Total pages in book: 190
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
The photographic evidence was right there, yes. But I couldn’t make the betrayal “fit” with what I knew of him. I just couldn’t.
Sitting there, I vacillated between devastation, anger, and disbelief as I took a long, hard look at the picture. At him. Her. The background. The lighting. I searched for signs of tampering but found none. The photo seemed real, seemed …
My thoughts halted as something occurred to me. Something that sent a wave of relief washing through my system, sweeping away the dark emotions that had taken hold of me. I drew in a centering breath, relaxing my fists.
“See?” snapped Mimi. “I can’t say whether or not they’re sleeping together, but they sure look cozy, don’t they?”
I only hummed.
Lines of confusion creased her brow. “This doesn’t bother you?”
“It would … if that wasn’t an old picture.”
She tensed. “What?”
“The dingy nightclub in the background right beside the strip club? It was shut down over a year ago. I know this, because I arranged for several bachelor parties to take place there before ownership of it changed hands. It was given an entire makeover and is now a strip club exclusive to women.”
Pausing, I cocked my head. “Should I be concerned that you used to take pictures of him in the street like some stalker? Is it something you still do? Because if so, I’ll have a problem with that.”
She shot to her feet, her nostrils flaring, clenching her phone tight. I thought she might storm out, but she stayed right there, breathing hard and glaring at the wall behind me.
“What is it you’re trying to do here?” I asked, anger once more flickering to life in my belly. “Hurt me? Sow seeds of distrust? Cause arguments between me and Dax? What?”
Her glare slammed on me, the rage there morphing into … shame?
“If you came here with the half-assed plan to make me believe Dax is cheating on me so that I’d leave—”
“That isn’t why I came,” she said, closing her eyes. Plopping her butt back down on the chair, she exhaled a long breath and then reopened her eyes.
“Really?” I drawled, skeptical.
“Really. I actually had no intention of showing you the photo at all. It didn’t even occur to me until I got seriously annoyed by you sitting there looking all indifferent. I acted on a dumb impulse. And just to clarify, I didn’t take the picture. A friend did; they sent it to me, wanting me to see for myself that he’d moved on, hoping it would make me move on.”
I watched her steadily, not so certain that the contrite vibes spilling from her were entirely authentic. I couldn’t say I’d be moved if they were.
“I came because … I’m leaving Redwater,” she blurted out. “I don’t know when I’ll be back. It won’t be for a while.”
Even as I did a mental fist pump, I kept my expression blank.
“But before I left, I wanted to talk to you alone. I wanted to get a feel for what kind of person you are.” She dragged a hand through her hair. “I wanted to understand.”
“Understand what?”
“What it is about you that would make him give you what he wouldn’t give the others,” she admitted, a pained note to her voice. “He probably would have married Gracie. But those who came before and after her? No, he pointblank refused to take a walk down the aisle with them. Didn’t even propose to any of them.
“I found out that you two had a fling years ago, so I know you have history. But even that doesn’t explain why he’d marry you. He can’t have been pining after you all this time; he wouldn’t have stayed away—Dax goes after what he wants.” She raised her shoulders. “None of this makes any sense to me, and he’ll never answer my questions.”
I got it, then. Just as I couldn’t reconcile the Dax I knew with a man who’d cheat, she couldn’t reconcile the Dax she knew with a guy who’d commit himself to a woman. The issue was that, as he’d once pointed out to me, she didn’t really know Dax. “Look, Mimi—”
“I wasn’t lying about Angel. I mean, no, he’s not in touch with her now. But she did matter to him back when they were involved with each other. So did some of the others in his past. But he didn’t put a ring on their finger.”
“Just because a person matters to you doesn’t mean you’ll want to marry them. Surely you yourself have had boyfriends who, however much you might have cared for them, you didn’t feel inclined to marry.”
Her eyes narrowed. “And why did you feel inclined to marry Dax? He doesn’t love you. We both know that.”
The words sliced me like a hot blade. Shouldn’t. Weren’t supposed to. But they did.