Page 24 of Against All Odds

I laugh. “Well, I seem to remember a few things we did that I recall required a lot of coaxing from you.”

“If we’re talking about our first time, I’d like to have the record show that you were the one who told me you were ready and wanted it to be me,” Everett says with one brow raised.

That is true. “I meant when you had me skinny-dip in the falls.”

“Oh, yeah, that was all me.”

I grin. “Okay, you had your question that led to a rather long road. Here’s mine. Did you ever get married or were engaged? Are you with someone now?”

That probably should’ve been my first question, but Hazel had alluded to the idea that he wasn’t dating anyone.

Everett drains his wine and places the glass down. “Nope. I honestly just haven’t thought about it. When things with us ended, I wasn’t in a good place to date. I won’t lie, I had no shortage of women interested and I didn’t say no often. I was angry and stupid, but no dating, really. Walking away from baseball sort of made me a little bit more of a dickhead, and Hazel acted as a cockblock—to help the women around me. Then I got my head out of my ass and focused on school, which brought me back home and to being a veterinarian.”

“I love that you’re all still friends and she helped you.”

“Me too.” He refills his glass and tops mine. “Okay, my question ... has your husband suffered a head injury?”

I put the glass down after starting to take a drink, as I’m extremely confused. “A head injury?”

I’ve heard a lot of things through the tabloids, but that’s a new one.

“Or maybe he’s suffering from a medical condition they haven’t fully come to understand yet?”

I must be in the middle of a really weird and detailed dream, because nothing he’s saying makes any sense. “How many glasses of wine have you had?”

He chuckles. “Just one. I have a point.”

“I can’t wait to hear it.”

“If that man doesn’t have something wrong with him, there is no logical reason why any man on earth would let you go.”

“Well, there clearly is.”

He shakes his head. “No. Don’t argue. You’re beautiful, smart, resourceful, and I lost you fifteen years ago and I’m still not able to date anyone else. So, I don’t buy it or at least he’ll regret it.”

I sit back in my seat, ducking my head as my cheeks warm. “Everett ...”

“All I’m saying is that I don’t get it. It’s been a long time, and there’s a lot I don’t know about you, but I know you’re not a girl that someone could just walk away from.”

Oh, how I wish that was true.

I lift my eyes to meet his. “Apparently I am.”

Everett shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Like you said, you don’t know me anymore.”

“Then tell me why he’d walk away.”

What do I even say? I’m not really sure why he left. I’m not sure what was so terrible about me that he felt the need to step out and fuck his coworker. None of it has made sense and, really, I don’t know that I care. He did what he did and clearly has no remorse. And he’s an idiot for wanting me to go back to California to help him put out the fire he started.

Still, there’s clearly something that’s wrong with me or at least undesirable.

“You want me to tell you my faults?” I ask.

“Lay ’em all out.”

If this isn’t the most awkward dinner I’ve ever had, then I don’t know what is. “Well, I snore, according to him. I have ambition, and I wasn’t content to just stay home and do whatever he wanted. I wasn’t teaching, but I was doing some tutoring online under my maiden name, and he hated that. I hated havingstaff. I can’t walk in heels, no matter how many stylists have tried to get me in them for the red carpet. I hated his agent, and while his publicist was nice and all, she was obviouslyon his side, regardless of how it hurt me. Although he fired her, so maybe she wasn’t on his side.”

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