Page 19 of Control

Though I was genuinely concerned and wanted to be certain Alana wasn’t feeling any discomfort, the truth was that my questions about her physical well-being were all a means for me to delay the inevitable. I was still trying to come to grips with what was happening here.

From the moment Avalon had walked up and told me Alana was here, I wasn’t quite sure what to think. It had been just shy of two weeks since I went to visit her in the hospital following her car accident. If I was honest, I hadn’t expected I was ever going to see her again.

Of course, I’d had plenty to keep my mind distracted since I left the hospital that day, so it wasn’t as though I’d been sitting around regretting that I hadn’t asked her for her phone number before I left.

I had enough problems to deal with. It would have been unfair for me to drag someone else into my life at this point.

Despite having not returned her calls, it seemed my ex-girlfriend thought repeated attempts to contact me would work in her favor.

Evangeline continued to call, continued to text, and had even shown up at my place on two separate occasions. The first time, I was fortunate enough to not be there, having needed to stay a bit later to work on a security system installation for a client. The security cameras I had installed at my place alerted me to her presence, though, and I was merely grateful she was gone by the time I’d gotten back home.

The second time she showed up, I wasn’t so lucky. A knock came at my door early one morning, and I didn’t think twice as I dragged myself out of bed and to the front door. Seeing her there first thing in the morning, I wasn’t happy.

“What are you doing here?”

“Ty, we need to talk about this,” she said.

I took in her appearance. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days, something that gave me the slightest bit of satisfaction. At least I wasn’t the only one who’d been impacted by her infidelity.

“I thought I made it clear that there’s nothing for us to discuss, because I’m done with you.”

She nodded. “I understand that. I don’t expect you to want to get back together with me. But I would like the opportunity to apologize.”

My brows shot up as I sent an unimpressed look her way.

“I’m sorry for what I did.”

“Great. Thanks. Now, would you please leave and not come back?”

“Don’t you want to know why? Don’t you care to understand?—”

“No,” I clipped. “No, I don’t. Because it doesn’t matter to me why you did it. All that matters is that you were capable of doingit. I don’t care that you’ve moved on. I don’t care if you’re happy with your decision. I just don’t care at all.”

She jerked her chin down slightly. “You’re a good man, Ty. And I know it’s possible I’m going to live to regret my decision one day. I realize I didn’t go about this the best way, but I want you to know I never meant to hurt you.”

“If you’re concerned that I’m sitting around pining over you, let this stand as your confirmation that I’m not. I’m fine. You need to live with the choice you made, just as I do. And I’d like to be able to do that, so I’d appreciate if you’d walk away now and leave me alone. I don’t want to see you again, Evangeline.”

She stared at me for several beats, disappointment lingering in her gaze. “Take care of yourself, Ty.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be sure to do a much better job of that than you ever did.”

Without giving her the chance to respond beyond witnessing the hurt that slashed through her features, I stepped back and closed the door. Maybe my response was harsh, but I thought it paled in comparison to the pain she’d easily inflicted on me when she chose to deceive me and hook up with another man. And it seemed my tactic had been effective, because ever since I’d said those words and closed the door, Evangeline hadn’t reached out to me again.

Fortunately, things were steady enough at work that I was able to keep myself busy and distracted. I hadn’t wanted to sit around and wallow in self-pity, so I appreciated having something to do to keep me occupied and moving forward. With time, I knew things would get better.

And now, I was wondering if there wasn’t some higher power at work, making sure I had a constant flow of distractions. I couldn’t quite put my finger on precisely what the emotion was that I felt when Avalon walked up to tell me Alana was here looking to hire a bodyguard and had asked specifically for me tobe the one to do that for her. There was certainly a level of shock and surprise I felt, but there was something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on, too.

So, as I tried to come to grips with seeing her again while I attempted to figure out what I was feeling, I figured that making small talk about her physical well-being was the best place to start.

“I’m alright for now,” Alana assured me. “Though I might be eating my words later, considering this is the most I’ve been out and about since my accident.”

“Have you seen your doctor since?”

“I have. He’s very impressed with the way everything is healing, so that’s good. I just have to go back to his office next week to get the stitches removed. And then I’ll be down to only four more weeks of needing to wear this boot.”

I smiled at her, glad to hear she was doing well. “That’s great news.”

She returned the smile and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I can’t complain too much.”

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