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“It’s what she wanted,” I growl.
“Was it? Because she only had eyes for you.”
“I fucking know that now.” I can’t even look up at the man. The black eye is making me feel guilty.
“So you fucked up?”
“Big time,” I confess. “I pushed it, teased her with it, thinking I could use it as the final nail in the coffin. That seeing her with another man would make me realize that I don’t love her.”
“Love doesn’t work that way. That’s how people get dead.”
I huff a humorless laugh. “I came really close when you opened that damn door earlier.”
He doesn’t laugh, sensing my seriousness. “She’ll turn up, eventually.”
“I can’t—”
He holds his hand up in front of me. “I’ll stay here as long as you want. I’ll go back to New Mexico if it makes you sick to look at me after last night. Whatever you want, man.”
“I’m not sick at the sight of you.” The regret swimming around inside of me is of my own creation, not anything he did.
“Well, if you’re expecting me to come up with a game plan, you’re gonna be disappointed. Without Max’s help, I don’t know how to find her. Hopefully, she’ll listen to the hundred messages you’ve left and finally reach out to you.”
“I left one fucking message,” I clarify. “And a couple texts, but that’s—”
My phone buzzes across the table with an incoming call from a Denver area code.
“Hello?” I snap, answering it immediately.
“Grinch?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s Gus from Hale-ish.”
Oh God, did she go back to the club? Why in the world would she do that?
“Your kitten wandered up on my parents’ front step this morning.”
“Grace is there?” I ask, knowing exactly who he’s referring to. “Is she okay? What’s the address?”
“I don’t know what you did to make her end up at my parents’ house in the cold without a jacket, man.”
“I didn’t—” I stop short because I’m not going to lie. I’ve done a lot of things, many of them omissions of my own feelings.
“But,” he continues, “I spoke with Kincaid. That’s how I got your number. He assures me you’re a good man. I suggest you get here quickly because I’m not, and I have a thing for sad women.”
He hangs up the phone, and I yell a curse, but then my phone vibrates again with the address.
“We have to go,” I tell Ugly as I stand and pull money out of my wallet.
“I’m going to stay,” he says. “I don’t think it’s going to help her if I’m there. She doesn’t need a reminder of what she did last night. Pick me up at the hotel when you’re done.”
I don’t bother arguing with the man. I bolt from the café and climb into the SUV.
She’s over twenty minutes away on the other side of town, and it takes forever with the Sunday traffic as everyone is looking for a place to eat after Sunday church services.
Kaleb and Josie Perez’s home is cute and modest, snow covering the front yard, driveway, and sidewalk leading to the front door.
Gus, the asshole who just threatened to take a shot at Grace, opens the door before I can knock. I glare at him, fists clenched at my sides.
“If you love her so much, why did you let her leave?” he asks, reading my anger for exactly what it is.
I can’t answer him because it doesn’t even make sense to me.
“You fucked up.”
“So everyone keeps pointing out. Where is she?”
“In the dining room with my parents, eating breakfast. Keep in mind this is my mother’s home, and I won’t stand for any disrespect.”
I nod, shoving past him into the house, following the sound of laughter and voices to the dining room.
Kaleb notices me first, nodding in my direction. I don’t know what she’s told them or what Gus may have relayed about her being in Denver, but I can’t worry myself with it right now.
“Grace,” I whisper, my voice clogging in my throat. “Grace.”
I manage to say it loud enough the second time that she hears me, turning around in her chair to find me standing just inside the room.
“Trenton? What are you doing here?”
“We’ll give you two some privacy,” Josie says as she and Kaleb stand.
We keep our eyes locked as they leave, and I find myself unable to speak even after they’re gone.
“Why are you here?” she asks, her hands toying with the cloth napkin in her lap.
“Because I love you.”
Her head begins to shake.
“Don’t do that. You asked and I’m answering. I love you. I loved you when you ripped my heart out of my chest and walked away from me twelve years ago. I somehow convinced myself I didn’t, but I can’t deny it any longer.”
“Last night—”
“Last night happened, and I won’t dwell on it, but it doesn’t change a damn thing. The only thing that makes any difference right now is if you tell me to get lost. I will. I’ll leave, but it won’t be the last of me, Grace. I walked away too easily last time, and I won’t make the same mistake again.”
