Page 130 of What About Love

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you still be in bed, in the hospital?”

He was through the door, his large frame crowding her, so her choice was to step back and let him in or get crushed. After slamming the security door shut with a booted heel, he advanced on her.

“Were you leaving without saying goodbye?”

“I—”

“That’s a cowardly thing to do, don’t you think?” he challenged softly.

As he threw her own accusation back at her, she stiffened. Her mouth snapped shut, although only for a moment. Then she got ticked. “I’m not running away. That’s your style. I’m transferring to a better job.”

“Bullshit.” He flung challenge number two back in her face, as he took a step closer, into her space. She backed up twice as much.

“Although I’ve done a perfect impression of one these past few months, I’m not an idiot. Tell me something repeatedly and it eventually gets through.”

He moved forward again. She tried to keep pace as he essentially stalked her across her living room.

“What about love, Angie? Is this how you show it?”

She jerked. Once more, the exact words she’d hurled at him were returned.

“You said you loved me, little bit. Way back when you were bleeding out beneath my hands on the courthouse floor.”

She gasped, stumbling as she skirted around the sofa table while retreating. “That was real? I thought I dreamed it.”

“Yeah, it was real.” Taking another step, he came up against her. “As real as when you whispered it in my ear a few hours ago.”

Her eyes shot to his. Having reached the back of the couch, she had no retreat left. He pushed his advantage. “I’ll ask again, is this how you act when you love someone? You give up? With only three measly attempts? That’s weak, Hixson.”

Ready to put significant distance between them, she attempted to move around the couch, one they’d made love on, often, but he caught her arm, his fingers warm and strong against her bare skin. Despite all that had gone on between them, her body quickened, burning at his touch.

“Every time I tried to show it, you pushed me away!”

Enough was enough. She wrenched her arm free and moved around the end of her kick-ass sofa. With it between them, she wheeled to face him. Fight or flight had kicked in when she saw him on the other side of her door. Flight was clearly ineffective; now it was time to dig in and fight.

“I can’t take it, T. From one minute to the next, I don’t know what you’ll do. First, you want me, the next minute, you don’t. You take off for three months without so much as a word and when you come back, you get ticked because I’m with someone else. You’re like a kid who gets the toy they’ve been begging for at Christmas, but after you play with it for a few minutes, you’re done with it.” She leaned in, poking a finger in his chest, on his non-injured side, every so often to emphasize her words. “Your moods change so fast I’m getting whiplash. If protecting myself against that kind of pain makes me a coward, so be it.”

“Mom came by the hospital.”

Startled by this random statement, she stilled. “I know. I saw her.”

“We talked. She told me it was her, not you who insisted on rehashing the past. I’m sorry, baby.”

Seeing the earnest regret in his face, her resolved softened. Then shook her head. “Thank you for that, but it’s too late. I told you a long time ago I don’t want to merely play; I want the whole enchilada. And the man I’m with has to want that, too. Marriage, kids, a house, a life together. I can’t have that with you, no matter how badly I want it.”

“I want it, too.”

She felt hope blossom in her chest, but it died out as quickly having been burned too many times before. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

“I don’t want to lose you, Angie.”

Lowering her gaze, she hesitated as a tumble of conflicted emotions whirled through her head.

“What’s to stop you from changing your mind again when things get too close for comfort?”

Not waiting for an answer, she tried to put more distance between them before she broke down into a blubbering weak-willed mess at his feet. She hadn’t taken two steps when he pulled her back hard. She slammed against his chest.

“Your shoulder!”

---