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“Obviously—oh, I get it.” I smacked her arm when she began laughing. “Yes, he’s insanely gorgeous,” I said as I let my wallet slip into my purse and had to prompt Cora to keep walking when she turned and saw him. And I knew she saw him because the only other man waiting was adorable but incredibly old.
“Whoa,” she said under her breath. “On second thought, I might let him break into my house too.”
“I bet your husband would love that.”
“I’ll let him watch.”
A stunned laugh broke from me, prompting a few of the waiting people to look over at us—Diggs included. A flutter of anticipation broke free when those gray eyes swept over me...only to disappear when his gaze fell right back to his phone without so much as a hint of recognition.
Rejection sliced through me, swift and hot, at that small yet incredibly significant action. The unexpected burn stole my next breath as I struggled to grasp if that had really just happened.
What the hell?
“Um...” Cora began, then glanced my way. “Was I the only one expecting something else?”
I stood there, unsure of what to think or what to even feel. Because I knew the way Diggs looked at me. I knew the way he came back to me when he was trying to leave, as if he couldn’t help himself.
And yet, he’d just dismissed me with barely a glance.
I shook my head firmly and told myself I had to have gotten it all wrong—that he probably just hadn’t seen me—and rocked forward to go to him. Wanting to assure myself that the intense connection we shared in the middle of the night was there in the light of day. To know we were something real and not a twisted romance that was about to make news because of an unfortunate end.
But when he pocketed his phone and reached for the white box that had just been set on the counter, a woman easily maneuvered through the waiting people and slipped up beside him. Snatching the box from his grasp with the hand that wasn’t holding a chubby baby and smiling up at Diggs in a way that shouted familiarity and adoration and love.
A smile that was reflected in the way he looked at her as he seamlessly took the baby and wrapped his free arm around her neck, pulling her close as they turned to leave the shop.
“Oh God,” I breathed, clutching at my stomach and staring at the floor. “Oh my God.”
“You didn’t know, right?” Cora asked hesitantly, forcing my gaze to snap to her.
“No, I didn’t know.”
But I did now. I’d seen the wedding band on his finger when he’d grabbed the baby. I’d seen their obvious love for each other, and I felt sick over my part in our relationship.
More than that, I hurt. I hurt over a man I hardly knew. That earlier sting of rejection flared and spread through my chest. Gripping at me in a way it shouldn’t because he was no one to me.
Not really.
Diggs should’ve been a drunken hookup, but he’d turned into so much more.
He’d consumed my days and my thoughts. He’d filled my nights with more passion than I’d ever known. He’d spent time learning and worshiping my body in ways my boyfriend had never cared to during our years together. He’d stayed longer and longer, gently begging for more pieces of my life before disappearing all over again.
And he was married...with a baby.
“It explains some things,” Cora muttered. “Like, why you only see him every couple of nights, and why he leaves after—well, you know.”
I reached for the nearby counter, my body trembling at the thought of what I’d unknowingly been doing.
“What are you gonna do?” Cora asked when I stood there, agonizing over the past month that had meant everything to me just minutes before.
Funny how breaking into my apartment and slipping into my bed hadn’t been enough to make me want to stop him or stop what we were doing.
But a few seconds in a coffee shop had changed everything.
“Take Rorie’s advice,” I said resolutely. “I’m gonna stay far away from him.”
DIGGS
I resisted the urge to move from where I leaned against the wall a few days after we discovered the bodies. Anxiousness coursing through my veins and made my aggravation grow.
