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“How’s your head this morning?” he asked, sliding a bottle of Tylenol in her direction.
“I have an African safari stampeding through it.”
“Do you think you’re going to die?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
His hand came down on her wrist, trapping it to the table. “I’m seriously contemplating murdering you.” She struggled to break his hold, but his grip tightened.
“Reece, that’s my bad wrist. You’re hurting me.”
“A sore wrist should be the least of your worries right now.”
She froze. “Why?”
“Do you know the hell you’ve put me through? I was trying to find you for days.”
She frowned. “Why? If my foggy brain remembers correctly, you ceased caring about me.”
He eased his grip. “I never said that.”
“You called off our engagement, Reece. What else was I supposed to think?”
“You’re supposed to think I had a good reason for saying what I did.”
She yanked her arm back, rubbing away the soreness. “I know you have a good reason. You don’t want me anymore. I’m too needy, too demanding . . .”
“Too damn neurotic.” He forcefully shot away from the table. “You have this overwhelming sense of inferiority when it comes to us. You’re never going to think you’re good enough for me, are you?”
“I thought I was,” she mumbled. “I thought things were good with us, but we’d been arguing. The next thing I knew, you were jilting me on national TV. I had no idea what was happening or why. I hadn’t spoken to you in three days, Reece. Then boom. We’ve decided we don’t suit.”
“I never said we didn’t suit.”
She ignored him. “And then, not two minutes later, my mother is on the phone, yelling at me about her ruined plans. The love of my life just dumped me, and she was worrying about the money wasted on crab cakes and pork bar-b-cue.” She noticed he was trying not to laugh. “It’s not funny. Why couldn’t her first thought be about me and my feelings, instead of what other people would think?”
He sobered. “I can’t answer that. Why couldn’t your first thought be to call me instead of running away?” He moved back to the table, leaning on his fists. “You’ve put me through hell.”
“I put you through hell?” She snorted. “That’s rich, coming from you. Let me give you a brief walk through of our history together. You say you’re only using me to pass the time. You accuse me of trying to steal your home. You steal my manuscript. You trick me into an engagement. You tell me I’m needy, neurotic, and break up with me in front of the entire nation and the world. Does that about sum it up for you?”
Reece sat down, pulling his chair close toward hers. “I only told Marcus that because I didn’t want him to know the truth about us.”
“You were embarrassed about being with me.”
“No, crazy woman, I didn’t want him trying to control our relationship the way he controlled everything else in my life.” He raked his hand through his hair. “Secondly, I didn’t know my mother sold the cottage to you until Marcus told me. By then, he was trying to separate us by any means necessary. Third, I didn’t steal your manuscript. We both know the guilty party in that scenario. Fourth . . .”
“No need to continue with this, Reece, we know you have an . . .”
He grabbed her chin, forcing her to silence. “You’re going to be quiet. You’re going to let me have my say. You’ve laid a lot of accusations at my feet. I have a right to defend myself.” He released her. “Fourth, I didn’t trap you into an engagement.”
She slapped his hand away. “Was I in my right mind when you asked me to marry you? Did you even ask me? I wouldn’t know. I was so out of it, I don’t remember anything. For all I know, this engagement was a scam to build publicity for the movie and enhance your career.”
His mouth gaped open for half a second. Did she really believe that? “We’re going to come back to number four in a minute. Fifth and last, I had a very good reason to break up with you. I wanted the press out of our lives for a while. I figured, if all the media outlets thought we were through, they’d leave us alone, so we could get back to each other. I had plans set in motion for us.”
“If that were true, why did you keep me in the dark? I was blindsided! I was in my room that night, thinking how lucky I was to have you in my life. Five minutes later, you’re on the air destroying everything we had together.”
He winced. “Maybe I should have given you a heads up, Nicole, but I wanted to surprise you.”
She stood, carrying her mug to the sink. “I was surprised, all right.” She turned around, leaning against the counter. “I went from being on top of the world to being sunk like the Titanic. Thank you, Mr. Collins.” She moved toward the kitchen door.
