“I come from West Texas. A ranch,” she said.
Remembering Cormac’s healthy, nutrient-packed meals, I ordered the mole salmon.
“Tell me about this guy,” I said. I gestured toward her cheek. “The ex. And Maxim.”
As we worked our way through the chips and dip, then our main course, Ida Jane caught me up.
When our plates were clean, I wiped my lips and tossed my napkin on the table. “You’re not going to a hotel,” I said.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go—”
“You do,” I said. I sucked in a deep breath. “You can stay with me or—” I raised my hand when she opened her mouth. “I can call Cormac and ask him to let us stay at his place. It has good security.”
She glanced down at her lap. “I don’t know. I’m not used to taking…”
“I get that. These guys are a whole new level, both of intensity and lifestyle. But they also care.”
She licked her lips. “I’m scared. And I feel alone.”
My heart thrummed. Those were words I should have said to Cormac. Ida Jane, a woman who barely knew me, had already opened up more to me than I had to the man who’d shown me romance…and love.
Yes, love.
And I’d already fallen hard for him.
Chapter39
Cormac
Isat in my mother’s kitchen, staring at the rooster wallpaper that had graced the walls since the late ’90s. It peeled a little in places, but overall, the house was immaculate—a time capsule of my teenage years. My trophies continued to sit in the glass-front case in the living room. Pictures from my wedding to Shannon were on the mantel.
Nothing had changed since my last visit—least of all my mother’s ridiculous belief that Shannon and I would reconcile and start popping out grandbabies.
She’d even brought out a list of names—names!—for these kids I’d never have.
I didn’t want a family with Shannon, not now. And I didn’t want my parents involved in my potential kids’ lives—not if they were this unbending about my happiness.
And I was sure I never wanted my mother to talk to Keelie. I remained unsure of how badly her parents’ failed marriage had wounded Keelie, but clearly their selfishness had hurt her. I refused to allow my mother’s narrow views to do more damage.
I loved Keelie too much to put her feelings at risk. And my mother would not change her mind about Keelie. I was becoming more certain of that by the moment.
I turned to face my mother again. “You’re saying it doesn’t matter that I love Keelie. That I want a future with her?”
“She’s not your wife. Shannon is,” my mother said. She sat stiff and straight in her chair. My dad hunched in his. Why did he put up with her BS?
Why had I? “She asked me for a divorce, which I granted, and Shannon doesn’t want kids,” I told her again. “Hell, she doesn’t want me. We’re not right for each other. I see that now.”
“She always loved you, Mac,” my mother said, as if I hadn’t spoken. “And as for the children… You were young.”
“And you wouldn’t stop pushing,” I snapped.
“Don’t speak to your mother like that,” Dad said.
Of the two of them, Dad was more level-headed. These days he was a grayer, paunchier version of me, and I didn’t love the peek into my future. My father wasn’t a wicked man, but he’d devoted his life to my successes, which meant he’d given up his own chance at living.
As much as I cared about them, they would not hear me. What a waste of time.
I rose. “I won’t again.”
