Page 121 of Knot So Social

“You what?”

I circle around my ex and go into the garage, pulling flattened boxes from a pile in the back to pack.

Her voice turns to ice. “That’s really all you came for?”

“Yeah. That’s all.”

“You’re a real piece of work, Joel Williams!” Tracey sets her hands on her hips. “Gone for a week with no word, but now you show up for your junk?”

“That’s how it is,” I say, stuffing my old sports gear and excess tools into boxes. Apparently everything I own is trash; sounds about right for Tracey. She never did want anything of mine inside the house, but at least that means it’s all out here for me to grab.

“What about me?” Tracey demands.

“What about you?”

She screeches in frustration. “You can’t do this to me! You just can’t.”

I pause and turn to look at her over my shoulder. “I’m not the one who started this.”

Her face turns red. “Hands off,” she snaps when I reach blindly for the picnic basket. “That’s mine.”

For the next fifteen minutes she shadows me, nitpicking over everything as I try to pack a lifetime into a handful of cardboard. Her continuous tirade impresses me, covering everything from women’s rights to her work hours.

Task completed, I pause by the entrance to look around. Jock’s leash lays over a crate instead of on the hook, exactly where I left when I last walked him. I snatch it up.

“I’m taking the dog,” I announce, touches of the day’s simmering aggro leeching through.

Tracey backs up a step, staring at me.

“Fine,” she huffs out. “Like I want the stinking mutt anyway.”

Something inside me twists as I turn for the side gate. I didn’t make a mistake; Tracey’s not the person I thought she was when we dated.

Jock, oblivious to anything but the leash in my hand, bounds in the air like a rodeo mustang, his big paws thumping the dirt.

“Calm down, you goose,” I mutter, holding him down bodily to get the leash clipped on. He’s not nearly as well-mannered as Willow’s goldie.

I load him into the back with the boxes, worried he’ll climb all over me while I drive if I let him in the front. Tracey stands rigidly in the drive as I get in.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.” I shrug and start the ignition. “My lawyer will be in touch about the assets.”

She surges forward, fists thumping into my window. “I hate you, Joel Williams! I fucking hate you!”

The glass quivers with the force.

I stare for a moment, her once-pretty face marred with rage. An equal anger simmers inside my chest, squeezing my lungs. But her outburst tells me she’ll never accept responsibility for what she did. I wasted nearly two years of my life loving this woman.

No more. With a big effort, I force back the alpha intensity until I can answer her calmly.

“I never hated you. But I’m glad I’m free now.”

I throw the van in reverse and back away slowly. My car’s loaded to the roof, but I’ve never felt lighter. Old ties severed, clean and strangely painlessly. I thought my life was ending when I found out she cheated on me. Now I’m glad it came to light before we married.

As I accelerate, I hear skidding in the back. I snort.

Best part is, I kept the dog. Jeremy will be ecstatic.