Page 129 of On The Edge

Hart.

He’s disengaged.

He shrugs out of my grasp and is at the door in seconds. I need something, anything, to snap him out of this train of thought. To make him hear me. To—

“Cross.” The word is out and his entire body jolts.

He turns and glares at me. His jaw ticking. Tears welling in his eyes. “What the fuck? Who told you about—goddamn Sofia. Trying to make every fucking thing right when all us Navarros can do is be wrong,” he grits out. “You don’t know Cross and you sure as hell don’t get to call me that.”

“Why? Isn’t that who you are? Isn’t that the man I love? The one who dances in the kitchen when he thinks I’m not watching? The one who can glance across the garage at me and I know exactly what he’s thinking? The one who can’t tell me the words he feels but shows me how he feels each and every day? Cross. He’s the man I fell in love with. He’s the man you’ve kept hidden from the world, Cruz, but not from me. I’ve met him. He’s a part of you. And that man? He’s the one I love.”

Silence stretches as seconds feel like hours. “Too bad that man doesn’t exist anymore.” He turns from me and walks out the door without another word. “You sure as fuck just made sure of it.”

It takes everything I have not to go after him.

To beg him.

To convince him that I was going to tell him.

That I am madly in love with him.

That all he had to do was ask me to stay.

But I don’t. I stand on the rooftop in the middle of Monaco with my heart on my sleeve and my emotions ground to a pulp at my feet.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

Maddix

We move like ghosts around the condo.

We don’t exchange words.

We don’t acknowledge each other.

We act like strangers who haven’t been living together for three-plus months.

I give him time. I give him space.

But even with that, he doesn’t react when I need him to. I have a job waiting for me. A dream on hold. A life I know now, more than ever, that I want to live, and it’s a totally different one than I walked in here with. This new opportunity proves it.

But that opportunity has an expiration date on it.

“The CEO of Revive was impressed with your work when you were there,” Kevin says.

“Wow. That’s great.” I glance over to where Cruz is leaning over the tire of the car, Otis at his side, as they point to something I’m clueless over. But I put a finger to my other ear and move out of the noise of the garage so I can hear better.

“It was more of an official call to see if it was okay to poach you from us and offer you a job.”

I freeze momentarily before the excitement starts to surge through me. “Okay.” I draw the word out, not certain what he said, if he’s angry over this, or how I should react.

“I told them that it was one hundred percent up to you, but that you were a valuable asset that would be a perfect fit since you would know both companies.”

A lump forms in my throat. “Thank you. I don’t know what to say.”

“Say yes to them, Maddix. It’s a good opportunity. A huge step up that I can’t offer you right now. One that will put you on a great path, with a promising future. Working with a well-known creative firm under any capacity is huge.”

“I know.” I still can’t wrap my head around it.