Page 48 of Run for the Money

“Is that what this is about? You want a ring? Fine! I’ll go get you one right now—whatever you want, remember? You want proof I’m all in? Get in the truck. We’ll go to Vegas. Tonight. You’ve got the rest of my life, Melanie. What’s it gonna take for you to believe that?”

“Stop yelling at me!” I yell, which really doesn’t help me sound mature or reasonable. I want to believe him so badly, but I’m overwhelmed. It’s hard to think straight, let alone turn any thoughts into coherent sentences.

Nick reaches for me, then drops his hands, like he thought better of it. He lets out a frustrated growl, then whirls around and stomps toward his truck. Then he stops and turns around.

“I love you,” he says calmly. “I’m pissed off, but that hasn’t changed, and it’s not gonna. I’ll be back later.”

This time, he makes it all the way to his truck and drives off, leaving me once again staring down the driveway, furious and miserable. I could get inmycar and head back to my house, but I haven’t been there in weeks and I’m not feeling steady enough to drive. Instead, I stalk back to Nick’s house with every intention of flinging myself onto the couch for a long, angry cry. Unfortunately, Edwin’s standing on the porch, glaring at me and blocking the door.

“I don’t want to hear it,” I say weakly.

“Too bad,” he says. “What was that?”

I sink onto the steps, all my adrenaline seeping out of me at once. “You were eavesdropping?”

“No, but I’m not dumb. You saw your ex and referred to Nick as your coach, not your boyfriend, then you shouted at Nick and he left in a huff. It’s not exactly rocket science.”

“Nick found it pretty hard to understand,” I say.

Edwin drops onto the stairs next to me with a sigh. “He didn’t want to call Paul, you know. I had to talk him into it.”

“Why? It’s the kind of thing Paul does. He does way more complicated cases for total strangers all the time,” I say.

“Because of you. Paul broke your heart, and that pissed Nick off, so he didn’t want anything to do with Paul,” Edwin says, exasperated.

“That doesn’t make sense. We weren’t together when I gave him Paul’s number,” I protest. “We’d only had one conversation without insulting each other at that point!”

Edwin shrugs. “Nick’s only had about five conversations in his life where no one tossed out an insult. Maybe it didn’t seem significant to you, but for him, that’s a red-letter day. He doesn’t trust easily, not after all the crap he went through with his dad. But he trusts you. Whatever your hang-up is with Paul, get over it and apologize to Nick.”

“Apologize? For what? For being upset that my ex-boyfriend is getting engaged to some random woman he’s known for two seconds?”

“Why does it matter to you?” he asks. “You’re with Nick.”

His phone rings, cutting off my indignant response. He pulls it out of his pocket, then shows me the screen. It’s Nick.

“I’m going to tell him to stop being so dramatic and come home so you can talk this through like adults. I suggest you take this time to do the same,” he says. “And go inside. It’s cold as fuck out here, and you’re going to get sick and fuck up your competition this weekend—all ’cause some lawyer got engaged. Ridiculous.”

He heaves himself off the steps and heads off toward the stables. I stand up; he’s got a point about the temperature. My nose is runny and my fingers are numb, so I head into the house where it’s warm. I don’t take Edwin’s advice, because I don’t agree that I’m being dramatic. I think I’m having a perfectly reasonable, rational reaction to what’s going on, so I call Olivia to vent. She was there for my whole relationship with Paul, so she’ll understand why this bit of news is—rightfully—throwing me for a loop.

Because she’s Olivia, she declines my call and FaceTimes me instead. Whoever invented video calls is my least favorite person of all time. I answer anyway.

“Oh, this is a bummer,” Olivia says, pouting so deeply I half expect her lips to pop out of my phone screen. “I was hoping to get a glimpse of your sexy new boyfriend. Tears weren’t on the agenda.”

I’m about to argue that I’m not crying when I spot my face in the corner of the screen and discover it’s not just snot on my face, but the tears Olivia mentioned. Aggravated, I swipe them away.

“This is the stupidest day of all time,” I grumble. “Paul’s getting freaking engaged, and God forbid I have one tiny reaction to that information, because apparently it means I’m having second thoughts about Nick, when we all know that’s crazy, because Nick’s theone who’s going to end up leaving me, probably about four years from now when he gets bored of me, and then I’ll be right back to eating Lean Cuisines in my underwear because I am a pit stop, not the final destination, and I can’t even vent about it to my best friend without getting crap for crying!”

Olivia grimaces. “See, this is why I wanted to tell you about Paul’s engagement—so you could have this little bout of insanity in private, and not in front of Nick.”

“What?! You knew? How could you know?” I ask. “Paul hasn’t even asked her yet!”

“Kennedy saw him buying the ring. She was getting a few links taken out of the diamond tennis bracelet her dad gave her for her birthday, because it was originally for her stepmom and—”

“I could not care less about Kennedy’s tennis bracelet.”

Olivia sighs. “Yeah, she noticed. But, fine, not the point. The point is, Paul went to the jeweler’s to pick up a big-ass diamond ring while she was there. He was super squirrelly about it, so Kennedy figured it had to be an engagement ring.”

“That was weeks ago!” I squeak.

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