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“Hey,” Miranda says. Her strapless dress has so many sequins, she might as well be a mirror-ball. I’ve avoided looking at her for most of the night for fear of being blinded.
“This area’s off limits for guests,” I tell her.
“Then it’s a good thing I’m family,” she says. “You’ve done a really good job with this place, you know. Your parents would be proud.”
“Thanks,” I say flatly. Miranda hardly knew my parents, though they practically raised her child.
She saunters around the workshop, peeking inside boxes on her meandering path toward the workbench. Toward me. Setting her wine glass down, she wets her dark-red lips.
“You look really good, too,” she says.
Oh, for fuck’s sake...
“Miranda, don’t embarrass yourself.”
“Come on, Colton. Don’t be like that.” She smiles.
For a second, I can almost see the girl who stole my heart back when we were teenagers. The years have been kind to her, though not giving a shit about anyone but herself probably has a lot to do with that. She never had to stay up all night, worrying about whether Sawyer would make it home okay. Both of us look good for our age, but I’ve grown up while she’s simply grown older.
She tries to press against me. I take a step back.
“Pretty sure I heard your husband calling you,” I tell her.
“Please. Richard and I are so over. We’re filing for an annulment as soon as the courts open up on Thursday.”
“Jesus.” I snicker. “You haven’t changed a bit, have you?”
“Not in the ways that count. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how we used to sneak in here to make out. I’d ride my bike up the hill in the summer, wearing my shortest shorts. You’d take my hand and drag me into the barn...”
She grabs my dick, rubbing lazily. When I don’t get hard, she frowns.
As I reach down to pull her hand off me, the door swings open.
Noelle gasps, her wide green eyes taking in the scene.
“Um...sorry.” She backtracks.
“Noelle,” I call out, but she ignores me. I twist away from Miranda. “It’s not like that... I didn’t touch her.”
But Noelle’s gone before I can reach the door.
“Do you think she’s running off to tell Richard?” Miranda asks.
My frustration expands like a nuclear blast inside me. I slam my hand against the doorframe. It hurts. But I fucking want it to hurt. Noelle probably thinks I’m cheating on her, all thanks to Miranda’s selfishness.
“What do you care what she tells your future ex-husband?” I growl.
“If he thinks I’m cheating on him, he could argue for a fault divorce.”
I shake my head. “God forbid anything’s ever your fault, Miranda.”
“Fuck yourself, Colton. What would you know about it? You’ve never been married. You don’t know what it’s like to pour all your hopes and dreams into someone, only to be disappointed again and again.”
“Don’t I? If memory serves, I asked you to marry me right after Sawyer was born. You couldn’t say yes fast enough. Then, a month later, you disappear, and I don’t hear from you again until he’s almost a year old.”
“I was a kid with a kid!”
“So was I. But you don’t see me blowing into town like a fucking hurricane. Spreading destruction wherever I go. Not caring how it hurts the people around me. Friends. Family. My damn son.”
