“Why now?After all this time?”
I don’t have a good answer for that because the truth is I don’t know why.Maybe my grandfather’s death has made me see things differently.
“Life is short, Amelia.I don’t want to waste what’s left of mine avoiding you when I can spend it loving you.”
Her eyes fill with tears, but they don’t fall.Instead, she laughs—the sound bitter.
“Do you know how many nights I prayed to hear you say those exact words?”She pauses and shakes her head.“Years, Maddox.Years of waiting, hoping you’d tell me exactly what you just said.”
“But you were married.”
“And I was fucking miserable,” she snaps.“You want the truth?Here’s the truth.If you would’ve come to me at any point of my marriage and told me you were sorry, I would’ve left him.The only reason I married Russell was because I got pregnant, and had you showed up at that field, I never would’ve slept with him.”
Her words land like a knife to my chest.I knew she wasn’t happily married for a majority of her marriage, but I didn’t know how their marriage came to be.
“Amelia—”
She cuts me off.“No, I can’t do this,” she whispers.“I just...I can’t.”
“Amelia, please.I had no idea.”
“It doesn’t matter.Look, I don’t want to go back to ignoring you.I really don’t.But I can’t go down that road again.”
I want to object.I want to tell her that she doesn’t have to make any decisions right now.We can go slow.Get to know each other again.Let it happen naturally, because I have no doubt that after all that we confessed to one another, we’ll find our way back to each other.But before I can say anything, the front door opens, and her co-worker saunters into the bar, completely oblivious to us.
“Damn, it’s dead—Oh,” she says, her gaze bouncing from Amelia to me.“Sorry, am I interrupting?”
“No,” Amelia says quickly.“Maddox was just leaving.Good news though.He fixed the bull.”
The girl’s eyes light up.“Finally!”
Amelia’s gaze turns back to me.“You should go.”
There isn’t a single part of me that wants to leave her right now, but I think she needs time to process things.Lord knows I do.
“How are you getting home after your shift?”
“Shadow is sending one of his prospects to pick me up.”
The thought of her on the back of some prospect’s bike makes my jaw clench.
“I’ll be here,” I say.“When your shift ends.I’ll drive you home.”
“That isn’t necessary.”
It is one hundred percent necessary.
ChapterEleven
Amelia
Itoss my makeup bag into the sink and blow the stray hairs away from my face.My eyes catch sight of my reflection in the mirror, specifically at the dark bloom of color that marks my neck, and I flinch.
“Damnit,” I hiss, inching closer to the mirror to get a better look.I want to believe the lighting in the bathroom makes the hickey on my neck look worse than it is, but the bar is dim, and Shadow still noticed, catching me completely off guard.
To make matters worse, I told him I had burned my neck with my curling iron.It seemed like a good cover story until my cousin pointed out that my hair was straight.
Give a girl some dick, and she loses her fucking marbles.
