That wasn’t even a lie, it was the truth.
His eyes dropped and I reached for the handle again.
“Stay with me,” he blurted out, and I froze.
“What?” I whipped my head back to him.
“Stay with me,” he repeated. “Notwithme. You don’t have to stay in my bed. I have plenty of room.”
My heart sank. Of course, he wasn’t offering for me to stay with him, for us to be together. He was worried about me, and he wanted me under his roof. He’d always been protective of me.
“I’ve missed you. We can talk. Catch up.” He paused. “Honestly, I could use the help with the girls, so you’d be doing me a favor.”
As tempting as it was to say yes, because honestly, there was no other place I would rather be than under Adam Knight’s roof. I had to have some self-respect. Also, taking pride completely out of the equation, my feelings for Adam were too strong, too complicated. I’d never gotten over him the first time he left. I knew there was no way I’d be able to handle it again. Ego aside, I had to deny myself what I wanted most now for what would be best for me later.
“Please, Billie. I know it’s my fault, but I havemissedyou so much.”
Fuck. When he put it like that…
“O—” The first syllable of my agreement had left my lips when his phone rang.
We both looked down where it sat in the console, and I saw that it was Genesis calling. My stomach dropped out from under me. “You should get that.” I gestured towards it.
“Billie, stop.” He tried to grab my arm, but I pulled it away, unlocked the door and opened it as I grabbed my purse.
He was out and around to my side like he was Sonic the Hedgehog. Honestly, I had no clue how he did that. By the time I stepped out, he was standing in front of me.
“Genesis and I are done,” he insisted.
I tried to walk between him and the SUV, heading to the back of the truck to get my bags. “You can’t just be done, like that, youjustbroke up tonight.”
He blocked me. “It wasn’t that serious.”
I sighed. “You were together for three years.”
“It wasn’t that serious,” he repeated.
I moved around him again to go get my overnight bag. “You were going to move to London for her.”
“It wasn’t that serious,” he maintained as he once again stepped in front of me.
My hands flew up in frustration at his defensive moves, at this point we were just dancing. “How can you say that?”
“Easy, she wasn’tyou.”
I stared up at him, and my mouth opened and then closed. It opened again and then closed. I wasn’t sure what to say to that.
His lips curled at the edges as he lifted his hand and cupped my cheek. “No smart comeback for that, huh?”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to slap him or kiss him. Probably both. Definitely both. I didn’t get the chance to do either.
“You’re back!”
“You’re home!”
The twins’ shouts burst the bubble we were floating in. I stepped away from him, and his hand fell down to his side. We both watched as the girls raced towards us and launched themselves into his arms. Witnessing him hold them, one on each side, made my chest hurt in a way that was entirely new and, frankly, unwanted.
“They checked out the window and saw your SUV in the driveway,” Carly explained as she walked out onto the porch.
