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“Giving in to what?” Hailey asked. “Him being nice?” Her phone pinged again, and she grabbed it, giving the screen her attention.
“I guess it’s something like that,” I said more to myself while she was busy, realizing that despite not being too proud to take the contract, I still didn’t want it to seem like Troy was winning. I had so much to be angry at him about. Not the project anymore—that ship had sailed. I didn’t hold grudges. This time, I was angry that he’d walked out on me the moment I’d told him about the baby.
“I thought that was what you wanted,” Hailey said when I voiced it, putting her phone down. The screen still faced up, and she glanced at it as if she expected another reply. “Wasn’t that why you told him about the baby in the first place?”
“Well, yeah,” I said. “But that’s not the point exactly.”
“Then what is?” Hailey asked.
I sighed and shook my head, sipping the stupid drink that didn’t taste like it had anything going for it without the alcohol added to it.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
Hailey’s phone pinged again.
“Who are you talking to?” I asked, getting irritated that her attention was divided when I wanted to talk to her about what was bugging me.
“You can’t be mad at me, okay?” Hailey said.
I frowned. “What would I be mad at you about—” Before I could finish my sentence, Troy walked through the door and came straight toward our booth like he’d known we were right here.
“What are you doing here?” I asked before I looked at Hailey, who looked guilty. “Did you do this?”
“He asked me to,” Hailey said, as if that made it okay that she’d tricked me. My best friend and my… I didn’t even know what Troy was to me anymore.
“I’m not doing this,” I said, shaking my head. I grabbed my handbag and stood. I realized I couldn’t just run away because we’d come in Hailey’s car—was this why she’d insisted on taking me out, driving even though I wouldn’t be drinking? Troy touched his fingers to my hand.
“Just hear me out, okay?” he asked. “You don’t even have to say anything, and if you still want to leave after it all, then it’s fine, you can go. I just want to say my piece.”
I sighed and sat down again.
“You owe me big time for sabotaging my celebration,” I said, glaring at Hailey.
“I’ll be having shooters at the bar,” Hailey said with a grin, and she walked toward the bar without waiting for a reply. Troy slid into the booth where Hailey had vacated her seat.
“Right now, a shooter sounds great,” I said grimly. “Just in case you didn’t know, being pregnant so I can’t drown my sorrows totally sucks.”
“I’m sorry,” Troy said.
I shook my head. “It’s not forever.”
“I wasn’t just talking about that,” Troy said. “I was talking about… everything.”
I looked up at him, and his face was sincere. He really did look like he was sorry about what had happened.
“It’s in the past,” I said.
Troy shook his head. “It shouldn’t be. I was a total jerk to you. I thought I knew what I wanted, but I was wrong.”
“What do you want?” I asked. My voice had dropped to almost a whisper.
Troy looked at me, his eyes boring into my soul.
“I want you, Mackenzie.”
33
TROY
