Page 67 of Riches and Romance

“Do you have any regrets? About Lucia?”

He doesn’t even look up to reply. “Not a single one. She’s my world. No one comes with a lifetime warranty. They are going to break, fuck up. And it’s up to you how you move forward. I know you’re mad. But if you eventhinkyou might be able to forgive her, then you need to talk, figure it out. Or not. But it’s not fair to go dark.”

“I know.” Yes, she owes me an apology, but I owe her one, too. I really hurt her.

I turn my phone on. There are dozens of texts but none from her.

I check my voicemail and breathe a sigh of relief. There’s a voicemail from this morning.

I listento it twice before I check the time. She left this ninety minutes ago. She’s got to be on her way back. I could get there in twenty minutes if I’m lucky.

“I have to go.”

“I figured. So I guess dinner’s off tonight?”

I’m about to agree but take a page out of Jules’ book and shake my head. “No, it’s on. But come to the house.”

“Okay, Mr. Optimistic.”

“Thank you, man. She’s rubbed off on me.”

He nods and looks up from his phone with a smirk on his face. “You’re really in love. Holyshit.”

“I know, man…I hope I didn’t damage the bridge I’ve spent the last nine months building beyond repair.”

God, I’ve been a complete hypocrite. It took me twenty years to tell my father the truth about what happened that day.

And Reece is right. It’s not fair to ask her to be honest with me and then push her away because the truth wasn’t what I wanted to hear. She’s not the only one who broke faith. My stomach knots. I just hope she can forgive me.

CHAPTER 28

FOR THE LOVE OF HIM

Jules

I openmy eyes to a pitch-dark room, groggy and thirsty. I turn over, instinctively looking for the warm body I’ve gotten used to waking up next to and gasp. The cool, undisturbed space where Omar’s big warm body should be brings me fully awake.

I draw my knees up to my chest and rest my cheek on one of them. I don’t need to turn on the lights or call out to know he really left. I sat on the stairs for hours, not taking my eyes off the door, waiting for him to come back. Hoping against hope that he’d return.

There’s a small meow and the click of delicate claws on the hardwood. I fumble for the switch on the bedside table lamp. The light is bright enough that I can make out the silhouette of her arched back and her long curved tail right before she leaps onto the bed. She eyes me, head cocked to one side with an unblinking sapphire stare.

I don’t blame her for being skeptical of me.

After all, I’d forgotten all about her until a loud, distressed yowl from the dining room shook me out of my stupor. She was pacing back and forth inside a crate big enough to hold a tiger, and when I opened the door to let her out, she darted out and disappeared.

This is progress. I found her under the bed last night and when I reached a hand toward her and tried to coax her out, she hissed and backed away. I tried again, but only half-heartedly, and gave up when she batted a paw at my hand.

Numb and exhausted, I shut the door to make sure she couldn’t sneak away again and lay down, cocooning myself in the white down comforter. I only planned to close my eyes for a few minutes. But a glance at my wrist confirms what I suspect—it’s almost nine o’clock in the morning. I grab my phone to check for notifications. He hasn’t called or messaged. He didn’t come home.

My heart sinks. What am I going to do?

The cat meows, and I push my worry aside for a minute. She must be starving and probably pissed all over the floor while I slept. I reach a hand toward her but stop mid motion. My father had a scratch on the back of his hand that he said was courtesy of a cat he picked up without permission

I put my hand out a few inches, palm open. “Hello darling, I’m Jules.” She meows softly. Her nose twitches, and she takes a step toward me. She’s several feet away. But after last night, this feels like progress.

I move until my hand is close enough to touch the top of her head, but I don’t. “I promise I’m not a shitty mum. You caught me on a bad day.”

She nudges my fingers with the cool, smooth tip of her nose.

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