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“I’d take a bullet for you.” He leaned in and gave me a chaste kiss.
“Don’t joke about that. I’d never want you to take a bullet for me.”
“But I would. I was shocked, but I’m okay now. I understand why you moved and changed your name. That was your business. So does that mean I can still call you Anna?” He rubbed his nose to mine.
I popped my shoulders up. “Sure. I guess that’s okay.”
“If you prefer Miranda, I can call you that too. I mean, you actually look more like a Miranda than an Anna.” He winked.
“I am kind of attached to my birth name.”
“Miranda it is. I just have one more question.”
“You can ask me anything.”
“Do you love him?”
My chest squeezed tightly. But I wouldn’t lie to Derek. “Yes. But I don’t want to. I feel like a fool for staying with him for so long. I thought he loved me, but it wasn’t enough to end his affair.”
“He did say it wasn’t what it looked like.”
“Yeah, whatever that’s supposed to mean.” I sighed, rolling my eyes. I reached for his hand and entwined our fingers. “I like you, Derek. I like you a lot. And I don’t want to hurt you. I thought Will was my future. I wanted to marry him. He was supposed to be my forever.”
“I understand that. I’ve been in your shoes, you know. I loved Patty with all my heart. I just wasn’t enough or what she wanted, so she left me at the altar for another man.” He lifted my hand and pressed his lips to it. “If you don’t want Will, I’m here. I won’t go anywhere. If you do want to go back to him, I’ll step out of the way.”
This man, he was so understanding and caring. He’d lost the one he loved, just like I had. Perhaps that was why fate brought us together. To heal our broken hearts together and find a new, genuine love where we’d both stay faithful because we knew what it was like to be betrayed.
“I can’t be with an unfaithful man. I couldn’t trust him. But I can’t say I haven’t thought about staying with him if it meant keeping my baby. It would be the most humiliating thing I’d ever done. But I’d do it for my child.”
“You’re going to make an amazing mom.” He kissed my hand again.
“Will you spend the night? I don’t really want to be alone after what happened with Will. But maybe we should slow it down a little.”
“Anything you want. We can go as fast or as slow as you want. I’m just glad you want me to stay.”
I curled into Derek, clinging to him. “I do want you to say.” Even as the words left my lips, I thought of Will, and my heart grieved the loss of him.
23 Will
CHRIST, I FELT out of control. This must have been what my father was talking about. I just proved him right. And fuck did that piss me off.
I drove around Miranda’s neighborhood. Each time I passed her small cottage, that asshole’s truck was still in the driveway. I had expected him to leave by now. It’d been an hour, but he was still there. I parked a few houses down and set up camp. I wanted to know when he left so I could go back and talk to Miranda. I didn’t have a lot of time to get through to her. I had to be back in Los Angeles by Saturday night. Sunday, we were preparing for Jason’s meeting.
Leaving Miranda here with that guy sniffing around her was the last thing I wanted to do. But I needed to put her and her safety first. And my child’s. As my dad and Axel had said, she was safer in Spokane.
My phone buzzed, startling me. I dug it out of my jeans pocket and groaned. “Fucking Axel.” I answered the call. “Yeah?”
“Well?”
“Hello to you too.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Will. I’ve been monitoring you all evening, so I know you were at Miranda’s house.”
I hated always having eyes on me.
“Okay, did you need something?” I was in no mood to play nice.
“Son of a bitch!” Axel growled. “You fucking talked to her, didn’t you?” I heard banging and a loud crash on the other end of the line. “I should have tied your motherfucking ass to a chair!”Crash.
