Instead, I just watched him press the device to his ear. “Yeah?”
Alex’s voice poured faintly through the phone, tinny but frantic. Even without being able to make out all the words, I could hear the tension. I stared out the windshield, fingers twisting in my lap as Trent went still beside me.
“Already?” he muttered. “Fuck, that’s faster than we thought.”
Another pause. Trent’s jaw clenched, a slow, pulsing grind like he was trying to hold something down. Finally, he exhaled sharply through his nose. “I’ll come after Labor Day.”
A beat. “No. Not before.”
Another beat. “I said no.”
He hung up without waiting for a response, and in the aftermath, silence filled the cab, thick enough to suffocate me. Blowing out a heavy breath, he scrubbed both hands over his face, then dropped them hard against his thighs.
“News of our marriage has spread to your dad. According to Alex, he’s pretty mad. He’s demanding an audience with me.”
I tried to swallow the lump in my throat, heat prickling behind my eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push or to ruin your morning. I shouldn’t have asked?—”
His head snapped toward me. “Stop.”
The command in his voice froze me rock solid. His hand slid over and closed around my thigh, his fingers warm and steady. The grip wasn’t gentle. It was deliberate, reassuring, and possessive in a way that made my body come alive.
“You didn’t ruin anything,” he said quietly. “Not a damn thing.”
I stared at him, trying to understand. He let out a breath, those blue eyes intently fixed on me. “Look, I don’t want her to be a thing between us, so here’s the truth. I loved the idea of Savannah, you know. The thought of her. A warm home. Kids. All that domestic bliss bullshit. Everything my parents are.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, anxiety creeping back up my spine. “And?”
He kept his hand on my thigh, his thumb dragging across it in a thoughtful pattern as his expression shifted into something wry. Almost amused. “In the end, she checked every box except one.”
My pulse hammered. “Fidelity?”
He barked out a laugh. “Yeah, okay. That too. So there were two boxes she didn’t check.”
“What’s the other one?”
He huffed another laugh, but it was softer this time, the sound filled with something deeper than just amusement. “She was too fucking nice to me.”
My lips parted as shock tumbled through me. That woman had not seemedniceto me at all. “Too nice? Are you sure?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I never wanted to argue with her. Never wanted to rile her up. I felt like I couldn’t because she was always just so fucking nice.”
“You didn’t want her to be?”
He shrugged. “She didn’t challenge me. Never pushed back. She didn’t take my temper and throw it right back in my face like someone else I know.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. “Oh.”
He smirked. “Yeah. Oh.”
I laughed before I could stop myself, an ungraceful bark of sound, and immediately slapped a hand over my mouth, but it was too late. He must’ve heard it, but instead of looking away, or being angry, or laughing with me, he just kept going.
“And you haven’t been nice,” he said, reaching out to put a hand against the side of my throat, cupping it gently. “Not at all.”
Warmth rushed up my neck to my face. “Hey?—”
He didn’t let me finish. His gaze dipped to my mouth, lingering there long enough to make my pulse stutter, then rose back to my eyes, then his fingers were on my cheek, callused but achingly tender as he traced along my jaw like he was learning me.
“I thought I was supposed to want something soft,” he murmured. “Something kind and sweet. That’s what I grew up thinking. That’s what everyone expected. Savannah was all that. At least, she was until she wasn’t, but by then, it was too late. She was in love with someone else and I’d realized I’d never been in love with her.”
