I chewed hard on my lower lip, taking in my worn jeans. I’d dressed for comfort in the sneakers with the arch support that I wore most days, thanks to the hours on my feet. My shirt was one of my nicer ones, but that wasn’t saying much. It was a button-up blouse I’d purchased from an online thrift shop, already secondhand. But I’d liked the fluted neck and the slim cut that I thought accentuated my figure.
“Keelie?” she called.
I jerked, barely keeping myself from banging against the wall. My heart fluttered. I couldn’t talk to this woman—we weren’t in the same league. No wonder Cormac wanted her.
“I know you’re home. I heard you… Look, I just want to talk. I need to explain what you walked in on earlier. Please let me in.Please, Keelie. Mac doesn’t deserve to be punished for my mistakes.”
I shoved my palms against my aching stomach, unsure how to handle this newest hell of a situation.
“Let her in,” Ida Jane hissed from the kitchen.
I scowled at her, but she scowled back with just as much ferocity.
“He loves you, Keelie,” Shannon said. “He told me so right after he asked me to go home.”
Before I realized I’d done it, I opened the door even as I glowered at the taller, glamorous woman. I was above-average height, but Shannon Lavoie Bouchard had three inches on me at least—more in her heels.
“Then why are you here?” I asked.
“Because I couldn’t leave knowing I was the reason for the mess between the two of you.” She sighed, her eyes glistening with tears. “I’ve always loved Mac, and I always will. He was a wonderful boy who turned into a magnificent man.”
Hot jealousy slid its sharp edge through my chest and into my belly. She had so much history with him. How could I ever compete?
I started to shut the door, but she gripped the frame, her slim fingers turning white. Shannon wasn’t in control of her emotions. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and her cheeks blotchy.
She cleared her throat. “Cormac was always going to shine.Always. If I wasn’t careful, I’d be left in his shadow. I made it into a competition he didn’t know we were having. He wanted kids, but I postponed, put him off because I knew if I became a mother, I’d have to give up what I’d created for myself. So I pushed him away, divorced him in order to give myself space to come into my own. But now…” She swallowed. “He’s moved on.”
She said this as if it were a shock of unimaginable proportions. Part of me wanted to know what man would turn his back on Shannon, too, but a much larger part of me rallied around Cormac. She’d hurt him, thrown him away—embarrassed him. And she’d expected him to wait until she was ready for more. My hands clenched. Him getting serious about me appeared to have been that catalyst. I studied her…and saw anger that I’d taken her favorite toy.
“You always planned to take him back,” I said, “like he was a dog on a long leash.”
My anger caused her to flinch, her throat working as she struggled for control. Her lips trembled as she failed.
Oh, hell. She wasn’t evil; she was self-absorbed. And right now, her world lay shattered around her. My empathy kicked in hard, just like it did with my students. I opened the door further and took her arm, leading her to the armchair in my small living room. I plopped back down on the hand-me-down couch and offered her a tissue from the box on the coffee table.
“If you love him, and you still want him, why are you willing to give him up?” Her showing up, telling me this didn’t make sense.
She sniffled, dabbing at her eyes. “Because I don’t want kids more than I do want Mac,” she said.
My hand fell to my stomach, fingers curling protectively around the nonexistent bump.
She offered a wan smile as her gaze rose from my palmed belly to my face. “I see you don’t have that issue.”
I shook my head. We stared at each other. “May I ask…why?” I asked.
She shrugged and sighed. “Who knows? I just don’t. At all. The idea…” She shuddered. “We tried for a while, a few months before I served him papers.”
I worked hard not to flinch at the idea of Cormac and Shannon together like that. I wanted to rip her eyes out and scream, vanquishing my foe. But—wow, I was bloodthirsty. How shocking. I clasped my hands together to keep from lashing out.
“When I realized he was serious about you, I couldn’t stand it.” She ripped the tissue. “His mother made it seem like he was just angry, getting even with me, that all I had to do was show him I wanted him back. So I concocted this plan where I’d give him a child—one—and I could continue to live my life, but with him as my husband. I had it all planned out.” Her laugh was watery, filled with recrimination. “I never asked him if that’s somethinghewanted. I just blew into his place and started talking. I was wrong. I didn’t respect him or you, what you two have built these past few months. And what you saw was my attempt to take him back to a place that wasn’t healthy, all because I don’t want to lose him.” More tears streamed down her cheeks. “He loves you. His first action was to go after you.”
I slid my hands down my front all the way to my knees, my mind whirring. “I don’t know what to say.”
She rose. “There’s nothing for you to say. Just…be better to him than I was.”
She strode to the door and out, clicking it shut behind her.
Ida Jane, Naomi, and Nicole spilled from my kitchen.
