“Well.” Colt folded his napkin next to his plate and his basically untouched Marley’s special. “This is awkward.”
Tick’s head jerked up, a scowl knitting his brows together. “Don’t be cute.”
“Just stating a fact.”
Shaking his head, Tick pulled his phone from his pocket and paused.
“Wouldn’t kill us to talk about it.” Colt flexed a hand on his knee, the skin around his mouth feeling too tight, itchy with stress and pressure. Had those words really come out of his mouth?
“No.” What was that monosyllable, anyway? Acceptance or rejection?
“This has to be your call.” Colt ground his teeth, until his jaw ached. “I won’t force it on you.”
Folding his napkin, Tick laid it by his plate with careful precision. His throat moved with a swallow. “What the hell is there to say, Colt?”
“That I wronged you and there’s no excuse for what I did.” The words hurt his throat. Yeah, this was like jumping at the lime mine, all over again, except he was the only one jumping. He glanced away, chest heaving with a deep breath before he swung his gaze back to Tick’s. “That I hurt you and I’m sorry.”
He couldn’t freaking breathe, even out here on the patio, cool fresh air wrapping around him on a light breeze. A low conversation buzzed about them, punctuated by the clink of silverware on china and the occasional laugh.
“That I’d make it right if I could and I know there is no making this right. That I love you.” Colt blinked, lashes wet, and his chin trembled before he firmed his lips. “And I miss you.”
“I can’t get in that truck with you.” The words burst from Tick’s mouth in a harsh growl. He snatched up his phone.
“I get it.” Colt lifted his glass, gripping it so tight his knuckles hurt. He was surprised the glass didn’t shatter under the pressure. He sure felt like he was breaking apart. “Sometimes I can’t be in the truck with me.”
“Yeah.” Scowling, Tick slapped the device on the table. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this, Colt?”
Biting the inside of his cheek, Colt shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Even he heard the hushed resignation in his voice, but he had no answers. He’d never had any, not for a long damn time.
Tick grabbed his phone and pushed his chair back. But the cotillion manners were strong, and he tucked his chair under the table before he strode to the exit.
With that unreasonable anger stirring under his sternum, Colt didn’t look after him. He’d tried apologizing, making things right, the same as he did that night, with the same result. They were done.
For good.
Chapter Twenty
Colt wasn’t answering his phone.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, Holly pushed open the driver’s door. His truck waited in the drive and Ralph ran circles around the backyard, so he was home. Casting a glance at the parcels stacked in the back seat, she swung the door closed. He could help her unload once she ran him to ground, although some of that probably needed to be at her house.
Really, keeping two households was crazy, since they spent their nights together at one house or the other. They should pick a permanent base and move in together. The idea warmed her and provoked a simultaneous sense of terror if her mama found out.
Mona would die.
Pondering all the creative ways she could keep Mama from realizing she was living with a man in sin – and a lot of what they did together was purely, wonderfully sinful – she let herself in, the cabin quiet and dim. “Colt?”
On the rug in front of the hearth, Polo thumped her tail on the floor but didn’t bother to get up. Spoiled little princess.
“Hey, sweet girl.” Holly crouched to rub Polo’s soft ears. Maybe he was in the shower.
She rose, casting a glance around. He’d dumped his clubs by the door, golf shoes a haphazard sprawl next to the bag. She frowned at them on her way to the bedroom. The man was obsessively tidy, always had been, and that really wasn’t like him. She paused in the doorway.
“Colton.”
No sound of running water from theen suite, his keys, wallet and phone dumped on the bed. Foreboding crept down her spine. He always dropped his keys and wallet in the handcraftedleather bowl on the dresser, the one with the brass plate engraved with his initials, the one that had been a gift from his mama.
