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“He got clean for a while, until he was able to trust himself again. But those three months were really difficult for him. He worked a lot because that was the only thing that could take his mind off you. But he wasn’t working, he was drinking. Women weren’t around, so he didn’t have that as a distraction.”
I’d pictured Bones with all the women who’d slept in his bed after I left. When I’d touched the sheets, a part of me wondered how many women had been in that exact spot. I’d tried not to focus on it, knowing Bones had every right to do whatever he wanted, but it killed me all the same. Hearing this revelation chased away the acid that burned in my stomach. “What do you mean, women weren’t around?”
“I mean it exactly as it sounds,” he said. “He wasn’t with anyone when you were apart.”
I couldn’t wipe the surprise from my face. So much relief washed through me, like a river cleansing my veins.
“He didn’t tell you that either?”
I shook my head. “I never asked. I didn’t want to know.”
“Well, now you know. At the end of the three months, he said he needed some closure, so he drove to Florence to see you. I told him not to go, told him it was a stupid idea, but he went anyway. A part of him had hoped that you would somehow convince your father to accept him, and when that didn’t happen, he struggled to let go.”
I hung on to every word. “Did he go?”
He nodded. “He stopped outside your gallery and saw you with your boyfriend.” He didn’t stare at me with accusation, but he didn’t give me a friendly look either.
“Oh no…”
“He watched you two hold hands and look at your paintings. Then he drove off and came back here.”
“No.” I covered my face with both of my palms, humiliated that Bones had known about Antonio the entire time. He saw us together and probably made the wrong conclusions, that I was sleeping with someone else, that I was in love with someone else. I pulled my hands off my face and then stiffened. “Wait…he saw me with someone else, and he still helped my family?” I gave Max an incredulous look, unable to believe what I was hearing. “After everything my family did to him? After seeing me with someone else?”
He shrugged. “I said the same thing to him, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was you.”
I ran my hand through my hair as I stared at Max. I looked into his eyes without really seeing him, only feeling his expression stare back at me. Just when I felt a moment of happiness, it was taken away from me. Bones had always loved me, had loved me in a way no one else ever had. My father said he wanted me to be with a man who would love me more than he did…and Bones had always been that person. The time we spent apart never should have happened.
We always should have been together.
“I hate to be rude, Max, but could you leave?”
He smiled then winked. “I’m on it.” He walked into the elevator then disappeared.
I headed down the hallway, my heart beating just as fast as the first time I saw Bones in that hospital room. I never doubted my love for him, and I knew he never doubted his love for me. Antonio was a man who was better suited for me, and Bones was the worst possible choice for a husband, but that didn’t matter. I loved him with my whole heart, wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, and I would never let anyone break us apart ever again.
I stepped into his office and saw him stacking the last of his rifles inside the hard silver case. He was wearing a black t-shirt with black jeans, and his fair skin contrasted against the dark color, but his ink matched it too. He shut the lid and locked it before his eyes moved up to meet my expression. It seemed like he was going to say something, but when he saw the look on my face, he changed his mind. A rigid expression came over his features, and he watched me with intensity, waiting for me to make my move. He had no idea what I was thinking or what had triggered my deep reaction, but he knew it was something.
He lowered his hands to his sides and kept staring at me, waiting for me to make my move.
My eyes filled with moisture, impending tears that I never asked for. They coated my eyes and slightly blurred my vision. There was no reason to cry, not when I should only be happy. But Bones never failed to surprise me, to shock me to my very core. He was the first one to admit he loved me, and he’d said it without shame or hesitation. He didn’t care about the stakes. He didn’t care about the wrath of my family. He didn’t care about the gun my father pointed in his face. Bones stood by me from the beginning, being the most loyal man I’d ever known. His past was irrelevant when he had become such a noble person. His father had caused a deep rift in my family, but Griffin changed his legacy by becoming a man who earned my father’s respect—which was nearly impossible.
