Page 58 of Rectify

Rogan held his hands up and took a step back, his face hard. “Far be it from me to tell the great Aedan Blake what to do. You selfish little prick.”

“What does that mean?” Fuck, his headache was getting worse. Maybe he should finish off the bottle of scotch in his luggage and fall into oblivion.

“It means you’ve got your head so far up your ass you can’t see what’s actually happening around you. You’re so busy feeling sorry for yourself that you’re going to end up a wrinkled old man of eighty trying to get it up, so he can fuck his twenty-year-old girlfriend, who’s only with him for his money!”

“Better than being a cold bastard whose dick is so frozen it would probably fall off the first time he stuck it in some warm pussy.”

A tic developed in Rogan’s cheek, and Aedan watched it with a sense of impending doom. What was he doing? Rogan was theonly family he had left. His best friend. And here he was, trying to drive him away.

“I’m trying to help you,” Rogan gritted out. “God knows why. Why the hell haven’t you been answering your phone?”

“I was in the middle of a crisis.” Except he’d fixed that over a week ago. He’d lingered on in London, making excuses and avoiding phone calls.

“And that was more important than Natalya?” Rogan asked.

“Of course not. But I was giving her the space she needed.”

Natalya had never been far from his thoughts. So many times, he’d picked up the phone to call her only to talk himself out of it. Talking to her just made the distance between them more obvious. His gut had been screaming at him to return, but he’d ignored it, wanting to give her what she needed. Space.

Even if it was the last thing he wanted.

What if she didn’t want him anymore? Circumstances had changed, and her son had to come first. He just wished he knew where that left him.

He’d felt so useless. Unable to help her because Mateo didn’t want him near. The fact that she hadn’t asked him to stay had only worked to convince him that he’d made the right choice.

“How are Natalya and Mateo?” he asked.

You’d know if you’d talked to her, idiot.

I was giving her time. I was doing the right thing.

Christ, now he was arguing with himself. He really did need some sleep.

“Not good,” Rogan replied.

“What do you mean? Is she sick? Have you called the doctor?” He turned, prepared to run up to her room. He shouldn’t have stayed away this long.

Fuck.

What had he been thinking? Why did he allow her space? Why didn’t he bribe Mateo into liking him?

“She’s not here.”

Panic slammed into him, tearing at his insides as he turned back to Rogan. “What? Where has she gone? Not back to Hondo?”

“No, she’s still in San Antonio. I put her up in one of the apartments I own.”

“You kicked her out?” he asked incredulously.

Rogan gave him a dirty look. “Of course I didn’t fucking kick her out! But she couldn’t stay here forever, could she?”

“I was coming back!” Aedan said with frustration.

“When?” Rogan asked coolly. “How long was she supposed to wait? Did you tell her you were coming back?”

Bloody idiot. He hadn’t done any of those things.

“I was giving her space. It’s what she wanted.”

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