Page 100 of Stone Vows

Me: I’m not your mother, Kyle. Do what you want.

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Five hours and half a bottle of wine later, I hear his key in the door. I fling myself on the couch, picking up a book that I’m pretending to read so he doesn’t know I’ve been waiting for him. Doesn’t know that I’ve been picturing those brown-green-blue eyes of his looking ather. Those large hands touchingher. Those dreamy lips kissing—

“Oh, hey, you’re still up?” he says, tossing his keys on the counter. The keys slide all the way across the bar and then fall off the counter onto the floor. When he goes to pick them up, he hits his head on the edge of the bar. “Son of a bitch!”

He quickly looks around the room for Ellie as he’s done every time he curses.

“She’s in bed,” I say. “Because it’s after midnight. And besides . . . SHE CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

Yes, I realize I’m acting like a toddler, but he’s obviously drunk, and he’s stupid, and he’s a big dumb guy who doesn’t know anything—and yes, I realize I might be a little drunk and stupid myself, but that’s what happens when the guy you love goes off and sleeps with a smart and beautiful doctor who may or may not be his girlfriend.

I toss my book on the couch and reach over to refill my wine glass, splashing some wine on the coffee table as I do.

“Are you drunk, Elizabeth? Shit—Lexi?”

I hold up the bottle of white wine so he can see how full it is. Or how empty it is. Depends on how you look at it. “Not yet, but another glass ought to do it.” It’s a lie. I’m already drunk. I haven’t had more than a single beer or glass of wine in over a year.

He staggers over and takes the bottle from me, examining it. “Did you drink all this yourself?”

“Don’t worry,Dr. Stone, I’ll buy you a new bottle.”

“I’m not worried about the damn wine, Lexi. You’re nursing. You can’t drink that much.” He looks at me like I’m a terrible person. Like I’m hurting someone I love on purpose.

He’s looking at me like I used to look at Grant.

I stand up and rip the bottle from his hands. “Pump and dump, asshole,” I say.

“What the hell are you talking about, Lex?”

“Pump. And. Dump,” I say to him like he’s a two-year-old. I put down the wine bottle and my glass, then I grab my boobs. “First I pump them, then I dump it down the drain. Got it?”

He looks somewhat relieved that I wouldn’t serve my baby alcohol-laden breast milk. “Well, good,” he says. “And you don’t need to replace the wine.”

“Oh, I’ll replace it,” I say, resuming my seat so I don’t fall over. At least that’s what I meant to say, I think it came out more like‘I’ll replathe it.’I take another sip. “I don’t need anything from you.”

“What’s going on here?” he asks. “Did I miss something? Are you pissed off at me?”

“I don’t know, Kyle. Why don’t you go ask little miss . . . little miss . . . oh, hell, I can’t think of a stupid name to call her. Just go ask your damn girlfriend.”

“My girlfriend?” He looks at me like I’m crazy. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. Your squeeze. Your, what . . . Your fuck buddy? Did you get some tonight, Kyle? Did you share some Jell-O with her? Or is that only for hospital patients you feel sorry for?”

He cringes, looking hurt by what I said. “You think Gina is my girlfriend?”

“Well, isn’t she?”

“No. In fact, she’s in love with my friend, Cameron. Has been for months. I haven’t given Gina a second look since I fell—” He runs his hands through his hair. “Shit!”

He paces the living room floor, scrubbing a hand across his jaw. The jaw that hasn’t seen a razor for days, making him appear even sexier. Then again, maybe my vision is clouded from the wine.

“What does that even matter, Lexi? What the fuck difference does it make to you if I’m screwing Gina? You left me. You left me high and dry. I was all in. I was so in I was furnishing my goddamn apartment. I was planning for the future. I wanted you. I wanted Ellie. But you made your decision. You made it for the both of us. There’s no turning back.”

I get up off the couch, steadying myself so I can try to stand my ground. “How can you say that, Kyle? You know there is more to the story than me just deciding to leave you.”

“Well, there’s nothing more to it now,” he says. “You being here, I’m just helping out Caden. That’s all there is to it.”

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