Page 42 of Every Promise Broken

“Oh, boy,” Nana mutters, standing up. “This diet Pepsi is rolling right through me. Pardon me. I’m going to run to the ladies’ room.”

Reggie looks at her, then slides his gaze over to Conrad before fixing his attention back on me. “A co-worker told me about this. Thought I’d check it out. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, same,” I reply, but my voice takes on an embarrassing squeak. “Uh, Conrad’s nana saw a flyer for it at the store and wanted to come. So, uh, here we are.” I laugh, wincing at how forced it sounds to my ears.

His gaze slices back over to Conrad again, his jaw tightening. Oh, fuck, this is awkward. This is bad.

“Hi, Conrad,” he grits out.

“Hello, Rufus.” Even the tone Conrad is taking with him makes me want to squirm.Wait…what? Did he say Rufus?

I look up, seeing Reggie narrow his eyes at him. “It’s Reggie,” he corrects with a bite to his voice.

Oh, shit.

Where has the oxygen in this building gone? There is none.The tension surrounding us is so thick I’m suffocating.

“Are you serious, Whit?” Reggie sneers, narrowed gaze back on me. “Is this the real reason you dumped me?”

Fuck!

“Uh…”

“To get back together with your fucking ex-husband?”

“Reggie, listen?—”

“I don’t think that’s any of your fucking business,” Conrad cuts in, voice dangerously low. “And I don’t appreciate the way you’re talking to my husband, so I suggest you fucking walk away before we have a problem.”

“Yourhusband?”Reggie seethes.

Oh boy.

Conrad stands up, hands planted on the table as he levels Reggie with a look. “You heard me,” he growls. “Now walk. Away.”

In the back of my mind, I know I should say something. I should stop this before it gets any worse, before we cause any more of a scene. But I can’t. It’s like I’m watching this from outside of my body, and I’m frozen. Thankfully, after Reggie gives me one more ice-cold death glare, he storms off, and with his absence, I seem to find my ability to breathe again.

Conrad drops back into his seat, and I can feel the weight of his stare on the side of my head, but I can’t bring myself to look at him. Fortunately—or unfortunately—Nana walks back over to us at that exact moment, and I’m saved from having to explain myself. I know I won’t be that lucky for long, though.

Shit.

Now Conrad knows.

And if the way he’s staring at me right now is any indication, he’spissed.

17

Conrad Strauss

“What time do we have to be at Will’s?”

Flipping through the clothes in my closet, not bothering to look back at Whit where I know he’s sitting on the edge of my bed, I murmur, “Six. We should probably leave soon.”

“I picked up a bottle of wine at the store while you were in the shower.”

Grabbing a black button-up shirt off the hanger, I toss it on the bed as I unbutton the flannel I’m wearing. “We didn’t need to bring anything.”

My pulse races, blood pressure through the roof. I’ve been on edge since running into fucking Reggie in Cheyenne. Of all the people we had to run into, why the fuck did it have to be him?

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