Page 102 of That One Night
She blinked. Of all the things he could have said, she wasn’t expecting that. He never apologized. He didn’t do it after she found the dating app on his phone, nor after she ended their relationship.
“Apologize for what?” Her voice was thick. Half her mind was still on the farm opposite her mom’s. And the man who lived inside it.
“For being so rash last night. I was hurt.” He exhaled heavily. “And I said some things I shouldn’t have.”
“Like you were going to ruin my life?”
“I would never do that. I know things between us… were messy. But we still spent years together. You’ll always be part of my heart. And I shouldn’t have treated you like that.”
“No you shouldn’t have.”
“I’ll be back in town on Saturday,” he said. “My parents will be back from their cruise. I’ll be telling them about out breakup. And then I will release the lien.”
“You will?” She frowned.
“You have my word. There’s just one thing I’d like you to do.”
Oh, here we go. She rolled her eyes, knowing she never should have answered the damn phone.
“Will you come with me?” he asked her. “I’d like you to be there. Give everybody some closure.”
“Will they even want to see me?” She loved his dad. But his mom, well not so much. He was a mommy’s boy, after all, and they both knew it.
“I just think, after all this time, it will be good for us to stand as a team. One last time. Before we both walk away.”
“I don’t know…”
“Think about it,” he suggested. “I can sign the lien documents at the same time. Kill two birds with one stone.”
“Okay. I’ll think about it.”
“Thank you.” He paused for a second. “Let me know before Saturday.”
“I will.”
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
“What a dick,”Maisie said the next morning, after Emery told her everything that had happened in the past few days. “Actually, scratch that. What dicks, because it sounds like the two of them are as bad as the other.”
Emery had spent most of last night lying on her bed, wide awake and staring at the ceiling, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Only a few days ago she’d been on top of the world. Taking control of her life. Moving forward.
And now she felt like she was stuck. More than that, she felt rejected.
Like she wasn’t good enough to fight for. And that hurt really bad.
Tears pooled in her eyes and she tried to blink them away, because she was already sick of crying. She’d spent last night boomeranging between anger and despair, trying to cry quietly so her mom wouldn’t hear.
This morning she just felt wrung out. She had no energy, no push. She wanted to lie on this bed forever.
“So when are you going to tell Trenton you’re not going to his parents?” Maisie asked her.
“I’m not. I’ve decided to go.”
“What?” Maisie sounded appalled. “Why would you do anything that asshole asks you to do?”
“I’m not doing it for him. I’m doing it for me. I figure that if I’m there, he’ll actually tell them. And this way I can make sure he doesn’t lay all the blame at my feet.” Because the one thing she knew was that Trenton was a coward at heart. He didn’t like upsetting the status quo and he hated emotions.
