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Shoes scuffing pavement behind me.
“Addie?”
I halted. Fuck, no, he wasnothere.
I very slowly turned. Annoyance whipped at my skin and made my nostrils flare. Oh, he was here all right.
Grayden stood a few feet away, his trim body tense, his hazel eyes dull, his lips set into a flat line. At one time, the sight of him would have made my mouth reflexively curve and my heart go all gooey. Those days were over.
I balled up my hands. “You shouldn’t be here.” There was no sign of his car, which meant he’d likely parked it elsewhere so that no one he knew would see it outside my home.
He shoved a hand through his short brown hair. “We have to talk.”
“No, no, we don’t.” Again, I made a beeline for my front door.
“I have to know if what I heard is true,” he said, catching up to me. “I won’t believe it unless I hear it coming from you.”
I spun to face him with a hiss. “You don’t get to just turn up here. We agreed we would keep a distance from each other. Remember?”
“I had no choice but to come, you blocked my number.”
“Because I don’t want to speak to you.”Obviously.
He flinched. “And I don’t blame you, but I need to know if Dax Mercier was bullshitting Felicity when he told her that you’re his goddamn fiancée. Are you seriously going to marry him?”
I stood tall, holding my head high. “I am, yes.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me.” His brows squished together. “Why, Addie? Why would you do this?”
“Because I want to.”
“Butwhy?” He threw up his hands. “You guys weren’t dating. You had nothing to do with each other.”
“And how would you know?”
His lips flattened. “So, what, you two have been sneaking around, seeing each other in secret … and now, all of a sudden, you’reengagedto him? Engaged to someone you couldn’t have been dating for more than a few months?”
“Well—”
“That makes no sense. Unless you’re saying you’ve both been harboring deep feelings for each other all these years? Is that what you’re telling me?”
If he thought I was going to stand here and justify myself to him, he was high. I folded my arms. “For the life of me, I can’t work out why you think I need to explain any of my choices to you.”
“This isn’t me being nosy, I’m concerned about you.”
“I don’t need your concern. Now please leave.”
“But—”
“I asked nicely,” I gritted out.
He pressed his lips tight together. “Just help me understand. You’re not a person who’d marry someone you’ve only been seeing a short length of time. Neither is he—I know Dax well enough to be sure of that. What you’re doing … I don’t get it.”
“It isn’t necessary that you get it. This is my life, my business,Dax’sbusiness. Not yours.”
He cursed beneath his breath. “Wouldn’t you have the same questions in my position?”
“Maybe. But I wouldn’t for a second think I had any right toaskthem.”
