Page 104 of Falling Too Late

“Why the hell would my fussing agitate you?”

“Because you’re acting like you’re scared of me!” My temper flared but she didn’t flinch like she used to.

“I’m not scared of you! You just,” she grabbed the edge of the counter and hung her head, “you make me nervous.”

“Wren, just sit down and fill me in on the last six years,” I said more gently.

“We’re just going to jump into it? Just like that?”

“Yeah, Wren, just like that,” I deadpanned.“What I need to know is why no one ever wrote me.”

She took a deep breath. “I did write you, Alex. I wrote you hundreds of letters, but they were all?—”

“Nope.” I took another swig of my coffee. “I didn’t get one damn letter from you.” I was being hostile, I knew it, but I couldn’t soften my tone.

Wren stood up so quickly she knocked her chair over. She headed down the hall, coming back with a basket of envelopes inher hand. She dropped the basket on the table and pointed to them.

“These are just some of the letters I sent you.” She picked the chair back up before dropping back down into it. “I wrote you all the time, Alex, they either went unanswered or were returned to me.” She reached over, shuffling through them before plucking one out. “I sent you hundreds of letters and not once did I get anything back.”

It seemed like the fight was leaving her. She looked exhausted.

I sat forward, my elbows on my knees. “After the hearing, they bounced me around to a few different places. I finally settled in at a prison north of the state.” I shook my head before looking up at her.

Wren wasn’t looking at me but past me. She was lost in thought, and I knew she was thinking of my mother. I wanted to reach out to her, cup her face, and bring those emeralds back to me. I wanted to comfort her.

But I hadn’t been the one to comfort her in a long time.

Unwanted images flashed in my mind. Her being comforted by men. Specifically, Jon comforting her. Jon sleeping with her. I clenched my jaw and looked to the ceiling, trying to calm the annoyance that started to brew at the thoughts.

That fucking prick.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said too fast.

“Bullshit,” she said, straightening in her seat, apparently reading me easily still. “Tell me,” she demanded.

The woman before me wasn’t the same girl I knew. Wren hadn’t been demanding in the past. She’d accepted what I said and didn’t ask me twice.

“I need to get a battery and gas for the truck,”I tried.

Her eyes narrowed. She stood, moving away from me to lean against the kitchen counter, and crossed her arms. “Alex, I have spent the last five years thinking you were dead.The last time we were together. . .” She paused. “Before that, we were happy. We were. . .” She laughed softly. “We were in love.”

Her words hit me hard. Wewerein love. I was wildly in love with her. Addicted to her, and in those moments, I’d planned on spending every moment with her, forever. I had always planned on being with her forever, whether I was just her friend or more, but that was the moment we both agreed to be more.

And it was all ripped away from us.

“Alex, I never stopped loving you. Not for one moment.” She held my gaze before breaking eye contact. “I understand that you thought I abandoned you, and I understand if your feelings have changed, but?—”

I was across the room in an instant.

I cupped her face and crushed my lips to hers. She sucked in a breath before her fingers were at the back of my neck, pulling my mouth harder down on hers. I turned my head so I could deepen the kiss, tasting her. I drank from her. She was a never-ending spring, and I was dying of thirst. Dragging my lips down her neck. A thrill traveled up my spine.

I pulled away just enough to rest my forehead against hers. “I spent years convincing myself you had moved on. That you were married with this whole new life away from me. That you broke away from your past. I thought you left me behind. I tortured myself with images of you with other men.” I tucked her hair behind her ear. “You are not the same woman I fell in love with all those years ago. You are different, and I can’t help but wonder who was there for you when I couldn’t be.”

Her eyes searched mine, and I could see the hurt there. Was she thinking of me with other women?

“You were thinking about me withother men?”

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