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“Yeah?” He laughed shortly, took a long drink of scotch and said, “Me too. So, did you find some great wedding stuff in Houston?”
“Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Is that right?” His hand tightened around the glass, and even at a distance, she could see his knuckles whiten.
“I didn’t really go to the city to shop.”
He snapped his gaze to hers. “Yeah, I know. See, you weren’t the only one texting me today.”
“What do you mean?” Worry curled in the pit of her stomach and sent long, snaking tendrils spiraling through her bloodstream.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and held it out to her. “Here. Tell me what you think.”
Naomi suddenly didn’t want to know what was on his phone. What had made his eyes so cold and his mouth so relentlessly grim. But she forced herself to walk to him, take the phone and turn it on. The photo was already keyed up.
She and Gio at their shadowy table, leaning toward each other, his hand covering hers. They looked...cozy. Intimate. If she didn’t know what had happened between them, she might believe that they were lovers, intensely focused on only each other.
Oh, God. What he must have thought when he saw this. She took a breath, looked up at him. “Toby—”
“You lied to me.” His features were colder, harder than she’d ever seen them. Even when Sasha left him, he hadn’t looked this closed off. Untouchable.
“I didn’t lie.”
“Semantics. By not telling me you were meeting Gio, you lied to me,” he ground out through gritted teeth. “Damn it, Naomi.”
He whirled around and threw the glass tumbler into the empty fireplace, where it shattered, sounding like the end of the world. Despite the heat of that action, Toby was coldly furious. When he whipped around to look at her, his sea-blue eyes were stormy and glinting with banked fury. “You’re meeting Gio behind my back?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Really?” He pushed both hands through his hair. “Because that’s just what it looks like in that picture. Maverick said I’m a fool, and I’m starting to think he’s right.”
Stunned, she stared at him. “Until now, Maverick was a lowlife. Now you’re ready to take his ugliness over what I’m trying to tell you?” She took a step toward him. She hated that he stepped back, keeping her at bay. “Gio texted me. Said it was important that I meet him. So I went there to tell him to leave me alone.”
“Yeah?” He cocked his head and gave her a sour smile. “You needed a quiet little romantic corner to do that?”
“It wasn’t romantic, Toby.” She couldn’t believe she was having to explain this. And wanted to kick herself for keeping it from him in the first place. “I don’t want Gio. I want you.”
“What’s the matter? Gio not interested? Or, hey, maybe you’re going to keep us both dangling. Is that the plan?” He shook his head and said, “Don’t bother answering that. I don’t need another lie.”
“I’m not lying to you,” she countered. God, she’d handled this all wrong. She should have gone to him, asked him to go to Houston with her. To face down Gio together. Instead, she’d wanted to clean up her own mess, and now it looked as though she’d simply traded one bad situation for a worse one. How could she make him see? Make him understand that he was wrong about all this?
Then she realized what she had to do. What she should have done weeks ago when she’d first admitted the truth to herself. “Toby, I love you.”
He laughed, but the sound was harsh, strained, as if it had scraped along his throat like knives. “God, Naomi, don’t. You really think telling me that is going to convince me?”
Stung, she swallowed the ache and demanded, “Well, what will?”
“Nothing,” he said, staring at her as if she were a stranger.
Naomi’s heart hurt, and her breath was strangled in her lungs. She was losing everything and didn’t know how to stop it. Toby’s gaze was locked with hers, and through her pain, Naomi realized that she wasn’t just hurt, she was insulted. She was closer to him than to anyone she’d ever known. He knew her and he was still going to take Maverick’s word over hers?
She had to reach him. Had to fight for what they had, because if she gave up now, he’d never believe in her. Never accept that she loved him.
“You know me, Toby,” she said and saw his eyes flash.
“Thought I did,” he acknowledged.
“Well, thanks for the benefit of the doubt.” She crossed her arms over her chest and hugged herself for comfort.
