I roll my eyes. “Didn’t think so.
Turning quickly down a corner, he hurries once again to catch up.
He’s quiet for a moment before he speaks.
“One of these days, sweetheart, I am going to tell you everything I’ve been wanting to say for ten years, and you’ll finally have to admit, we were never a fucking mistake.”
I stop abruptly once again. This time, he meets my determined stance.
“So spill it, Rex. Tell me. Where were you? Why did you not show? You left me all alone, all alone when….” I trail off, remembering the magnitude of what that night brought me. “Did you love her? Because God knows you never loved me. Or, at least you never had the balls to say it.”
He takes a few steps closer. Even though I’m pissed, I’d be a lying fool if I said I didn’t want him to close the distance and kiss me then take me back to his place and erase our past with nothing but promises of our future. But I know he won’t. Tigers don’t change their stripes, and Rex never had the balls to grow up and give me what I needed most.
“When you’re finally ready to listen, Gwen, I’ll tell you,” he whispers, catching me off guard.
A few moments pass while we stand in the light of a nearby street lamp and stare into each other’s eyes. The truths we both hold are screaming loudly to be heard, but neither of us is ready to take the leap, to say what we have needed to say for ten damn years.
I hold his stare, daring him to tell me. Wanting him to finally get it out in the open, but knowing ultimately he’s right. I’m not ready to hear him, and a part of me fears I might never be. Not when all that consumes my thoughts is the question of how long he intends to stay this time.
Always living his life wild and free, I’m not sure anyone will ever tame Rex Roberts.
When neither of us says anything for another tense moment, Rex blurts out, “Kiss me.”
Blinking a few times, I take a step back and laugh. “What?”
He smiles and takes a step forward. “I said, kiss me. Just try it. Maybe you’ll like it. Maybe it will finally stop the lies and webs of bullshit we’ve spent years building between us.”
Shaking my head, I smile. “Not today, Roberts.”
“So, one day?” he grins. “That wasn’t a no.”
I start walking back towards the party, and Rex follows. “We’ll see.”
He laughs and grabs my hand. “You can’t blame a guy for trying.”
My steps falter slightly as I wonder if I should let him take my hand or pull it away like I know deep inside I need to. But then he does something I wasn’t expecting. He brings my hand up to his lips and kisses it gently before draping it through his arm and pulling me closer. My heart skips a small beat at the gesture, and so I let him hold me close, all the time wondering if I just might let him in after all these years.
I know the longer I stay around him it’s inevitable. The more I spend time with him, the more the facade I’m trying to keep up will crumble.
“See, Gwen, it doesn’t hurt you to be close to me.”
I know he’s right. What’s more, I know the longer I stay around him after all we’ve been through, there will come a day I can’t deny the hunger I feel inside any longer. I will cave. And I’m already kicking myself in the present for a mistake I know I will make in the future.
No - by outward appearances, anyone would guess it doesn’t seem to hurt being this close to him. But no one can see what it’s doing to my heart.
8
Rex
“I’m telling you, Michael, these numbers don’t lie. Unless we come up with some other plan, we are not going to be able to pull together half of the funds we need to open this stupid ass club you conspired to franchise with a douchebag friend from my past,” I yell into my phone as I start to pace the empty hall of the huge partly-built club in question.
The thought of Eric and his goal to make Gwen his, makes my already fueled anger skyrocket.
Michael sighs on the other end and I look up to the ceiling before glancing back at all the work that still needs to be done to this shit hole before opening night in one month. There is no way in hell I can see us making that deadline, and I don’t just have Michael and Eric breathing down my neck - I have to deal with Gwen as well.
Since our little encounter last week on the banks of the river, Gwen, ever the tease, has done everything in her power to make working together a difficult task. Her tight skirts and partially unbuttoned blouses have made holding out on taking her again damn near impossible. Not only that, but I know she has a big promotion riding on this place opening on time, and damn it if I can’t pull together the workers and funds needed to make that dream of hers a reality.
“Our numbers are higher than last year in Auburn, and Nashville looks like it is making a turn this month,” Michael says. “We should be able to pull this off. From what I see, this club is supposed to be a bigger moneymaker than our others and can wipe away a lot of our debt in the first couple of months it is open. Go back to the numbers again and try to make it work.”
