“Which is why you should go inside,” Jackson said. “He’s had a rough couple days, and he could really use a friend right now.”
“You’rehis friend,” she said pointedly.
“Yeah. And I could go in there and beat him up and that’d help him out a little. But you know what’d be even better? A friend who could give him some TLC. If you know what I mean.”
She glanced at him wide-eyed. He grinned, his smile bright enough to compete with the snow dusting his woolen cap.
“Do you always talk this way to people you’ve just met?” she said.
“I just call it like I see it. Anyway. I’ll leave you to it. You have yourself a good night.”
With a wink, he melted off into the snow. She gaped after him. When she finally turned back, Nick was facing the window. Staring directly at her.
Her heart slammed against her ribs. Well, now she had no choice.
Nick started toward the door, so she did too, slipping into the bright warmth of the gym. He stopped halfway across the mats. The overhead lights gleamed on his sweat-dampened skin. Bruised shadows collected beneath haunted eyes.
A twinge gripped her chest. “Hi.”
“Hey. Were you just talking to Jackson, outside?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s not coming in?”
She fidgeted. “No. He... uh, left.”
“Huh.” Nick’s feline eyes slitted. “What’d he say to you?”
“Nothing much.” Heat bristled in her cheeks. “Just that you and I should talk. So here I am. Talking. And I wanted to start by saying I’m sorry. About Paige.”
He inhaled sharply and closed his eyes. He didn’t ask how she knew. She wouldn’t have known how to explain, anyway.I can read your pain in the way you move, and somehow it belongs to me, too.
He opened his eyes. “Thank you.”
“Yeah. Are you all right?”
“I don’t know.” He shifted. “I mean, no. Not really. I told Tansy I want a divorce. That I’m moving out.”
Her blood careened to a stop. It shouldn’t have mattered. It didn’t. And yet her mouth didn’t seem to realize that. “Well...then you should probably know I ended things with Gallant. But I’m leaving Henderson. Tomorrow. I got my job at Osos back.”
Nick took a mile-long breath, as if steeling himself. Then his mouth kicked into a brittle smile. “That’s great, Aubs.”
She hesitated. Hope, wicked and cruel, pricked at her heart. He would ask. Any second, he would ask.What are you doing in two years?
“I’ll miss you,” Nick said quietly. “Forever.”
She recoiled, the lights overhead heating to a blistering glare. His words struck her squarely, bringing home a searing realization she couldn’t seem to escape—he’d never fought for her. Not the way she’d fought for him. All he’d ever done was let life tear them apart, then shrugged and walked away. And now here he was, doing it again.
Why had she even come? She couldn’t remember. “I’ll miss you, too,” she choked out, then stumbled back through the door.
Outside, the night assaulted her, doubly frigid the second time around. Snow hissed down in sheets. Her boots flung drifts aside as she fled toward home.
Her pulse thrashed. God, when would she learn? When would she stop throwing herself at someone who continually refused to catch her?
She’d made it a quarter of a mile before Nick’s truck came roaring out of the darkness. Aubrey backed away, against the nearest building, doing her best to meld with the brick. Anything that might buttress her against the hurt curling around her heart.
The truck jerked to a stop. Nick jumped out, leaving his door wide-open. He arrowed toward her through the snow, his face hard. He looked so unforgivingly beautiful that some inner piece of her crumbled.
