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“When I heard your voice on that video, it crushed me, Madison. I was cheated on by Emily, and even that didn’t cut as deep as that betrayal.” He sighs. “I never should’ve thought you were capable of that. I never should’ve put you in the same damn camp as her.”
I stare out across the road, watching a jack rabbit sniff around in the grass, looking for a treat, all the while fighting that urge to look this man in his eyes in an attempt to determine if he’s just trying to manipulate me once again.
So far I’m winning, but I don’t know how much longer my resolve will withstand the pain in his voice.
“You two are nothing alike.”
It feels like a jab, making me stiffen.
“She’s all rough edges and selfishness. You’re soft and open. You’d sacrifice almost anything for a complete stranger.”
“I think you used that against me,” I mutter. “It sure as hell made for an easy target.”
The rabbit lifts his head and stares in my direction when I speak, his body locked in place for long seconds before he scurries back into the growth lining the road.
“I wanted something easy.”
I scoff again.
“I’m just fucking this up,” he mumbles. “I told myself I wanted no strings attached, but I think I knew the second I saw you at the diner for the job interview that I was in trouble. Your cheeks were pink from the heat outside. You had that annoyed look you always have when looking at me, and something inside of me urged me to make you smile, to get you to replace that annoyance with anything else. You turned to leave, and I noticed the way your dress flirted with your thighs. I thought all sorts of perverted things. It shouldn’t have affected me the way it did. My marriage didn’t matter to almost every woman I met. They’d throw themselves at me. Seeing you—”
“You seriously suck at this,” I hiss. “Just stop talking.”
“I can’t. I can’t go another day without saying what needs to be said. You have a choice to make. You can either stay and hear me out…” he pauses as the sound of gravel crunching draws my attention toward the direction of our vehicles, “or you can go with him back to town.”
A shadow covers me, but I still have to shield my eyes from the sun to look up at Chase.
“Your parents, with my dad’s help I’m fairly certain, sabotaged your car. They set us both up.”
I look down at his outstretched hand to see a tiny little thing there.
“I’m not a mechanic or anything but I’m certain it’s a fuse to your car they pulled to create this very situation. They want us to talk.”
I swallow, indecision swirling around inside of me.
I don’t know that I want to hear what he has to say. It could be as simple as we shouldn’t hate each other because our parents are neighbors and it will make holiday interactions awkward for everyone.
“You’re back with Emily,” I tell him as I stand. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“I’m not,” he says, his hand soft on my arm. It’s all it takes to keep me frozen in place. “I’ve learned not to believe everything written in the tabloids. Can you do the same?”
My chest aches with the urgency to accept his words, but my heart doesn’t have the best history when it comes to men. He’s mad at me for what he read online, and I’m mad at him for believing it, but at the same time, I’ve believed what was written as well.
“I can sit and listen,” I tell him, my voice weak and full of fear of how badly this conversation will leave me broken.
Hope is a very dangerous thing, and I’m fighting it as much as I can. It’s been a very rare, if non-existent, occurrence when Chase and I have been on the same page, and even when we do line up, it never lasts very long.
He waits for me to retake my seat before walking over and handling the tow truck guy. He joins me on the same side of the picnic table this time, not speaking as we watch the guy drag my car up onto the flatbed of the tow truck. I imagine he’s waiting until I’m fully stuck here before he opens his mouth and ruins everything again.
“I’m a captive audience,” I whisper when the guy honks the horn of his truck twice, giving us a wave before pulling back out onto Highway Twenty-nine and driving back toward Lindell.
“She ambushed me in the parking garage,” he begins. “Cory dropped her the second he could get another puck bunny under him, and suddenly what she had before didn’t seem so bad after all. She must’ve had the photographer waiting because that’s the only way they could’ve gotten the split second of her pressing her lips to mine before I pushed her away. Emily is a nonissue. The divorce is final. She was fine with having it fast tracked once she accepted my offer.”
“I hate that you have to deal with her because of the boys.” I truly mean it. She’s a vile woman.
He shakes his head. “She signed over her rights.”
“What kind of mother…” I hold both of my hands up, rolling my lips between my teeth. “You know what, not my business.”
