Page 67 of The Drummer's Heart

“Sooner than I thought.” I ran my hand through my hair. “And I’m not thrilled about it.”

“You found someone for Mimi?”

“Yeah. A local widow. She seems great. And she’s supposed to start tomorrow, which means I have to get out of here. I’ll spend at least a few days at Tina’s, then book my flight back to L.A.”

“I know it sucks leaving Nicole, but I’ll sure as hell be happy to have you home.”

“Thanks, man.” But L.A. wasn’thome.Thisfelt like my home.

“You okay?” he asked after a moment.

“I think I had this deluded thought that if I had more time, I could somehow win her back. I could find a way to make things so great that she’d forget everything. Or maybe she’d just finally be willing to work through things we never have. It was a fantasy, though.”

“I get it, man.”

“We messed around a little in bed this morning,” I confessed.

“Whoa, what?”

“We didn’t have sex…but it surprised me that she was willing to go where we did. I can’t stop thinking about it. I can’t stop thinking abouther, and I haven’t even left yet.”

“She cheated on her boyfriend?”

My blood pressure rose. “No.” I shook my head. “I didn’t tell you they broke up?”

“No! Really?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s huge.”

“It happened before she came out here. But he showed up once, and I almost fucked him up. I don’t trust that he’s out of the picture.”

“You need to call me for backup for shit like that. I thought I told you to let me know if you needed me.”

I chuckled. “I didn’t know he was coming. But getting you into trouble isn’t going to make anything easier. If two of us are out of commission, there’s most definitely no Delirious Jones.”

“There’s no Delirious Jones without any one of us.”

“That’s true, I guess.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re coming back. But I wish you’d gotten the outcome you hoped for.”

“I’m still better off than I was before I came. Nicole and I are on speaking terms at least.”

Ronan snorted. “Sounds like you’ve been doing more than speaking.”

“I wish that had changed something, but it didn’t.”

“At least she kicked Julian to the curb, though. Or is trying to. That’s a win, if you ask me. It could’ve been so much worse. She could’ve married the dude or had his kid. Then she’d be trapped with him.”

“That would’ve been a disaster.” I shuddered. I wasn’t sure how Nicole felt about having kids these days, but we’d once had a pregnancy scare of our own. Although, the only onescaredhad been Nicole.

CHAPTER 22

ATTICUS

PAST

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