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Even as I did a mental fist pump, I kept my expression blank.
“But before I left, I wanted to talk to you alone. I wanted to get a feel for what kind of person you are.” She dragged a hand through her hair. “I wanted to understand.”
“Understand what?”
“What it is about you that would make him give you what he wouldn’t give the others,” she admitted, a pained note to her voice. “He probably would have married Gracie. But those who came before and after her? No, he pointblank refused to take a walk down the aisle with them. Didn’t even propose to any of them.
“I found out that you two had a fling years ago, so I know you have history. But even that doesn’t explain why he’d marry you. He can’t have been pining after you all this time; he wouldn’t have stayed away—Dax goes after what he wants.” She raised her shoulders. “None of this makes any sense to me, andhe’llnever answer my questions.”
I got it, then. Just as I couldn’t reconcile the Dax I knew with a man who’d cheat, she couldn’t reconcile the Dax she knew with a guy who’d commit himself to a woman. The issue was that, as he’d once pointed out to me, she didn’t reallyknowDax. “Look, Mimi—”
“I wasn’t lying about Angel. I mean, no, he’s not in touch with hernow.But she did matter to him back when they were involved with each other. So did some of the others in his past. But he didn’t put a ring ontheirfinger.”
“Just because a person matters to you doesn’t mean you’ll want to marry them. Surely you yourself have had boyfriends who, however much you might have cared for them, you didn’t feel inclined to marry.”
Her eyes narrowed. “And why did you feel inclined to marry Dax? He doesn’t love you. We both know that.”
The words sliced me like a hot blade. Shouldn’t. Weren’t supposed to. But they did.
“Maybe you’re wrong,” I said, since I had no wish to tell her about the pact or anything else so personal. “Maybe you can’t read him as well as you think you can. It would explain why you’ve been so certain he’ll never move forward,andwhy you keep throwing yourself at him thinking he’ll ever do anything but reject you.”
She dragged in a sharp breath. “You can’t honestly think you’ll ever matter to him the way Gracie did.”
“Why? Becauseyounever mattered to him that way?”
She flinched, but I didn’t feel bad. Not after all she’d said and done to Dax, and not after all she’d said and done since walking into my office.
She straightened her shoulders. “Believe I’m wrong if it makes you feel better about doing something as dumb as marrying someone to whom you’ll always be second choice. But I can promise you this: By the time I next return to Redwater, you’ll be out of the picture,” she stated, firm and cocky. “You’ll have reached a point where you can’t hide the truth from yourself any longer, and you’ll have left him.”
“And that’s honestly what you want for Dax? You want for him to be alone? If so, that’s not real love, Mimi. Not even close.”
Her smug look wavered.
I leaned forward in my seat and braced my lower arms on the table. “Now that you’ve had your say,” I began, my voice severe with a harsh edge, “allow me to have mine. Like it or not, Mimi, I’m a permanent fixture in Dax’s life. I’m not going anywhere. I’m here to stay. Andyouneed to get your head out of your ass.”
When she opened her mouth to snap a retort, I barreled onward, saying, “You’ve disrespected his feelings and wishes for far too long. It ends now. All of it. He’ll never be yours. Never. He didn’t want you when he was single, and he sure as shit doesn’t want you now that he’s married. Accept that and move on with your life instead of trying to force your way into his.”
She’d looked furious before.Nowshe looked fit to skin a motherfucker. I half-expected her to launch herself across the table and go for my throat or something. She didn’t. She sneered at me, grinding her teeth.
“You really think you’re here to stay?” She all but cackled. “Oh, that’s funny. Really. Don’t you get it yet, sweetie? When it comes to Dax, no woman is here to stay.” She pushed to her feet. “If you genuinely think differently, I guess all I can really say is … prepare yourself for the rude awakening you’re going to get someday soon.”
“Right back at you.” I remained in my seat as she practically barged out of the office. Letting my head tip back, I sighed long and loud, feeling like I’d been through the ringer.
And Ishouldn’tfeel that way. The thought of Dax betraying me shouldn’t have made me feel crushed, but it had. No, not simply crushed. Ravaged. Eviscerated. Demoralized.
Yeah, I’d been fooling myself by thinking I was onlybeginningto care for Dax. The truth was … I’d cared for him for a while now, and those feelings were growing and growing.
Fuck this shit.
Sabrina hurried inside and cast a glance at the door. “Mimi didnotlook happy just now. What was all that about?”
Not wanting to get into it all—especially when I wouldn’t be able to hide from Sabrina just how dangerously hurt I’d been when I almost fell for Mimi’s little trick—I fudged, “She’s still not pleased that Dax moved on with his life. She felt the need to communicate it yet again.”
It was a damn good thing for her that she was leaving Redwater, because he was not going to like that she’d come here. Not even a little bit.
∞∞∞
Later that day, the sound of the villa’s front door closing snapped me out of the story I was reading. Curled up in my armchair with a hardcover book in my lap, I looked at the vintage wall clock. Dax was home an hour later than usual, but it was no surprise—he’d texted me to let me know that he’d had to attend a last-minute meeting.
