told me you were leaving me.”

Her jaw drops. “Oh. Adam, if you—”

I stop her with a kiss. “No. It’s time to make new memories in here. I’ll be better when I wake up tomorrow, I know it.”

“Are you sure?”

She’s still worried, I can tell. I nod. “Yeah.”

She dislodges herself from me and sits on the edge of the bed. “I have something to tell you.”

Panic flares inside and every nerve fires up a fight-or-flight response. I don’t go to sit with her. I stand where I am and cross my arms. “What?”

“You know those nights at Northern Lights?” She bites her lip. Never a good sign.

“Yeah.”

“Well, I guess Mrs. Pierce was a confidante for me. She told me I used to plan those nights so that you’d draw.”

I release my arms and stare at her, not fully understanding.

“She told me that when she asked me to walk her to her room that night. I’ve been trying to figure out if that’s why I left. She mentioned that some important person from the art world was going to call you, but you never responded. Could that have been the reason?”

I vaguely remember someone calling, but I was so deep in my anger phase, I told them off and hung up. “Really?”

She nods. “I’m sorry. I should’ve said something earlier. I just wanted to figure it out before I did. I found it in my journals. I guess you’d stopped drawing a year or so after we were married and I felt like you shouldn’t let that part of you die, so I set up those nights at the retirement home. Are you mad?”

I blow out a breath and shake my head. “No. I’m not mad.” I sit next to her on the bed and grab her hand. “But I told you, drawing isn’t some big dream of mine I never fulfilled. I’m happy, Luce, I promise you.”

Her eyes widen. “What?”

“You called me Luce.”

I smile, since I didn’t make a conscious decision to not include the “y”. Nothing came to my mind to say she’s not mine. “Don’t feel guilty about me deciding to stay here. I’m where I want to be.” I cradle her cheek.

“I really hope it’s not why I left you. I mean, why would I do that?”

“Let’s talk about that later,” I say, nudging her to lie down. She crawls up the bed and my body looms over her, my lips finding hers. “Time to break this bed in again.”

Her hands land on my cheeks, keeping my eyes on her. “What did I do so good in my life to win you twice?”

“I guess we’re both just lucky.”

She brings my face down to hers and we do a pretty damn good job of picking up where we left off. Unfortunately, dinner was ruined, but I was only hungry for Lucy anyway.

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