“I’m not even sure how to start, but I’m going to try to get my feelings into words. Will you at least hear me out?”
She nodded slowly, not because she agreed, or was necessarily interested in his about-face, but because she knew this moment needed to happen. It was time. She didn’t care about answers, but she yearned for an ending that didn’t feel like absolute rejection.
Will took a step forward, invading her personal space. “I really messed things up.”
She stared at him, her lips pressed together, waiting for at least a meager apology rather than a confession. It was clear he’d messed things up. Now, would he be a man and tell her how sorry he was?
“You and I met so young…” He paced. “I got to Nashville, found a few new friends, and began to make a name for myself. I didn’t know who I was yet.”
He looked over at her, but she didn’t budge from her cautious stance.
“I couldn’t be a good husband when I didn’t know who I was.”
“I’m the same age as you are, andIdidn’t stray,” she said. Her limbs wobbled, but she stood firm, trying not to let the humiliation that had saturated her very being show.
He sat on the bed and put his face in his hands. “I know,” he said, his words muffled. “I screwed up.”
“I’m sorry. Have I missed something? The last real conversation we had was to get me to sign over the house I’d put all our hopes and dreams into, to give it away to the woman who stole my entire life. And now, suddenly you’re here, without her. You’ve skipped a few steps. Want to catch me up?”
“I broke up with her.”
“Why?” Emily asked, suspicious of his motives. She had every right to be guarded. She didn’t know who he was anymore.
He patted the bed next to him, but she stood her ground.
“Come on, Em. At least sit down.”
With a deep breath, she climbed onto the bed, but scooted up near the head, putting a pillow in her lap.
“You being here in the middle of a tropical storm freaked me out. I realized I didn’t want to lose you.”
She squinted at him in confusion. “You left me. I wasn’t yours anymore, so you had nothingtolose.”
He looked at his lap. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said in an exasperated whisper. “The thing with Lanie started as a minor flirtation. It exploded into more, and before I knew it, I was sneaking around behind your back. I felt awful about it, Em. I’d done the deed, so the only way to do the right thing was tobreak it off with you so you could find someone who would treat you better, and then I tried to make good on what I’d started with Lanie.”
“I never realized you were such a weak individual,” she said.
“I didn’t either. But it happened. I thought if I acted awful to you that you’d leave, find someone else, and I could feel a smidge less horrible for having let you go.”
Tears swelled in her eyes, and she cleared her throat.
“I figured Lanie and I deserved each other. But you didn’t deserve any of it.”
Look at him, acting as if he’d done some heroic feat in setting me free.Did he really think she was going to believe it? “You still haven’t answered why you suddenly wanted me back when you thought I was in harm’s way.”
“Because I was with her for the wrong reasons. I liked the newness of the way she looked at me, how she didn’t know all my little dark places yet. Things started to snowball. She got this big idea about living together, and I didn’t know if I was ready for all that, but she kept on. I let things go too far, asking you to give up the house, trying to hold on to the thing that had been so important at the time that I’d ruined my upcoming marriage for it. But when it came down to it, I didn’t love her. I had to put a stop to all of it, whether I get you back or not.”
“I signed the documents, so the house belongs to you and whomever you choose,” she said.
“You did?”
The drop in his voice almost made her falter.
“So now—what?—you’re here all weekend with Rocko and Tyson?”
“Yeah,” he said, looking as if he was about to be sick. “I imagined this going differently.”
She tilted her head, shaking it in bafflement. “Why would you imagine anything other than this reaction from me?”
