Page 174 of Mr. Infuriating

Which meant I was going to have to go past him.

I refolded a few of Jake’s shirts to stall for time, until it was painfully obvious there was nothing left for me to do.

With forced levity in my tone I proclaimed, “I just need to get my stuff from the bathroom!”

As I walked past him, he reached for my elbow. The contact felt like electricity pulsing through my veins.

“Can we talk for a minute?”

Oh god, not “the talk”.

I tried to act unaffected.

“Yeah, sure.”

He took my hand and led me to the edge of the bed, where we sat down at the same time. I kept my hands in my lap and stared at a chip in my nail polish on my index finger as I waited for him to start.

“You are such an amazing woman…”

The minute I heard the words, my ire went through the roof, and I snapped, “Oh, not this speech again!”

He looked taken aback at my outburst.

“What do you mean?”

“You handed me this bullshit the last time you rejected me.”

“I’m not rejecting you. We had an agreement that this thing between us was just until your cabinets were finished. And, well, minus a few little things I can probably take care of tomorrow, they’re done.”

“They’re done?”

“Yeah, I told you it wouldn’t take me that long. I was able to work on them last week and Beau helped me again on Saturday while you were at your parents.”

“You said it would take a month, and you finished in a week?”

God, I felt like an idiot. Here I was thinking he’d take his time to draw this out. When in reality, he was really hurrying to get it done so this would be over, and he could move on.

“Technically, it was ten days. And I always tell people longer so they’re pleasantly surprised when I’m done sooner than they expected.”

My voice dripped with derision. “Lucky me.”

“Look, I know you’re hurt right now, but I promise you, one day when you’re happily married again, holding your new baby, you’ll be glad we stuck to our agreement to end things.”

“I don’t understand, Gabe. I know you care about me. Why are you doing this?”

I hated the desperation in my voice. Back in college, I swore I’d never beg a man to be with me, and so far, I never had—not even Troy, but I was bordering on it with Gabe.

“Sweetheart…” he took a deep breath then gave me a sad smile. “Idocare about you. I care enough about you to let you go because I can’t give you what you want. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to have more kids, and now that I have… well, the idea of bringing another child into this world terrifies me. I just couldn’t do it. And that’s not fair to you. The longer we’re together, the harder it’s going to hurt.”

I felt my spine stiffen.

“Oh, so this is all for my benefit?”

“You’re not the only one getting hurt in this.”

That took the wind out of my sails.

“Right, the kids.”

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