AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why are you here?”
“For you.”
“I’m glad Blake’s home. Is he okay?” His tone was sullen.
“How do you know he’s home? Did Andrew tell you?”
He shrugged. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“You left.”
He yanked his gaze to mine. “No, Wicked. I never did.”
“After the hearing. You weren’t in the car.”
“You didn’t need me anymore.” He dropped his chin.
“That’s where you’re wrong. The damnedest thing happened. Somehow in all your infuriating ways, you managed to make me love you.”
“You don’t love me.” It was spoken so low I barely heard the words.
“You can’t tell me how I feel.”
“You. Don’t. Love. Me.”
“Oh no? Then what am I doing here?”
“I already asked you and didn’t get a response.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “I’m scared shitless for you. That somehow you’ll end up stuck in this place even though you shouldn’t be.”
“Isn’t this where the guilty belong?”
I nudged his thigh with my knee. “You didn’t do it.”
“Damn sure seemed certain I had before.”
“I was stunned.”
“But your first question was if I did it. If you love me like you say you do, you wouldn’t have had to ask.” He turned his head away. “And stop saying I made you love me. If you did, I’d just want you to. Not because Imadeyou do it.” He spoke the one word with disgust, and I shrank in on myself.
“I’m sorry. I-I—” My nose tingled with threatening tears. “I’ve never been good at this. Jack made it easy. He—”
Patrick banged his fist on the table so hard it moved. “I can’t compete with a dead man. Did he ever do a fucking thing wrong?”
I gripped the rounded edge until my knuckles were white. “Yeah, but—”
“You’ve got him on this altar so high no one could ever touch him. You refuse to move out of that shrine. So don’t sit there and tell me I made you love me when all you’ve done is replace a name and a face.”
It felt as if he'd slapped me. “I will always love him.”
“I get it, but that’s not good enough for me. If I asked you to give us a chance, to move in with me—or hell, get a place we pick out together—you can’t do it. You’re stuck in the past.”
I opened my mouth and closed it, my chest tightening at the thought of moving out of the home Jack and I had made. With a pleading look, I begged Patrick to make his words not true. But they were, and we both knew it.
“Somehow you’re going to have to come to terms with the fact you’re having another man’s baby.”
I’d gotten better about it, but a fresh wave of guilt swamped me. The look of hurt on Patrick’s face nearly crushed me.
