AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You went to the diner?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if it was the lingering brain fog from still being a little sick, but I was struggling to wrap my head around what he’d just said. “To get me chicken soup?”
A tiny grin played on his lips as he placed the spoon he’d been using to stir the soup onto my cute little spoon rest before turning to face me. He leaned his hips back against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest, giving me a perfect, unobstructed view of his upper half, anddamn, what an upper half it was. I wasn’t sure how it was possible, but he was even bigger than he had been when we were together, and he was no slouch back then. His chest was wider, the muscles there and in his biceps more pronounced. Even his forearms seemed more muscular than before. I didn’t know if it was a trick of the mind, but he also seemed to be a little taller than I remembered.
But that was where the changes ended. His dark hair still looked as silky as it always had, and I knew from experience that it felt as soft as it looked.
His moss-green eyes still had the ability to look straight into me, seeing more than I was comfortable with while holding me captive in their snare.
Ten years. Tenfuckingyears, and the memory of him still hurt as badly as it had that day when I’d watched him walk away from me and the life I thought we were going to build together.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I gave my head a shake and cleared my throat, trying to push the pain away.
“I ran into this little old lady at the pharmacy. Ms. McClintock? Anyway, she saw me having a tiny meltdown in the cold aisle trying to find the right meds and helped me out. Then she recommended the soup from the diner. Hey, did you know the owners are downright crazy?” he asked in a conversational tone that made me laugh.
The pull of those yummy smells was too hard to ignore any longer, so I allowed my feet to unglue themselves from the floor and shuffle closer to the kitchen.Closer to danger, a voice in my head spoke out, but the need for food was stronger.
“They aren’t crazy,” I told him as I hefted onto a stool. My energy reserves were still at an all-time low, so I braced my elbow on the counter and propped my chin in my hand. It was the only way to keep my head up, or else I would have probably fallen asleep right at the bar. From the corner of my eye, I spotted movement and looked to see Tortellini standing at his food bowl, scarfing down his dinner.
For the love of god, the man had taken care of my cat too? I pushed that thought away.
“Shouting is their love language, that’s all.”
He let out a snort as he ladled soup into one of my pretty white stoneware ceramic bowls. “I’m pretty sure that’s their only language.”
“It’s kind of what they’re famous for. Apparently that’s how they’ve always been. Eating in at Evergreen diner is kind of like getting a show with your meal. They’re entertaining as hell.”
“No denying that.” He plopped a spoon into the rich golden broth and pushed it my way before cutting into a delicious-looking loaf of rustic bread sitting on the counter and placing a thick piece on a napkin beside my bowl.
I tore off a smaller bite-sized piece and dipped it into the soup before popping it into my mouth. The instant the flavors exploded on my tongue, I let out a groan. The soup was as flavorful as always, but the bread was out of this world. Light and fluffy on the inside with a perfectly crunchy crust. I took another bite, trying to identify the flavors. Rosemary and garlic, a perfect complement to the hearty soup. “Oh my god. Where did you get the bread, because I need a million more loaves of this stuff?”
“Glad you approve, Freckles. I made that myself.”
I choked on the spoonful of soup I’d just taken, coughing and sputtering until I could pull in a full breath. It took a moment, but I finally managed to clear my esophagus and breathe normally, and when I looked back at Roan, he was watching me with a knowing grin tugging at his lips.
“You made this?” I asked in disbelief. “You actuallybaked bread? You don’t even know how to cook!”
He let out a husky chuckle, the sound reverberating through the kitchen and hitting me right in the belly. I spooned up more of the soup and bit off another chunk of bread, hoping the food would shove the feeling down.
“Well, darlin’, a lot’s changed since the last time we saw each other.”
He’d meant the statement to be carefree, but to me, it had the same effect as dumping a bucket of ice water directly over my head.
As if sensing a sudden change in the air around us, Roan stiffened. He dropped his arms and stepped closer, closing as much of the distance as the counter between us would allow. “Listen, Alma. We need to talk.”
That was the very last thing we needed to do. I forced my gaze to drop away from him and stared down into my bowl as I dragged my spoon through it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said quietly. “You should go.”
“Freckles, please.”
My head shot back up, my eyes narrowing angrily. “I know I’ve been pretty out of it today, but I’m almost certain I’ve asked you not to call me that.”
He let out a heavy sigh and dropped his head, reaching back with one hand to massage his neck.
“Look, I know I have a lot to make up for, but that’s why I’m here. I want to make it up to you.”
Something inside me snapped, and the pain that coursed through me was too much to bear. I leaned on anger, not wanting him to see how much I was still hurting, all because of him.
I shoved the bowl and the last of the bread away from me and pushed off the stool, stumbling back a few feet to put some distance between us. When he started to round the counter, reaching out as though he wanted to catch me, I held up a hand to stop him.
“You had years to explain, Roan.Years. What you did crushed me, but if you had come to me shortly after and tried to explain why you ended us, why you broke my heart—” My voice broke on that last word, but I swallowed past the lump forming in my throat and soldiered on. “If you had come to me and told mewhy, maybe it would have been enough. But too much time passed. You let me go.” I shook my head, fighting back tears. “No, that’s not right. You threw me away. And you think I’m just going to sit back and listen to your pathetic excuses now? A fucking decade later? No. No!”
