Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 117177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Chris looked over at me. “You’re upset about this? Hallie, I told you Darcy was there, and you know these New York gossip rags print bullshit.”
“Oh, you think I’m upset they’re insinuating you’re cheating on me?”
He shrugged, baffled.
Which just pissed me off even more.
“Chris, I know you wouldn’t cheat on me.” I rounded the counter, ignoring the relief that flickered across his face. “But you clearly lied about why I couldn’t attend this event. You blew off meeting my dad for this! Darcy wasn’t just there. You were her date. She’s at your table, and she was clinging all over you.”
Anger darkened Chris’s features as he threw the paper aside. “I did not lie to you. I didn’t know she’d be there, and we met outside and took some photos for the press because apparently that’s what happens at these events. And she wasn’t sitting next to me as my date. She’s pictured in my father’s seat because he was barely in it all night, schmoozing the room, so we hung out. Just like I told you, it was her first appearance in public since the breakup. I was just being a friend, having a care for her feelings.”
Ugly resentment filled me. “And it never crossed your mind that being pictured together like this might cause gossip?”
“Of course it crossed my mind, but it’s not like it’s true.”
I gaped at him. “I have been fielding texts and social media notifications and calls all day offering me commiserations.”
Chris blanched.
“So when you were standing there with your arms around another woman, your ex-girlfriend, and she’s not only got her arms around you but her hand on your fucking stomach, it didn’t occur to you, this might hurt Hallie? Or were you too busy caring for another woman’s feelings to think about mine?” I held back the tears that shook my voice because I refused to let him see me cry over this.
My so-called boyfriend squeezed his eyes closed as if he were in pain. When he opened them, they were heavy with remorse. “Fuck. Hallie . . . I’m sorry. I really wasn’t thinking. I’m so sorry.” He crossed the room to pull me into his arms, and while I let him, I didn’t return his embrace. There was stubble on his cheeks, and it scratched as he covered my face and mouth in kisses. “Please forgive me for being an inconsiderate asshole?”
It was hard to let go of the fury and resentment that had taken over my body all day, but as he murmured apologies repeatedly, I began to slowly melt, calming myself down.
I didn’t want to fight with Chris.
It was the worst feeling in the world.
And as much as the still simmering hurt inside me made me want to yell at him some more, I read the truth in his eyes, and I believed him. “Okay,” I whispered against his mouth. “I forgive you.”
He clasped my face in his hands, his gaze intense and heated. “I would never want you to get hurt like this. And you’re right. Another woman shouldn’t have her arms around me like that, because I wouldn’t like it if the situation were reversed. There was nothing in it, just two friends who are comfortable with each other, but I won’t let it happen again. I promise. But I also caught the comment about me lying.” Frustration tightened Chris’s features. “I promised I never would again, and I meant it.”
I sank into him with a weary sigh. “You’re right. All the texts and calls and pitying messed with my head today.”
“Shit.” Chris hauled me against his chest, hugging me tightly. “I’m so sorry.” He kissed my temple. “Hey, let’s go somewhere really public and have sex there. That’ll put an end to the speculation.”
I giggled, so relieved I could cry. “Ooh, what about the Met?”
“Think it’s been done before,” he joked.
Laughing, I buried my head deeper against his chest. Breathing him in, I allowed myself to let go of all the poison that had slipped into my emotions today. “I just get scared about us,” I admitted softly. “About losing you. I like you a lot, you know.”
His biceps flexed reflexively around me. “You love me,” he corrected. “And I love you. Everything is . . . everything is heightened right now. But we’ll settle into the feelings.”
I smiled at his usual wisdom and decided it was too reassuring not to believe him.
If only love were really that simple.
THIRTY-NINE
Chris
My father stood up from the table in the hotel restaurant, and I marveled when he greeted me with, “It’s good to see you, son.”
“You too.” I tried not to look as surprised as I felt.
First the award ceremony and now lunch. He’d also called me twice since the award ceremony “just to talk.”
He was trying.
This side of him was the side Miguel always got. The father who was interested in him beyond what he could do to enhance our family’s reputation. My whole life, as much as I’d adored my brother, it had hurt to live within his shadow and to not know why there’d been such a vast difference in the way my father treated him to the way he’d treated me.