“I… No, Haze. That isn’t what happened…” It hits me. Haze never stopped loving me, I know that deep down, but I pushedhim away. It’s something I’ve tried to ignore, but seeing him here, like this? It brings it all back.
“You don’t have to do this,” he says, his hand curling around his glass. “You’ve had a shit day, let’s just leave it.”
“But I need to tell you.” I’m almost desperate for him to know, even if it is the booze talking, compulsion takes over. “I don’t blame you for leaving.”
“Don’t,” Haze says. “Don’t say that unless you’re comin’ home.”
Tears really well this time. The way he says it… Home. Like he’s been waiting or something, but that can’t be true. Haze is a very attractive man. He has an amazing body, a beautiful smile, and eyes that could render a woman powerless from fifty yards away. I know his charm, even though neither of us strayed in our marriage, there’s no way he hasn’t bedded other women. While I don’t feel as if I have a right to even question that, being we’re separated and have been for years, I still don’t like the idea. “I can’t.”
“You mean you won’t?” He knocks back the rest of his drink. “I know.”
“Austin—”
He holds up a hand. “It’s fine, Wil, you moved on, I guess we both did.”
Guilt washes over me, but I know he doesn’t mean to make me feel that way. He never did. He fought for us in a battle I wasn’t even part of because I didn’t know what I wanted.
Swallowing hard, I let out a slow breath. “I never said I moved on, but we’re different now. We’ve both changed.”
He side eyes me. “You think I could forget about you, baby doll? There’s no fuckin’ way, so don’t think for a second that this is over.” He goes to stand and I tug on his cut.
“Don’t go.”
“I’m not gonna be a pity party.” He waves a hand at me, and it’s one of the few times I’ve seen him mad. Well, as mad as Haze gets with me, which is nothing I can’t handle.
“That isn’t what this is.”
“No?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“A pity fuck?” He snorts. “No thanks. I’d prefer my bed with you in it, but that ain’t happenin’.”
“Stay for another drink, I think we both need it.”
He steels his jaw, then sits his ass back down. He’s not gonna leave me alone in a dive bar, even if I am still in uniform. It’s a curse and a blessing that I know him so well. “One drink, then I gotta bail.”
“Fine, but you’re buying.”
His lips twitch, and by the time he wipes a hand over his face, he smirks. “Spoken like a true queen.”
CHAPTER
THREE
Haze
Just over two years ago
Dive bar
That’s my girl — always able to reel me back in with little effort. I’m a sucker for her, and I always will be, but I’m also nobody’s fool.
She sips on her martini, and I try not to watch her, but I’m like a moth to a flame.
“I don’t want to fight with you,” she says after a while. “We’ve been going over this for a long time, isn’t it time to just let things be?”
“And how do we do that? Avoid each other? Pretty hard now you’re here in the same city.”
