Page 28 of The I Do Over

“That’s what I’m hoping.”

The words came out easily, but she still had to wonder if she was simply lying to herself.

“Wait. What do you mean you’re taking a couple of days off?”

Knox heard the combination of shock and annoyance in Daniel’s tone but he didn’t let it deter him. “I don’t know how else to say it. I’m not coming in today, tomorrow, or the day after. I’ll be back on Thursday. I know it’s a little last minute, but…”

“A little last minute? Knox, come on.” Then he paused. “Oh no.”

“What?”

“It’s her. Your wife. You’re not coming in because things went south when she showed up unannounced yesterday, right?”

Knox was down in the kitchen making himself a cup of coffee, but looked over his shoulder in case Maddie had come down the stairs. “Yeah, this has to do with Maddie, but not because things went south.”

All Daniel did was groan.

“Look, this is something I have to do,” Knox explained wearily. “I really thought we’d sort of talk or argue things out, but it turns out it’s a little more complicated than that.”

“Because you slept with her?”

Shit.

This was one of those times that he hated how well his friends knew him.

“I’m not going to defend myself to you because you have no idea what I’m dealing with,” he said quietly before taking his coffee and heading out to his back deck. “There was no way to just wrap up all the bullshit of almost twenty years in a couple of hours, for starters. We both had a lot of pent-up emotions and I just think it’s for the best if we take a few days to sort them all out so we can move on without any anger or hostility or…I don’t know…wondering if we made a mistake.”

“Do you think you made a mistake?”

“When?”

Daniel chuckled softly. “Back then? Yesterday? Take your pick.”

“Back then, I reacted to a bad situation in a way any eighteen-year-old would.” Taking a sip of his coffee, he had to think a bit longer about last night. “And no. Yesterday wasn’t a mistake. It was bound to happen. Maddie and I were always a little explosive with each other, so…” He shrugged. “I was a little surprised that it was still that way for us, but, if anything, we got that part out of the way and maybe now we can focus on healing.”

“It sounds like you’ve at least put a little thought into this.”

That made him laugh. “Crazy, right? Considering it’s been less than twenty-four hours.” Staring out at his tiny yard, he shook his head. “To be honest, my emotions have been all over the damn place. Once we got back here and talked for a bit, I would have said I wanted to get revenge on her—to make her fall for me again and then dump her the way she dumped me.”

“Knox…”

“Believe me, I got over that pretty fast.”

“And now?”

“Now…I’m still riding the roller coaster. One minute I’m like, “It’s all good and we’re cool,” but then I find myself getting mad all over again. So…I have no idea how this is all going to go, but it’s time to figure it out.”

“We’ve known each other a long time,” Daniel began after a moment. “And when we first met, you were a very angry and bitter guy. Now, back then, you didn’t share any of the personal details of your life. Hell, you only recently told us about being married.”

“It wasn’t important.”

“I think you’re wrong,” Daniel countered. “I think it was important then and it’s obviously still important because you’re not only taking the time to talk to this woman, but willing to take time off from work to spend time with her.”

“If you’re mad about me calling out like this…”

“It’s not that. Believe me. You’ve jumped in and covered my ass on more than one occasion, and you’ve done the same for Xander. No one’s going to give you grief over a couple of days off.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

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