Page 144 of Deceit

“Anything for you, Ems. You know that.Alwaysknow that. No matter what happens.” He releases me and tips my chin to look up at him.

He gives me an honest smile then winks before taking off and leaving me with his best friend, my ex-husband.

Well, not ex legally yet.

I flick my nervous attention to him, keeping my chin raised to allude that I’m not.

Bishop takes a step towards me, allowing his blues to flick down the length of my body.

I always feel small under them, like they could suck me right into them for me never to be seen again. I constantly battled between loving and hating it.

However, I’ve never felt so beautiful in them too.

“You been feeling okay?” he asks me, shoving both of his hands into his jean pockets.

“Yeah.” I try to think of something else to say but fall short. I wasn’t ready for him to be here and didn’t think of conversation points if he did show up. “You?”

“Feeling okay?” He perks a brow before saying, “Yeah, I’m good.”

“How’s Scarlett and Hardy?”

“Good.”

“Good.”Okay, this is just plain stupid.“I want to apologize for what happened.” Bishop continues to just stare at me as I struggle to maintain a steady tone. “I…sprung this on you and peaced out. I honestly don’t—I’m not sure how or what we do moving forward.”

He doesn’t say a word, causing my heart to quicken and thud rapid beats into my chest. Under all of his facial hair and broody facade, I see a man who’s recovering.

I know because it’s what I look like in the mirror.

We promised forever. We both messed up everything. We sucked at communicating and landed here.

“I’m not saying this to hash shit up,” I add. “I just wanted you to know.”

“I know.”

“Promise? We’ve been through a lot together. I still care about you, Bish.”

“All I want you to do, Ems, is have healthy babies,” he recites with no malice in his tone. “And don’t snort coke.”

A fractured scoff traipses off my lips and I feel those damn tears rising to my eyes again. “I won’t, don’t worry.”

“And be happy.” He loses more space between us and my body warms to the comfort that is him. To everyone else and sometimes even me, he’s a douchebag, but he was my douchebag at one point. “No matter who you end up with.”

My brain can’t help but wonder what the hell happened to him to where he’s come to terms with this.

Bishop holds grudges and fear.

The man I’m looking at right now, who I wanted to just love me, evolved.

“I want the same,” I force out, clenching my jaw tightly to keep it from shaking. “For you. I never got to tell—”

“You don’t need to,” he replies quickly before flicking his gaze to something over my head. “Just know it’ll never change for me.”

But you don’t know what I was going to say.

“Are you ready, Emmy?” Alexander chants, coming to my side and wrapping an arm around my waist.

I don’t break my gaze from Bishop, but his falls to hand clutching my waist.

---