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I arched a brow and drilled him with a murderous look. “And telling everyone what it said? Was that part of your job too?”
He lifted a single shoulder in a casual shrug. “Nope. That was just fun.” With that, he pulled Sloane in for a quick, hard kiss. “See you later tonight, baby,” he stated before he smacked her on the ass and turned on his heel, heading out of the studio without a care in the world.
“God, that man just gets me,” Sloane breathed out, a glazed-over look in her eyes as she stared at the closed door he’d just walked through. “I’m one lucky lady.”
Marin gave me a look that I imagined she used on her step-son daily. It was that disappointed mom look that made every person on the receiving end feel like the scum of the earth. “Start talking, woman.”
“Fine, okay,” I relented grudgingly. “Roan showed up on my doorstep while I was sick, and he basically forced his way in.”
An eerie silence fell over the practice studio. McKenna’s gaze went stony as she asked, “He didn’t force himself on you, did he? So help me god, they’ll never find the body once I’m done with him.”
“What? No! God, no,” I cried. I bent to place the gorgeous flower arrangement on the floor. Roan didn’t make a half-assed gesture with that one, and they were getting really heavy. I let out a sigh and pulled a hand through my hair. “No, it was nothing like that. He showed up with food, and the smell of it turned my stomach. I had to run to the bathroom before I got sick all over my floor. He followed me in to hold my hair back while I was puking. Then he carried me to bed and took my temperature. It was really high, so he went to the store to buy me a whole bunch of medicine, then went to the diner for some chicken soup. I was out of it the whole day he was there, didn’t even wake up until the next evening. He stayed to take care of me and Tortellini.”
“He carried you to bed?” Sloane asked.
“He stayed the whole time,” Asher said in a way that wasn’t a question, but like she was pointing out something incredibly important.
“Yes,” I confirmed in a hushed voice. “He stayed the whole time. I found a pillow and blanket on the floor by my couch. I guess he slept out there between checking my temp and forcing medicine down my throat.”
“That’s actually kind of amazing,” Marin said. “The stories are already flying all over town. Everyone’s talking about the famous singer who’s in town to win back the love of his life and how she punched him in the face. I know we’re supposed to hate the guy, but I gotta tell you, it takes serious balls that he’d willingly show his face in this town when everyone’s speculating how he did you wrong.”
I dropped my head backward on a groan. That was just great. The last thing I needed when I was trying so hard to keep my walls up around him was for everyone I knew to be talking about it.
“Look, it’s not a big deal, okay? He stayed while I was sick, then he left. That’s all there is to the story.”
McKenna canted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes as she studied me closely. “But it’s not, is it? Not like you’re trying to convince yourself there is.”
Now that my boss knew about my past with Roan, it made it that much easier to see past the façade I’d been wearing like a shroud for years. Out of all my girls, she could probably relate to my past the closest. After what she’d gone through, being kidnapped and all that ugliness, she’d pushed Bruce away, refusing to let him get close. She knew all about walls and trying to protect your heart.
“He managed to get in there, didn’t he? At least a little bit.”
There was no use denying it, and now that I’d opened up to my girls, I didn’t want to lie to them anymore. “He did. I don’t know if it was the way he was so gentle with me, or the fact that I walked out of my room and found him in the kitchen, reheating the soup and baking bread, all for me. Or how he managed to get Tortellini to fall completely in love with him, but he did. And I’m trying really,reallyhard to force him back out.”
Sloane closed the distance between us and took my hands in hers. “Honey, I’m not trying to overstep here, and whatever you decide, you’ve got all our support, no matter what. But do you really think you need to force him back out? Do you evenwantto?”
It was a question that had been running laps in my mind since I’d kicked him out of my house, and I still didn’t have an answer.
I shook my head resolutely. If I couldn’t feel it on the inside, the least I could do was fake it. After all, I’d gotten really fucking good at it over the years. “It doesn’t matter. Nothing is going to happen between us. Not again. That bridge was burned. We’re over.”
McKenna lifted a brow. “You really mean that?”
No.
“Yes,” I said, and the moment that word past my lips, my chest clenched.
“Uh-huh,” she muttered like she didn’t believe me. Hell, I didn’t believe myself. “You said the man baked you bread?” She let out a snort. “Bruce is the love of my life, and I’d never give him up for anything. But I’ll tell you, he’s never baked bread for me. I’m pretty sure the man doesn’t even know how to use the oven.”
“Silas can cook, but his menu is very limited. And bread sure as hell isn’t on it,” Sloane chimed in.
“I think Owen could pull it off if he put his mind to it, but he’ll never put his mind to it,” Asher said.
“Pierce and I both failed beginners cooking class,” Marin reminded us. “I’d give my left arm for some homemade bread. That sounds heavenly.”
A chorus of agreeable noises went up in the air.
Damn these intuitive women and their uncanny ability to get into my head!
* * *
