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"Do what exactly? Have amazing sex? Eat a breakfast I prepared for you?"
"All of it. I’m going to go take a shower, and when I get out, I want you to be gone."
He took a step toward her, but she turned and walked down the hallway. Her breathing was short, and she suddenly felt like she couldn’t catch her breath. Large drops of tears were falling down her face by the time she made it into the bathroom and shut the door.
She froze, waiting to hear footsteps. The hopeless romantic in her wanted him to follow her. To stop her. To burst in and tell her that she was acting crazy and that he loved her.
But this wasn’t a rom-com, and that didn’t happen. She clicked the lock in place and turned the water on. Once she stepped under the shower head, she felt water running down her cheeks that were not coming from the spray.
She did her best not to think about just hours before, when both she and Knox had been in this very place. She tried to erase the image of her soaping up his perfect body.
She tried to think about anything other than that, but her brain wasn’t paying attention to what she wanted.
Once she washed her hair and shaved her legs, she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her chest. Her hand reached for the doorknob, and as she pushed the door open, she found herself hoping, wishing, and praying that he’d be sitting on her bed, waiting to calm her down and talk her off the emotional cliff she was dangling off.
But when she stepped out, her room was empty. Knox’s clothes, minus the shirt she’d borrowed to go into the kitchen, were gone. His shoes were gone. Her bed was made, though.
That was another point in the pro column for Knox. He was clean and tidy, and he never left a mess for her to clean up. Except for her shattered heart when he left. She knew that was one mess he wasn’t going to be able to clean up.
23
"Who pissed in your cheerios?"Ford used a phrase their granddad had often used as Knox joined his brother and cousin at Lanterns for a beer.
It had been a shitty week, and Knox was doing his best not to let it fuck up his head. He wasn’t having much luck in that department.
"Nothing. Everything’s great." Since his brother and cousin had no idea he’d even been seeing Laura, there was no point in telling them that she’d broken things off. "What happened to the house? I thought we were going to start working on the popcorn ceiling."
Knox had bailed on his brother and cousin when he’d stayed at Laura’s to help with the kids. Then, after she broke up with him, he’d just been working on the house by himself. He’d just wanted to be alone. He’d grabbed some clothes and bought an air mattress and had been sleeping at the renovation because he hadn’t wanted to see Laura. He couldn’t see Laura. Not without asking questions he wasn’t sure he wanted the answers to.
He was only out tonight because Ford texted him and Keaton and asked the men to meet him for a beer. Ford wasn’t really the type to organize a guy’s night out. He was a homebody. He had been even before he’d become twitterpated with Chrissy. When he was raising the twins as a single dad, he worked and then went home to take care of them. Once they graduated high school and went to college, he didn’t change his habits.
"So what’s up?" Knox asked his brother, wanting to get this over with so he could go back and work on the house. Alone.
"Chrissy and I set a date. It’s in a few weeks. We were just going to have something small in the backyard with no wedding party, but after talking about it, we decided we wanted the kids to be involved. And then Chrissy and Fiona decided it was going to be at Stone Castle. Anyway, would you guys be my groomsmen?"
"Of course, man. That’s awesome!" Keaton lifted his beer in cheers.
"Who’s your best man?" Knox asked before agreeing.
The first time Ford got married, it had been because his now-ex-wife was pregnant, and they just went to the courthouse to tie the knot. There were witnesses, which, since Knox wasn’t a legal adult at the time, he wasn’t able to be. This time Knox wanted to lock down the title of best man.
"I’m not having a best man."
Knox couldn’t exactly lock down the title of something that didn’t exist, so he moved on. "Do we have to wear penguin suits?"
"If that’s what Chrissy wants, then yes," Ford responded, leaving no room for argument.
Knox nodded in agreement.
"Where did you disappear to last week?" Ford asked as he lifted his beer to his mouth and took a swig.
Knox had a funny feeling that his brother already knew the answer to the question.
"Why?" he asked.
Ford and Keaton exchanged looks, which meant both men knew where he’d been.
He lifted his shoulder. "We were right in the middle of demo, and you said something came up."
