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“I don’t know if I can forgive you either Avery. I don’t know if I should even try to honestly.”
“Baby, please don’t say that,” Avery stated sliding his hand back up to her face, lowering his forehead down to rest against hers. “I will show you that you can trust me again—that I will never hurt you, or your son.”
“Which is why last night shouldn’t have happened.” Colleen wanted to press her lips to his and feel his hands on her body. They were too close to each other. She needed some space to get herself under control.
“You mean right now?” Avery asked and she nodded. “You only regret how quick it was—not that it actually happened?”
“Isn’t it all the same?” she asked not about to admit how she felt yet. “Last night wasn’t smart; it could have hurt a lot of people.”
“Meredith?”
Colleen turned her face avoiding his gaze. “I don’t want to talk about that. It’s none of your business.”
“Isn’t it? I want you back Colleen. I want you as my wife again. How is that going to happen if you refuse to tell me about your girlfriend? How you went from being with me to being with her?”
“Right now you don’t need to know anything about my personal life Avery,” she said strengthening herself to get through this. “I’m not the one who threw us away—you are. You broke my heart, my trust, and shattered my entire world. How do I ever trust you after that? How do I trust that you won’t get upset and do it again if I decide that I want another baby? Would you really be okay with us going to look at sperm donors and me having a baby that’s not biologically yours? Can you honestly love Tommy like he’s yours?”
“How do I show you that you can trust me if you don’t talk to me—if you don’t tell me about your life?”
“I’m not saying I won’t tell you, but I’m the one who’s sitting here wondering what to tell my son in two, four, six months from now when you decide that being with us is too hard. How do I tell him that you left us?”
“I’m not going to leave you baby. I promise.” Avery pulled in his annoyance that she wouldn’t discuss Meredith and the place she had in her life with him.
“How do I know that? You said you’d never leave me, never hurt me—that you’d always love me, always want me, before we got married. I didn’t believe you the first time you said it, did I?”
“Alright, tell me what you want me to do baby—anything to prove it,” he stated, brushing the hair from her eyes sending a shiver through her that wasn’t there when Meredith had done the exact same thing.
“I want you to show me that you’re serious Avery. I have to know you’re serious about me before I can let you into Tommy’s life and I want to take that slow, which means last night…”
“Won’t be happening again soon?” he guessed and she nodded. “I can live with that if you agree to one thing,” he said and she lifted a brow his way to hear what it was. “You don’t sleep with Meredith until you’ve made your choice.”
“You’re serious?” she asked when he didn’t smile at her laugh.
“Yes baby, I am very serious.” He slid his hand down her neck feeling the silkiness of her skin against him. “The idea of her with you is enough to drive me insane. If you’re sleeping with her while I’m trying to prove myself to you and she’s constantly trying to…sabotage me or bad mouth me…how is that fair to me and us?”
“Meredith knew that last night was likely to happen. She told me to go to you and figure this out,” Colleen said and he stared down at her with hope and a light smile.
“This being the undeniable attraction between us? So does that mean you agree to not…”
“You have nothing to worry about with me and Mere being together right now.” The ‘or ever’ part was implied to her but he didn’t need to know that, not until she knew he wouldn’t walk away from her ever again.
“Then we’ll go slow, as slow as you need until you know you have always had my heart and I will never let you go or hurt you again,” Avery promised giving her a soft kiss that made her want far more than she should right now.
Chapter 7
The phone rang waking Colleen; she glanced at the clock and groaned seeing it barely past three. This was not going to be pleasant; nothing that happened at three in the morning was ever pleasant.
“Ms. Smith, this is Dana’s mother, last night her boyfriend had to take her to the emergency room and they’ve admitted her. She’s very upset because she knows she can’t open the store for you…”
“Don’t worry about it, Mrs. Alderson,” she said keeping her issues from upsetting the woman further. “Please let Dana know I hope she gets well soon and to focus on her health not the bakery. We’ll manage without her.”
Colleen hung up the phone pushing the hair from her eyes with a sigh as her door opened. She saw the question in Meredith’s eyes and knew she’d heard the phone ring.
“Is everything okay?” Meredith asked softly.
“Dana’s in the hospital. Everyone else is scheduled to handle the smaller parties today, which means there’s no one else to open the store. I have the wedding out of town that I have to be at and Gail is out of town, which means there’s no one to watch Tommy…”
“What about Molly?” she asked moving over to sit on the edge of the bed with her.
