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She wanted to—she really did—but what the hell would she say? Her family was destroyed at her hands, and she was, what?
Happy?
Sad?
Scared?
Confused?
Or, E, all of the above?
She couldn’t deny feeling some guilt amid the relief. Would this change her life in any measurable way?
Would the media and social media warriors search her out?
She didn’t want this to ruin the fragile happiness she’d built with the new people in her life.
An ache formed between her eyes. She couldn’t think about it all now, not while she was keeping Ty from work and had her own meeting to prepare for. So, she plastered on a smile and patted his arms where they crossed in front of her.
“I’m good, Ty. Don’t worry.”
He slackened his arms, and she took advantage, slipping off his lap. When she turned to face him, she found him frowning at her.
“Really, Ty, don’t look at me like that. I’m fine. And you have to get to work.”
He glanced at the time on his phone with a harsh curse.
“See, go. I’m great.” Her smile felt as fake as it could be. There was no way he’d buy it.
And he didn’t. “Kels, you’re not great. And that’s okay.”
“Ty, go to work.” She refused to be responsible for him losing money.
“Fuck work. I don’t give a shit about work. I have competent employees so that I can be fucking late.”
“But you don’t have to be,” she said with a false cheer. “Because I’m great. End of discussion. You go to work, and I’m going to shower.”
With that, she turned and strode to the bathroom, locking the door for the first time since she started staying at Ty’s. It was a shitty, cowardly move, but she was about to unravel and didn’t want him to see her that way. The warm water wrapped around her like a blanket, and the rushing helped block out her screaming thoughts. But without the noise in her head, her emotions came bubbling to the surface, and she sank to the floor sobbing.
What was she supposed to do now?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
SHE’D LOCKED THE fucking door.
Goddammit.
He was about to give in to the urge to boot the door in when his phone chimed.
Stop boning your woman and get your ass to work, boss!
Dammit, he was super late. Now he would have to listen to Jinx’s juvenile ribbing all damn day.
If Kelsie had wanted him to follow her, she’d have left the door open. Games weren’t her style.
Her head had to be a scrambled mess of emotions. As much as he wanted to barge in and wipe away her pain, maybe he couldn’t. She’d told him to go to work and locked him out.
Should he ignore his raging protective instincts when it came to her and respect her wishes?
