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“Is it because of her?” Grace nodded.
I looked at Evie. “Her? You mean Evie?”
“You’ve always loved her more than me.”
Had I?
That wasn’t right.
“No, Grace. I’ve always loved her differently than you. And I did love you. Past tense. Once upon a time.”
“Bullshit.” Grace’s pouty tears vanished. “I never would’ve ch—”
“Cheated?” I finished for her. “You’re going to tell me your mistakes are my fault? Evie’s? That’s bullshit. You fucked another man without telling me, and now you want to pretend that wasn’t all on you?”
“I want us to have another chance,” Grace said. “If you and I could just go somewhere and talk.”
Evie stepped in front of me, between us. “So help me, I desperately need to hit something.”
“Are you going to beat me up?” Grace scoffed. “I don’t know why I ever thought I could compete with your memory. And then you were here again. Why did you come back?”
“Because she belongs here.” I draped my arms over Evie’s shoulders, pulled her back into me, and kissed the top of her head. “Grace isn’t worth bruising your knuckles on.”
Grace’s face contorted into anger.
I was so done with this. “Last time. Leave. I’m not going to talk to you.” I wrapped an arm around Evie’s waist and pulled her into the house with me, not checking to see if Grace walked away or not.
“That was almost stone cold,” Evie said when the door closed behind us.
“Maybe.”
“Would you have done the same to me? Treated me like that, if things kept going with…” She swallowed hard.
With Sawyer.
“You didn’t cheat on me.” I hadn’t drawn the parallels before. There was jealousy with Evie and Sawyer, but I never compared her to Grace. Why not? “She snuck around behind my back. After we were married. After we made promises to each other. You’ve always been honest with me, even before we were together.”
“Well, yeah. It’s not right otherwise.” Evie shrugged.
“Exactly.”
She scrubbed her face. “I can’t believe he had me—us—fooled. I really thought…”
That things with Sawyer were what they looked like. That he was a good guy under the asshole facade. That he cared. “Me too.”
It was strange to have this conversation with Evie. To have just pushed Grace away again because she slept with another man, and moments later to be talking to Evie, because she’d had her heart broken by another man. To still adore her.
When I put it that way, it sounded fucked up, but the whole train of logic made sense to me. I understood why the scenarios were different.
Evie rested her cheek against my chest, and I wrapped my arms around her.
“I’m so glad I have you.” Her breath seeped through my shirt, teasing my skin.
“We have each other.”
“We do.”
Evie and I spent the rest of the night watching movies, but not saying much. It felt good to have her here. Right.
