Page 7 of Fractured Trust

“Iwasn’t happy. I can’t believe you were either.”

Deacon grabbed for her hand, but Summer pulled it away, shaking her head. “Please, Deacon, I can’t keep having this conversation with you.”

“We shouldn’t be having this conversation at all!” He swung around and stared at Noah, his gaze narrowing and moving between the two of them before finally landing on Summer. “Is it him? Is he why you wanted a divorce? Are you fucking him again?” Deacon’s voice rang with accusation, and Noah found himself on his feet.

Summer spoke before Noah had a chance. “No, I’m not. He just turned up this morning. I haven’t seen him in…” She trailed off, and Noah realized she didn’t want to let him know they’d seen each other a few months ago, and that annoyed him more than anything.

“Since that meeting we had in Chicago a while back,” he interjected, watching with a little too much satisfaction as her eyes flared brightly with annoyance.

Deacon swung back to stare at Summer. “He’s why you’re divorcing me? The guy who broke your heart? That’s a pretty fucking dumb decision, Summer. What are you going to do when he does it again? You have no job, since you stupidly insisted on leaving your position at Dad’s company, and no place to live. Your life is a complete mess at the moment, and when he screws you over this time, I won’t be around to pick up the pieces.”

Icy anger whipped through Noah. Not only at the suggestion he’d screwed Summer over in the past, but at the stricken expression on her face. Without thinking, acting on instinct alone, he stepped forward, causing Deacon to step back in response.

“She has a job. In L.A.”

Chapter 4

“What?”

She and Deacon both responded at the same time, although Deacon’s louder, harsher tone drowned out Summer’s breathless one. Noah looked at her, his brows lifting as he crossed his arms in a deceptively casual manner. Summer’s gaze involuntarily dropped to the stretch of his t-shirt sleeves over his biceps before she quickly looked back up at him. His blue eyes flickered with some indecipherable emotion.

But Noah addressed his reply to Deacon. “Yeah, Summer and I discussed it in Chicago.” His tone was so casually dismissive she could almost hear her ex-husband’s teeth grind together.

Summer kept her eyes on Noah, wondering where he was going with this story. Wondering why he was bothering to defend her at all. Half believing he might be playing a cruel joke on her as payback, considering how annoyed he’d been with her before. Except… Noah had never been cruel. Occasionally thoughtless, sometimes too relaxed and laid-back for his own good—not that she’d seen much of that this visit—but never cruel. Not deliberately anyway.

“My sister’s finishing her music therapy internship and starting up a non-profit company. She’s looking for someone to help her, and it turns out Summer has exactly the skills she needs.”

Deacon turned to look at her, his dark brows knitted together. “Is that true?” he asked.

Her ex-husband wasn’t a bad man, but over the years, he’d started treating her like she had no aspirations outside of being his wife. That her sole purpose was to be there to support him in his life and career. And to be honest, she’d started to believe it, too. Until recently, anyway, when she’d realized she wasn’t prepared to spend her whole life just being someone else’s cheerleader. His insulting words before had hurt too. So, it might be immature, but she met Deacon’s eyes unwaveringly. “It’s a great opportunity.” It wasn’t exactly a lie.

Deacon’s frown was severe and his gaze ping-ponged between her and Noah, his face reddening. “So, you’re moving to L.A.?”

Starting to regret the ruse—her inherent honesty making her twitchy—and knowing the truth would have to come out eventually, Summer merely pressed her lips together and nodded. She glanced at Noah, only to see the dimple in his left cheek flashing as he smirked at her for falling in line with his deception. Ripping her eyes away, she tried to keep her gaze steady on Deacon. She must have been convincing because his shoulders slumped, and remorse crept through her.

It didn’t last long though, because he straightened and sneered at Noah, before turning angry eyes on her. “You deserve whatever happens. And if you think you can come running back to me when he breaks your heart again, you’re kidding yourself.”

Annoyed at somehow winding up in a situation where she was being confronted with two exes, using one to lie to the other in an effort to bolster her self-esteem, she squared her shoulders. Pinning Deacon with the hardest gaze she could manage, she said, “He won’t break my heart because I’m not giving it to him, nor does he want it. This is about a job, nothing else. And I won’t come running back to you, Deacon, because what we had is gone. And that’s not just on me, or you, it’s on both of us. Regardless, you’re not my port in a storm anymore. So ifanyonewere to break my heart in the future, I’ll have to learn to deal with it on my own. Now, I really need to get back to packing, so what was it you came here for?”

Deacon glared at her, although hurt lingered behind the anger in his gaze, which somehow still managed to tug at her heartstrings. He turned the glare on Noah. “I’d rather not discuss it in front of him. Why don’t you see him out, and we can talk about it over a coffee?”

Summer didn’t want to talk to either of them. The thick tension in the room was rapidly sapping her energy, and she couldn’t bear the thought of the interrogation Deacon would put her through if Noah left. She’d have to get him to leave first, and unfortunately, there was only one way to do it. “Sorry, Noah and I have a lot of things to discuss.” She shot a glance at Noah. “Workthings. So maybe you can give me a call later to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about.”

Deacon’s jaw clenched, and she could almost see his mind working on how to remove Noah from the house. He’d always harbored animosity toward Noah after what had happened, which was odd considering the two men had been friends beforehand. But it was one of the things that had drawn her to him when she’d thought her heart was broken beyond repair. He’d been her shoulder to cry on then, a refuge from the storm of her grief. And if things between them had gone too far, too fast, it was her that had been to blame. Summer firmly pushed that thought away. It was over a decade too late for those kinds of regrets.

Finally, he accepted that she wasn’t planning on getting rid of Noah, who was still standing with his arms crossed and unashamedly listening in to their conversation.

“Fine, I’ll call you later then,” Deacon said, moving toward the door. She followed him, holding it open as he went out. He stopped in front of her, leaned down, and surprised her by brushing his lips across her cheek; his eyes darting to Noah as he did. Then he turned and strode off, agitation evident in every jarring step.

Frowning, Summer turned, catching the flash of ire in Noah’s expression before it smoothed away to amused indifference. Regardless of the fact Noah hadn’t wanted her, it seemed like Deacon had still broken the bro-code by getting together with her after the breakup. And apparently that was something even rock stars couldn’t easily get past.

“Well, that was fun,” Noah said. “I can see why you chose him. What a charmer.” His last words came out almost as a sneer, and suddenly Summer’s patience snapped.

“You need to go too.”

“But we never talked about—”

“Yeah, well I’m not really in the mood to reminisce about the time you broke my heart, Noah. So how about you leave, and we just go back to forgetting about it and moving on with our lives. I don’t even know why it matters to you. It’s not like there haven’t been plenty of women since then to soothe your wounded pride, if that’s what this is all about.” She bit her tongue to stop herself saying anything more. She didn’t want to sound like a jealous ex-girlfriend.

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