Page 63 of Wes

My phone buzzes with an incoming call and I groan. Two weeks ago, reporters started calling me non-stop about an exclusive interview that woman sat down for with some lame website I’d never heard about. Since then, I’ve been fending any calls coming from numbers I don’t know. As well as the hourly ones from Wes.

Whoever the caller is now, they give up and I let out a sigh. But the vibration starts again. It goes to voicemail a few more times until I remember Trish sometimes calls me instead of coming all the way up to my room.

I bolt upright and grab the phone that has been lying face down on the table beside the chair. I flip it and find her name and picture on the screen.

Hitting the green button, I greet my assistant, with way more enthusiasm than I feel, “Hey, Trish. What’s up?”

“We’ve got to talk.” Wes’s low baritone fills my ear, sending an uncontrollable shiver of pure pleasure down my spine. “Please, don’t hang–”

I snap out of the trance his voice has induced me into, recover my motor functions, and do just that. Hang up the damn phone and toss it on the empty chair on my left.

I’m not ready to talk to him yet.

Still, a moment later, Trish pops up in front of me. “Sorry, Maria. I know you don’t want to, but you’ve got to give him a chance. And before you say that I’m a romantic fool, or that I’m biased in his favor because I’m a fan, let me just say this.” She stops.

When she doesn’t complete her thought for a long stretch of time, I arch an eyebrow at her grinning face. “Say what?”

“I agree.”

I snort-laugh. “You’re the only person who can make me laugh in a moment like this.”

“Good. You need to come out of this cave. The kids need you whole.”

Her words hit me in the pit of my stomach. “Ouch, that was a low blow.”

“I know. Sorry, not sorry. Please, hear him out. You can fire me later if you don’t like what he has to say.”

I frown at her bold statement but agree with a nod. “Fine. Let him in.”

As I’ve suspected, Wes steps inside my bedroom as Trish is leaving. He must have been waiting for her by the door. As he stalks toward me, I take in his sunken cheeks, the dark shadows under his eyes, and the lack of luster in his lopsided smile. He looks exactly like I feel.

“May I?” He tips his head to the chair beside me.

I retrieve my phone, put it back on the table between the chairs, and stretch my hand in an invitation. I don’t trust my voice right now as I watch him unbutton his double-breasted black coat, slide his arms out of it, and drape the heavy woolen garment at the end of the chaise longue before sinking onto it.

He leans forward and props his elbows on his knees where the black of his jeans has turned pale gray. His eyes zero in on mine, but I can’t hold them for long. The anguish in them connects with mine, making my heart hope.

I won’t let that silly organ command the show.

My gaze travels down his face to his chest. The neckline of his blue Henley sags as if he’s been stretching it, which he does when he gets anxious. I keep my stare at that level.

He clears his throat.

I don’t look up.

“Thank you for giving me a chance. I am so very sorry for what you’ve been going through. Although I’ve never cheated on you. I promise.”

My heartbeats quicken at those words, my breathing turns ragged, and a vein throbs wildly in my neck.

“I want to believe you,” I confess to his chest. I dare lift my eyes to his. My heart skips a few beats, or a thousand. I couldn’t tell because time freezes. His warm honey-colored eyes brim with love so intense it cannot be denied or mistaken. A quiet voice in my head reminds me people who love sometimes also cheat. I chew my lower lip. “But I don’t know how.”

He raises a hand and brings it close to my cheek, his thumb angled to touch me. I expect him to free my lip from the teeth biting it as he’s done so many times before.

With a sigh, he drops his hand to his thigh instead.

My chest feels hollow. I press my palm on it, but the dull ache remains unchanged.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t touch you until we finished clearing the air between us,” he explains.

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