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That seemed to surprise him because he narrowed his eyes and cocked his head.
“You need to apologize?”
“Um,” she twisted her hands in her lap as she tried to find the right words, and the courage, to say what she needed to tell him. “After the ambulance got here last night, when you left me in the waiting room crying, I realized that’s what my vision had been about. It wasn’t about you leaving me, it was about you going to save my dad.”
His gaze hardened as his jaw clenched. It seemed like an eternity before he finally spoke, and when he did, she felt the derision dripping from his words.
“So, you let our relationship end based on a vision that you didn’t even understand the meaning of?”
Dakota swallowed hard and nodded, unable to form a reply.
He leaned back in his chair and scoffed, “Un-fucking-believable.”
She lurched to the edge of her seat. “I’m sorry, Aiden! I love you; I was scared! I—”
He cut her off. “You knew how I felt about you. Hell, I fuckingtoldyou, so there was no chance you didn’t know, and yet it didn’t matter. You were willing to throw it away because of a fucking ‘vision,’ you kept having.” He made air quotes when he saidvision.
“I screwed up.”
“Yeah,” he snorted. “Yeah, you did. Because I would have doneanythingfor you. Anything. And you threw it away like it meant nothing.”
“I’m sorry. I should have—”
“You should have fought for us, Dakota. You knew me, knew the kind of man I am. Instead, you shut me out—lumped me in with men like Chloe’s dad; convinced of my sins based on a vision youdidn’t even understand. Who the fuck does that?”
She hung her head as tears rolled down her cheeks.
“All I can say is, you’re right. I love you. I should have fought for us.”
“Yeah. Yeah, you should have.”
Dakota looked up, meeting his eyes when she whispered, “I’m sorry. Please give me another chance.”
He stared back at her, his jaw clenched again as his nostrils flared. She half expected/hoped he’d reach across the desk, grab her face, and kiss her.
Instead, he slowly shook his head. “Your apology is accepted, but I can’t do this again. What’s to stop you from freezing me out when you have another vision that you don’t understand?”
Dakota swallowed a sob. “I do learn my lesson, Aiden.”
He coldly held her gaze when he replied, “So do I.”
She brushed the tears from her cheeks, but it was a wasted effort since they wouldn’t stop falling.
He seemed unaffected as he handed her a tissue then glanced at his watch again. “Look, I appreciate the apology and the pie, but I don’t want to be late for dinner, and I have to finish this report, so...”
She desperately needed to get through to him.
“I know you still care about me. You wouldn’t have been so kind to me last night if you didn’t. You canceled your date to take care of my dad.”
“Of course I care about you, but that doesn’t change our circumstances. I would have canceled my date to treat Susan’s dad, too. It doesn’t mean I’d ever get back together with her.”
It felt like her heart was lodged in her throat. So, he thought no better of her than he did his ex-wife who’d cheated on him in their home.
There was nothing more she could do but try to accept her fate and leave with a shred of dignity, which was hard to do with the never-ending waterworks.
Still, she stood and offered him a small smile through her tears. “I wish you all the happiness in the world, Aiden. You deserve it.” Then she quietly left his office and made a beeline for the bathroom, where she tried to muffle her sobs into a handful of paper towels as she sat in the stall.
The despair she’d buried six weeks ago finally washed over her in waves. Knowing she’d beenthisclose to true happiness and thrown it away for no good reason brought her to her knees. She needed to get out of there and curl up in her bed.
