Page 28 of It's Never Not Been You

Pierce shook his head. “I didn’t ask,” he admitted. “I made her a cup of coffee, then just listened to her and all that she’d needed to say this morning.”

“I never said that I couldn’t marry her,” I said, finally getting personal with him. “Hell, I’d never wanted anything more in my life than to make Madison my wife.” I let out a sigh of my own. “These ridiculous scenarios of failing her had started running through my head, and…and do you have any idea what it feels like to think that you may fail the one person in your life that you love above everyone else?”

Surprisingly, Pierce nodded. “I do.”

“Want to know something else?”

“What?”

“I panicked over a fear that will never go away,” I confessed. “Even though Madison and I had already been together almost fifteen years, the title of husband means something entirely different when the risk of failure is involved. As boyfriend and girlfriend, we had taken care of each other. As husband and wife, it would be my job to take care of everything for her.”

“That’s a very archaic point of view, Raddix,” he stated.

“Is it?” I posed. “Because when Madison lies on her deathbed, it will be her husband that decides to pull the plug. Not her parents, her children, her friends, or anyone else. It’ll be her husband, Pierce.”

“I stand corrected,” he replied solemnly.

Chapter 18

Madison~

I was so furious that I didn’t even care that I was acting unhinged. Raddix was doing too much, and it needed to stop. It was one thing to harass me, but it was quite another to start harassing Pierce. It wasn’t like harassing Eris or River; Pierce was a stranger to Raddix. Raddix didn’t have the right to think that Pierce owed him anything.

Working later hours than I usually did, when Pierce had walked into our condo, he hadn’t wasted any time in telling me about how Raddix had gone in search of him. Pierce had also been honest about their conversation, letting me know exactly what’d been said.

Banging on the door, all my anger was directed at Raddix. Even though Pierce could have chosen not to tell Raddix anything, like always, Pierce’s motives were always pure when it came to me. Whatever he’d told Raddix, it’d been so that I could finally find a way to be happy. Raddix’s motives were simply to win. He had no problem going into the enemy’s camp to siphon whatever information that he could for his own selfish purposes.

True or not, that’s how angry I was right now.

I didn’t care about his truth, only mine.

When Raddix finally swung the front door open, he looked surprised to see me, but that surprise quickly gave way to the scowl that he always seemed to be aiming my way. Normally, it’d be off-putting, but his white eye made him look just so damn sexy when he looked irritated.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”

“What in the hell is wrong with you, Raddix?” I spat.

Realizing that I was perfectly fine and only here to fight, he let out a sigh before stepping back to let me into the house. “What did I do this time?”

As soon as he shut the door behind us, I turned to face him. “How dare you accost Pierce at work today,” I fumed. “Why do you think that you can just keep…keep…people need their jobs, Raddix.”

“I didn’t accost him, Madison,” he lied. “I just had a talk with him.”

“About shit that’s none of your business,” I pointed out.

“Everything about you is my business, and that includes the twelve months that you spent in hiding,” he shot back.

Knowing that it was pointless to argue with him about boundaries, I said, “If you would just get past what you want for just a goddamn second, then maybe you could ask yourself where Pierce came from, or why would he move to Fidelity with me.” I was so angry that I was practically trembling with it. “As I’m sure your background check showed, you must know that Pierce has a ranch back in Coralship, Raddix. So, why would he move here with me when he still has a life back on the ranch?”

Instead of looking contrite, Raddix just crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know, Madison. Why would he?”

“Because he was in a serious relationship where he was cheated on,” I informed him. “So, do you really think that he’s in a place where he wants to be giving other people advice on how to make things right?” Raddix’s arms dropped to his sides, and I knew him well enough to know that he was feeling remorseful right now. “Trust me when I tell you that no one wants to discuss love when they’re in the middle of a heartbreak, Raddix. Pierce moved here with me for a fresh start, not to get roped into our drama.”

“So, you’re mad at me for something that I couldn’t possibly have known?”

I almost went feral on him.

“You’re not the fucking victim here!” I screamed like a banshee. “It’s irrelevant if you knew or not because you never should have approached him in the first damn place! It’s not Pierce’s job to fix your fuckups, Raddix!”

---