Page 125 of Wine & Whiskey
Her body stiffens, and she whips around to face him. “Well, I guess we’re even then.”
“No, it isn’t like that. It wasn’t about revenge.”
“Then what was it about?”
That she was over him already. Her feelings for him were gone, and she had moved on with someone else. “I couldn’t believe you wanted to be with him.”
“I didn’t!” Frustration pulses in her voice. “I wanted you, but you rejected me. I was only with him because I’m…”
“You’re what?”
Her eyes grow wide, and she drops her head before wrapping her arms around herself. “Nothing. Forget it.”
She hides something from him. Another one of that motherfucker’s schemes he talked her into. “No. I want to know why you were going to marry Evan.”
“I was never going to. He just thought that, but I couldn’t marry him because I’m in love with you.”
Her declarations of love have only come during times of distress. He would give anything to hear her tell him while wrapped in his arms. Only the two of them, the rest of the world ceasing to exist. “Just like me. I can’t be with anyone else but you.”
"You hurt me. I hurt you back. You hurt me again. That’s not how love is supposed to be. Maybe we aren’t meant to be together.”
Her voice as raw as her words, she has no idea the devastation she causes with her suggestion. He has to make her understand they’re worth fighting for. “No. You just came back into my life.” He gently touches her arm, crossed over her body, as if protecting her heart. “I won’t lose you again.”
She tilts her head and gives him a small smile, contrasting with the tears glistening in her eyes. “You don’t need me. You have your girlfriend and your daughter.”
Max steps closer to Nick. “We need to take this inside. It’s not safe for them to be out here like this.”
Nick nods, but doesn’t turn away from her. “Will you please come in the house? We need to talk about this.”
“Hurry up, Nicky,” Jessica whines behind him. “Emme’s getting hungry. I need to feed her and put her down for a nap.”
Nick glances back at her, using every ounce of willpower to keep his voice steady. “Go inside. I’ll be there in a minute.”
When he turns around, Shae stares at the ground. “It’s been a long day. I’m tired and want to go home. You go ahead and take care of your daughter. That’s what’s important right now.”
“I’ll never see you again, will I? Do you know how much it kills me to have you run away from me after everything we’ve been through?”
“After what we’ve been through? Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me?” She rubs her hands over her face before pressing them against the sides of her head. “For three weeks, all I did was pray and hope you would come back to me. But I never heard from you. Not a text or a phone call. You never showed up at my door. I was devastated. It was so bad Carrie had to take care of me because I was so upset I couldn’t take care of myself.”
Redness creeps up her cheeks as her eyes widen and voice grows louder. The first time she’s ever yelled at him. “The only thing keeping me going was thinking there was a chance we could get back together. That I could somehow convince you that you wouldn’t hurt me. But now, I realize the truth. I didn’t hear from you because you were just fine. You weren’t upset. Or sad. You just didn’t care. You moved on with someone else and never gave me a second thought.”
Each accusation hits him like a bullet to the chest. “That’s not true. None of what you just said is true.”
Tears run down her cheeks as she ignores him. “Please, Carter, can we go now?”
“Shae?”
She shakes her head and climbs into the car, never looking at him as Carter backs out of the driveway and drives down the street.
“Nicky? Are you coming?”
He puts his fists to his eyes. “Yeah.”
Max moves her convertible out of the way, and the gates open. Nick follows behind Jessica as she marches to the house. Emme lifts her head and looks at him, her inquisitive blue eyes studying him. None of this is her fault. He has to get his temper under control for her.
Inside the house, Jessica rummages through the refrigerator and pulls out slices of cheese. Emme’s eyes light up, and she reaches on tiptoes, trying to grab them from her mother’s hand. “Just a minute, Emme. I’m trying to find you something else.”
His jaw clenches at Jessica’s shortness. “Here, I’ll get them for you.” He swipes the small stack from Jessica’s hand, and Emme waddles over to him. He scoops her up and sits her on the table edge in front of him. Tiny toes curl against his stomach as he tears off bite size pieces and lays them flat in his hand. She grasps them with her thumb and forefinger and quickly shoves them into her mouth, making him laugh. “I guess we can confirm you like cheese.”
