Page 205 of Back in the Saddle

“We’ve had this conversation too many times, so you need to know, I’m not doing this,” he warned.

“And I’m not doing this in front ofher,” she snapped.

“No, you’re not doing it at all, because I’m going to put you out, and if you don’t leave my property, you’ll have to explain to the cops why you won’t,” he stated.

It was like he didn’t speak.

“I had one simple request. You work on us. And you can’t even give me that?” she demanded.

“He did, you just didn’t show up at the counseling sessions,” I muttered.

Eric dropped his head, though I was pretty sure I saw his shoulders shaking.

Hmm.

Even though it looked like he was silently laughing, from the expression on her face, maybe, as this rolled on to its conclusion, I should keep my mouth shut.

She stuck her arm straight out, finger pointing at me, and demanded, “You talked to her about”—she moved to flap that hand between them—“us?”

Eric’s head had snapped up at her point (the man really had a thing about people pointing at me), and after she finished speaking, he bit out, “You point at her again, Savannah, shit is gonna go south.”

Totally had a thing about people pointing at me.

“How much more south can it be?” she asked heatedly. “I’m currently standing in a home my husband doesn’t share with me with the woman he’s fucking.”

“Ex-husband,” he amended.

“Your choice, not mine,” she fired back.

I could tell things were turning for Eric in a huge way even before he asked, “You wanna know how much more?”

“Yeah,obviously,” she snarked.

But I could also tell by his tone she really,reallydidn’t.

He told her.

“This much more south, Savannah. She’s it. She’s the one I’ve been waiting for. She’s the one I would have left you for if I was still with you when I met her.”

Savannah gasped, which was good, she did it a lot louder than I did, so maybe Eric didn’t hear mine.

Though mine ended with that gooey feeling spreading, making me feel warm all over, and I reckoned hers didn’t end like that.

“I cannot believe you just said that to me,” she whispered.

I was right.

Hers didn’t end like that.

“You made me miserable,” Eric stated emotionlessly. “She makes me happy. And not only because, when I’m around her, I don’t feel the need to exhaust myself by dancing attendance. It’s easy. It’s quiet. She makes me laugh. Our lives fit into each other’s rather than Jess making me feel like mine is a burden and her life has to be my everything when she allows me a part in it. Every day, she does something to make me feel like I matter to her, or just matter at all. She’s honest. She shares. She’s not about bullshit. Shit is very real for Jess right now in a variety of ways, but she still asks about my day. She worries I’m not getting enough sleep. She gets in my space when we’re just talking because she likes to be close to me.”

My heart clenched because…

Wow.

None of what I did was very big. It was just what you did with anyone you cared about.

So…

---